Stop GMO deregulation!

March 9th, 2009 by Annie

Could GE Crop Regulations Be Any Weaker?

Surprising as it may seem, the answer could be “yes!”

In
the waning months of the Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) released a proposal to completely overhaul its
regulation of genetically engineered crops, significantly weakening its
oversight.  No longer would USDA start from the assumption that a new
GE crop must be regulated; and some could be exempted altogether.  The
proposed rule would virtually ensure that contamination of organic and
conventional crops will become even more frequent, and even excuses the
Agency from taking any action to remedy such contamination. And, the
rule would continue to allow the dangerous practice of producing drugs
and industrial chemicals in food crops grown in the open environment.
In short, if implemented, the proposed rule would allow the wholesale deregulation of the agricultural biotechnology industry.

Read more and TAKE ACTION HERE

Tags: biotechnology, genetic engineering, GMO Action, USDA
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Post Organicology Stuff

March 6th, 2009 by Annie

The food was awesome. The speakers were inspiring. And now the hard work begins. Step by step over the next year, farmers, retailers, wholesalers and distributors of organic products will implement some of the visions we developed over the conference last week.

One of the hot issues was the threat GMO sugar beets pose to the organic seed industry and to organic farmers. Right here in Oregon’s Willamette valley, test plots of these beets are being grown or are planned to be grown. And this month, we’ll start to see the first of the resulting GMO sugar hit the food processing industry. Read more about it here.

I’m excited to tell you that our keynote speaker at the Co-op Annual Meeting and Owner Picnic on June 28th will be Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds in Philomath, OR. He’s part of a lawsuit to stop the genetically engineered sugar beet.

Tags: Frank Morton, GMO sugar beets, organic
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