Editor’s note: This story first appeared in The Chronicle http://www.bartonchronicle.com/ and was made available to vtdigger.org through a special exchange.
Once known for giving back change, chain restaurants like McDonald’s would be required to list calories on their menus if a proposed bill is enacted into law.
Already passed by the Senate, a menu labeling bill is presently before the House Committee on Health Care, which took testimony Tuesday from the Attorney General’s office.
As proposed, the bill would require chain restaurants with more than 20 locations in the state to list the number of calories beside each standard meal offered on their menus.
The office wants to amend the bill so enforcement would fall under its jurisdiction rather than the state’s Health Department, as specified in the Senate bill.
Assistant Attorney General Elliot Burg told members of the House Health Care Committee that tough sanctions would drive compliance and make the bill more effective.
As proposed, the bill would require chain restaurants with more than 20 locations in the state to list the number of calories beside each standard meal offered on their menus.
People at a glance would know, for example, how many calories they would be consuming if they ordered a Whopper or a Big Mac.
The bill comes in response to studies indicating that obesity is one of the nation’s largest health concerns, and one that is trying the tape measures in Vermont.
According to Mr. Burg, a 2006 survey suggested that 54 percent or 250,000 Vermonters were overweight. Estimates for 2010 indicate those numbers have continued to swell to the point where 61 percent of the state’s population are overweight.
Other states, including Maine and Massachusetts, have passed similar bills requiring chain restaurants to disclose nutritional information.
To tackle the problem and the rising medical costs to deal with health issues caused by obesity, such as diabetes and hypertension, the state wants “to change patterns of the way people eat,” said Mr. Burg.
And one of the least intrusive ways to accomplish that, he added, would be to make consumers aware of how many calories they are taking in when they choose one of the popular meals at a fast food restaurant.
The bill would not affect grocery stores or apply to alcoholic beverages. “We’re not looking for a fight on that,” said Mr. Burg.
Other states, including Maine and Massachusetts, have passed similar bills requiring chain restaurants to disclose nutritional information. A similar mandate is contained in the health care bill recently passed by Congress, but Mr. Burg warned that it may be two or three years before it goes into effect.
What Vermont needs, he added, is a law that will plug the gap until the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the new regulation.
A state mandate requiring nutritional disclosure is not expected to run afoul of federal regulators. According to Mr. Burg, the FDA is “very open to involvement by the states.”
Legislation seeks to strengthen hunting in the state
The Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill last week intended to get more people into hunting.
Known as a mentored hunting program, the bill would create a program to give people new to the sport a chance to see if they wanted to become hunters.
Twenty-nine other states have passed similar legislation, according to a press release from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a nonprofit out of Newtown, Connecticut.
In passing the bill, however, the Senate rejected a provision that would have required a hunting mentor and his apprentice to get permission to hunt on private property.
Challenge to the provision came from Senator John Campbell of Quechee, who argued that the Vermont Constitution says that land is presumed to be open for hunting and fishing unless otherwise posted.
On a roll call vote his opposition carried the day, and the provision was stripped from the bill.
Originating in the House, the bill would allow a novice — a “mentored license holder” — to hunt under the supervision of licensed hunter without first passing the state’s hunter safety education course.
“It’s the number one tool out there by far to recruit new hunters,” said Steve McLeod of Vermont’s Tradition Coalition, who lobbied for the bill’s passage.
Twenty-nine other states have passed similar legislation, according to a press release from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a nonprofit out of Newtown, Connecticut.
Mr. McLeod said in an interview Tuesday that the Vermont bill is crafted to promote strict supervision of an apprentice by a licensed hunter. Any game shot by the apprentice will be taken under the supervisor’s license.
The bill is expected to give people of all ages an opportunity to experience hunting in the field before investing the time and money it takes to become a licensed hunter in Vermont.
Mr. McLeod, who testified for the bill, said the states that have implemented the program have a good track record when it comes to safety.
“That was the opponents’ biggest concern,” he said.
Under the bill an apprentice would be able to hunt for two seasons before making a decision if hunting was in his or her future.
