Citizens across the US have always pushed for the right information about the food that they eat. Now, a misleading version of the bill, titled "The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act" (when in fact it is what Americans call "Denying Americans the Right to Know," or DARK Act), passed the House last year, and having it approved by the Senate mean that mandatory GMO labeling will only be a thing of the past.
Are Americans being kept hostage of the knowing the accurate information about this bill? Does the U.S. Senators surreptitiously keep us in the dark of the DARK Act?
You guess maybe good as any Americans.
That's why Vermont Right to Know GMOs Coalition, a partnership of Rural Vermont, NOA Vermont, VPIRG, and Cedar Circle Farm, along with other partners and dozens of supporting businesses and organizations has actively supported favoring the passage of mandatory GMO-labeling initiatives in Vermont. They are readily engaged in defending this law and ensuring its effective implementation. This law made the State of Vermont a target of food trade groups' lawsuits on requiring labeling on GMO foods.
Vermont is known to support its local products compared to other states in the U.S. In 2014, Vermont passed landmark legislation that gives consumers information about whether or not their food is produced with genetic engineering. The law took effect last July 1, 2015. Ambitious corporate interests are pulling out all the stops to keep consumers from finding out the ingredients contained in their food.
Our law may deny us with proper information as the bill threatens not only Vermont's GMO food and seed labeling laws, but it would codify our broken voluntary labeling system, and it seeks to stop any state or local government from passing GMO labeling laws under the Deny Americans the Right to Know Act. Recently, Senator Pat Roberts introduced a Senate version of the DARK Act and is pushing for making GMO labeling voluntary. Big food companies will love law this but not the American consumers!
The best resolution is to urge Senators to protect our right to know and respect our right to inform our citizens what is in our food.
