savoy011

Ban on genetically engineered crops stands as Federal court approves settlement YEARS OF EFFORTS BY LOCAL FARMERS AND CITIZENS YIELD VICTORY Moderator’s Note: More good news on the legal front of the movement to ban genetically engineered crops. Followers and readers of this blog know that organic farmers and food sovereignty activists in Jackson County, Oregon managed in May 2014 to pass an ordinance through a countywide election that banned GEOs (a.k.a. GMOs). The ordinance was challenged by GE crop growers backed by Monsanto, Syngenta, and other biotechnology corporations and their armies of lawyers and lobbyists. In a second Federal Court ruling, the novel ordinance has been upheld with the approval of a crucial settlement agreement that will allow current growers of GE crops (alfalfa) in Jackson County to continue their current GE production cycle until the GE crop is replaced in the next crop rotation. These growers would then have to comply with the current ordinance and switc...

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...

Moderator’s Note: Both Oregon and Colorado are voting on citizen-initiated referendums that would require the labeling of GMO foods. Colorado’s electorate is voting on Prop 105, which I endorsed and addressed in an October 10 editorial. Oregon voters are deciding the outcome with a vote on Measure 92 . Both laws are reasonable and sensible first stepa toward insuring the right to know and the ability for consumers to make educated choices about the foods they eat.  Numerous editorials have come out in support of Oregon’s Measure 92 but Eecole Copen of Portland, Oregon, a registered dietician, has written the most compelling of these missives. Copen emphasizes the need for us to “look at the bigger picture” and this includes clearly addressing concerns about the effectiveness of the proposed law and the opponents’ unsubstantiated claims that labeling will increase the cost of food. Copen also provides an insightful analysis of the strategies being used by biotechnology corporation...