GMO Watch | Jackson County, Oregon GMO Ban Upheld
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...