Subject: California County Seeks To Ban
Frankencrops
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2003
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State
of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
Anti-GE Ballot Initiative in Mendocino County CA Takes
Root
From <www.organicts.com> 10/2/03
USA: ANTI-BIOTECH EFFORT TAKES ROOT IN MENDOCINO COUNTY,
CALIF., BALLOT
26 September
A campaign to make Mendocino County the first in the
United States to ban GM crops is brewing inside a century-old building in
downtown Ukiah where organic brew pub owners Allen and Els Cooperrider are
collecting signatures for an initiative they hope will resonate in a region
known for alternative farmers.
Their goals are both local and global -- preventing
genetic contamination of Mendocino County's robust organic produce industry
and defying the seemingly unstoppable worldwide spread of genetically
engineered crops.
"What we know so far from genetically engineered
crops is that they create more problems than they solve," said Els
Cooperrider, 58, a retired medical researcher.
Already, similar efforts are taking root in neighboring
counties, drawing Northern California deeper into the international debate
about the benefits and dangers of crops engineered to resist pests or
withstand herbicides.
The Mendocino movement -- aimed at the March ballot --
likely will draw opposition from the biotechnology industry, which doesn't
want crop bans to get a foothold in the nation's largest farm state.
The movement is not entirely surprising in a county that
has long attracted free thinkers, that now boasts the second-largest Green
Party registration in the state, behind neighboring Humboldt County.
The Mendocino Organic Network, a loose-knit group the
Cooperriders belong to, reports it has 3,100 of the 4,000 signatures it set as
its goal. To qualify for the March ballot, the network had to file 2,579 valid
signatures by last Wednesday.
If the current effort falls short, the organic network
will target next fall's ballot. "We plan to win," said Allen
Cooperrider, a retired federal agency biologist.
Among those behind the Mendocino movement is Marc Lappé,
director of the Center for Ethics and Toxics in Gualala and co-author of
failed California legislation in 2000 that would have required labeling of
genetically engineered foods.
Lappe described opposition to his bill as an
"incredible deluge." He predicted that if the Mendocino initiative
makes it to the ballot, it will pass. "If it does so," he said,
"it's going to rock the establishment."
California's food crops remain mostly free of
biotechnology, in part because biotech companies have focused on more
Midwest-friendly field crops, such as corn and soybeans. Only a few modified
fruits and vegetables -- papayas, cantaloupe and squash -- have been
commercially released.
However, California is among the most popular places for
biotech field trials and a hotbed of companies trying to genetically
manufacture pharmaceuticals in plants.
The California Farm Bureau Federation backs biotechnology
as a way to "improve the quality and marketability of our products and to
solve environmental concerns," according to its 2003 policy handbook.
Original Article: http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/CAballot100303.cfm
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