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Mass Exodus Expected from Leading Organic Trade Group over Controversial GMO Legislation

The Organic Trade Association, the leading trade group representing the organic industry, is under attack for supporting legislation that invalidated Vermont’s mandatory labeling law for products that contain genetically modified material.

September 22, 2016 | Source: Organic Authority | by Jill Ettinger

The Organic Trade Association, the leading trade group representing the organic industry, is under attack for supporting legislation that invalidated Vermont’s mandatory labeling law for products that contain genetically modified material. Vermont’s law, which went into effect on July 1, is now superseded by federal regulations, the Stabenow-Roberts bill, that prohibits states from enacting their own GMO labeling regulations.

According to a press release from the Organic Consumers Association, nearly sixty organizations that represent millions of U.S. consumers, are calling on major organic companies to abandon their OTA memberships because of its support of the controversial legislation nicknamed the DARK Act (Deny Americans Right to Know).

“OTA’s leadership betrayed the more than 90 percent of Americans who support mandatory labeling of GMOs by working behind the scenes with federal lawmakers to craft a federal law that ensures food corporations will never have to reveal, in plain English on product labels, the GMO ingredients in their products,” Ronnie Cummins, international director of the Organic Consumers Association, said in a statement.

According to the letter signed by the organizations, including Food Democracy Now!, Center for Food Safety, and Food & Water Watch, OTA Executive Director Laura Batcha endorsed the Stabenow-Roberts legislation because “members of the OTA, and multinational food corporations selling so-called ‘natural foods’ do not want the public to know what’s in their non-organic brands.”

Dr. Bronner’s, a longtime member of the Organic Trade Association withdrew its membership earlier this week citing a “betrayal of the consumer-led GMO labeling movement, and general drift away from the core principles that drive the organic movement.”

In an op-ed for the Huffington Post last month, David Bronner, Cosmic Engagement Officer for Dr. Bronner’s, said the move by the OTA demonstrated “a complete lack of integrity and courage in standing against the biotech agenda.”

Earlier this summer, the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association also renounced its OTA membership.