Washington DC – In a surprise move, US Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, is pushing the anti-GMO labeling bill, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 (called by its opponents, the DARK Act — the Deny Americans the Right-to-Know Act) to a vote this Thursday, February 25, 2016.
The Senate bill, companion to a bill (HR 1599) which passed the House last year, languished in the Senate as more state governments considered requiring Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) food labeling.
The federal bill would ban such state laws. Opponents claim the bill violates the Nineth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution which guarantee state authority where the Constitution does not give the federal government exclusive power.
Comments from GMOFreeUSA highlight the political background of Senator Roberts’ move:
“The agrichemical industry and Big Food are desperate to stop Vermont’s mandatory GMO labeling law from taking effect on July 1. They’ve enlisted Senator Pat Roberts, Chair of the Senate Ag Committee, to do their dirty work. Sen. Roberts is the sponsor of a new DARK Act bill that would violate the 10th Amendment, squash Vermont’s law and prohibit any state from passing mandatory GMO labeling in the future.
Senator Roberts says if Vermont’s law isn’t stopped, “all sorts of bad things happen.” Bad things? Like the people of Vermont would know which foods were genetically engineered? Monsanto may think that’s bad. We certainly don’t. And we don’t think you do either.
We don’t have much time. The bill is scheduled for a vote at 10 AM on Thursday”
Natural Solutions Foundation, a leading health freedom advocacy NGO (nongovernmental organization) is sponsoring a web form Action Item to easily allow voters to email their Senators and Representatives regarding the pending vote, here: http://tinyurl.com/allowGMOlabels. The Foundation announced:
“We fought off the Dark Act when Monsanto introduced its dream bill into Congress. Like the baddest of bad pennies, they are back. We need your support NOW to take Action ande to share this with literally everyone you can reach through FB, Twitter, email and all other social media outlets.
How urgently? Very. The Bill moves forward on Thursday of this week!”
Read more here: http://drrimatruthreports.com/congress-at-it-again-food-freedom-goes-dark-urgent/