Passing along today's news story. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070618/A_NEWS/ 706180320 Farm Bill may ease modified crop ban By Hank Shaw Capitol Bureau Chief June 18, 2007 SACRAMENTO - Buried within the gigantic federal Farm Bill now under debate in Congress lies a seed of discord over the use of genetically modified crops, known by critics as "Frankenfoods." Section 123 of the federal bill bars state or local governments from banning anything the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already approved. It sounds benign, but the proposal would sweep away existing bans on genetically modified crops in four California counties and block bans proposed in at least 16 other states. The proposed measure has sparked uproar among the sustainable agriculture community, especially among organic farmers, and the office of House Agriculture Committee member Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, has received more than 3,000 e-mails protesting the provision. Cardoza leads the committee's panel on organic agriculture and says he, too, has concerns about Section 123. "I am slightly troubled by this language, with respect to the fact that it was put in, ... towards the end of the legislative process, without proper debate and consideration," Cardoza said. "I will be monitoring this section closely as the Farm Bill process continues to determine how it might affect laws already on the books in California." At its core, the conflict is between those who believe it is OK to alter plants and animals by any means necessary to achieve a desired result - making corn more resistant to pests, for example - and those farmers and scientists who find the idea of inserting genes from bacteria or animals into plants abhorrent. Traditional animal and plant husbandry relies on a slow, progressive progress of selection among similar plants. Genetic engineering can serve as a shortcut that not only can bypass intermediary steps necessary in traditional farming, but can also introduce elements wholly alien to a plant, such as implanting pesticides into corn. Special effects like this have proved to be genetically unstable; cross-breeding between genetically modified grasses and natural grasses is threatening Oregon's seed industry. Worries over genetically modified rice have caused the California Rice Commission to ban it, largely because export markets in Asia refuse to buy it. Proponents of the measure argue that modified crops require fewer pesticides and note that a crazy quilt of county and state regulations, especially regarding sale of genetically modified foods, would cripple interstate commerce. County growers already are raising genetically modified crops such as alfalfa and field corn, both primarily used to feed dairy catt;e. This sort of "pre-emption" legislation stripping local control has popped up all over the country. Last year at the Legislature in Sacramento, state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, sponsored a bill - universally supported by San Joaquin Valley lawmakers - that was effectively a state version of Section 123. San Joaquin County Supervisor Jack Sieglock was an active supporter of that bill, as were nine agricultural counties as well as nearly every farm group in the state. Nevertheless, the bill died in the waning days of the session. This year, a state bill allowing farmers to sue if their fields are contaminated by nearby genetically modified crops ran aground in the Assembly Agriculture Committee. It is unclear who inserted Section 123 into the federal legislation, but staffers working on the bill say they do not expect it to survive intact. A revised version of the section is expected to be released next week as the Agriculture Committee continues debate on the overall bill. To read the section of the Farm Bill under debate, go to: agriculture.house.gov/inside/Legislation/110/LDP_Secbysec.pdf. Contact Capitol Bureau Chief Hank Shaw at (916) 441-4078 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
_______________________________________________ -- "Eaters must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." Wendell Berry _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
