How does this differ from labeling biotechnology-derived foods? Isn the fundamental issue the same — full disclosure?
The law says labeling for foods must disclose information that’s material, as well as avoid false or misleading statements. It’s our view that the method by which a plant is developed by a plant breeder is not material information in the sense of the law. For example, we do not require sweet corn to be labeled “hybrid sweet corn” because it was developed through cross-hybridization. And plant breeders have many other traditional techniques through which they coax nature to change genes that would not occur otherwise. A process called somoclonal variation allows breeders to take advantage of natural mutations in plant cells that produce desired traits. Through embryo rescue, breeders nurture embryos produced by crossing two plant varieties that would not breed naturally, producing potentially useful plants that would not have survived on their own. Historically, we have not required this information to be on labels. It would not be practical. If genetic engineering or any other techniqu
