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Sustainable Food News & the Fight Against GMOs

by Colleen Bednarz (galleryleen [at] yahoo.com)
Santa Cruz County Looks at New Pesticide Regulations, Bayer’s Insecticide Imidacloprid Becomes a Chief Suspect in Honeybee Die-off, Three West Coast States Consider Pharmacrop Bills, and more.
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Santa Cruz County Looks at New Pesticide Regulations

Following a lawsuit filed by Jacob’s Farm earlier this year against Western Farm Service, a pesticide application company from Fresno, Santa Cruz County is now considering new regulations on how, when, and where to spray toxic pesticides. The Jacob’s Farm lawsuit deals exclusively with pesticide drift, a problem for all organic growers, and questions who should be held liable when toxic pesticides are found on organic crops. The state is now evaluating variables such as weather and fog patterns, time of day, and other controls, in hopes of finding appropriate methods to further control pesticide drift.



Bayer’s Insecticide Imidacloprid Becomes a Chief Suspect in Honeybee Die-off

Many scientists now claim the chief suspect in the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) epidemic, a disorder that has killed up to 2.5 million bee colonies in the United States, could be imidacloprid, the most commonly used insecticide on the planet. The insecticide works by impairing the central nervous system of insects, leading to muscle paralysis and death. These toxic chemicals are applied to hundreds of millions of acres in the United States, and in the mid 1990’s, were implicated in a massive bee die-off in France.



Three West Coast States Consider Pharmacrop Bills

California, Oregon, and Hawaii are each considering bills that could restrict crops genetically engineered to produce pharmaceutical and industrial products. The Oregon bill, SB 234, is slated to be signed into law, and will increase state oversight of pharmacrops as well as enact a fee system for regulation and enforcement. In Hawaii, the pending bill SB 717, would prohibit cultivation of pharma and industrial crops that are food or feed crops, ban outdoor testing, and create tracking systems for regulation. The California bill, AB 541, sponsored by CCOF as well as many others, will be heard again in early 2008.



Minnesota Aims to Protect Wild Rice From Genetic Modification

In the first time a state has voted to protect a native crop or species from genetic changes, the state of Minnesota just passed a new law giving wild rice special protection from GMOs. Sacred to the Ojibwe people, and historically and economically important to all Minnesotans, wild rice will now be watched more closely, with environmental impact statements required as well as permits controlled by the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board. The Board is required to keep tabs on genetic modifications to wild rice throughout the country and notify wild rice farmers, tribes, and lawmakers if permits for genetically altered wild rice are issued in any state.



New GE Crops Emerge due to the Spread of Superweeds

Roundup Ready crops dominate the GE market because they are genetically engineered to resist Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. But Roundup isn’t working quite as well as it used to, and according to Science magazine, 24% of farmers in the Midwest and 29% in the South now report Roundup resistant superweeds in their fields. Today, more than 90% of soybeans and 60% of corn grown in the United States are Roundup-ready, yet approximately 45 million kilograms of Roundup is dumped onto US farmland each year. In reaction, scientists at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, have genetically engineered a new round of GE crops resistant to the herbicide dicamba, instead, claiming that rotation between the two should alleviate the superweed problem. It seems more likely that evolution will prevail once again, and the only thing new to this equation will be a new kind of superweeds resistant to dicamba.



The Great Rice Crisis of 2006 Continues

Nine months after the rice contamination crisis hit the food world in the fall of 2006, rice farmers continue to join forces as the class action suits against Bayer build. One of the class action suits filed represents over 460 rice farmers with over 250,000 acres of rice, calling for compensatory damages in excess of $1 billion, before punitive and statutory damages. A judge will soon determine whether a class action suit is appropriate in this case.



Victory! Precedent Setting Ruling - GMO Alfalfa Banned

A temporary ban on Monsanto’s GMO alfalfa issued by U.S. District Judge Charles Boyer this past March was recently permanent on a nationwide scale, until “the government can adequately study the crop’s potential impact on organic and conventional varieties.” Organic Valley (and their 975 cooperative farmers) joined the Center for Food Safety in the fight against the sale of Monsanto’s GMO alfalfa seed, stating that alfalfa drift (with a three mile or more pollination radius) threatens the integrity of certified organic alfalfa crops and will in turn severely impact the market. The ruling includes the order to make public the locations of Roundup Ready alfalfa fields. Alfalfa is the country’s third most valuable, and fourth most widely grown crop, with an annual value of $8 billion. Here marks the beginning to a major tipping of the scales. As the food fight rages on, evidence, support, and knowledge mounts on the side of environmental stewardship, economic vigor, and conscious consumerism.




§Eating is Politics
by Colleen Bednarz
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