Big Food has teamed up with Congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas to introduce a federal bill, dubbed by its critics the DARK act, that would deny your right to know whether the food you eat is GM.

1. Don't let Congress deny your right to know: Oppose the DARK act
2. U.S. bill seeks to block mandatory GMO food labeling by states
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1. Don't let Congress deny your right to know: Oppose the DARK act
Center for Food Safety, undated
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=13694

Big Food is trying to kill your right to know if the food you’re eating is genetically engineered.

With their anti-labeling allies like Monsanto and Dow, the Grocery Manufacturers Association has teamed up with Koch brothers-backed Congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas to introduce a federal bill that would deny your right to know.

The bill, which we're calling the “Deny Americans the Right-to-Know Act (DARK Act),” would:
* Prevent states from adopting their own GE labeling laws.
* Block any attempt by states to make it illegal for food companies to put a “natural” label on products that contain GE ingredients.
* Prevent the Food and Drug Administration from requiring companies to label GE ingredients and instead continue a failed “voluntary” labeling policy.

The bill, crafted by the Grocery Manufacturers Association-led Coalition for Safe and Affordable Food, has just been introduced by Rep. Pompeo, and has reportedly picked up two co-sponsors: Reps. Butterfield (D-NC 1st district) and Blackburn (R-TN 7th district). All three lawmakers serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over GE food labeling.

It’s no surprise that industry chose the Kansas Republican as their cheerleader. Pompeo was the single largest recipient of campaign funds from Koch Industries in 2010. It’s clear that corporate money = legislative favors with Congressman Pompeo.

And now the Koch brothers are teaming up with Monsanto? Monsanto was the single largest contributor against the recent Washington State ballot initiative to label GE foods. Between Washington State and California, Monsanto, along with GMA and other agribusiness companies, have contributed over $67 million to keep consumers in the dark.

So what’s wrong with “voluntary” GE food labeling? In a word: everything. It is grossly misleading for industry—let alone members of Congress—to continue trumpeting the idea that voluntary labeling will solve the overwhelming consumer demand for labeling in the marketplace. In the 13 years that FDA has allowed companies to voluntarily label genetically engineered foods, not one single company has done so.

Without mandatory labeling of GE foods, consumers are being left in the dark about the foods we are purchasing and feeding our families. In 2013, over 50 GE labeling bills were introduced in 26 states, including Hawaii, Washington, Indiana, Missouri, and Vermont.

This industry-backed bill will cut these state labeling bills off at the knees and replace them with an undemocratic, hollow “voluntary” labeling scheme that does nothing to address consumer interests and only serves to allow corporations to deny us our right to know.

Tell Congress to drop this corporate hand-out of a bill!
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2. U.S. bill seeks to block mandatory GMO food labeling by states
By Carey Gillam
Reuters, April 9 2014
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/09/usa-gmo-lawmaking-idUSL2N0N115F20140409

A Republican congressman from Kansas introduced legislation on Wednesday that would nullify efforts in multiple states to require labeling of genetically modified foods

The bill, dubbed the "Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act" was drafted by U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo from Kansas, and is aimed at overriding bills in roughly two dozen states that would require foods made with genetically engineered crops to be labeled as such.

The bill specifically prohibits any mandatory labeling of foods developed using bioengineering.

"We've got a number of states that are attempting to put together a patchwork quilt of food labeling requirements with respect to genetic modification of foods," said Pompeo. "That makes it enormously difficult to operate a food system. Some of the campaigns in some of these states aren't really to inform consumers but rather aimed at scaring them. What this bill attempts to do is set a standard."

Consumer groups have been arguing for labeling because of questions they have both about the safety for human health and the environmental impacts of genetically modified foods, also called GMOs.

Ballot measures in California in 2012 and last year in Washington state narrowly lost after GMO crop developers, including Monsanto Co., and members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) poured millions into campaigns to defeat the measures.

The companies say the crops are safe and cite many scientific studies back those claims. Pompeo on Wednesday reiterated those claims, stating GMOS are safe and "equally healthy" and no labeling is needed.

"It has to date made food safer and more abundant," said Pompeo. "It has been an enormous boon to all of humanity."

But there are also many scientific studies showing links to human and animal health problems, and many indicating environmental damage related to GMO crops.

Notably, millions of acres of U.S. farmland have developed weed resistance due to heavy use of crops that have been genetically altered to withstand dousings of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, and the subsequent heavy use of Roundup.

Pompeo said he expects hearings on the bill sometime this summer. The measure would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. One provision would make it mandatory for biotech crop developers to notify the Food and Drug Administration before it brings a new biotech seed to market and receives no objection from the FDA.

Currently, companies typically do notify the FDA and consult with the agency, but it is not mandatory for them to do so if the ingredients have been strictly separated from biotech crops, and if the company does not imply that its product is safer than foods containing GMOs, the bill states.

The measure requires the FDA to promulgate regulations that specify a maximum permissible level of inadvertent GMO presence that is allowed in foods bearing such non-GMO labeling.

Backers of mandatory labeling of foods made with genetically modified crops said that the bill is a sign that the GMA and biotech seed developers fear growing consumer distrust of GMO foods. "They know that the food movement's power is growing and that labeling is not a matter of if but when." said Colin O'Neil, director of government affairs for the Center for Food Safety, a non-profit group that supports mandatory GMO labeling. They are afraid of state action and now they're trying to steal away consumer choice in Congress."