Will other states dive in by 2016?

After months of con­sumer and activist com­ments, pick­et­ing at the Attor­ney General’s Office, and win­ning a law­suit against Mon­san­to who tried to over­turn the orig­i­nal law, Ver­mont has just become the first state to have manda­to­ry GMO labeling.

Ver­mont became the first state to become GMO-labeled (a step toward becom­ing GMO-Free) in 2014, but Mon­san­to, Dow, Bay­er and oth­er biotech inter­ests decid­ed that con­sumers had no rights at the state lev­el to deter­mine what they want­ed to eat. Ver­mont was brave enough to uphold the vot­ed-upon law any­how, and even put mon­ey aside for the legal fight they knew would ensue when the new leg­is­la­tion passed.

On Fri­day, the Leg­isla­tive Com­mit­tee on Admin­is­tra­tive Rules for­mal­ly filed with the Sec­re­tary of State’s Office to uphold the new GMO label­ing rule, which will become effec­tive July 1, 2016.

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bill Sor­rell said that the for­mal adop­tion of the GMO label­ing law gives ample time to food man­u­fac­tur­ers to change their prod­ucts or lose an entire state’s business.

I’m proud of Ver­mont for stand­ing strong against biotech, and we need to do the same now as mem­bers of Con­gress will vote this week on the Trans Pacif­ic Part­ner­ship (TPP). If this ‘Naf­ta-on-steroids” bill wins the vote, then it would take away state’s rights to ban or label GMOs, and all the effort Ver­mont has put into clean­ing up its food sup­ply will have been for naught.

Make sure you call or email Con­gress today and tell them not to allow the TPP.

Addi­tion­al Sources:

Pho­to cred­it: AFP Pho­to / Robyn Beck
Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/breaking-vermont-wins-gmo-labeling-law/#ixzz3YTje0Nqk
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