Montana Farmers Union Urges U.S. House to Reject GMO Labeling Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2016

Lyndsay Bruno, Communications Director

Office: 452-6406; Cell: 788-8777

lbruno@montanafarmersunion.com

                  Montana Farmers Union Urges U.S. House to Reject

       GMO Labeling Bill

Great Falls, MT- On the heels of the U.S. Senate approving a bill calling for voluntary labeling of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), Montana Farmers Union is appealing to the U.S. House which has the measure before it this week to reject the bill. “We have long supported GMO labeling as we are committed to helping consumers making informed decisions on where their food comes from,” said President Alan Merrill. “Under this legislation companies would have the option of listing GMO ingredients, and if they choose to do so, consumers would have to either call a toll-free number to get the information or scan a barcode located on the product with their smart phones. We see this as placing an excessive burden on consumers as it would be time consuming and unrealistic to expect them to go to such lengths to get information that should be visibly labeled and easy to read on the product. This is an underhanded way for companies to get around full disclosure of GMO ingredients.”

In 2011, Montana Farmers Union came out in support of the “Just Label It” campaign. Montana Farmers Union supports independent research on GMO’s and GE to investigate the safety of these organisms. MFU maintains that the responsibility of research, promotion and identification of these products rests on the shoulders of large corporations marketing those products and not farmers and their organizations. Furthermore, MFU accepts GMO and GE crops including all classes of wheat when issues of cross pollination, liability, commodity and seed stock segregation and market acceptance are adequately addressed.                                                                                          -30-