More than 6,800 Vermonters and 175 businesses have signed a petition calling on the state Legislature to pass legislation that would require the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods sold in Vermont.
House Bill 112, which has the support of the Agriculture and Forest Products Committee, would do just that, with some exceptions. And the House Judiciary Committee is slated to take up the bill this Thursday.
The groups that organized the petition — Vermont Public Interest Research Group, NOFA Vermont and Rural Vermont — gathered with representatives from various Vermont grocery cooperatives on Tuesday at Montpelier’s Hunger Mountain Coop.
All 17 of the state’s member-owned cooperatives support the House bill, and the co-op staff made a public plea to legislators to pass the legislation.
Krissy Ruddy of Hunger Mountain Coop said Vermont co-ops in 2011 generated more than $88 million in revenues and served more than 30,000 members. But this bill, she said, extends far beyond the scope of the state’s local cooperatives.
“This isn’t a natural foods issue. This isn’t a co-op issue,”she said. “This is really a human issue because we all eat, and we all deserve to know what it is that we’re eating.”
Ruddy and other co-op representatives present at Tuesday’s press conference said that their customers are consistently asking for information about GE foods.
Annie Gaillard, who manages Hardwick’s Buffalo Mountain Coop, said her customers want to know what foods are genetically modified, but providing them with an answer takes her down rabbit holes that rarely have an end.
“They can know if there is gluten in their products. They can know if there’s too much salt in products,” she said. “People go in (the store) because they’re trying to make healthy foods choices, and this is a choice they’re not being given.”
Allison Weinhagen of Burlington’s City Market said that a survey of 1,400 customers found that more than 95 percent of the store’s clientele support a GE labeling law.
“They want to know what’s in their food, as they should,” she said. “They have every right to know what they’re eating, what they’re putting in their bodies, and what they’re putting in their kids bodies … so they can decide what’s best for them and their families.”
The co-op representatives said that a national GE labeling law is the ultimate answer to greater food transparency, but that a state law could help pave the way for national reform.
This is a problem for Gov. Peter Shumlin and some legislators who say they support GE labeling. These lawmakers don’t want the state to get tied up in a costly lawsuit that they might not win.
For more on the ins and outs of this bill, including the loopholes and the legal protections, read this story.
