Northern California mixed on GMO bans

The issue of genetically engineered (GE) agriculture has finally caught up with California. California is not a major producer of the primary U.S. GE crops-corn, cotton, soybeans and canola, but GE rice, alfalfa, grapes, and trees are in the commercial pipeline. If grown in California, all would impact major California crops and natural resources.

On Nov. 2, 2004, voters in Marin County chose to ban the production of genetically modified crops and animals. Similar initiatives in Butte, San Luis Obispo, and Humboldt counties, however, were defeated.

In March 2004, Mendocino County became the first county in the nation to ban the production of genetically modified organisms (GMOs); Trinity County followed in August. Many other counties, including Sonoma, Alameda, and Santa Barbara, are organizing to pass similar measures. The city of Arcata voted to ban GMOs in November, 2004.

There was a wording problem with the initiative for Humboldt County which would have resulted in the whole measure being overturned, so this measure was defeated with even earlier proponents calling for a no vote. In both San Luis Obispo and Butte counties the measure gathered 41 percent and 40 percent of the vote despite being significantly outspent by agribusiness opponents such as the Farm Bureau.

Butte County is in a major rice-growing region. Both organic and commercial rice farmers are quite concerned that contamination caused by GE rice in the region would cause them to lose exports to Japan and elsewhere in Asia. Mendocino County has a large organic sector, especially in grapes and wines. Growers are concerned about GE contamination of organic grapes. Northwestern California counties like Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino are concerned about the growing of GE trees, which would contaminate this region globally renowned for its natural conifer diversity.

Counties have stepped into the regulatory vacuum for GE crops and animals because the state has done nothing along this line except for banning the release of GE fish into California waters. None of the 1,791 employees at the California Department of Food and Agriculture is dedicated full time to GE agriculture.

In 2000, former state senator Tom Hayden and U.S. senator Barbara Boxer both introduced bills to mandate labeling of GE food by the state and country respectively. However, both bills failed due to strong opposition by the biotech industry. In 2002, a pioneering Oregon initiative that would have required labeling of all GE food and GE products sold in the state was similarly defeated.

In the last few years, 'biopharming'-a new generation of GE plants where vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals are grown in fields of crops-has multiplied the environmental and human health risks of GE agriculture.

The ballot initiatives addressed both the newer threat of biopharm crops as well as the GE crops featuring one or both of the two main 'traits' for which crops are bio-engineered-these being for resistance to herbicides (so unlimited amounts can be sprayed including directly on the crop) and/or having insecticidal bacteria in every cell of the plant.

To learn more contact Californians for GE-Free Agriculture at www.calgefree.org or 707-874-0316, 415-561-2523.