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Senate GMO labeling bill will need House support

The ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee says the GMO labeling bill being worked on in the Senate needs to be similar to the legislation passed in the House last year.

Collin Peterson of Minnesota tells Brownfield the House version is pre-emption with a voluntary labeling system.

“If (the Senate) gets too far off of that, it’s not going to fly in the House.  So, even though they’re working on something over there, it doesn’t mean just because the Senate passes (a bill) it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to fly in the House.”

Peterson says while the Senate is making progress on GMO labeling, a scheduled recess at the end of the month could stunt momentum.

“Apparently they’re not going to get around to it until June.  And if the Senate doesn’t get around to it until June, I just don’t see how it gets through the Senate and gets through the House and gets to the president by the first of July.”

That’s when Vermont’s GMO labeling law goes into effect.

As reported by Brownfield last week, Senate Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts met with Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow to go over various proposals that would garner enough support to pass in both the Senate and House.