Kansas Corn Praises Sen. Roberts and Rep. Pompeo’s Leadership to Pass GMO Labeling Bill in Senate, House

The Kansas Corn Growers Association thanked Kansas Senator Pat Roberts for his leadership in the U.S. Senate’s passage of the Roberts-Stabenow agreement on GMO labeling. The following week, Congressman Mike Pompeo was instrumental in passage of the bill in the House. Congressman Pompeo laid the groundwork for the bill with his efforts a year ago when the House passed the original Pompeo bill.

Science has proven that foods containing GMOs are safe and don’t need to be labeled. But we believe any food labeling should be under unified, federal guidelines. Without this legislation, individual states will implement their own activist-driven GMO labeling laws causing misinformation, confusion and higher costs to consumers,” said KCGA President Bob Timmons, Fredonia. “Kansas has been lucky to have the leadership of both Senator Roberts and Congressman Mike Pompeo on this issue.”

Upon passage of the bill, Rep. Pompeo said, “I would like to thank my colleagues in the House for supporting this measure, which will protect Kansas farmers and ensure that Americans continue to have access to safe and affordable food.  While S. 764 is not perfect, it still prevents a nationwide patchwork of inconsistent state food labeling laws, which would have disastrous effects on food supply chains, our agriculture communities, and American families. We have been working diligently for three years to arrive at a responsible solution.  It has been a long and difficult road, but the fight was right.  I am extremely proud of the coalition we built along the way and the work we did on this issue.  It will be remembered as an important moment for farmers and consumers across Kansas – from Coffeyville to Colby and everywhere in-between.”

The legislation, approved by both the Senate and the House awaits the President’s signature. It would create a national standard for GMO labeling through either an on-package symbol or text or an on-package digital link that can only be accompanied by the text “scan here for more food information.” Both Senator Roberts and Senator Jerry Moran voted in favor of the measure.

Before the vote, Senator Roberts told the Senate that the safety of biotechnology products has been proven and the issue was truly about marketing.

“The difficult issue for us to address is what to do about the patchwork of biotechnology labeling laws that soon will wreak havoc on the flow of interstate commerce of agriculture and food products in every supermarket, every grocery store up and down every Main Street. . . . It’s not about safety, or health, or nutrition, it’s all about marketing. If we don’t act today, what we face is a handful of states that have chosen to enact labeling requirements on information that has nothing to do with health, with safety or nutrition. Unfortunately, the impact of those states’ decisions will be felt across the country and around the globe,” Roberts said. “The amendment provides the defense of our food system and our farmers and ranchers while at the same time, providing a reasonable solution to consumer demand for more information.”