Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly helped the Senate Agriculture Committee pass bipartisan legislation in order to move closer towards finding a national solution for biotechnology labeling. During the committee markup, Donnelly spoke about the importance of continuing to work in a bipartisan manner to improve the committee-passed legislation, and he presented a proposal that he believes would accomplish the goals of ensuring that consumers have the information they want, without placing misleading labels on food items.

While Donnelly supported today’s legislation, he believes improvements need to be made to find a solution that works for both consumers and producers. He proposed a way to accomplish that by creating a national, voluntary bioengineered food labeling standard and establishing ambitious goals for companies to make information available to consumers through that voluntary program. If food companies fail to make sufficient information available, then a national food labeling standard for bioengineering would become mandatory. Donnelly will continue working with his Republican and Democratic colleagues to improve the bill when it comes to the Senate floor and achieve a national solution to this issue.

Watch Donnelly’s remarks here.

Donnelly said, in part, during his opening statement:

“What is most important is that at the end of the day we finally get a solution.

“Every day we spend stuck in a partisan debate about this is another day when consumers don’t have the information they need, and another day when farmers are uncertain about what is going to be expected of them. Instead of pitting conventional farmers versus organics, or concerned parents versus biotech companies, we need to quickly enact legislation that ensures consumers can get the information they want, without sticking misleading labels on every food product.

“Today the legislation we considered is neither perfect, nor accomplishes the objectives I hope we all share: getting consumers the information we all want, while avoiding deceptive labeling of modern technologies. The amendment I withdrew earlier, I think reflects our shared goals and is representative of the ideas from many members of this committee…The legislation we just passed has its flaws, but…I am hopeful we can incorporate the ideas we have seen in our amendment and put that into the final legislation which I think would then be able to pass.”

In Donnelly’s statement submitted for the record on his proposal, he said:

“…The amendment would encourage companies to ensure they made information available to consumers for the vast majority of products purchased at grocery stores in every part of the country, not just individual states.

“Further, companies would have their choice of methods to deliver information to their customers. They could choose to meet the requirements with an organic or GMO-free label. They could even choose to voluntarily label their products as containing genetically engineered ingredients, as some companies have already decided to do.”

“If a company wanted to choose an electronic disclosure method, in order to meet the voluntary standard, the package must contain a label that clearly and explicitly indicates to consumers that more information regarding the content or ingredients is available, and companies must provide direct access to information regarding whether or not bioengineering was used in the development of the food item… This amendment would ensure that information is directly available for consumers when they want it.

“Allowing for a variety of methods for direct disclosure would allow companies to have the ability to paint a fuller picture for consumers, rather than being forced to slap a sentence or symbol on a package that leaves customers feeling they’re being warned of a danger...

“However the disclosure forms end up being used, clear and direct information related to the use of bioengineering would end up on the vast majority of products that we all consume as a result of the framework of this amendment, all without misleading customers on biotechnology.”

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