GMW: GMO bill sets stage for 'a fine mess'

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GMW: GMO bill sets stage for 'a fine mess'

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Thu, 19 May 2005 10:52:47 +0100

 

 

 

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North Dakota's GMO bill sets stage for 'a fine mess'

By Dean Hulse, The Forum

Thursday, May 19, 2005

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=92485 & section=Opinion

 

Janell Cole deserves kudos for her succinct reporting of the 2005 North

Dakota Legislative session in the Saturday, April 30, edition of The

Forum (A12). However, nitpicker that I am, I feel compelled to point out

that Cole shortchanges readers when, under the heading " GMO Crops, " she

mentions only " lawmakers " and doesn't identify the players behind this

particular piece of legislation-that is, SB 2277.

 

Sen. Tim Flakoll and Rep. Rick Berg, both Fargo Republicans, were among

the sponsors of this bill,

which, as Cole reports, will prohibit cities and counties from enacting

local laws to restrict the growing of crops containing genetically

modified organisms.

 

I attended the hearing when SB 2277 was before the House Agriculture

Committee, chaired by Rep. Eugene Nicholas, R-Cando, another of the

bill's sponsors. Upon opening the hearing, Nicholas spoke of how some

states

have literally zoned agriculture right out of production. When

testifying on behalf of his own bill, Sen. Flakoll produced a colorful

map of

California, demonstrating how activists have been successful at

achieving local seed regulation.

 

Sounds ominous. But what if the entity wanting to overrule planting

decisions isn't a legislative body or a well-established environmental

group or even a loosely organized muddle-minded activist

organization, but rather, a numbers-crunching, consumer-focused

corporation?

 

Consider: Sacramento-based Ventria Bioscience recently moved its GMO

rice operations to Missouri,

home to beer giant Anheuser-Busch Cos., which just so happens to use

rice in its beer. Fearing that

Ventria's GMO rice might somehow contaminate Missouri's conventional

rice, Anheuser-Busch - the

biggest rice buyer in the nation - threatened to boycott Missouri rice.

In the end, Anheuser- Busch and Ventria reached an agreement, whereby

the beer giant won't boycott Missouri rice if the bioscience

company moves its GMO rice fields at least 120 miles away from the

state's conventional rice- growing region.

 

Consider: In 2003, North Dakota led the nation in the production of

hard red spring wheat, durum wheat, oats, barley, flaxseed, navy beans,

pinto beans, peas, oil sunflower, confection sunflower and canola. In the

case of flax, for example, North Dakota produced 95 percent of the

nation's supply.

 

Now, what if a major purchaser of any of those North Dakota commodities

came to the state and said it would boycott our grains or pulses or

oilseed crops if we didn't separate GMO crops from conventional crops by

at least 120 miles?

 

Based on Sen. Flakoll's and Rep. Berg's role in grinding out SB 2277,

I'd feel a bit like Oliver Hardy, and to those lawmakers, I'd say,

" Here's another fine mess you've gotten me into. "

 

Hulse, Fargo, is chairman of the Dakota Resource Council. E-mail

hulse

 

 

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