Senator Blumenthal with patrons at a Connecticut Farmer’s Market. The state’s GMO labeling bill is being wiped out by HR 933, which has prompted him to announce a bill to repeal the controversial legislation. Via Blumenthal’s Twitter account.

On July 1, 2016 a historic new law went into effect that echoed the demands of consumers across the country — Vermont’s first-of-its-kind mandatory GMO labeling bill. But roughly a month later on July 31, President Barack Obama signed a new bill into law, a bill crafted behind closed doors with the support of pro-GMO lobbyists and organic traitors that effectively destroyed the Green Mountain State’s democratically passed labeling bill.

In its place: a toothless, woefully ineffective and discriminatory piece of legislation dubbed the DARK Act (aka “Deny Americans the Right to Know”), HR 764.

Despite the clear influence of pro-GMO and agribusiness corporations in torpedoing state labeling laws (spending over $400 million in the process all because labels are supposedly “too costly” for consumers), Obama still signed the bill. But now, it’s being challenged by a new bill from a Connecticut senator who simply wants to know what he and his family are eating.

Senator Slams DARK Act, Introduces New Bill

Mandatory GMO labeling is on the books in over 60 countries across the world, and in most of them the end result is the same: the label clearly says that a product contains genetically engineered ingredients in simple text right on the package.

But Senator Richard Blumenthal echoed the concerns of millions when he spoke publicly about his frustrations with the new “labeling act.” Blumenthal spoke of his plan to introduce a new bill that would repeal HR 764 and restore true GMO labeling.

“As a consumer and a dad, I want to know what my family is eating,” Blumenthal said according to this article from the Hartford Courant. “Websites, phone numbers and barcodes — nearly impossible to access while standing in a grocery aisle with a child — create cumbersome hurdles for consumers and fall far short of providing families what they need to make educated and informed choices about what they want to put on their dinner table.”

Consumers already tired of searching every label with a fine-toothed comb are not particularly excited about having to use the extravagant upcoming features to find out whether a single product is genetically engineered or contains GMO (read: GE) ingredients. Shopping trips have already become an even greater exercise in patience for people who want to know what they’re feeding their families or simply want to avoid GMOs as much as possible.

The DARK Act also happens to block Blumenthal’s own state labeling law, which still needed additional neighboring states to pass similar laws before going into effect.

It’s personal not only for Blumenthal, but also for hundreds of thousands of Americans who have signed petitions asking for simple mandatory text-based GMO labeling, citizens whose voices have been ignored and marginalized by both Congress and President Obama himself.

According to the Courant’s story, major opposition from Blumenthal’s pending bill is expected from big agribusiness, and there are questions surrounding whether Congress would be willing to take up such a highly-charged issue again so soon after passing HR 764.

But as Blumenthal pointed out, national polls routinely show that people want simple, plain English labeling, so there’s hope to be found in this situation. He plans to introduce the bill in the next session according to this article from the Connecticut Mirror. 

For more on the possible bill and Blumenthal’s comments, check out the Courant article here.