Legislature has a full plate of issues

Starting this week, the state Legislature has begun pondering topics we've been discussing for months now: the price of wine, if an onion is the best candidate for official state vegetable and whether restaurants should keep cooking with artificial trans fats.

Why should a foodie care about the Legislature or any other government body? Because so much of what you're able to enjoy on your plate and in your wine glass depends in part on what the government allows to get there.

New York City health officials recently banned artificial trans fats from restaurants. The Food and Drug Administration now requires packaged foods to list trans-fat content. Many school districts nationwide have drastically limited junk foods and soda offerings in their vending machines.

Lawmakers discuss everything from farmworker housing to how salmon is labeled at your seafood counter. Last session, they formed a state beer commission to promote Washington's growing microbrew industry and required even the smallest dairies and cow-share operations to be licensed by the state. Here's what's on tap for this session.

Trans fats and menu labeling

Local and state health officials already are studying whether to follow New York City's lead and ban artificial trans fats from eateries, but the Legislature still is pondering whether to join the debate or let it remain a local issue.

State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, head of the senate's labor and commerce committee, said she expects the issue will come up this session given growing interest in reducing childhood obesity and its related ailments. Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, heads the senate health committee and figures public education about trans fats could be part of overall efforts to encourage healthier eating.

Health officials and lawmakers nationwide are looking into banning artificial trans fats in eateries or at the very least raising awareness of the ingredient's link to heart disease and stroke. Health and nutrition groups including the American Heart Association say trans fats can clog arteries and raise the body's level of LDL or "bad" cholesterol.

Washington health officials also are considering how to beef up nutritional data available to fast-food restaurant customers. The state Board of Health is determining whether it has the authority to require restaurants with annual revenues of $20 million or more (mostly fast-food chains) to make the data available to customers and if so, how to go about it, said Craig McLaughlin, the board's executive director. The Washington Restaurant Association has said it opposes the ban due to the cost to businesses.

Shelling out for shellfish

Fans of oysters, clams, mussels and other shellfish should take note of Gov. Christine Gregoire's proposed 2007-09 general-fund budget, which includes $220 million to help clean Puget Sound.

Industry spokesman Bill Dewey, of Shelton-based Taylor Shellfish Farms, Washington's largest farmed shellfish producer, said farmers are heartened by the efforts to keep the water supply clean. It has grown tougher to battle water pollution because it comes from so many sources, Dewey said: fertilizer runoff from lawns, pet waste, failing septic systems and industrial waste.

"It takes a monumental effort, particularly when it ultimately involves behavioral changes with everyone that lives here," Dewey said. Shellfish farming has become one of Washington's major industries, which made last summer's record-setting outbreaks of bacteria and toxins in shellfish beds all the more frustrating to the growers and diners alike.

Shellfish farmers have been meeting with state and federal health officials to discuss possible changes to harvesting methods that could reduce the risk of food-borne illness. While growers have no control over summer heat and tides, which contribute to toxic algae blooms and growth of Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria, carefully timing the harvest can dramatically reduce health risks, they say.

Dewey said he expects geoduck farming may spur debate this session as well. Hoping to take advantage of booming prices in Asia, growers are cultivating the long-necked clams along shoreline that hasn't been home to shellfish operations in the past, to the chagrin of nearby homeowners who haven't appreciated the change of view and environmentalists who wonder about its long-term effects on shoreline ecosystems. Rep. Patricia Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, has said she'll put together legislation that would bring together all parties to create uniform state regulations.

Beer and wine

How much you pay for beer and wine could be affected by how the Legislature rewrites some of the state's liquor control laws this session, following an appeals court ruling that found Washington's beer and wine distribution system was anti-competitive and violated a federal antitrust law designed to limit monopolies.

A task force met over the summer to review the laws, which have been changed only incrementally since the end of prohibition in the 1930s though Washington has since grown into the nation's second-largest wine producer, after California.

Kohl-Welles said she'll meet with lawmakers this week to work on the changes, which could include volume discounts to retailers and allowing beer and wine companies to buy naming rights to facilities at sports and entertainment venues such as stadiums and racetracks.

What should the State grow and raise?

Gregoire has proposed a strategic examination of what Washington farms now, what it should farm in the future to remain competitive in the global market and how to keep the environment sustainable for everyone involved, from shellfish growers to dairy farms to foresters.

There's a lot at stake. State figures show Washington's combined agriculture and food industry employs more people than any other business or industrial sector and represents about 13 percent of the state economy with an annual impact of more than $29 billion.

This type of analysis is heartening to Jay Gordon, an organic dairy farmer and executive director of the Washington State Dairy Federation, an industry group. He hopes it will help farmers and fishermen decide whether to compete with foreign producers or try something else.

An official vegetable

State lawmakers never could decide last session whether the Walla Walla sweet onion or the potato should become the state's official vegetable, much to the disappointment of now-retired language arts/social-studies teacher Toni Miller.

For three years Miller and her Kirkland Junior High students campaigned for the onion to join the state's collection of symbols. The bill passed the house but got mashed in the senate after the potato industry opposed being slighted by a smaller cash crop.

Onion fans should dry their tears, however. State Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-College Place, said she plans to give the bill another go.

Karen Gaudette: 206-515-5618 or kgaudette@seattletimes.com