Legislation that would prevent states from requiring labels on foods containing genetically modified organisms failed to clear the U.S. Senate Wednesday, dealing a blow to several food industry associations that had backed the proposed law.

Senate Democrats successfully blocked the bill after complaining that industry groups didn't make enough concessions to address worries about GMO foods, according to the news site Agri-Pulse. The legislation would have set up a nationwide system of voluntary GMO labeling, but in the process block mandatory labeling laws like the one in Vermont, which is being challenged in court by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and other industry groups.

GMO opponents claim consumers have a right to know what is in their food. But industry groups note the vast majority of scientists have concluded that GMOs pose no risk to human health or the environment. They argue labeling is just a tactic that will be used by opponents scare consumers. They also argue that allowing states to set their own rules would create an expensive patchwork of regulations for food companies to follow.

"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," American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall told Agri-Pulse. "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." http://bit.ly/22p4orr

Scott Faber, an environmental lobbyist who once headed GMA's advocacy efforts, told NPR that labeling is "the most hotly debated issue in food right now."

"Consumers should have the right to choose," Faber said. "They should have the right to know what's in their food and be trusted to make their own choices."

Some Democrats have proposed an alternative bill that would give food companies a choice of four ways to label GMOs. However, Republican Senate leaders have said they would not support the measure. http://n.pr/1U9ouoB

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