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The votes weren’t there in the U.S. Senate to back farmers and the food industry that has built itself around the efficiency, quality and quantity derived from biotech seed traits.
Leaders from some agricultural groups vented over the outcome. “It is inexcusable that today’s Senate vote on a voluntary federal GMO labeling bill that preempts a damaging patchwork of state measures fell short,” stated Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Duvall added, “To say we are angry with those senators who abandoned farmers and ranchers and turned their backs on rural America on this vote is an understatement. Their votes opposing this measure ignored science, threw our nation’s food system into disarray and undermined the public’s understanding of the many benefits of biotechnology in feeding a growing and hungry population. “
Pro-labeling and anti-biotech groups crowed after the Senate deadlocked 48-49 in a vote that needed 60 votes to pass. Food & Water Watch, the Center for Food Safety and Food Policy Action each praised the vote. . . .
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell added the 49th vote against the bill, largely as a procedural move because that allows him to potentially bring up the bill back later for a revote.
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Five other Republicans joined 43 Democrats voting against the bill, including Susan Collins of Maine, Dean Heller of Nevada, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
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Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders and Marco Rubio did not vote.
The Coalition for Safe and Affordable Food — a mix of various groups representing farmers, farmer cooperatives and food processors — expressed their disappointment with the outcome.
Read full, original post: Groups React to Failed Senate Vote on Biotech Food Labels
