'Protection Act'
Is a Fraud
On Farmers

As the year ends and the law makers head back to Montpelier, I find myself with an uneasy stomach. At issue is the proposed senate bill S.18, or the "Farmer Protection Act". All the letters to the editor make it sound to the average person that this piece of legislation makes good sense, and it would be a "feel good" measure to adopt this into law. Who wouldn’t want to help out Vermont’s family farmers?

My name is Tim Howlett and I am a third generation family farmer. My grandfather moved to Vermont in 1947 with a young family, forty Holstein cows, a tireless work ethic, and a vision of a large successful farm. He also had a keen business sense and a degree from Massechusetts State College. My father was five when they moved and following graduation from Cornell University returned to the farm and began a partnership with my grandfather in 1965. The following year they built a freestall barn which was not very popular at the time but allowed them to milk more cows and in the upright position. Cows numbers went up to 150 and then to about 180.

Farming is all I ever really wanted to do as a kid, and that fire for agriculture still burns wildly. Following my graduation from SUNY Cobleskill and a brief employment on another area farm, I returned to the home farm. In 1995, my father and I became partners and the following year we built another freestall barn. This barn holds 400 cows and the size was dictated by the fact that margins are tight in the dairy business and for the farm to transfer from one generation to another we needed more cash. Another reason for a larger herd is that added outside labor means that no one has to work seven days a week. This was the similar situation for my father forty years ago.

We are conventional farmers and users of modern technology and efficiencies. I would also like to say that I have several neighbors and friends that are organic farmers, and I have a great respect for them and the way they do business. They are feeding a niche market and more power to them for being able to do business the way they want to. I would also like to enjoy that same freedom.

In short, this piece of legislation, S.18, is a fraud brought to you by Rural Vermont, the organization that wanted to ban all GMO products in recent years past, and since that initiative failed, this is the back door approach. All farmers want to produce a product that is safe and GMO crops certainly exceed that standard. Ironically, rural Vermont won’t be so rural when farmers decide to move out because they can’t compete in a restricted state. Just how many houses can be built on a thousand acres of farmland?

In Vermont, there were approximately 850 acres of organic corn grown last year, while conventional and GMO corn covered about 95,000 acres. As for our 350 acres of corn, about 160 will be GMO varieties next year, up slightly from last year. The reason we use Roundup Ready, or GMO corn, is because it allows us to put up a higher quality crop at a lower cost. We use less chemicals which lowers our cost, as well as less environmental exposure. Let’s face it, farmers must be stewards of the land so that future generations will have the same opportunities that we do. Fewer trips over the field mean less fuel consumption and wear and tear on equipment. Less weed and insect damage mean the corn is of greater value to the cows. In the modern era, different corn hybrids have been for sale for the past 76 years and GMO varieties are getting beyond their tenth year now. This does not include the 6 to 12 years and 50 to 300 million dollars that is spent by the manufacturer for one variety before it is for sale to the general population. These manufacturers have done their homework and these products are safe. The FDA, USDA, and the EPA have all put their stamp of approval on them. As for worldwide acceptance, GMO, or biotech crops were grown on more than 200 million acres in 2004 by 8.25 million farmers in 17 countries.

As for S.18, or the "Farmer Protection Act", farmers in Vermont have a law on their side already that treats them as consumers only. This level of protection is not common to all states and therefore, we are protected enough. As for pollen drift, yes, it drifts. In fact, that is what God created pollen to do. As a farmer with land that borders a neighbor who is an organic producer, of course that needs to be considered when we decide which type of corn to plant on that piece of land. Farmers are good neighbors and have had mutual respect with each other for many generations. We don’t need a law to help us out with common courtesy. For the organic farmers being declassified as organic producers, it hasn’t happened yet because of GMO contamination, and I would assume that the early years of adoption would be the years that mistakes would be made.

We are not going to be sued by the manufacturer because we don’t grow seed corn and are not in the plant breeding business. There have been no cases on the eastern half of the country of that happening. They have much bigger fish to fry than the small Vermont farms. I do consider our farm to be a small farm on the scale of our farming neighbors in the west.

What will happen if S.18, the "Farmer Protection Act" is passed? A good possibility is that GMO products will not be available to farmers in this state because why would a manufacturer want sell a product that they have no control over but still assume all the liability? The money they make from sales in Vermont would not cover the legal expenses if there was a problem. This, in effect will keep Vermont farmers from utilizing technology that it desperately needs to remain economically viable over time.

For the non-farmers that have stayed with this letter this long, let me attempt to put this in a different perspective. Would you support a law that would ban the use of word processors in favor of the typewriter? Or would you support the ban of inkjet printers because sometimes the wet ink will smudge on your fingers? You all have embraced technology of some form or another somewhere along the way and it is no different for me in my business. And why haven’t more farmers spoke up sooner? We are normally people that like to keep to ourselves and mind our own business. We represent only two percent of the population of the United States, but yet we feed half the world. We need this technology in Vermont. Lawmakers, I urge you please do something to help the family farmers of all sizes in this state and lay this bill to rest.