Davis / 1 Senator Boudinot

S.S._____

A BILL
To mandate the labeling of genetically modified foods and food products containing any genetically modified
ingredients.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Genetically Modified Food Labeling Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) Mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods has been proposed under a variety of initiatives at national and
state levels but has not yet been implemented in the United States.
2) Opinion polls in the early 2000s suggested that the majority of U.S. consumers want to know if their food products
contain genetically modified material.
3) As of 2011, about 88 percent of all corn and 94 percent of all soybeans produced in the country were grown from
genetically engineered seeds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
4) Consumers report an increased interest in consuming healthy food but concurrently evidence an inability to
determine a foods healthfulness based on food labels.
5) Current U.S. law mandates food labeling when there is a substantial difference in the nutritional or safety
characteristics of a new food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not consider the method of
genetic engineering by itself to create such a difference.
6) The FDA only requires that labels are "truthful and not misleading.
7) More than 40 countries already label GMO foods, including those in the European Union, as well as India and
China.
8) Only about a quarter (26 percent) of Americans realize that current regulations do not require genetically modified
products to be labeled. Finally, when asked directly whether genetically modified foods should be required to be
labeled, 73 percent said yes.
9) Monsanto, a leading producer of GM seeds and the weedkiller Roundup, has threatened to sue states that pass
food labeling laws.
10) Currently, just three companies (Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta), all of which are in the GM seed business, control
53 percent of the global commercial seed market.
11) Only about a quarter (26 percent) of Americans realize that current regulations do not require GM products to be
labeled.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Genetically Modified Food Labeling Act of 2015 amends the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to require
all U.S. food processing companies to clearly label food or animal feed containing any genetically modified
organisms.
B) The law is to be enforced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
C) This bill hereby appropriates 0.00716 percent or 10 million dollars of the USDAs 39.7 million dollar annual
budget.
D) For a food to be labeled as non-GMO it must not contain genetically modified organisms. All American food
processing companies will be examined by the USDA and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Non-GMO
food may not suggest or be advertised as safer, of higher or lesser quality than GMO food.
E) The USDA has the jurisdiction to create and enforce that a uniform label be clearly placed on the front of all food
products containing GMOs.
F) If a food is to be found wrongly labeled or fails to pass inspection by the FDA or USDA the manufacturing
company shall be fined 1 million dollars for the first offense. For second offense, the company will be fined 3 million
dollars. Upon third offense, the product will be hereby banned from being sold in the United States.
G) This act shall be enacted on January 1, 2016. This act shall be re-examined every five years.