CA Bill to Label GMO Foods Advances–After Voters Rejected Idea in 2012

The California Senate has passed a bill that would require genetically modified food to be labeled as such. This flies in the face of California voters’ defeat of Proposition 37 in 2012, a bill that would have required labels on products created with genetically modified ingredients.

Austin Price, field Director for CALPIRG, was delighted, saying, “This would just give consumers the ability to make informed decisions. It’s about giving consumers information similar to the way nutrition information labels do.”

Those who oppose the bill have stated that California’s farmers and food producers would have to spend more in order to comply with the new law, which would put them at a competitive disadvantage with their competitors from other states. The bill is headed to the Senate Agriculture Committee, where it will likely be presented next week. Similar legislation has been passed in other states, such as Connecticut and Maine; the European Union has what are likely the strictest regulations for GMO’s in the world.