Industry Associations Sue Vermont over New GMO Labeling Law

A number of industry associations, including the Grocery Manufacturers Association along with the Snack Food Association, the International Dairy Foods Association, and the National Association of Manufacturers, have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont to overturn the State's recently passed law, Act 120, that would require labels on foods made with genetically modified organisms, effective July 1, 2016.

 

The complaint states that the Act is unconstitutional because the "... proscriptions in Act 120 are beyond Vermont's power to enact. The State is compelling manufacturers to convey messages they do not want to convey, and prohibiting manufacturers from describing their products in terms of their choosing, without anything close to a sufficient justification. The State is forcing the costs of this experiment on out-of-state companies and citizens to which it is not politically accountable, and it is undermining and impeding the federal government's interest in uniform, nationwide standards for food labeling prescribed by duly authorized expert federal agencies ..." 

 

The full text of the complaint is available on the FIEN website. 

 

Source: Food Industry Environmental Network (FIEN)