March 6, 2015
CapitalPress.com
9
Idaho
Idaho House panel supports federal policy for GMO labeling
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By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — A joint memo-
rial from the Idaho Legisla-
ture to Congress urging the
federal government to create
a national policy for the label-
ing of genetically engineered
foods has passed a House
committee.
The memorial asks Con-
gress to have the Food and
Drug Administration create
federal standards for compa-
nies that want to voluntarily
label food products that do
not contain genetically engi-
neered ingredients.
This would accommodate
both those who want to label
their food products as not hav-
ing GE ingredients and those
who don’t, its author, Rep.
Steven Miller, a Republican
farmer from Fairfield, told
members of the House Agri-
cultural Affairs Committee.
“I think it’s a good com-
promise that way in allow-
ing both sides of the issue to
find some middle ground,” he
said. “It meets the needs of
both sides.”
The memorial says that
foods produced with GE in-
gredients “are as safe to eat
and grow as foods produced
without GE ingredients” and
adds that “GE technology
adds desirable traits from
nature, establishing the po-
tential for nutritional, health,
agronomic and environmental
benefits.”
It still needs to be approved
by the full House and Senate,
The memorial is supported
by most of the state’s largest
agricultural groups and was
also vetted by national farm
organizations, said Doug
Jones, an Idaho farmer who is
executive director of Growers
for Biotechnology.
Jones said it’s better to
have the federal government
develop labeling standards for
GE foods rather than states or
cities.
The memorial says a
patchwork of local and state
mandatory labeling laws
would result in costly chang-
es to manufacturing, label-
ing, warehousing, inventory
and distribution channels that
would result in higher food
prices.
“There’s a common-sense
business reason not to do it
state-by-state,” Jones said. “If
we’re going to have labeling,
let’s do it right, at the feder-
al level with common stan-
dards.”
“It’s better to have one na-
tional policy rather than 50
individual ones,” said Brent
Olmstead, executive director
of Milk Producers of Idaho,
which supports the memorial.
An effort by Idaho’s sugar
beet industry to introduce a
bill that would have made it
Idaho law to recognize feder-
al pre-emption on the issue of
GE labeling will not happen
this year, said Rupert farmer
Duane Grant, chairman of the
Snake River Sugar Co-op.
That bill would have pre-
vented individual Idaho counties
from passing GE labeling laws.
Grant said Idaho’s sug-
ar industry would have pre-
ferred the pre-emption bill
but he said the memorial is
“well-written and ... it will
take us a long ways down the
road we want to go.”
Miller said a key point of
the memorial is that it asks
FDA to create standards for
voluntary labeling of GE
products.
“You’re not required to
label,” he said. “The market
will work this out.”
Florida has passed a sim-
ilar memorial, North Dakota
is in the process and several
other states are discussing it,
Miller said.
Upper Snake recharge expands, despite dry month
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Bill sets guidelines, standards
for cottage food industry
Capital Press
BOISE — The Idaho Leg-
islature will consider legisla-
tion that would set standards
for the state’s cottage food in-
dustry and allow people to sell
limited amounts of food pro-
duced in an unlicensed home
kitchen operation directly to
the public.
Idaho Code doesn’t spe-
cifically address the industry
and the state’s seven health
districts have independently
set their own standards for
food produced in home kitch-
ens, said Boise farmer Josie
Erskine.
For example, a farmer who
produces jam at home might
be able to sell it at the Sun
Valley farmers’ market but
not at the Weiser market, said
Erskine, who supports the leg-
islation.
Erskine said the bill would
bring consistency to the indus-
try and she believes it has the
potential to help a lot of small
and medium-sized farmers.
“Out of all the bills coming
out of this year’s legislative
session, I really believe this
bill has the potential to create
the most new small business-
es in Idaho,” she said.
Members of the House
Health and Welfare Commit-
tee voted to print the bill Feb.
24.
“We’re just trying to put
some certainty into (the in-
dustry) so people who want
to be in this business can
have some guidelines,” said
the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Clark
Kauffman, a Republican
farmer from Filer.
Kauffman pulled the bill
earlier in the session after
it faced concerns from the
Northwest Food Processors
Association, which represents
76 food processors and 348
suppliers in Idaho, Oregon
and Washington.
NFPA representative Eliz-
abeth Criner said the group
wanted to see more standards
included in the legislation to
protect public safety.
Those concerns were
echoed by other groups repre-
senting Idaho agriculture.
If someone got sick from
eating a food product pro-
duced in a home kitchen, it
would reflect poorly on the
entire agricultural industry,
said Milk Producers of Idaho
Executive Director Brent Ol-
mstead.
“We just want to make sure
the food’s safe,” he said. “Ag-
riculture wants people to eat
safe food.”
Working with NFPA,
Kauffman added a labeling
provision that requires cottage
food products to list any po-
tential allergens and contact
information of the person who
produced it.
While there is no licens-
ing or in-home inspection re-
quirements for cottage food
producers in the bill, they will
have to register with their lo-
cal health district.
If there is a complaint
about a cottage food product
or an illness outbreak, state
regulators would have the
right to inspect the operation.
The legislation would ap-
ply only to non-potentially
hazardous foods, which are
defined in the statute.
The new bill also includes
a cap of $30,000 in gross
sales.
Cottage food producers
wanted a higher cap, while
NFPA, which supports the
new bill, wanted to include
in-home inspections.
Kauffman said the cap was
necessary to get NFPA’s sup-
port and the guidelines can al-
ways be changed in the future
if the industry can prove they
need to be.
draw water from Palisades to shut
off for 150 days through winter in
order to build up storage.
Steve Howser, manager of
Aberdeen-Springfield
Canal
Co., and other water managers
requested the suspension in or-
der to conduct aquifer recharge
without fear of violating the pol-
icy. Howser commenced with
recharging 170 cubic feet per
second on Feb. 21, immediately
following the suspension.
The state, which holds a
1,200 cubic feet per second re-
charge water right, pays canal
companies fees to allow water
to seep into the aquifer through
their unlined systems, or to spill
it into aquifer injection facilities.
Howser hasn’t run water
through his system during win-
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By SEAN ELLIS
Courtesy of Idaho Department of Water Resources
Water is recharged this winter at American Falls Reservoir District
No. 2’s MIlepost 31 recharge site. Winter recharge has recently
been expanded to include canals between American Falls and
Palisades reservoirs.
rop-10-4-7/#24
Submitted photo
Members of the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils hold an
educational event at Idaho’s Capitol Feb. 3 in support of the state’s
cottage food industry. IORC is supporting legislation that would
set standards and guidelines for people who sell food produced in
home kitchens.
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho —
The Bureau of Reclamation is
expanding winter aquifer re-
charge in the Upper Snake River
system, though the watershed’s
once strong snowpack has
dropped to near normal levels
due to continued dry weather in
February.
Lack of precipitation for
consecutive months has pushed
other Idaho basins further below
average.
Due to an ample carryover
of storage water, however, even
an average snowpack has ne-
cessitated that BOR increase
flows below Palisades Reservoir
from 900 cubic feet per second
a month ago to present levels
of 2,700 cubic feet per second
to free storage space for spring
runoff.
Seeking to put those
flood-control releases to good use,
BOR recently approved a request
by canal companies to tempo-
rarily suspend its winter water
savings contract. The provision
requires canal companies that
ter since the 1960s, prior to the
implementation of the winter
water savings contract.
“Here we are in a situation in
February where we have almost
perfect conditions to accomplish
some recharge,” said Howser,
who runs recharge water 30
miles through his canal until it’s
released into an operational spill
facility.
Lyle Swank, watermaster
over the Upper Snake district,
said a half dozen larger canal
companies on the Henry’s Fork
above Palisades and below the
reservoir, including the Great
Feeder Canals near Ririe, are
participating in expanded re-
charge.
Swank plans to send his staff
to verify canal companies are
accurately reporting their re-
charge diversions.
Idaho Department of Water
Resources Water Planning Bu-
reau manager Brian Patton said
50,670 acre-feet has already
been recharged this winter by
canal companies drawing from
Milner Reservoir, and not cov-
ered by the winter storage con-
tract.
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