Consumers have expressed their interest in knowing more about where their food comes from which I think is a good thing. But when it comes to labeling we need to be able to find a smart way to balance this consumer demand with what we know about the safety of the foods that our farmers produce.
--As Prepared for Delivery--
“Thank you Chairman Conaway. And thank you for holding today’s hearing to review mandatory biotech laws.
“This is an issue that I hope that we can find a way to address because if we don’t we’re going to have 50 states with 50 different labeling programs and that’s just not going to work. If we don’t do something to stop this we could end up with something similar to what we’re seeing with California’s egg standards.
“Consumers have expressed their interest in knowing more about where their food comes from which I think is a good thing. But when it comes to labeling we need to be able to find a smart way to balance this consumer demand with what we know about the safety of the foods that our farmers produce.
“If done correctly I think we can find a workable solution.
“The Energy and Commerce Committee has most of the jurisdiction here though so, at this point, our hands are a little tied. But I do think it’s important for us to move forward and learn more about the impacts some of these state attempts at labeling genetically engineered foods and food ingredients are going to have.
“I look forward to hearing what our witnesses have to say and I thank the chair.”
