Andrea Stander, executive director of Rural Vermont, discusses a proposal that would require labeling of genetically engineered food products at the Statehouse on Tuesday. VTD/Alan Panebaker
Hundreds of people, many of whom traveled in buses from the far corners of the state, jammed the Statehouse Thursday night to tell the House Agriculture Committee to pass the bill mandating labeling of genetically engineered (GE) food sold in Vermont.
“It reminded me of Barack Obama saying, ‘Pass this bill,’” said Rural Vermont executive director Andrea Stander about the litany of testimony. She said 112 people testified by the end of the evening.
Committee member Will Stevens, I-Shoreham, echoed her. “One hundred percent wanted us to pass the bill. Some said tonight, some said tomorrow.”
Committee Chair Carolyn Partridge, D-Windham, said after Thursday’s hearing that the committee will be discussing the bill Friday morning, and she expects it to pass in some form. She thinks it will need examination by the Judiciary committee.
“We have two weeks left in the session,” she said. “I think it’s important, if nothing else, to set up a model bill and do our best to create a defensible bill.”
The hearing was scheduled for the House chamber to accommodate the large crowd expected. The House was still on the floor, however, at the beginning of the hearing, so the hearing opened in Room 11, the next largest meeting room in the building. “Welcome to the people’s house,” began Partridge. “I’m sorry we’re not meeting in the living room, but at least we’re in the den.”
While the crowd waited for committee members to arrive from a roll-call vote on the House floor, they spoke to each other of why they were there, with committee staffer Linda Leehman taking a microphone around the room.
Rachel Nevitt, a farmer at Full Moon Farm in Hinesburg, cautioned, “This is an incomplete bill. … It would tell you what processed foods have GMOs in it. It wouldn’t tell you which animal products are derived from animals that are fed genetically modified feed. We still have to keep fighting for more. Ask your farmers what they feed their animals.”
The bill, H. 722, applies to all food sold in Vermont and amends the definition of “misbranded” food to include food that is produced with genetic engineering but not labeled as such. The bill defines genetic engineering to include a number of breeding techniques that breach normal barriers between species, and it applies to both raw agricultural commodities, like vegetables, and processed foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients. It would also prohibit any labeling of genetically engineered food as “natural.” Not included in the law would be meat, milk, and eggs from animals fed genetically engineered feed or treated with genetically engineered drugs such as bovine growth hormone.
When formal testimony began, one of the first to testify was VPIRG consumer protection advocate Falko Schilling, who presented the committee with a petition to pass the bill that he said was signed by 4,001 Vermonters in two months of collecting signatures.
Committee members did not need the hearing to learn that Vermonters want to know whether their food contains genetically engineered ingredients. Survey results were presented by Jane Kolodinsky, director of community development and applied economics at the University of Vermont. In four surveys taken since 2001, a minimum of 94 percent of Vermonters have said that they want labeling for GE food. The most recent survey was taken last month, she reported.
Will Allen, an East Thetford farmer on the policy board of the Organic Consumers Association, has charged that Thursday’s hearing was a way for the Legislature to “run out the clock” before the end of the session. According to Allen, the extended testimony schedule is the committee’s way of “dragging its feet” and avoiding passing a bill that would bring legal costs to the state.
Rachel Lattimore, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who has represented the Biotechnology Industry Association, Monsanto, and other biotechnology companies, told the committee and one of its attorneys that Vermont would face a lawsuit from the industry if it passed this bill.
Stevens indicated over the weekend that he is impatient, as well. He said he was ready to discuss the bill with his committee and make a decision on it, without any of the testimony scheduled for the public hearing or other testimony scheduled for this week.
“We are not afraid of the threat of a suit,” Stevens said. “We knew from the get-go that any meaningful bill would be subject to a lawsuit.”
Vermont could still lead the nation with the bill, if it goes through the rest of the legislative process — passage out of committee, on the House floor and in the Senate — presumably after review by the Senate Agriculture Committee. Stevens was uncertain whether the bill would need much review by the House Judiciary Committee, which is what committee members expected two weeks ago. The penalty associated with breaking the labeling law is something that triggers automatic review by Judiciary, they said.
Connecticut appears to be the only state where a GE food labeling bill has passed out of committee, but the bill there is still in limbo.
In other recent testimony, Dr. Robert Merker of the Center for Food Additive Safety at the Food and Drug Administration, told the committee about the FDA review process. Though a number of earlier witnesses had talked about studies on GE food safety done by the FDA, Merker said, “On submissions to the FDA on safety, FDA has never done its own testing. We don’t have the budget.”
Merker mentioned only one exception to the FDA’s no-testing policy: StarLink corn. The GE corn, produced by Aventis, was intended only for animal feed, but some of it was used in food for direct consumption by humans, including at Taco Bell.
Merker said that the FDA reviewed the scientific literature and the data on genetically modified crops that seed companies had provided. In-house scientists at the FDA review experiment design, and most tests are carried out by independent labs certified for Good Laboratory Practices, and the tests are paid for by the seed company. In almost every case, the FDA has determined that there is no material difference between GE food and conventional food. Where there is a material difference — Merker mentioned soybeans modified to produce an oil more like canola oil or olive oil — then the FDA does require labeling. Congress has given the FDA no statutory authority to require labeling based on the process of breeding the food, Merker said.
The Center for Food Safety has submitted a petition to the FDA asking it to require labels for GE food and laying out the legal case for the FDA’s authority and, it says, statutory duty to require the labels. The committee did not ask about the legal arguments in that petition.
Committee members brought up studies they were familiar with, including one showing the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) protein in umbilical blood of fetuses, to ask about health effects on humans from some GE foods. Bt is a bacterium that can kill pestilent butterflies and moths; the Bt protein that kills is incorporated into some GE corn and other crops. Whenever Bt was mentioned, Merker deferred to the Environmental Protection Agency, as Bt is a pesticide and the EPA regulates pesticides.
Jerry Greenfield, making clear he spoke for himself and not for the ice cream company he co-founded, Ben & Jerry’s, told the committee that he supports the bill strictly as a consumer right-to-know measure.
“I am in strongly in support of consumers having a right to know what is in their products. Whether they have health concerns, safety concerns, environmental concerns, religious concerns … people have a right to know what they’re eating and putting into their body,” he said.
He described the legal battle that Ben & Jerry’s fought and won with four states when they labeled their products as not containing recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). But, he acknowledged, “Ben & Jerry’s is not GMO free. Maybe it would be detrimental to companies like Ben & Jerry’s to have to label their product as having GMOs. That’s OK. I say let the chips fall where they may; just tell people the truth and let people make their own choices.”
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Last night at the State House, it became clear to me that the people of Vermont (and around the world) are taking the lead and the “leaders” are beginning to follow. Have we reached the tipping point?
The VT Right to Know Coalition members Rural Vermont, VPIRG, and NOFA-VT have worked tirelessly to get this bill to where it is. Their efforts came shining through at the State House last night.
What an amazing experience to see so many people come from far and wide to lead our leaders in the right direction.
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Well put. Way to go, Vermont!
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I attended last night’s session, mostly to witness. It was a moving experience, especially to see so many young people offer heartfelt and well-informed statements. Some of us have been waiting (okay, not just waiting) many years for this to happen – it is a small step that will prove significant to the health of generations to come. Thank you for providing clear and factual coverage.
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I was one of those who testified last night (somewhere around 70th or 80th on the list! I mentioned the advantage to the tourism industry: my European friends are afraid to visit the US because they can’t tell what they’re eating here. Vermont could become a mecca for European tourists! Moreover, if we continually give in to bullying and blackmail, the list never ends. Entergy, Monsanto — will the next complainant be the billboard lobby, demanding “free speech” on monster placards all over the state? (My European friends who have the courage to visit here always say something about the extraordinary beauty of the landscape, and I say: “no billboards!” Then they realize that’s the reason this place doesn’t look like the other states.)
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“Ben & Jerry’s is not GMO free. Maybe it would be detrimental to companies like Ben & Jerry’s to have to label their product as having GMOs. That’s OK. I say let the chips fall where they may; just tell people the truth and let people make their own choices.”
What do we care if it is “detrimental” to Ben and Jerry’s? They’re owned by Unilever. Support local! There are Vermont-owned organic ice cream and sorbet makers, including Kingdom Creamery, Strafford Organic Creamery, Leonardo Sorbet, and Blue Moon Sorbet. Plus, if you are willing to support an out of state business like Unilever, why not support one which is organic, like Aldens Ice Cream. Ben and Jerry’s isn’t the only show in town.
Besides, if Ben and Jerry’s loses market share over this, maybe they’ll take the GMOs out of their ice cream…?
Also I want to comment on the article itself…
112 testified, and not a single one of the seven people quoted in this article were ordinary citizens.
Andrea Stander is queen of Rural Vermont. Will Stevens I-Shorham (and farmer), and Committee Chair Carolyn Partridge, D-Windham are members of the House. Then there is Rachel Nevitt, a farmer at Full Moon Farm in Hinesburg… and wife of former Rep. David Zuckerman, VPIRG consumer protection advocate Falko Schilling, Jane Kolodinsky, director of community development and applied economics at the University of Vermont, and Will Allen, an East Thetford farmer (who happens to serve on the policy board of the Organic Consumers Association).
It may be “Welcome to the people’s house,” according to Committee Chair Carolyn Partridge, but this particular article on the event seems to be pretty well sanitized of comments from ordinary citizens. I hope at least some of the 112 were not well connected to Montpelier. Even if I agree with the sentiment expressed and quoted (and I do), it isn’t a terribly credible “citizens (by the busload) movement” if it was all spoken by those well–rehearsed on the subject.
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I was one of the citizens who testified. I spoke both during the roll call break, and on the floor, where I spoke directly after a Viet Nam veteran who is suffering neurological damage from another ‘safe’ monsanto product: agent orange. He testified that he needs to watch what he eats due to that damage.
This was my first time in the statehouse. It was my first time testifying to the legislature. We only had a minute each to speak, and I had luckily written my testimony down so it could be added to the record. If I had of thought about it, I could have probably given a more rousing speech, but the point I tried to get across to the committee was that the only excuse for not passing the bill today would be if they were to introduce a bill BANNING gmo’s on monday instead.
The crowd was extremely diverse, from bee keepers, to farmers, to law students, to high school students, kids, parents, grand parents. Not everyone had something newsworthy to say. In fact, since there was not a single voice there against the bill, folks tended to repeat each other, and the pace was fast, to accomodate each person’s one minute. I was there from beginning all the way to the very end and, while it was a long night, it was BEAUTIFUL! Democracy in action, working to protect our agricultural heritage and freedom of choice, presided over by the statue of the Goddess of Grains, Ceres, who adorns the dome of our capitol building.
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Im so glad you have such a success story to share. I would love to know how to get started in the State of Tn, with petitions, educating people about this. I’ve signed every petition sent my way on getting the GE / GMO labeled but am not sure on how to do get the ball rolling in TN I want to see this junk labeled so we all have a choice. Thank you and best of Luck to us all. Any advice will be greatly appreciated !!!
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The turn-out for the GMO labeling Bill H.722 was pretty astounding. 100% support for the bill. Half way through the event a story was released that the Governor is backing down from Montanso’s threat of legal action. 112 people testified in the House Chamber while hundreds stood on in support. I’m wondering if the Governor would have been better off waiting until AFTER the event to make up his mind.
With all due respect, it’s been quite a few days for the Governor. First he’s chased by bears while he’s got 3-400 concerned Vermonters in his “House”. Now he’s potentially kicked the bee hive. Do you think this issue can be kicked down the road?
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I congratulate to the VT people who find the courage to express their choices and beliefs that there is not one power who dictates what we eat without knowing what we eat, it shall be no crime to know what products we buy and how it is made I am talking about “Right to Know” what food product is GMO. If they can label it in Europe, what is the problem to label it in US. Oh, I forgot, Monsanto has a saying in the government, but I don’t remember that someone elected Monsanto to represent us “the people” in order to give them rights as they want. I can’t believe Monsanto is even threatening with lawsuits if “labelit” will become a law in a state, what crime is it when we simply want to know “is this GMO, or is it not”, is the government working for “we the people” or for corporations…something sounds really stranger and stranger…….In many European countries GMO is banned, why must US be forced to plant GMO seeds, why?? Is this free market?
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This is the best idea I’ve herd of coming out of our Government in a long time(State or Federal),it’s about time they think of us over big Corporations. Thank you very much Vermont Legislators.
We have a responsibility to not only get this law passed but get the word out to as many people across the country as we can. Maybe it will stop the production of this type of seeds.
There was a world summit on this very subject, and Tony Blair from England said he produces as much per acre as they do here without using the seeds. I’m going to tell as many people as I can from other states as well as Vermont.
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I think we have the right to know.
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Way to go Vermont you are leading your way for the rest of the world to see you will not be bullied by Monsanto and Dow chemical. I can believe the governments let this go on. Governments were created for the people buy the people. Those with the deepest pockets run the government and keep official quite. The governments take bribes. They have no moral the governments are so corrupt these days should they be running or should we stop paying taxes. They are trying to kill off our population so only the elite can live on. I am from Canada push your government to ban GMO so Canada will follow. I fight everyday to feed my 7 year old son with nut allergies. We work hard to buy the food we eat why aren’t we alloud to know what’s in it. Did these companies forget where they get their profits from. We are not asking these companies to close shop we just want to push for pure ingredients like our forefathers used to eat. We have rights to know and not knowing infringes on our charters and bills of rights and freedoms.
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Since we are not going to get anything of value here for another few years, if at all, then I suggest that a grassroots movement start to do our own labeling ourselves.
Such a labeling command should provide a vague warning such as-
“This product most likely contains GMO’s Genetically Modified Organisms-which the government is afraid to protect you from”
A movement should lobby Co-Op’s, elect boards that will come up with their own lists of suspected foods and inform and people about the problems involved. The Co-Op’s are selling lots of crap, their earth hippy image long transformed expensive emporiums for gourmet goody foods.
Question: Why are lobbying groups allowed to testify and push forth such threats.
Note: Grand Poobah St. Patrick Leahy’s call for Food Safety, linked in the press releases on this site, as I write this, certainly says nothing about this issue, just as Senator Leahy did nothing to stop Bush/Cheney, for the Anthrax letters did their job, shut him up, such that he goes along with all the wars, but now under smiley face warmongering, fascist for Wall Street, Obama. And what has Obama done to protect us from the genetically modified nightmare of GMO’s? As much as Obama has done as regards the Gulf Oil Spill and the Fukashima, nothing but cater to corporate interests and use depleted uranium munitions most recently in Libya.
The fact of the matter is that we can have our little cheer leading session as concerns nothing really happening in Vermont as regards GMO’s, all the while we will certainly never know how much nuclear pollution has already corrupted food in Vermont due to Fukashima.
There is not election coming up where it is Wall Street’s Romney verses Wall Street’s Obama.
In this instance the only hope is that Rep. Peter Welch do the job he was sworn to do, defend the U.S. Constitution. This would mean nothing less than to call for Obamma’s impeachment as regards, the war against Libya, the murder of U.S. Citizens and the attack on the Bill of Rights via
NDAA, as part of the short list, where Obama bin Bush, continues the treason of the Bush/Cheney Administration, abetted by traitors like Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders, in allowing the treason that is the war on terror based upon the lies of the 9/11 False Flag event, to be used as the excuse for perpetual war and the creation of a police state, which Obama has intensified far beyond Bush even.
Have a nice day.
Bruce Marshall
Rochester, Vermont
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The pressure is coming on. I am doing my bit for NZ together with GE FREE and other movements. I believe we are winning. The ninety nine percent against the one percent. The question is, will they trash the world before they fall? They are endeavouring to pollute every country so nothing else can be grown and we are eating their food because our Food Authority lets it all in under pressure from Monsanto.