Iowa Bills Fight GM Free Zones and Farmer Choice/Iowa's wake-up call

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GMW: Iowa Bills Fight GM Free Zones and Farmer Choice/Iowa's

wake-up call

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Tue, 1 Mar 2005 09:44:06 GMT

 

 

 

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Iowa Bills Fight GM Free Zones and Farmer Choice/Iowa's wake-up call

 

" If drug-producing corn got mixed up in the food supply, the debacle

could eclipse StarLink. " (item 1)

 

" In Iowa, StarLink corn represented 1 percent of the total crop, only 1

percent. It has tainted 50 percent of the harvest. " (item 2)

 

1.Iowa Bills Fight GM Free Zones and Farmer Choice

2.Iowa's Starlink wake-up call: WHAT THE STARLINK FIASCO TELLS US

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1.Institute for Responsible Technology Spilling the Beans, Feb,

2005

 

Iowa Bills Fight GM Free Zones and Farmer Choice

By Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception

 

Whenever large agribusiness or their political representatives come up

with a new farm strategy to save local farmers, watch out. It seems

that more small farmers suffer while agribusiness prospers. The latest

proposal is a bill before Iowa legislators that would prevent local

jurisdictions from creating identity preservation zones.

 

Using identity preservation (IP), farmers keep crop varieties separate

from others to meet purity requirements of their buyers. Iowa farmers,

for example, may earn an extra $8.50 – $15.50 per bushel for organic

soybeans. Non-GM beans bring in about $0.50 more than GM varieties, and

non-GM food grade raise that to $2.00. Several specialty varieties

comprise the approximately 5 percent of total US corn acreage that is IP,

including an extractable starch corn grown for Japanese breweries by 60

southeast Iowa farmers.

 

While low commodity corn and soybean prices contributed to the 22

percent reduction of Iowa's mid-size farms between 1997 and 2002, IP

niche

marketing keeps many profitable. IP crops also can bypass the " normal "

big agribusiness marketing channels.

 

Contamination is a key challenge to IP growers. Unwanted varieties may

cross-pollinate or get mixed up in the seed, harvest equipment, or

during storage and transport. Some farm regions create entire zones that

exclude unwanted varieties, where all the farms, and if possible all

collection and distribution points, only handle approved grain.

 

The current bills before the Iowa house (HF 202) and senate (1144)

would disallow local jurisdictions from regulating the sale or production

of seeds. The reason? They are trying to prevent Iowa farmers from

creating GM-free zones. These zones, which do not allow the

cultivation of

genetically modified crops, are being created at an accelerated rate on

all continents, including the US. They provide farmers easier access to

the significant world markets that avoid the controversial technology.

 

The introduction of GM crops in 1996 was heralded by agribusiness as

the key to greater profits, but the opposite ensued. Europe cut off its

$300 million corn purchases. Japan soy orders dropped by nearly 25

percent. Lowered prices for GM commodities boosted U.S. subsidies by an

estimated $2-3 billion per year. Even the threat of GM wheat being

introduced rallied the industry to try to make North America a

GM-wheat-free-zone.

 

If Iowans knew before 1996 about the loss of GM markets, they could

have created GM-free zones. If they knew before 1999 that A.E. Staley and

ADM would not take varieties of GM corn not approved in the EU, they

could have created EU-approved zones. If they realized that StarLink was

not approved for human consumption, they could have created

StarLink-free zones before its discovery in taco shells prompted the

recall of

more than 300 brands and massive economic damage to the farm sector.

 

It's hard to predict the future, but there are clear trends. Organic

agriculture is the only sector bounding ahead at a double digit growth

rate. Iowa has about 900 organic grain farmers—one of the largest

contingents in the Midwest—and many others are testing the waters. GM

markets

continue to dry up with the consistent finding that the more people

learn about the technology, the less they trust it. Now, even GM animal

feed markets are shrinking overseas due to consumer demand for GM-free

meat. Many EU retailers promise this to their buyers and as of February

10, 2005, three major Australian poultry producers are also refusing GM

feed. An ISU economist projected that if GM wheat were introduced here,

30-50 percent of our foreign markets would go elsewhere and wheat

prices would drop by a third. This could put wheat into competition with

corn as a feed grain.

 

And we also know that Iowa hosts field trials of GM varieties

unapproved for the market. The most threatening of these is the corn

engineered

to create pharmaceuticals. In 2002, 155 acres in Pocahontas County had

to be destroyed because of " pharm " corn contamination. If

drug-producing corn got mixed up in the food supply, the debacle could

eclipse

StarLink.

 

Looking at current trends, farmers may decide to create a pharm-corn

free zone, an organic corridor, an approved-variety-only sector, a non-GM

marketing zone, or any one of a number of zones to capitalize on any

future trend, GM-related or not. Zones can give farmers greater control,

greater profits, and better protection. The Iowa bills, however, would

prevent all that. If they pass, biotech companies would be the winner

and Iowa farms and communities would be the loser.

 

To view a sampling of possible future news stories with and without

these laws in place, go to www.seedsofdeception.com/iowafutures.php These

bills are being debated during the first week in March, 2005 (at

least). For Iowans wanting to contact state representatives on this

issue,

visit www.seedsofdeception.com/iowa. Non-Iowans please

forward this to your Iowa friends.

 

Publishers and webmasters may offer this article or monthly series to

your readers at no charge, by e-mailing a request to us. Individuals may

read the column each month, by subscribing to a free newsletter at

www.seedsofdeception.com. Also on the site, you will find these columns

formatted as a two page handout.

 

© Copyright 2005 by Jeffrey M. Smith. Permission is granted to

reproduce this in whole or in part.

 

Note to rs: As of August, 2004, this publication no longer

summarizes the news on genetically engineered foods and crops. This is

because there are already other free electronic newsletters that do an

excellent job of this. We recommend GM Watch, www.gmwatch.org, and The

Campaign, www.thecampaign.org.

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2.Iowa's Starlink wake-up call

http://ngin.tripod.com/farming.htm

 

WHAT THE STARLINK FIASCO TELLS US

 

The Starlink fiasco started when in October 2000 traces of an Aventis

GM corn [maize] called StarLink showed up in taco shells in the U.S.

even though it was not approved for human consumption. It led to a

massive

recall of over 300 food brands. The 'StarLink' gene has also shown up

unexpectedly in a second company's corn and in US corn exports. The

Starlink fiasco has wide implications for the use of GM crops in farming.

 

BIG CONTAMINATION FACTOR

 

" In Iowa, StarLink corn represented 1 percent of the total crop, only 1

percent. It has tainted 50 percent of the harvest. " ABC NEWS November

28, 2000

 

Dale Farnham, an Iowa State University agronomist: " No one knows how

far the corn pollen can travel, some studies have said a quarter of a

mile. "

 

" Aventis CropScience Wednesday was at a loss to explain why another

variety of corn besides its StarLink brand is producing the [starLink]

Cry9C protein. " United Press International November 22, 2000, Second corn

variety producing Cry9C

 

On the possibility of unintentional mixing of GM and non-GM

post-harvest, agronomist Dale Farnham says: " There are no safeguards. "

 

" The US Department of Agriculture claims to know where the maize —

banned from all food use globally and only recently approved for US

exports

— is located. Aventis, the French firm which developed the genetically

modified maize sold throughout the US maize belt in 1999 and 2000, says

it knows, also. So do I: StarLink maize is everywhere. " - US

agricultural journalist Alan Guebert writing in Farmers Weekly,

December 8, 2000

 

BIG LEMMING FACTOR... F-F-F-F-FASHION!

 

Donald White, a University of Illinois plant pathologist, on why US

farmers have gone for GM corn: " ...what happens is there is a herd

mentality. Everyone has to have a biotech program. " White's view

chimes in

with a University of Iowa study on why farmers were growing GM soya which

concluded, " It is interesting to note....that increasing crop yields

was cited by over half the farmers as the reason for planting GMO

soybeans, yet yields were actually lower " .

 

BIG ECONOMIC FACTOR

 

US corn exports to big buyers are being hurt: " ...traders in Tokyo said

on Wednesday the discovery that StarLink's Cry9C protein had spread to

another variety of corn only deepened doubts that U.S. corn can be kept

free of genetic modification. "

 

BAD FUTURE FACTOR

 

Analyst Dale Gustafson of Salomon Smith Barney: " We have not yet seen

GM wheat. If we did, we would be seeing the same problems in those

consumer products. "

 

US corn farmer and GM seed salesman, Nebraska, Dec 2000: " ....you guys

[uS Government] created this monster; you clean it up. I have learned

my lesson. No more GMO crops on this farm — ever. " [quoted in UK

'Farmers Weekly' December 8, 2000]

 

All quotes unless otherwise indicated taken from: Corn leaving bad

taste in world markets as GMO worries build, Reuters, Wednesday --

November

22, 2000

 

 

 

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