Veggie Libel Coalition Forms to Protect Free Speech

Headline: Veggie Libel Wire Service: AP (AP Financial) Date: Wed, Apr 29, 1998

By CURT ANDERSON AP Farm Writer Ralph Nader and a journalists' group announced Wednesday they will work to overturn or block "veggie libel" laws like the one Texas cattlemen used to sue Oprah Winfrey.

The new "Foodspeak Coalition" said the laws on the books in 13 states and pending in many others are intended to muzzle vigorous public debate about food safety and protect the profits of the food industry and agricultural interests.

"It seems corporations want to do what King George, foreign dictators and bad political bosses were unable to do: that is, shut up the American people," Nader told reporters.

He added that such laws, if applied in other areas of society, might have discouraged activists from exposing such things as harmful pesticides and food additives, unsafe cars, health effects of asbestos and bad consumer products.

"The dissenters of the past ... have been proven right again and again," Nader said.

The laws arose after apple growers unsuccessfully sued CBS' "60 Minutes" over a 1989 segment about the health effects of the spray Alar. Farmers and food companies say they need protection against unsubstantiated claims that can cost them millions of dollars by scaring consumers.

In the Winfrey case, Texas cattle producers said comments on her popular talk show about mad cow disease triggered a drop in cattle futures prices. A federal judge rejected their lawsuit in February, but Winfrey has been sued again in a Texas state court.

While Winfrey has ample resources to defend herself, many others don't. For example, Amy Simpson, the Ohio Public Interest Research Group's state director, depends on free lawyers to fight a "veggie libel" lawsuit that Buckeye Egg Farm filed over her work on the practice of washing old eggs and repacking them as new.

"We are being buried in legal paperwork," Simpson said. "The process of defending oneself is hellish."

Even news reporters could find themselves targeted by such lawsuits, said Steve Geimann, immediate past president of the Society of Professional Journalists.

"They shouldn't have to be looking over their shoulder, worrying about he next lawsuit," Geimann said.

The coalition, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Science in the Public Interest, intends to work with local organizations to repeal existing state laws and oppose new ones. It also will join lawsuits, hoping a case will eventually reach the Supreme Court for a definitive ruling.

Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas.

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