Big Donation to Critics of Mendocino Measure H

[Guest guest]

Big Donation to Critics of Mendocino Measure H

 

January 31, 2004

The Press Democrat

 

By Mike Geniella

 

UKIAH -- A consortium of the world's largest producers of genetically

engineered crop products has pumped $150,000 into a campaign to defeat a

Mendocino County ballot measure that would be the first in the nation to

ban such products.

 

It is the largest contribution ever funneled into a Mendocino County

campaign, county election officials said.

 

"We just don't see contributions of this magnitude,'' County Clerk

Marsha Wharff said.

 

The donation by CropLife America, a Washington-based industry lobbying

group representing Monsanto, Dow and DuPont corporations among others,

so far is the only financial support reported by a citizen committee

opposing Measure H on the March 2 ballot.

 

The committee, set up by the Sacramento-based California Plant Health

Association, has hired the former manager of the Ukiah Valley Chamber of

Commerce to orchestrate the anti-Measure H drive.

 

Until now, the largest contribution ever made in a local election was

$80,000 in 1994 by former timber giant Louisiana-Pacific Corp. to

bankroll a committee supporting two candidates for the county Board of

Supervisors.

 

CropLife's $150,000 contribution dwarfs the $18,000 raised so far by

local supporters of Measure H. With a month left before the election,

the anti-Measure H group is positioned to spend at least $3 per

registered voter on direct mail and local radio and newspaper ads to

convince them the ballot initiative is a ``dangerous precedent.'' As of

Jan. 2, there were 46,480 registered voters in Mendocino County.

 

In 2002, CropLife contributed $3.7 million to a successful statewide

campaign in Oregon to defeat a measure that would have required the

labeling of foods produced from genetically engineered crops.

Mendocino's Measure H does not require labeling.

 

More funds possible

 

CropLife spokesman Allen Noe said Friday the organization is prepared to

pump more money into the anti-Measure H campaign if necessary.

 

"Measure H in our view is a dangerous precedent. It's poor public policy

to let a political subdivision like a county dictate standards for the

industry,'' Noe said.

 

Measure H backers cried foul.

 

"There's no way we can match dollar-for-dollar the huge amount of money

these multinational corporations are going to put into this campaign,''

said Els Cooperrider, co-owner of a Ukiah organic brew pub and key

organizer of the Measure H campaign.

 

Cooperrider said she's convinced, however, that Measure H will win

despite the campaign war chest being assembled by critics.

 

"They're underestimating the intelligence of Mendocino residents, who

know corporate bullying when they see it,'' she said.

 

Measure H, if approved in the March 2 election, would ban the

"propagation, cultivation, raising and growing'' of genetically

engineered crops.

 

For decades, growers, seed companies and researchers largely relied on

cross-breeding of closely related plants to develop new agricultural

products and to enhance old favorites.

 

But since the 1970s, a fast-emerging biotechnology that allows genes to

be taken from anywhere and inserted into another plant or animal species

has eclipsed traditional breeding practices and forever altered certain

species.

 

96.3 million acres

 

Since 1996, farm land in the United States devoted to genetically

engineered food crops, such as corn, wheat, tomatoes and soybeans, has

grown from 3.7 million acres to 96.3 million today, according to the Pew

Initiative on food and biotechnology. The nonprofit research

organization is funded by the Pew Charitable Trust and administered by

the University of Richmond in Virginia.

 

Researchers today are exploring a variety of new genetically altered

crops, including developing wine grape plants that would be resistant to

troublesome diseases, such as Pierce's disease.

 

Monsanto, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroScience, DuPont and other

agricultural biotechnology companies contend that genetically engineered

crops are safe and subject to adequate regulatory review.

 

Cautionary report

 

Critics, however, cite a report released Jan. 20 by the National

Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences that found it may

be difficult to completely prevent genetically engineered plants and

animals from having unintended environmental and public health effects.

 

On Jan. 22, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced it will consider

regulatory changes to keep up with rapidly changing technology.

 

Noe said that is why Measure H isn't needed. "There's already a

coordinated framework in place to address the concerns,'' Noe said.

 

Cooperrider said Mendocino County is currently free of genetically

engineered agricultural crops.

 

"That's the way we want it to stay. As a former scientist, I know these

companies can't adequately protect our food chain from errant genes,''

said Cooperrider, a retired medical research scientist.