Dive Brief:
- The USDA is the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) for its alleged failure to provide records on GMO crops as requested by the group.
- "CFS said the agency has failed to provide timely final responses to at least 29 of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests or appeals. Of these, CFS said the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has entirely failed to provide a final response to 10 requests and two appeals," The Hill reported.
- This is the fourth lawsuit CFS has filed against USDA concerning the agencies' compliance with records law.
Dive Insight:
"APHIS has a track record of irresponsible and inadequate regulation of GE [genetically engineered] crops. In the absence of thorough government oversight, public access to information about these crops becomes all the more critical," according to Cristina Stella, a CFS staff attorney, in a news release. "This lawsuit is necessary to stop APHIS from continuing to ignore its duty to provide the public with information that affects farmers, communities, and the environment."
Providing consumers with the information they need to make purchase decisions — including whether a product is genetically modified — has been a cause for many groups and individuals in the past, from celebrities to groups like CFS.
Part of this comes from the dissemination of knowledge and research concerning GMOs, which CFS is currently going after, while the other part comes from the labeling of foods as GMO or non-GMO.
The House recently passed a bill that would enable companies to voluntarily label their products as GMO rather than the mandatory labeling requirements that the pro-GMO labeling side has wanted.
A recent study showed that a GMO label would not necessarily scare off consumers.