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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 just made 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.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/AlfalfaFinalInjPR5_3_07.cfm
Washington State Passes HB 1888, Creates GMO-Free Zones
Biodiesel hype sweeping the nation does not often include information about the serious agricultural issues and implications surrounding the widespread mono-cultivation of GMO biofuel crops. In Washington State however, a new law just passed that addresses these concerns, giving the state’s agriculture industry the power to keep GMO crops away from their fields through a petitioning process with the Washington State Department of Agriculture. The new law, HB 1888, makes it mandatory for GMO growers to enter into highly regulated production agreements in order to keep cross pollination away from the state’s lucrative brassica fields, and is a needed step in the ongoing struggle to protect farmers from GMO contamination.
http://www.gepolicyalliance.org/news.htm#zones
AB 541 Update
Assembly Bill 541, known as the Food and Farm Protection Act, was created by the GE Policy Project, and aims to protect California’s farmers from GE contamination, liability, and financial losses that result from GE contamination. CCOF Executive Director Peggy Miars was one of two to testify at the AB 541 hearing on April 10 in Sacramento, where the bill quickly passed out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee and moved to the Assembly Agriculture Committee on April 25 where Miars again testified. It was then tabled in absence of enough votes to continue moving. AB 541 is still alive and will be heard again in January, 2008. Our deepest thanks to those who worked tirelessly on this bill in addition to CCOF: the Center for Food Safety, Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, Assemblymember Huffman and staff, and many, many more. Learn more at http://www.gepolicyalliance.org.
Venezuela Prohibits GMO Crops, Dumps Monsanto
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias announced that GMO cultivation on Venezuelan soil is now prohibited, terminating a project with Monsanto in the name of food sovereignty and security, which is a requirement outlined in the Venezuelan Constitution. Chaves states that GMO crops are contrary to the interests and needs of their nation’s farmworkers and land, siding with the international peasants’ organization Via Campensina, representing more than 60 million farmers and farmworkers. Chavez plans to strengthen local food production, and thus respect heritage and diversity, while creating a seed bank to maintain indigenous seeds for peasant’s movements around the world.
http://www.grain.org/h/?id=107
UN Pushes GMO Biofuel Crops to “Save the Environment”
The United Nations’ draft report entitled “Mitigation of Climate Change” outlines two highly controversial, environmentally degrading options for saving the planet, which will continue to be strongly opposed by environmental groups around the globe. The first option for saving the world being an increase in nuclear energy, and the other: backing monoculture production of GMO crops to create unsustainable biofuel. Clearing land for biofuel production and increasing pesticide and fertilizer applications causes severe environmental damages that lead to global warming, not combat it, including desertification, topsoil loss, toxic pollution of our air, land, and water, loss of biodiversity, and much, much more.
http://environment.about.com/b/a/256890.htm
Illegal GMO Corn Found in U.S. Shipment to the EU
Samples taken onboard a U.S. shipment found that two different strains of illegal, unauthorized GMO corn, one created by Pioneer and Dow Agrosciences, the other by Monsanto, had contaminated a large shipment en route to the European Union (EU). Marking the fourth time in the past two years that illegal GMO food products have entered the European Market, creating major disruptions in import and export markets, Greenpeace is urging the EU to temporarily suspend all imports of U.S. agricultural produce that could contain traces of unauthorized GMOs. In the EU, concerns for public health and the environment come first, as the EU only allows evaluated and authorized GMO products to enter their markets.
http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/press-centre/press-releases2/new-illegal-gmo-found-in-us-sh
India’s Supreme Court Slammed With Largest GMO Lawsuit on Record
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) lawsuit is mounting in India, as more than 6.5 million farmers from every state are begging the Supreme Court to let them join the case already filed by the Association of the Rice Millers and Exporters in India against Monsanto and the biotech industry. The farming associations feel that, due to GMO contamination, GMO crops preclude or negate farmer rights to grow non-GMO crops, as well as indigenous people’s community rights. They are demanding that no GMO crops be grown in India, that field trial locations be published, and that deterrent and precautionary measures be put in place to protect farmers from contamination, and the devastating economic losses that result.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7681
Buying GMO Corn in Iowa Comes With Warning From State
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey encouraged Iowa farmers planting corn from Syngenta with the “AgriSure RW” trait to fully understand export marketing restrictions before they buy the seed, since the strain has yet to be approved abroad. Northey warns that major market disruptions can and will occur if the AgriSure RW trait contaminates export channels prior to its approval, leading export markets to close. Severe economic losses to growers and lawsuits are the end result of this equation.
http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/press/press2707.htm
Join the GE Pharmarice Opposition
Groups join The Center for Food Safety in the fight to keep Ventria’s GE pharmaceutical rice, engineered with modified human genes, off of Kansas soil and out of our food supply. After Ventria Biosciences has continually failed to gain FDA approval of its rice-grown drugs since 2003, they are now seeking approval to grow 3,200 acres of the pharmarice near Junction City, Kansas. The USA Rice Federation as well as The Grocery Manufacturers of America and other groups representing the $500 billion food industry joined in by asking the USDA to deny Ventria’s requested permits.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/VentriaPR4_24_07.cfm
New England Towns Go GMO Free!
Since 2000, 111 towns and cities in New England have passes resolutions questioning GE food and crops, 22 in Massachusetts (including Boston), 85 in Vermont, 2 in Maine, and 2 in New Hampshire. Community members felt strongly about the need to step up and take action at the local level due to the absence of state and federal regulations addressing their many concerns with this unregulated, unsafe, and unpredictable technology. These types of resolutions are known to influence state policy, and will continue to strengthen the growing opposition to GMOs worldwide.
http://pressroom.nofamass.org/9MassTownsVoteonGE2006
Mexico Starts First GE Maize Trials to “Remain Competitive”
Mexico’s former president was adamant about keeping GMO maize out of their country and thus protecting the cultural heritage of native maize varieties and growers. Unfortunately, the new president of Mexico is not, as Mexico’s maize growers have just signed an agreement with agri-business giant Monsanto to buy and plant GE maize seeds for the first time. Apparently, it was felt that Mexico’s growers were previously being “frozen out,” unable to compete with other nations growing GMO corn.
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/24289.html
A temporary ban on Monsanto’s GMO alfalfa issued by U.S. District Judge Charles Boyer this past March was just made 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.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/AlfalfaFinalInjPR5_3_07.cfm
Washington State Passes HB 1888, Creates GMO-Free Zones
Biodiesel hype sweeping the nation does not often include information about the serious agricultural issues and implications surrounding the widespread mono-cultivation of GMO biofuel crops. In Washington State however, a new law just passed that addresses these concerns, giving the state’s agriculture industry the power to keep GMO crops away from their fields through a petitioning process with the Washington State Department of Agriculture. The new law, HB 1888, makes it mandatory for GMO growers to enter into highly regulated production agreements in order to keep cross pollination away from the state’s lucrative brassica fields, and is a needed step in the ongoing struggle to protect farmers from GMO contamination.
http://www.gepolicyalliance.org/news.htm#zones
AB 541 Update
Assembly Bill 541, known as the Food and Farm Protection Act, was created by the GE Policy Project, and aims to protect California’s farmers from GE contamination, liability, and financial losses that result from GE contamination. CCOF Executive Director Peggy Miars was one of two to testify at the AB 541 hearing on April 10 in Sacramento, where the bill quickly passed out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee and moved to the Assembly Agriculture Committee on April 25 where Miars again testified. It was then tabled in absence of enough votes to continue moving. AB 541 is still alive and will be heard again in January, 2008. Our deepest thanks to those who worked tirelessly on this bill in addition to CCOF: the Center for Food Safety, Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, Assemblymember Huffman and staff, and many, many more. Learn more at http://www.gepolicyalliance.org.
Venezuela Prohibits GMO Crops, Dumps Monsanto
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias announced that GMO cultivation on Venezuelan soil is now prohibited, terminating a project with Monsanto in the name of food sovereignty and security, which is a requirement outlined in the Venezuelan Constitution. Chaves states that GMO crops are contrary to the interests and needs of their nation’s farmworkers and land, siding with the international peasants’ organization Via Campensina, representing more than 60 million farmers and farmworkers. Chavez plans to strengthen local food production, and thus respect heritage and diversity, while creating a seed bank to maintain indigenous seeds for peasant’s movements around the world.
http://www.grain.org/h/?id=107
UN Pushes GMO Biofuel Crops to “Save the Environment”
The United Nations’ draft report entitled “Mitigation of Climate Change” outlines two highly controversial, environmentally degrading options for saving the planet, which will continue to be strongly opposed by environmental groups around the globe. The first option for saving the world being an increase in nuclear energy, and the other: backing monoculture production of GMO crops to create unsustainable biofuel. Clearing land for biofuel production and increasing pesticide and fertilizer applications causes severe environmental damages that lead to global warming, not combat it, including desertification, topsoil loss, toxic pollution of our air, land, and water, loss of biodiversity, and much, much more.
http://environment.about.com/b/a/256890.htm
Illegal GMO Corn Found in U.S. Shipment to the EU
Samples taken onboard a U.S. shipment found that two different strains of illegal, unauthorized GMO corn, one created by Pioneer and Dow Agrosciences, the other by Monsanto, had contaminated a large shipment en route to the European Union (EU). Marking the fourth time in the past two years that illegal GMO food products have entered the European Market, creating major disruptions in import and export markets, Greenpeace is urging the EU to temporarily suspend all imports of U.S. agricultural produce that could contain traces of unauthorized GMOs. In the EU, concerns for public health and the environment come first, as the EU only allows evaluated and authorized GMO products to enter their markets.
http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/press-centre/press-releases2/new-illegal-gmo-found-in-us-sh
India’s Supreme Court Slammed With Largest GMO Lawsuit on Record
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) lawsuit is mounting in India, as more than 6.5 million farmers from every state are begging the Supreme Court to let them join the case already filed by the Association of the Rice Millers and Exporters in India against Monsanto and the biotech industry. The farming associations feel that, due to GMO contamination, GMO crops preclude or negate farmer rights to grow non-GMO crops, as well as indigenous people’s community rights. They are demanding that no GMO crops be grown in India, that field trial locations be published, and that deterrent and precautionary measures be put in place to protect farmers from contamination, and the devastating economic losses that result.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7681
Buying GMO Corn in Iowa Comes With Warning From State
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey encouraged Iowa farmers planting corn from Syngenta with the “AgriSure RW” trait to fully understand export marketing restrictions before they buy the seed, since the strain has yet to be approved abroad. Northey warns that major market disruptions can and will occur if the AgriSure RW trait contaminates export channels prior to its approval, leading export markets to close. Severe economic losses to growers and lawsuits are the end result of this equation.
http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/press/press2707.htm
Join the GE Pharmarice Opposition
Groups join The Center for Food Safety in the fight to keep Ventria’s GE pharmaceutical rice, engineered with modified human genes, off of Kansas soil and out of our food supply. After Ventria Biosciences has continually failed to gain FDA approval of its rice-grown drugs since 2003, they are now seeking approval to grow 3,200 acres of the pharmarice near Junction City, Kansas. The USA Rice Federation as well as The Grocery Manufacturers of America and other groups representing the $500 billion food industry joined in by asking the USDA to deny Ventria’s requested permits.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/VentriaPR4_24_07.cfm
New England Towns Go GMO Free!
Since 2000, 111 towns and cities in New England have passes resolutions questioning GE food and crops, 22 in Massachusetts (including Boston), 85 in Vermont, 2 in Maine, and 2 in New Hampshire. Community members felt strongly about the need to step up and take action at the local level due to the absence of state and federal regulations addressing their many concerns with this unregulated, unsafe, and unpredictable technology. These types of resolutions are known to influence state policy, and will continue to strengthen the growing opposition to GMOs worldwide.
http://pressroom.nofamass.org/9MassTownsVoteonGE2006
Mexico Starts First GE Maize Trials to “Remain Competitive”
Mexico’s former president was adamant about keeping GMO maize out of their country and thus protecting the cultural heritage of native maize varieties and growers. Unfortunately, the new president of Mexico is not, as Mexico’s maize growers have just signed an agreement with agri-business giant Monsanto to buy and plant GE maize seeds for the first time. Apparently, it was felt that Mexico’s growers were previously being “frozen out,” unable to compete with other nations growing GMO corn.
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/24289.html
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CAL GE-FREE NEWSLETTER #24, MAY 2007
IN THIS ISSUE
News:
• GE State Legislation Tabled Until 2008
Research:
• Does Africa Need a Genetically Modified Solution to Diarrhea? FOE Africa Report
Take Action:
• Support AB 541, California’s GE Bill
• Join the call for a ban on GE pharmaceutical crops from Union of Concerned Scientists
• Help Build the California GE-Free Network
NEWS
Genetic Engineering Bill Clears Judiciary Committee, Gets Tabled in Agriculture Committee
In mid-February, Assemblymember Jared Huffman (D-Marin/Sonoma) introduced AB 541, a bill to protect farmers, the environment and consumers from the risks associated with genetic engineering in agriculture. The bill passed through the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 10th, and on April 25th it was tabled until 2008 in its second committee, the Agriculture Committee.
AB 541 addresses the problems arising when genetically engineered plants cross-pollinate or otherwise contaminate non-GE crops. It establishes that the GE crop manufacturer — and not the farmer who properly planted the GE crop — is the responsible party if contamination occurs and causes economic damages to others. The bill also establishes a notification system for GE crops, and prohibits the open-air production of food crops genetically engineered to produce pharmaceutical drugs, a practice that puts consumers at an unacceptably high risk of inadvertently eating pharmaceutical drugs.
This is the third time in three years that a bill dealing with GE has stalled in a legislative committee. In 2005, Assemblymember Laird introduced a bill (AB 984) dealing with the liability problem; it failed to get a motion and was later withdrawn. Then in 2006, a Monsanto-backed bill (SB 1056) that would have stripped county rights to pass GE restrictions died in committee in the face of considerable opposition. These bills and other events in California — the narrowly averted planting of pharmaceutical GE rice in 2004, the wave of county bans in 2004 through 2006, and most recently the rice contamination scare – point to the need for statewide policies.
Assemblymember Huffman and the bill’s sponsors remain committed to finding a solution to the risks associated with genetic engineering, and will continue to work with members of the Agriculture Committee and the bill’s opponents to advance the dialogue. The bill will be taken up again in January of 2008.
AB 541 has the support of all of California’s sustainable, organic and family farming organizations, as well as many other groups (including: California Farmers Union, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, California Certified Organic Farmers, Center for Food Safety, Earthbound Farm, Lundberg Family Farms, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Rice Producers of California, California Church IMPACT, Consumers Union, Sierra Club California, Planning and Conservation League, and dozens of others). AB 541 is opposed by lobbying groups representing the interests of the chemical biotech industry and conventional industrial agribusiness.
For information on how you can support AB 541, please see the Take Action section below.
RESEARCH AND INFORMATION
Does Africa Need a Genetically Modified Solution to Diarrhea?
Friends of the Earth Africa report
http://www.eraction.org/publications/medicinerice.pdf
This report questions the need for a new variety of genetically modified rice used to treat diarrhea. The rice, which is produced by Ventria Bioscience, has been engineered to produce recombinant human milk proteins to be extracted from the rice for a variety of uses including in oral rehydration solutions to treat diarrhea, particular in the developing countries.
This pharmaceutical (pharma) rice has received preliminary approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for large scale planting in Kansas even though the US Food and Drug Administration has refused to approve Ventria’s recombinant pharmaceutical as safe.
However, FOE Africa pointed out that the GM rice in unnecessary because diarrhea is an illness that has well-known causes and there exist proven and inexpensive solutions to address the illness. The GM rice produced by Ventria is therefore unnecessary and a distraction from existing solutions such as providing access to safe water and improved sanitation, to save children suffering from the illness.
A related report was just released by the Center for Food Safety, concluding that pharmaceutical rice is not a safe or cost-effective solution for infants suffering from diarrhea and discussing the potential adverse health impacts of the rice-grown drugs. This report is available at: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/Pharmaceutical%20Rice-FINAL.pdf
TAKE ACTION
Support AB 541
Assemblymember Jared Huffman has introduced AB 541, The Food and Farm Protection Act. The bill would establish California’s only state laws related to genetic engineering (GE) in agriculture and protect California farmers, consumers, and the food supply. AB 541 already has the support of many agricultural, environmental, health, faith and business organizations.
You can help in any of the following ways:
• Send a letter to the Assembly Agriculture Committee — a sample letter is located at http://www.calgefree.org/speakout.html
• Solicit support for AB 541 from within your circle of contacts.
• Send a thank you note to Assemblymember Huffman for his impressive leadership to date.
• Make a donation to Cal GE-Free to support our role in advancing this bill (http://www.calgefree.org/joinus.html#donate).
Sign the UCS Petition to Ban Pharm Food Crops Outdoors
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is circulating a petition to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding federal policy on genetically engineered pharmaceutical and industrial crops. The petition, posted at http://www.ProtectOurFood.org, calls on the USDA to (1) prohibit the use of food crops grown outdoors to produce drugs and industrial chemicals, (2) tighten regulations on the use of non-food crops for these purposes, and (3) encourage the development of safer alternatives.
Sometime this year, the USDA is expected to release an Environmental Impact Statement on its biotechnology rules including the environmental and health impacts of pharma crops, with new rules to follow. With biotechnology companies pressuring the department to maintain the lax regulatory status quo, UCS will use this petition to convey the view of a broad range of organizations and individuals that public health and food safety can only be assured with a ban on outdoor production in food crops.
As one of the first groups to sign on to this effort, Cal GE-Free urges you add your support by signing on at http://www.ProtectOurFood.org. If you have questions or need more information, please contact Karen Perry Stillerman at kstillerman [at] ucsusa.org.
Help Build the California GE-Free Network
As one of the largest agricultural economies in the world, California has the opportunity to become a leader in safeguarding our public and private lands, fisheries, forests, schools, gardens, and nurseries, from GE contamination. If GE is an issue that you are concerned about and you want to get involved in local action:
• If you are not already a member, sign-on to the Cal GE-Free list serve http://www.calgefree.org to receive this newsletter and action alerts.
• Consider a donation to Californians for GE-Free Agriculture.
To make make a tax-deductible donation, send a check payable to Cal GE-Free at: 15290 Coleman Valley Rd., Occidental, CA 95465, or go to http://www.calgefree.org/joinus.html#donate.
IN THIS ISSUE
News:
• GE State Legislation Tabled Until 2008
Research:
• Does Africa Need a Genetically Modified Solution to Diarrhea? FOE Africa Report
Take Action:
• Support AB 541, California’s GE Bill
• Join the call for a ban on GE pharmaceutical crops from Union of Concerned Scientists
• Help Build the California GE-Free Network
NEWS
Genetic Engineering Bill Clears Judiciary Committee, Gets Tabled in Agriculture Committee
In mid-February, Assemblymember Jared Huffman (D-Marin/Sonoma) introduced AB 541, a bill to protect farmers, the environment and consumers from the risks associated with genetic engineering in agriculture. The bill passed through the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 10th, and on April 25th it was tabled until 2008 in its second committee, the Agriculture Committee.
AB 541 addresses the problems arising when genetically engineered plants cross-pollinate or otherwise contaminate non-GE crops. It establishes that the GE crop manufacturer — and not the farmer who properly planted the GE crop — is the responsible party if contamination occurs and causes economic damages to others. The bill also establishes a notification system for GE crops, and prohibits the open-air production of food crops genetically engineered to produce pharmaceutical drugs, a practice that puts consumers at an unacceptably high risk of inadvertently eating pharmaceutical drugs.
This is the third time in three years that a bill dealing with GE has stalled in a legislative committee. In 2005, Assemblymember Laird introduced a bill (AB 984) dealing with the liability problem; it failed to get a motion and was later withdrawn. Then in 2006, a Monsanto-backed bill (SB 1056) that would have stripped county rights to pass GE restrictions died in committee in the face of considerable opposition. These bills and other events in California — the narrowly averted planting of pharmaceutical GE rice in 2004, the wave of county bans in 2004 through 2006, and most recently the rice contamination scare – point to the need for statewide policies.
Assemblymember Huffman and the bill’s sponsors remain committed to finding a solution to the risks associated with genetic engineering, and will continue to work with members of the Agriculture Committee and the bill’s opponents to advance the dialogue. The bill will be taken up again in January of 2008.
AB 541 has the support of all of California’s sustainable, organic and family farming organizations, as well as many other groups (including: California Farmers Union, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, California Certified Organic Farmers, Center for Food Safety, Earthbound Farm, Lundberg Family Farms, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Rice Producers of California, California Church IMPACT, Consumers Union, Sierra Club California, Planning and Conservation League, and dozens of others). AB 541 is opposed by lobbying groups representing the interests of the chemical biotech industry and conventional industrial agribusiness.
For information on how you can support AB 541, please see the Take Action section below.
RESEARCH AND INFORMATION
Does Africa Need a Genetically Modified Solution to Diarrhea?
Friends of the Earth Africa report
http://www.eraction.org/publications/medicinerice.pdf
This report questions the need for a new variety of genetically modified rice used to treat diarrhea. The rice, which is produced by Ventria Bioscience, has been engineered to produce recombinant human milk proteins to be extracted from the rice for a variety of uses including in oral rehydration solutions to treat diarrhea, particular in the developing countries.
This pharmaceutical (pharma) rice has received preliminary approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for large scale planting in Kansas even though the US Food and Drug Administration has refused to approve Ventria’s recombinant pharmaceutical as safe.
However, FOE Africa pointed out that the GM rice in unnecessary because diarrhea is an illness that has well-known causes and there exist proven and inexpensive solutions to address the illness. The GM rice produced by Ventria is therefore unnecessary and a distraction from existing solutions such as providing access to safe water and improved sanitation, to save children suffering from the illness.
A related report was just released by the Center for Food Safety, concluding that pharmaceutical rice is not a safe or cost-effective solution for infants suffering from diarrhea and discussing the potential adverse health impacts of the rice-grown drugs. This report is available at: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/Pharmaceutical%20Rice-FINAL.pdf
TAKE ACTION
Support AB 541
Assemblymember Jared Huffman has introduced AB 541, The Food and Farm Protection Act. The bill would establish California’s only state laws related to genetic engineering (GE) in agriculture and protect California farmers, consumers, and the food supply. AB 541 already has the support of many agricultural, environmental, health, faith and business organizations.
You can help in any of the following ways:
• Send a letter to the Assembly Agriculture Committee — a sample letter is located at http://www.calgefree.org/speakout.html
• Solicit support for AB 541 from within your circle of contacts.
• Send a thank you note to Assemblymember Huffman for his impressive leadership to date.
• Make a donation to Cal GE-Free to support our role in advancing this bill (http://www.calgefree.org/joinus.html#donate).
Sign the UCS Petition to Ban Pharm Food Crops Outdoors
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is circulating a petition to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding federal policy on genetically engineered pharmaceutical and industrial crops. The petition, posted at http://www.ProtectOurFood.org, calls on the USDA to (1) prohibit the use of food crops grown outdoors to produce drugs and industrial chemicals, (2) tighten regulations on the use of non-food crops for these purposes, and (3) encourage the development of safer alternatives.
Sometime this year, the USDA is expected to release an Environmental Impact Statement on its biotechnology rules including the environmental and health impacts of pharma crops, with new rules to follow. With biotechnology companies pressuring the department to maintain the lax regulatory status quo, UCS will use this petition to convey the view of a broad range of organizations and individuals that public health and food safety can only be assured with a ban on outdoor production in food crops.
As one of the first groups to sign on to this effort, Cal GE-Free urges you add your support by signing on at http://www.ProtectOurFood.org. If you have questions or need more information, please contact Karen Perry Stillerman at kstillerman [at] ucsusa.org.
Help Build the California GE-Free Network
As one of the largest agricultural economies in the world, California has the opportunity to become a leader in safeguarding our public and private lands, fisheries, forests, schools, gardens, and nurseries, from GE contamination. If GE is an issue that you are concerned about and you want to get involved in local action:
• If you are not already a member, sign-on to the Cal GE-Free list serve http://www.calgefree.org to receive this newsletter and action alerts.
• Consider a donation to Californians for GE-Free Agriculture.
To make make a tax-deductible donation, send a check payable to Cal GE-Free at: 15290 Coleman Valley Rd., Occidental, CA 95465, or go to http://www.calgefree.org/joinus.html#donate.
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