On the recordJuly 13, 2016
Vermont's GMO labeling law, Act 120, was signed into law in 2014 after years of hearings, testimony, and debate. It was the first-in-the-Nation GMO labeling law, but Americans should understand that 64 nations around the world have GMO labeling. That law was passed by a vote of 28-2 in the Vermont Senate and by 114-30 in the House. It garnered support from Republicans and Democrats. The reason it did is that labeling is simply giving consumers information that they can use in deciding whether they want to buy a particular product or not. GMO labeling tells consumers whether the product contains GMOs. Some of its opponents oppose this largely because they think consumers aren't entitled to that information even though they believe that GMOs are tremendous. But if they want to brag about GMOs, why don't they want to label GMO products so consumers can make their own decisions? Now what we have is a situation in which the legislation we are going to be considering says that we will put a label on but not one that you can read. The label that would be ascribed would allow manufacturers to decide to put on ``GMO contained herein''--and that is in English--just like a calorie label or how much salt is in there.…





