Support Needed: Protect Our Soils and Move H. 501 Now!

Join the Protect Our Soils Coalition and support H.501 - An act relating to the regulation of food depackaging facilities - NOW! Call your Senator in support of this important legislation. H.501 is currently in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources - the committee who originally drafted the bill language. The committee is VERY busy and needs to hear that this issue is a priority for Vermonters in order to prioritize working on passing this bill out of committee in time. Reach out to committee members and ask to move the bill; include your personal Senators and express your support of passing H.501 this year!

Write an email to either or all of the committee members below and find your Senator here:

The bill would apply an precautionary approach to HOW food residuals are being managed in Vermont, avoiding contaminants like micro plastics through:

  • more effective separation of the organics from their packaging at the point of generation

  • A moratorium on any further permits for food depackaging facilities until rules have been adopted to regulate those facilities. 

  • A collaborative stakeholder process that will convene to study the impact of the management of food residuals with depackaging technology and to report recommendations to the general assembly on how to regulate them best prior to rulemaking. 

Rural Vermont is part of the Protect Our Soils Coalition with VPIRG, CLF, Vermonters for a Clean Environment, Compost Association of Vermont and Black DIrt Farm - who represent the farmer member group Poultry Farmers For Compost Foraging. Our coalition supports the passage of H.501 and advocates to amend the bill to also include:

  • A ban on the application of organics derived from depackaging facilities on agricultural land

  • A pathway for clean waste streams and the use of composts from food residuals that have been separated from their packaging prior to their processing and land application. 

  • Transparency for farmers, gardeners and other consumers utilizing compost, digestate or other end products that may contain pollutants that could get into soil, microorganisms, and plants as well as finding ways on how to address those issues best. 

* More info about the Protect Our Soils Coalition on the coalition’s website here 

* More background info about H.501 and its process to date in the Rural Vermont From The State House blog here

* Read H.501, as passed by the House, here

* Read the amendment proposals from the Protect Our Soils Coalition as talking points here and as legislative language here.

Email caroline@ruralvermont.org with any questions.

Rural Vermont