I\'m writing in favor of the Farmer Protection Act, a bill before House legislators that would protect every Vermont farmer from the financial damages of genetically engineered (GE) crops.
Without clear remedy, we currently have a situation where a farmer can lose his or her market for their crops due to GE contamination. A farmer can also be sued by a biotechnology company if the company\'s GE trait (their patented product) accidentally turns up in the farmer\'s field.
Today, a Vermont farmer is liable for unintended consequences. The Farmer Protection Act presents a remedy.
In the case of biotech liabilities, today\'s default arrangement where the victim pays flies in the face of reason. Instead, with the commercial application of a company\'s patent, an obligation to do no harm should be presumed. After all, a company should bear the consequences for the harm its product causes.
If GE crops are as harmless as the biotech industry claims, why then the overwhelming resistance by the industry and its champions in the Douglas administration to assuming the same responsibilities and liability assumed by other manufacturers in this country? Industry safety claims are dubious.
Some GE supporters have expressed a concern that if liability is rightly directed at the producer in this case, then access to genetically engineered seeds would be denied to Vermonters.
This denial would supposedly arise by an industry fleeing accountability for the potential harms of their current practices. We actually have people stating they think it\'s OK for Vermont\'s farmers to continue assuming liability for damages brought by the biotech industry.
It confounds me to think GE proponents evidently possess more faith in the safety of biotech products than the biotech industry does.
The beauty of the Farmer Protection Act is that it protects all Vermont farmers, regardless of their feelings about and usage of GE seeds. The Act does not pit one farming group against another, but is winning legislation for all of us.
Please leave a message for your House representative at 1-802-828-2228 urging him or her to support the goals of the Farmer Protection Act in every manner possible.
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.