On Friday afternoon, about 200 Vermonters celebrated a state law that requires special labels for foods made with genetically modified ingredients.
The event on the Statehouse lawn drew some of the state’s top political dignitaries. And advocates and elected officials say Vermont’s first-in-the-nation GMO labeling law is already yielding results.
Related: Now There's A Label, But What's A GMO?
“People are seeing labels on genetically engineered foods all over the state of Vermont, and also all over the country thanks to what we did here,” says Falko Schilling, a consumer advocate at the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, which lobbied for passage of the bill.
The law was passed two years ago, but went into effect July 1. GMO labeling advocates are now working to kill federal legislation that would supersede Vermont’s law. They say the federal bill would water down the state's labeling provisions.
