Canadian farm and agribusiness leaders will be watching anxiously this week as MPs vote on a private member’s bill that would require mandatory labelling of any food product containing genetically modified material.
There has been fierce industry lobbying to defeat the bill, up for second reading approval-in-principle May 7. If approved, it will be sent to the health committee for what would likely be the first thorough parliamentary review of the issue of consumers’ right to know what they are eating.
While it is unlikely the bill in its current form would make it into law, the food industry is nervous about giving anti-GM advocates a forum to further their campaign.
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Despite industry warnings that mandatory labelling would be costly and meaningless, supporters of the bill, C-517, believe this is their best chance of success after years of trying and failing.
All 78 Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party MPs are expected to vote for it.
All 127 Conservatives are expected to vote against it.
The Liberals, split on the issue, will decide its fate.
During House of Commons debate, Liberal health critic Robert Thibault said he will vote for it to get it to committee where hearings can be held and amendments proposed.
“I support the bill because I agree with its purpose,” he said.
Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter called for defeat of the bill.
“The fact is producers and consumers will pay the costs of this mandatory labelling legislation,” he said May 5. “I would say the bill is a bad investment for no gain other than to play on people’s emotions.”
Maple Leaf Foods wrote a letter to MPs warning against the proposal to require GM labeling, saying, “this bill will impose hundreds of millions of dollars of unnecessary costs without providing any benefit to Canadian consumers.”
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, food processors, food manufacturers, canola growers, the egg industry, fruit and vegetable producers and many other groups lobbied to have the bill killed.
Consumer organizations argue it is a right-to-know issue.
Critics, including Alberta farmer and MP Rob Merrifield, said consumers already have a choice.
So many food products contain GM ingredients including canola and soy oil that labelling would cover most products and be virtually meaningless as consumer education.
A label about GM content would lead consumers to believe it is a food safety warning, he said.
“If consumers are nervous about genetically modified foods, they can go to organic foods,” said Merrifield. “If not, then leave it the way it is.”
BQ MP Gilles Perron argued that voluntary labelling regulations now in place do not work because food companies are not using them.
“The main goal of this bill is not to put genetically modified foods on trial but to inform consumers about what they are eating and to give them a choice between consuming genetically modified foods or not,” he said. “That is a democratic choice.”
Coincidentally, the debate was held on a day when flags on most government buildings in Ottawa were flying at half mast to commemorate the May 3 death of former Liberal environment minister Charles Caccia, who was the last MP to try to get a mandatory GM labelling bill through the House as a private member and who came the closest.
In 2001, the majority government of Jean Chrétien was subjected to the same intense industry lobby when Caccia’s bill was due for a free vote.
It was defeated 126 to 91, but only after many MPs poised to vote for it were assured the government would hold thorough parliamentary hearings on the issue. Those hearings fizzled.
Caccia, after 36 years as a Liberal MP, later was denied his party’s nomination for the 2004 election when Paul Martin’s forces took over the Liberal Party.
