Measure Would Ban GMO Food

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Measure would ban GMO food

By Keri Brenner, IJ reporter

Marin Independent Journal, 20 Sept 2004

 

Genetically modified crops bans on ballots in several counties

 

Leaders of Measure B, a Marin ballot measure to ban genetically

altered crops, say they are bracing for an intense campaign over the

next few weeks until the Nov. 2 elections.

 

" We're up against some real big money here, " said Mark Squire of San

Anselmo, of GMOFreeMarin, the measure's proponents. " The core of the

issue is that big corporations are trying to direct our food choices

and policies. "

 

Squire, owner of Good Earth Natural Foods in Fairfax, said the

organization has launched a major education drive on the issue. The

campaign, he said, is to expose the truth about the dangers of

genetically modified organisms to the nation's crops and food

supplies.

 

A countywide forum is set for tomorrow in San Rafael, and other

events - including an authors' talk Saturday at College of Marin and

three showings of the film, " The Future of Food, " by Deborah Koons-

Garcia - are scheduled the next few weeks.

 

GMOFreeMarin, which has set up an office in San Anselmo, is seeking

to raise $150,000 for mailings and other tools in the drive to

counteract the anticipated biotech industry efforts.

 

But Lisa Dry, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based

Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group, said her

organization is not planning to flood Marin with an expensive

promotional campaign as the biotech industry did in Mendocino County

earlier this year.

 

CropLife America, a biotech industry trade group, spent a reported

$621,000 in an unsuccessful campaign to defeat a genetically altered

crops ban in Mendocino. Despite the influx of cash, some 56.5

percent of voters on March 2 approved the ban, making Mendocino one

of the first counties in the nation to have such a law in place.

 

" As far as the Marin County ballot initiative, we do not plan to be

actively engaged on the ground on this issue, " Dry said. " We're not

going to be funding a campaign such as the industry did in

Mendocino. "

 

Dry said the biotech industry instead plans to offer itself as a

resource.

 

" The preference would be, " she said, " (for) the local folks who are

most engaged, that we will happily provide them with information,

education and materials we have prepared that are based on our

experience with

the technology. "

 

The Marin measure, if approved, would ban the cultivation of

genetically altered crops in the unincorporated areas of the county,

such as West Marin. The measure does not apply to biotech medical

research firms and institutions.<p>More than 15,000 Marin residents

signed petitions earlier this year to place the measure on the

ballot - well more than the approximately 9,000 valid signatures

needed.

 

Similar measures are on the Nov. 2 ballot in Butte, Humboldt and San

Luis Obispo counties.

 

At issue, according to Squire, is efforts by firms such as Alleman,

Iowa-based Monsanto Corp., makers of the herbicide Roundup, to hold

the patents on seeds for various crops so they will have full

control over food production.

 

" Their vision is that they are going to own the seeds, " said Squire,

of the biotech industry. " Farmers will no longer be independent, and

will have to license the use of the seeds for a year from the

corporations. "

 

Monsanto and other biotech corporations claim their genetically

modified canola, soybean and corn will aid production and reduce

pesticide use.<p> " We believe farmers should have a choice to use

the most modern tools of agriculture for their farming practices, "

Dry said.

 

But Squire said contamination by GMO crops puts farmers out of

business.

 

Lawyers for Monsanto have sued or sent letters threatening to sue

thousands for patent infringement, claiming farmers have stolen

varieties of Monsanto's genetically modified crops they have found

in their fields.

 

" The (biotech) industry is bending science for economic interests, "

Squire said.

 

One example is Percy Schmeiser, a farmer in Western Canada, who was

forced to destroy all of the seed he developed over several decades

after Monsanto claimed it found its Roundup-resistant canola plants

on his farm. Schmeiser is featured in Koons-Garcia's film, which

tells the stories of various large farmers claiming similar

experiences.

 

Squire said GMO-contaminated crops are being turned away from export

to Europe or Asia. The contamination, he said, can't be reversed

because the seeds remain in circulation indefinitely. Once the crops

are tainted, the farmer can lose overseas export opportunities.

 

" Most of the world is rejecting the GMO crops, " he said, " or at

least, they're regulating them heavily. "

 

 

Contact Keri Brenner via e-mail at

kbrenner