Messages about biotechnology and agriculture were decidedly mixed during two days of hearings in early October before the US Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. The hearings were convened by Senator Dick Lugar (R-IN), who calls the public debate over this technology in Europe "particularly bewildering" and says that concerns there appear to derive from "cultural aversion to the idea of biotechnology and food" rather than from "scientific evidence of risk."

However, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) told the committee he plans to introduce a bill in the House of Representatives requiring a label for foods that are genetically engineered. Another witness, Mark Silbergeld of Consumers Union (Washington, DC) said that labeling is needed to guarantee consumers a right to choose between engineered and unengineered foods. But representatives from several organizations, including those representing the biotechnology industry as well as major agricultural and food-producing trade groups, urged that labeling not be imposed on such foods. And, weighing in for the first time on these issues, the National Grain and Feed Association (Washington, DC) agreed that labeling is not required but recommended development of new testing technologies to detect biotechnology enhancements in products as a way of providing "the marketplace with tools. . .to minimize market-flow impediments and associated market risks."