Vermont Seeks Documents on GMOs from Seed, Food Companies -- Update
15 April 2016 - 11:22PM
Dow Jones News
By Jacob Bunge
Vermont's attorney general has asked a federal court to force
big seed and food companies to turn over internal research on
genetically modified crops, escalating a legal battle as the state
defends its law requiring labels for GMO ingredients.
State Attorney General William Sorrell filed motions this week
in several U.S. district courts seeking to compel Monsanto Co.,
DuPont Co., Syngenta AG and other seed firms to produce studies or
research related to "potential health or environmental impacts" of
the crops, as well as pesticides used on them.
Mr. Sorrell also sought from ConAgra Foods Inc. and Kellogg Co.
"consumer survey research" conducted over the past decade on GMO
foods and on the use of "natural" labels on such products.
The motions were filed in response to a nearly two-year-old
lawsuit by the Grocery Manufacturers Association seeking to
overturn Vermont's law.
A Monsanto spokeswoman said the Missouri seed giant "will oppose
the motion as untimely and unwarranted," and that the safety of GMO
crops is "well established."
"We have already pointed Vermont to a variety of public
government submissions and studies on the safety of GMO crops," she
said.
Spokesmen for DuPont, Syngenta and Bayer said they had received
Vermont's requests and were reviewing them. Representatives for
Dow, Kellogg and ConAgra had no immediate comment. Representatives
of the Grocery Manufacturers Association had no immediate
comment.
Vermont passed a law in 2014 requiring labels for some food
products that are made from biotech crops. Seed companies alter the
DNA of crops like corn, soybeans and canola oil to make the plants
resistant to herbicides and destructive insects, which some
consumer and environmental groups claim can harm biodiversity and
speed weeds' resistance to chemical sprays.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other bodies including
the World Health Organization have said that foods made from GMO
crops on the market are safe to eat. But critics say consumers
ought to know whether foods contain the crops, leading to
state-by-state efforts to secure labeling laws like Vermont's,
which will be the first in the nation when it takes effect in
July.
Despite Vermont's small population of about 626,000 citizens,
the law is already having an outsize effect, with many big food
companies opting to roll out nationwide GMO labels rather than take
on the expense of separating out products labeled specifically for
Vermont.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, a trade group
representing food and beverage companies, sued in June 2014,
arguing that it would open the door to a "patchwork" of varying
state laws on GMO ingredients that would inflate the cost of food.
Mr. Sorrell argued that the companies' internal research on GMOs is
relevant to the group's lawsuit, according to court filings.
"In these situations where the trade organization brings suit, a
lot of the relevant documents are not held by them, but by their
members," said Kyle Landis-Marinello, assistant attorney general
for Vermont. "We think these are really the bare minimum documents
that they should be giving us."
Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 15, 2016 17:07 ET (21:07 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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