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M A R C H 2 0 1 6 POTATO GROWER 29 People Product News NPC Praises Release Of Legislative Proposal To Create Federal Preemption For Food Labeling The National Potato Council NPC last week praised the release of a legislative proposal by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts that would create per- manent federal preemption for food labeling requirements and urged Congress to consider and approve the legislation quickly to avoid con- fusion and increased costs in the marketplace. Consumers businesses and farmers all need uniform standards based on federal determinations for food label requirements for all foods including those made with geneti- cally modified organisms GMO. A patchwork of state food labeling laws will increase costs to con- sumers by increasing processing and packaging costs without any associated benefit. Vermonts mandatory labeling law for foods containing ingredients that have been genetically modified takes effect in July and unless Congress acts swiftly families farmers and food companies will face confusion and higher food costs in the market place - with low- income Americans being hit the hardest. U.S. potato growers thank Chairman Roberts for introducing national labeling legislation that is a reasonable common-sense approach that provides consumers easy access to product information and will not result in increased food costs said John Keeling NPC Executive Vice President. We look forward to working with both sides of the aisle to ensure that this legis- lation is approved by Congress in a timely manner. USDA Seeking Further Input On GMO Regulations In February a Federal Register notice seeking public input on the way the government regulates genetically engineered crops was issued by USDA. Within the docu- ment the departments Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service APHIS outlines different alterna- tives for restructuring and revising its regulations. One of the alterna- tives would replace the petition sys- tem with a two-step process that would evaluate whether a biotech plant poses a risk to the environ- ment before imposing any regula- tions or requiring a permit that APHIS currently requires for the ini- tial regulation of GMO crops. Currently technology developers must file for deregulation and the crop is reviewed for any potential risk to the environment. Department officials have said that they want to propose a rule to update the regulations in 2016.