State House rejects ban on GMO grass seed

HARTFORD -- Less than 24 hours after the state Senate approved a ban on genetically modified grass seed, the bill failed to sprout in the House, amid criticism that the legislation was premature and was being pushed through without proper public hearings.

The bill died in a bipartisan 103-37 rejection, led by Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, and Rep. Linda Gentile, D-Ansonia, co-chairman of the legislative Environment Committee, who brought the bill forward for debate.

Although Democrats have a handy 98-53 majority in the House, they were split on the bill, which was a priority of retiring Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams, Jr., D-Brooklyn, who forced it through the Senate Wednesday night -- as an amendment to another bill -- in a 25-11 vote.

"I'm proud of what the Senate accomplished last night," Williams said Thursday. "Senate Democrats -- joined by three Republicans -- made history by taking a stand against the chemical companies and special interests which are poised to dump tens of thousands of gallons of pesticides on lawns across Connecticut."

On Thursday, however, 40 House Democrats voted against the bill.

Williams and other supporters of the bill said that the Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. of Ohio is planning the release of a grass seed within the next year or two that is resistant to pesticides and herbicides, which could lead to greater use of chemical lawn treatments in the state and have adverse impacts on insects and organic farmers.

The bill was a companion piece to last year's regional effort to require labels on genetically modified food products. House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero, Jr., R-Norwalk, lambasted the legislation for being submitted in a manner that skirted the public-hearing process.

"There are a lot of people whose livelihoods depend on this bill, there's a lot of people that can be affected, pro and con. And we don't know what that is because we were deprived of the basic process of having a public hearing," Cafero said. "For that reason alone, we should be voting no.

"It is a disrespect to our process, it is a disrespect to our chamber, it is a disrespect to democracy."

He said that with a struggling economy, the state doesn't need to discourage business.

"What have we come to where we are anticipating that maybe, maybe, someday you might ... come up with something that we think is no good even though there's not a lot of studies about it ... and we're going to ban it," Cafero said. "Are you kidding me?"

Scotts Miracle-Gro has about 220 employees in Connecticut with annual sales of about $27.5 million.

Still, other lawmakers were willing to overlook the shortcomings, in favor of anticipated environmental benefits.

"The process is flawed, but we owe it to the state of Connecticut to protect us from GMOs," said Rep. John F. Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, a member of the Environment Committee.

Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, said that lawn chemicals such as Monsanto's Roundup are an increasing threat and have chemical makeups similar to Agent Orange, the herbicide dumped by the ton over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and which caused lingering health damage to soldiers and noncombatants and has a toxic legacy decades after the war.

"I'm not so sure we want Connecticut to be known as the Agent Orange state," said Steinberg, who also supported the legislation.

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