{"id":21151,"date":"2017-09-07T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T04:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=21151"},"modified":"2017-09-06T22:22:34","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T02:22:34","slug":"lawsuit-filed-ge-food-labeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/09\/lawsuit-filed-ge-food-labeling\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit Filed on GE Food Labeling"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, September 7, 2017) Last month, the Center for Food Safety (CFS)\u00a0filed a federal lawsuit\u00a0against the Trump Administration for its failure to comply with the 2016 federal law on the labeling of \"\"genetically engineered (GE) food, National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law<\/a>.\u00a0 Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are charged with implementing the new labeling rules, and part of that process is a study on \u201celectronic and digital disclosures\u201d (QR codes) for GE foods, as opposed to on-package text.\u00a0 That study was required to be finished by July 2017, with an opportunity for public commetn, but USDA never met it legal obligation.<\/p>\n

The federal lawsuit<\/a> is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against USDA regarding that agency\u2019s failure to comply with mandatory deadlines established by the 2016 Federal Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standards Act<\/em> (the \u201cGE Labeling Act<\/a>\u201d). The suit contends that the \u201cAmerican public deserves full disclosure, the right to transparency and free choice in the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consumers have advocated for mandatory labeling of GE foods for nearly two decades. Polls show that over 90% of U.S. residents support requiring the labeling of GE foods, as 64 countries already do, including many U.S. trade partners such as the European Union and Japan. Consumers have become more and more aware that, while few whole foods are genetically engineered, the majority of processed foods are produced with GE ingredients. The public recognizes that having thousands of processed food products containing GE ingredients, yet going unlabeled is deceptive, misleading, or at best confusing.<\/p>\n

The federal GE food law requires USDA to establish federal standards for labeling by July 2018, and conduct a study to inform its rulemaking, which is why it was required to be completed a year earlier. One of the most controversial aspects of the law is how it will require companies to label GE foods, and whether companies will be able to forgo clear, on-package labeling through the use of QR codes and other digital disclosures. The new federal law allows USDA to consider several options: on-package text, a GE symbol on packages, or \u201celectronic or digital disclosures,\u201d which would require shoppers to use a smart phone to scan packages to access a website or call a 1-800 number for every single product to find out if it was produced with genetic engineering.\u00a0 The study is crucial because it will analyze if this type of digital labeling will make the information accessible or not, based on several factors.\u00a0 If USDA concludes, based on the study, that these disclosures will not provide consumers sufficient access, then USDA must require consumers be given alternative options.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans deserve nothing less than clear on-package labeling, the way food has always been labeled,\u201d said George Kimbrell, Legal Director for CFS.\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cAllowing companies to hide genetically engineered ingredients behind a website or QR code is discriminatory and unworkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the U.S., there has never been a food labeling requirement for QR\u201d codes instead of on-package labeling.\u00a0Electronic labeling will not provide disclosure to a large portion of Americans, disproportionately affecting minority, low-income, and elderly people:<\/p>\n