Vermont Seeks Documents on GMOs from Seed, Food Companies -- 2nd Update
16 April 2016 - 1:22AM
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., Kellogg Co. and
Frito-Lay North America "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 AG, another top seed
and pesticide company, said they had received Vermont's requests
and were reviewing them. Representatives for Kellogg, ConAgra and
PepsiCo Inc., which owns Frito-Lay, had no immediate comment. A
spokeswoman for Dow Chemical Co., which produces modified seeds,
declined to comment.
A spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association said the
trade group's challenge to Vermont's law "is still pending as we
await a ruling by the court of appeals on our motion for a
preliminary injunction."
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 some 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, which represents food and
beverage companies, sued in June 2014, arguing the law 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."
Mike Esterl and Annie Gasparro contributed to this article.
Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 15, 2016 19:07 ET (23:07 GMT)
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