Dear Senator Jordan and members of the committee considering SB 595,
I am one of your constituents, and SB 595 recently came to my attention. SB 595 is a bill to ban the labeling of dairy products with respect to use of rGBH and rBST. I oppose this bill for several reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, I believe this is a straightforward freedom of speech issue. Dairy farmers should have the right to make factual claims about their products.
Secondly, bills like this smack of a blatant handout to large agribusiness. I realize we are in Kansas and agriculture is our largest industry, but so often agriculture policy is defended with appeals to the “family farmer”. SB 595 does nothing but work against the interests of small farmers. In order to compete with large agribusiness, small farmers must do what they can to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. SB 595 simply removes one way (via restriction of their constitutionally protected right to free speech) they can differentiate themselves.
I believe in free speech, and I believe in free markets. If a bill was proposed to require labeling of dairy products with respect to use of artificial hormones, I would oppose it as well. However, I fail to see how consumers in the state of Kansas will be helped by this bill. I believe that in order for markets to function properly, consumers access to information regarding the products they buy should not be restricted.
Please oppose SB 595.
Ryan Olson
Shawnee, KS 66216
I don’t buy in completely to the notion that genetically modified foods are de facto bad. However, when agribusiness has to resort to laws attempting to muzzle small farmers who want to differentiate themselves in the marketplace by using more natural farming practices, it makes my blood boil. If you agree, now would be the time to get in touch with your state senator and the members of the Agriculture committee currently considering this bill.
Full text of the bill [pdf]
Members of the Senate Agriculture committee:
R - Mark Taddiken – Chair taddiken@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7371
R - Roger C Pine - Vice Chair pine@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7372
D - Marci Francisco - Ranking Minority francisco@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7364
R - Stephen R Morris – Member morris@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-2419
D - Janis K Lee – Member lee@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7366
R - Terry Bruce – Member bruce@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7300
R - Tim Huelskamp – Member huelskamp@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7359
R - Derek Schmidt – Member schmidt@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7374
R - Ralph Ostmeyer – Member ostmeyer@senate.state.ks.us (785) 296-7399
You can find your state senator here.
3 responses so far ↓
1 jdoublep // Feb 22, 2008 at 1:29 pm
thanks, gimp. a worthy letter. free markets are unfortunately paid much lip service by politicians today yet rarely instantiated. david cay johnston speaks to this in his book ‘free lunch’ http://www.reason.com/news/show/124116.html.
2 Kristina // Feb 27, 2008 at 11:29 am
I completely agree that we should be in touch with our state senators. I also think we need to be watching what are national health institutions are doing in regards to GMOs and other issues like genetics.
I’m going to this event, I think any of you who have an opinion should to:
Hi!
We would love to have you be involved in and/or blog post about the following Town Hall, as we are looking for a diverse array of articulate and engaging community members:
A town hall to be March 8th in Kansas City is looking for volunteers. This is one of only five cities in the US that will have a chance to make their voice heard on a very important topic. The National Institutes of Health and other healthcare agencies are considering establishing a biobank with information about the DNA of lots of different people around the US. This biobank could provide researchers with valuable information on the cause of diseases, but there could also be real privacy concerns about very personal information.
This hasn’t been funded yet and no decisions have been made — first, we want to know what everyone thinks about the idea: Is a biobank good? Bad? Dangerous? Are there safeguards? What safeguards are important? Are you okay with researchers having your DNA?
This town hall is free and open to the public, but everyone is encouraged to register early. Make your voice count, register online at http://www.dnapolicy.org and click on the link for Kansas City. Bring a friend or two and make sure their voices count too. If you would like to volunteer to help us promote the town hall, please contact Erin Wiley at erin@pfidc.org or 202-374-0840.
3 Doyle Foss // Mar 16, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I believe the two new coal generating plants should be approved for the best interest of our state. I think it is obviously a political issue with no sound reason to oppose it. I hope you will vote in favor of it.
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