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Cartoon by Jack Weins. Courtesy of Health Impact News Federal court upholds local ban on GMO crops IS THIS BEGINNING OF END FOR UNRESTRAINED PROLIFERATION OF BIOTECH CROPS? Devon G. Peña | Las Colonias de San Pablo, CO | June 3, 2015 The struggle against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has reached an especially significant milestone: Yesterday (June 2), a Federal Magistrate Judge, Mark D. Clarke, partially dismissed a lawsuit that was brought by commercial alfalfa growers seeking to overturn a 2014 Jackson County, Oregon ordinance that bans the planting of GMO crops. Jackson County is one of the major West Coast locations for commercial plantings of GMO seed crops for alfalfa, various turf grasses, and beets. The ban is based on an innovative local ordinance that was approved by Jackson County voters in the 2014 November general election. Almost on the same day opponents, backed by Monsanto and other biotechnology corporations, deployed legal teams to assist a select group of Jac...

Huichol yarn weaving of a sacred ceremony for maize USDA Co-Existence Policy Proposal Statement of Dr. Devon G. Peña The Acequia Institute Submitted to USDA-APHIS | March 4, 2014 I am submitting this statement to express opposition to the proposed USDA co- existence policy. As a plant breeder, seed saver, traditional acequia farmer, and agro-ecologist familiar with the scientific evidence on gene flow I am unequivocally opposed to this policy. Asking for co-existence with GMO crops means seed-savers and plant breeders like myself have to accept the inevitability of severe business losses due to damage to our native seed stocks and active plant breeding programs. I ask that you consider the fact that farmers like myself are the keepers of the nation’s diverse bioregional ‘arks’ of native seeds and these are the ultimate basis of all agriculture in this country. As vulnerable traditional seed savers, we cannot accept co-existence. The scientific fact of gene flow makes it so. Let’s not p...