Vermont Seeks Documents on GMOs from Seed, Food Companies -- 2nd Update

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 15, 2016 19:07 ET (23:07 GMT)

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