When students return to California’s Sausalito Marin City School District later this month, they will find something different about their meals. The district will become the first US school district to provide meals that are 100 percent organic and non-GMO.

As many consumers continue to demand more natural and organic products, the global food and beverage market for non-GMO products reached $550 billion in 2014 out of a total $5 trillion market, according to a Packaged Facts study.

It’s probably not the news some in the food industry want to hear, but a new study conducted by the University of Vermont suggests consumers won’t be scared away from purchasing foods containing genetically modified ingredients if those foods would be required to carry a GMO label.

The US House of Representatives passed the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015” by a vote of 275-150 Thursday.

A federal judge has ruled the Maui County ban on the cultivation of genetically engineered crops is invalid because the county lacks authority to enforce the restriction.

 GMA is challenging a federal court ruling on the act, which is scheduled to go into effect in July 2016. 

Representatives of the food industry continue to express their displeasure with the Vermont law that requires the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food and are not going down without a fight, despite the April court ruling that denied a preliminary injunction to block the law from going into effect.

Organic food processing company SunOpta Inc.’s Hope, Minnesota facility has become the first food manufacturing facility in the US to receive USDA Process Verified Program (PVP) verification for Non-Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)/Non-Genetically Engineered (GE) products.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) will appeal the April federal court ruling that denied the association’s motion to stop a Vermont law requiring the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food from going into effect.