Over the past three years, over 30 states have introduced bills or ballot initiatives to require the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods, also known as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Three states — Connecticut, Maine and Vermont — have passed mandatory GE labeling laws. And Massachusetts has a GMO labeling bill in the pipeline at the state house with over 75 per cent of the legislature (154 out of 200 representatives and senators) co-sponsoring the bill. Despite the massive push for GE/GMO labeling by citizens across the country, U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo is circulating a revised federal draft bill, H.R. 1599, deceptively titled The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act. Consumers, farmers and food activists have dubbed the bill an act for Denying Americans the Right to Know. This bill would simultaneously prevent mandatory federal labeling and deny states the right to enact their own labeling legislation, including the right to regulate GE crops. The act reads like a Monsanto protection act, a wish list for big biotech. We need to take action now to save mandatory GMO labeling and states’ rights to regulate GMOs. Please take action now to stop H.R. 1599 by contacting your U.S. legislators.

If passed the act would:

• Block all state laws requiring mandatory GMO labeling, including a Vermont GMO labeling law set to go into effect in July of next year.

• Effectively block the FDA from creating a national mandatory GMO labeling system.

• Block all non-GMO claims until USDA creates a non-GMO certification program.

• Block all state and local efforts to protect farmers and rural residents from the economic and environmental impacts of GMO crops, including pesticide drift

• Prevent food companies from suggesting that non-GMO products are better than GMO products. To support mandatory GMO labeling, ask your federal legislators to support the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act, introduced by Sens. Barbara Boxer and Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Peter DeFazio.

Marilyn Miller
Oak Bluffs