Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Julia Brownley (CA-26) and Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) announced the introduction of the Voluntary Food Climate Labeling Act, legislation to transform the way consumers learn about the climate impact of the food they purchase. More specifically, the legislation allows for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to work with food producers, manufacturers, and retailers to develop a voluntary food climate label to place on products that will contain EPA-verified information relating to the carbon footprint of that product.
“The food and agriculture sector currently contributes an estimated 10 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. While a majority of U.S. consumers say that sustainability is important to them when purchasing food, research shows that consumers struggle to identify which products are the most sustainable. This food climate label would help consumers more easily identify sustainable foods and food production, creating a simple and effective solution to address one of the significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Creating this label will be a real win-win for the agriculture sector, consumers, and our environment,” said Congresswoman Brownley.
“A growing number of consumers are eager to know the climate impacts of the items they purchase,” said Congressman Casten. “The Voluntary Food Climate Labeling Act provides them with the information they need to make climate-conscious decisions – if they so choose – with their hard-earned money, empowering them to take control of their own carbon footprint.”
Background on the Voluntary Food Climate Labeling Act
The Voluntary Food Climate Labeling Act would establish the Voluntary Food Climate Labeling Program at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in consultation with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in implementing the program. Entities selling food products will be allowed, but not mandated, to apply to the Program to put a food climate label on the packaging of their food product.
The label will provide a numerical summary of the best available information regarding the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions released during the growing of the food ingredients, manufacturing, processing, packaging, distribution, storage, presentation in the retail establishment, consumer use (including the energy involved in refrigeration and cooking), end-of-life reuse, recycling, composting, treatment, and disposal of the food and its packaging.
Also, the food producer, manufacturer, or retailer will provide the “cradle-to-gate” information, from the growing of the food to its arrival at the retail establishment. Because the rest of the food lifecycle – including how it is stored, prepared, and disposed of – is beyond the control of these businesses, EPA will provide the information on the rest, based on the typical use case, in consultation with the producer, manufacturer, or retailer.
In addition, the label will:
- Convey the information in a manner determined to be most useful to the consumer at the point of sale;
- Not convey that any given food is acceptable or unacceptable – that kind of decision being left to the consumer, presumably as informed by the factual information conveyed through the label;
- Convey that the information has been verified by EPA;
- Include a logo to help the consumer identify the label;
- Include a QR code to provide the consumer access to the above-described in-depth information.
- In specifying the visual form, the information to be included, and the method for verification, the EPA shall consult with food industry stakeholders, and may do so through the establishment of a federal advisory committee or a negotiated rulemaking.
Read the full text of the bill here.
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Issues: 118th Congress, Climate Crisis, Environment