Reaction To GMO Law Continues

The agriculture community continues to respond to the GMO labeling bill signed into law by President Obama last week.  Luther Markwart is the Executive Vice President of the American Sugar Beet Growers Association.  During a stop in Portland Friday he said the federal law won’t have an immediate impact, since the USDA has two years to put regulations into place.

“But, the Secretary really has to go through and propagate regulations that say who has to do it, how is it done, all of these kinds of things.  SO, really, we’ve got a cooling off period.”

Markwart said the one thing producers are certain of at this point, the Federal Rule trumps state laws or current ballot measures.  So, why is the USDA charged with determining labeling rules and regulations?

“The FDA said, we deal with things that have health and nutrition and safety issues.  That’s what FDA does, and they said biotechnology and ingredients form biotechnology have nothing to do with safety nutrition, so we’re not going to touch it.”

Markwart said the GMO Labeling is more of a marketing issues, similar to Organic.

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