Under pressure from Monsanto and Big Food lobbyists, Vermont lawmakers are weighing a rider to the state budget bill that would let food companies off the hook for complying with Vermont’s GMO labeling law until January 1, 2018.

Vermont lawmakers could decide as early as today to pass the state budget bill. If they leave the rider in, Big Food will have more time to work with Congress on a federal preemption bill—to keep Vermont’s law from ever taking effect.

Even if you don’t live in Vermont, please CALL VERMONT LAWMAKERS TODAY at 802-828-2228 or 1-800-322-5616. Tell them to keep their hands off Vermont’s GMO labeling law! Tell them consumers in all 50 states are counting on them to protect our right to know!

Vermont voters and lawmakers overwhelmingly supported Act 120, a law to require GMO labels. The governor signed it into law May 8, 2014. Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) promptly sued to overturn it, but so far, the courts have refused to block the law. In a preliminary ruling, the courts said Act 120 is constitutional, and does not violate interstate commerce laws.

Desperate to avoid truthful labeling of their products, the biotech and food industries have worked tirelessly, and spent millions, to try to pass a federal bill to stop Vermont’s law from being implemented by the July 1, 2016 deadline.

But so far, Monsanto and the GMA have failed to convince enough U.S. Senators to preempt Vermont’s law. They’ve failed to get the votes they need for their DARK—Deny Americans the Right to Know—Act. So they’re coming in the back door, using the Vermont Senate appropriations process—to delay the law, and buy themselves more time.

Lobbyists for Big Food claim they need more time to comply with Vermont’s GMO labeling law—but what they really want is more time to preempt it.

Vermont lawmakers claim they can’t hold up the state budget—or the end of the 2016 legislative session—just to protect the July 1 GMO labeling deadline.

That’s just wrong. Vermont voters have waited long enough. And who’s to say that if food companies succeed with this rider, and continue to fail in in their efforts to pass a federal preemption bill, they won’t find more ways to weaken Vermont’s labeling law—until it’s no longer worth the paper it’s written on?

Food companies have had ample time to prepare GMO labels. Some companies are already labeling, even though state officials have already said they won’t actually enforce the law (by levying fines) until January 1, 2017. Other companies have said they are prepared to meet the deadline.

Vermont lawmakers owe it to their constituents to uphold Vermont’s law and enforce it.  Anything less is just pandering to big corporate interests.

Even if you don’t live in Vermont, please CALL VERMONT LAWMAKERS TODAY at 802-828-2228 or 1-800-322-5616. Tell them to keep their hands off Vermont’s GMO labeling law! Tell them consumers in all 50 states are counting on them to protect our right to know!