Mountain Party candidate Danny Lutz is going after Delegate Paul Espinosa (R-66) for not introducing legislation that would inform consumers about whether the food products they buy contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Lutz says that if elected, he would introduce such legislation.
Lutz said that the legislation has already passed two states — Maine and Connecticut — and is being taken up by other states, including New York.
The Maine and Connecticut laws cannot be enforced until other states pass similar legislation. Vermont is also on the verge of passing such legislation into law.
“I attempted to get this bill introduced into this past session through Delegate Espinosa,” Lutz said. “He declined, for whatever reason.”
“It’s a matter of consumer sovereignty,” Lutz said. “People want to be free to choose what they put into their mouths or take off their plates.”
Lutz was standing next to the historic Feagans’ Mill on his property near Charles Town, West Virginia.
Lutz plans to renovate the mill, which he calls “the only remaining intact and operable mill left in Jefferson County.”
Feagans’ Mill is the last of eight mills that operated on the south fork of Bullskin Run.
Lutz says that when he renovates the mill, he won’t use GMO wheat, corn or barley. GMO hasn’t touched the mill and it never will, if it’s up to Lutz.
“The mill was closed fifty years before the advent of genetically modified organisms,” Lutz says.