Meetings
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[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: The Vermont Chamber of Commerce here to testify on H-seven 58, the rodenticide bill. Should
[Rep. Gregory "Greg" Burtt]: I just? Yeah, I think you
[Committee Chair (Unidentified)]: can just dive right in. Alrighty. I tend to get
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: a little long winded. So at any point anybody would like to stop me for questions.
[Committee Chair (Unidentified)]: We tend to interrupt without any concern at all. Yeah.
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: So today I'm here. The Vermont Chamber represents businesses as a whole and the economy as a whole throughout the state of Vermont. But today I'm here specifically for food manufacturers, restaurants, pest control. So these are both small family producers, local eateries, the way up to the recognized Vermont national brands. So these businesses are really foundational to our tourism, our hospitality, our manufacturing sectors throughout the state. And so we really appreciate the committee having us in today and appreciate the intent to protect wildlife and public health through H758, which would ban the anticoagulants rodenticides. However, a broad prohibition on these anticoagulants could create really serious unintended consequences for our restaurants, our food manufacturers, other facilities throughout the states. So just a little context right now, rodent control in these buildings for food manufacturers and restaurants is not optional. Every one of these facilities has a plan for how to control the rodent population in their area. It is required under the FDA, the USDA, the state health regulations. And I believe you all heard from the Agency of Agriculture this morning as to potentially some of the things that they require with their bait stations and rodent specific entry points outdoor and traps. So the commercial sector deploys these sorts of things quite frequently using licensed professionals. And this existing framework really helps to balance environmental protection with food safety compliance, because a large part of food safety compliance when it comes to rodents is that preventative measure. It's keeping rodents out of the building. Once rodents get into the building, I don't know if anybody knows how quickly mice multiply. I won't get into details. But it's not a fun thing to see or experience. And so once rodents can get into these buildings, it can lead to product destruction or recall for our food manufacturers, temporary shutdowns for deep sanitation across all facilities, and in extreme cases of infestation can also lead to permanent closure restaurants or manufacturing facilities. Once this infestation is established, it's extremely difficult and very costly to eliminate the infestation. And it just kind of goes to show that keeping these rodents outside the building is really critical, and the use of anticoagulants in these preventative measures is really critical. These rodents can carry all sorts of diseases. You know, And salmonella, listeria, heptavirus, to name just a few. We don't want
[Rep. Gregory "Greg" Burtt]: to have that contaminating our food. We don't want to continue to risk it. So, our last witness came in and talked about a product they're using that reduce it may have reduced the rodent population to 83 of what it is. If you have a food manufacturing business or a restaurant, seventeen percent of the rodent population is still too many?
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: I would think that any rodents that are inside of a building is probably too many. But when it comes to effectiveness of these anticoagulants and coagulants, I would definitely encourage you to reach out to the pest control experts. They would be able to probably give you some more of the minutiae that they could have their living around. I do know that the non anticoagulants in general can tend to operate a little bit differently from the coagulants and that they can sometimes be more costly and sometimes are not quite as effective for a long term prevention of rodents. So, it could shift a little bit more from a preventative measure for facilities to more of a reactive measure, which reaction versus prevention, want to keep them out as much as possible. And then we also understand that in terms of concern about protecting household pets and wildlife from these anticoagulants, a lot of the documented secondary exposures that we see happening nationally tend to stem from improper residential use. This would be when homeowners fail to follow some of the label requirements on rodenticides and other cases similar to that. Licensed commercial applications, as I mentioned, operate under those strict compliance standards. So another thing that the committee might consider looking into would be addressing residential access and enforcement specifically to avoid those unintended consequences in the residential sector. So I guess just in closing, wanted to encourage the committee to continue to take testimony on this issue, not just from the pest enforcement sector, but also from other food safety experts, public health officials, and restaurant operators on potential impacts of this bill. Food manufacturers and hospitality businesses are already facing rising costs and regulatory complexity in The States, and we would encourage careful consideration before advancing some broader restrictions that could jeopardize the food safety business in The States.
[Committee Chair (Unidentified)]: Great. Thank you very much. Any questions from the committee?
[Unidentified Committee Member]: Representative Basil. So it sounds like from what you just said, I'm going to ask you a question, but I think you probably don't know the answer. So we heard this statistic of with birth control, this birth control strategy. This one business was able to maintain. 83% reduction in the number of of rodents that were in their facility, and I'm just wondering if you know what the number is that you usually are able to maintain, like is a using rodenticides. Is it a higher rate than that, or is it something comparable?
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: I know that the anticoagulants tend to be more effective than the non anticoagulants, but I don't want to get into specific details that I would just be kind of guessing.
[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah, this is a new strategy, so I'm not sure if all the numbers, you know, if all the comparisons are able to be made, but certainly having the side would be useful.
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: I would, yeah, would highly recommend having somebody that like works in pest control and to testify as to the effectiveness of both in any newer, like any newer options that might be available?
[Unidentified Committee Member]: Representative Burtt.
[Rep. Gregory "Greg" Burtt]: Thank you, Jeremy. Given that you represent our state, do you think there's any potential concern with, you know, we want to increase the number of businesses that are choosing to locate our state, given your position to consider? Do think there's any concern, because if we had a ban in place on something like this, not being able to recruit companies to the state is potentially one more thing that could get in the way of that, especially given that we have a better jury's framework.
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: Yeah, we've spoken with some of our members in the manufacturing and tourism industry, and each of them have said that this would make it harder for them to maintain rodent control in their areas, In addition to the fact that the non anticoagulants tend to be more costly than the anticoagulants, this would increase the price of business. It might also make it more difficult for them to really establish themselves, especially if they're renovating a building that's in a downtown through the Downtown Revitalization Fund, then that's more cost to get rid of the rats in the first place. It's just that cumulative effect of the more costs we add to businesses, the harder it is for them to stay here, the harder it is for them to expand here, and the harder it is for us to attract businesses into a place where maybe neighboring states don't have the same restrictions.
[Committee Chair (Unidentified)]: The chamber is obviously a membership organization. Is it public information who your members are? Or do you make that public? Is it something you can see on the website? And I'm wondering whether specifically Cabot and Bennington Jerry's are members of the chamber.
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: Cabot and Bennington Jerry's are members of the Vermont chamber, although we're not in here representing any one or two specific businesses today. It's more of a broad concern for the industry. In terms of our member list, I can certainly get back to you with an answer to that.
[Committee Chair (Unidentified)]: And otherwise, you represent restaurants?
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: So we're with the Vermont Independent Restaurants Association, so we run that. And then restaurants as a whole in the state of Vermont, represent here as well. Grocery stores? That would be the Vermont Retail Grocers Association. I believe that Maggie Lenz is the lobbyist for that.
[Rep. Richard Nelson]: Representative Nelson? Jeremy, perhaps you're not the person to ask. Did we have a food manufacturer company that had a big recall not long ago due to a salmonella contamination from roots? In Vermont. I think I heard some some place last year or two. Jeremy, do you?
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: Nothing that comes to mind. Doesn't mean it didn't happen. Just nothing that I'm thinking of at the moment that I can remember.
[Rep. John O'Brien]: Representative O'Brien. Jeremy, does the chamber represent food groups and institutions, like at colleges, the cafeterias like here, at UVM, or St. Mike's, Missouri?
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: So we do have St. Michael's College, UVM, Champlain, Middlebury as our members as well. And I can see where this could potentially affect residences and cafeterias within these colleges as well.
[Rep. John O'Brien]: Hospitals?
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: Yep. Hospitals, yep. Any cafeterias, any most hospitals. Hospitals, too? Yes, UVM Medical Center and then a few others as well.
[Committee Chair (Unidentified)]: All right. Good. Anything else that you wanted to add?
[Jeremy (Vermont Chamber of Commerce)]: Just if you have any other further follow-up questions, feel free to email me at any time. Still believe Yes. That
[Rep. Richard Nelson]: Yeah. I just googled that, and in April 2025, there's a voluntary recall Cabot Creamery, eight ounce extra creamy premium butter due to coliform bacteria.