A multibillion dollar trade group representing food, beverage and pesticide companies Thursday filed suit against Vermont over its GMO labeling law.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association is challenging Vermont’s law requiring manufacturers to put a one-line label on products containing genetically modified ingredients starting in 2016.
“The State is compelling manufacturers to convey messages they do not want to convey, and prohibiting manufacturers from describing their products in terms of their choosing, without anything close to a sufficient justification,” the group said in their filing.
Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell was not available for comment Thursday evening. But he has said the Attorney General’s Office is prepared to defend the law.
“I can make no predictions or promises about how the courts will ultimately rule but I can promise that my office will mount a vigorous and zealous defense of the law that has so much support from Vermont consumers,” Sorrell said in a statement last month.
Sorrell estimates defending the law could cost $1 million to win and $5 million or more to lose. The state is stockpiling $1.5 million through state appropriations and settlement surpluses to defend the law. The state also announced last week at a bill signing that it is taking private donations through a newly created defense-fund website, Foodfightfundvt.org.
The case will be heard in the U.S. District Court in Vermont.
