CT passes GM labeling contingent on 4 other states passing, including adjoining states
"Connecticut on Monday became the first state to pass a bill that would require food manufacturers to label products that contain genetically modified ingredients — but only after other conditions are met."
[But, it's a trigger law]: "the law would not take effect unless four other states, at least one of which shares a border with Connecticut, passed similar regulations."
"Mark Kastel, co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, a liberal farm policy research group, said that while the triggers were unusual, they could work to the labeling movement’s advantage. “The hurdles in the Connecticut bill, if surmounted, would mean a critical mass in the marketplace that would emulate the impacts that would have materialized if California had passed its ballot initiative,” Mr. Kastel said. Big food and seed companies like Monsanto and Dow spent tens of millions of dollars last fall to help defeat a ballot measure in California that would have required labeling."
[Followed by a defeat in NY]: "And on Monday, the New York labeling bill was defeated in committee after members, including several who were co-sponsors of the legislation, were lobbied intensely by a representative from the Council for Biotechnology Information, a trade group whose members are BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroScience, DuPont Monsanto and Syngenta — all major makers of genetically modified seeds and pesticides that work with them."
Stephanie Strom, Connecticut Approves Labeling Genetically Modified Foods, New York Times, June 3, 2013, accessed June 4, 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/business/connecticut-approves-qualified-genetic-labeling.html