Dive Brief:
- Details of just how the Grocery Manufacturers Association hopes to stop the drive to require labeling of GMO foods continue to emerge. Politico reported yesterday that the lobbying group is circulating proposed legislation that would give the FDA a more active role in regulating GMO label claims.
- Among the more controversial items in the proposal: allowing for GMO-free claims for dairy products made with milk from cows that eat GMO feed and biotech drugs; allowing for GMO-free claims for products made with genetically engineered enzymes; and banning state label laws.
- Politico's report comes just days after news that the GMA was also seeking FDA approval to use the word "natural" to describe GMO food.
Dive Insight:
The most interesting part of Politico's article-- at least to us -- is the discussion about the search to find someone to sponsor the GMA proposals. The focus of GMA's efforts in that regard is apparently Fred Upton, a Republican Congressman from Michigan and the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. We can't imagine a worse position to be in than the one facing Upton. Our guess is that no one in Washington wants to touch this issue. Certainly that's what the FDA said recently when it told a group of federal judges that it would "respectfully decline" to answer the question of whether or not GMO food was "natural."
