Mendocino County, CA broke new ground when it banned GMOs in its county. Since then other cities and counties in the U.S. and Canada have followed suit. GMOs aren't just an environmental issue. They also foster suspicion among neighbors for three good reasons:
1. Biotech companies offer rewards for anyone who reports his or her neighbors for illegally growing GMOs.
2. A farmer who uses GMOs may fear being sued for contaminating his or her neighbors' property.
3. Biotech companies get farmers caught with GMO crops they did not purchase (i.e. crops grown from seeds blown in the wind or via cross-pollination) to sign gag orders. This means that a farmer found contaminated with GMOs cannot discuss it with their neighbors (like, to find out where the GMOs came from or to compare notes on how to deal with Monsanto in such a case) after signing such an agreement.
In other words, as Schmeiser infers, GMOs contribute to the breakdown of community in rural areas.
Well, these local GMO bans are making some in Nebraska nervous. With its bill LB263, Nebraska stands poised to forbid cities and counties from regulating seeds, including GMOs, and fertilizer. It would become the 19th state to pass a pre-emptive seed law, according to the article, and the 14th to pass a law on fertilizer. This was put forward by Nebraska Sen. Kent Roberts. Please note that Nebraska has a unicameral (one house) legislature, so if the bill passes its one house, it goes to the governor - there's no second house that it has to pass. The Center for Rural Affairs calls the bill "a solution in search of a problem."
As you can see below, Sen. Carlson, who chairs the Ag committee, fully buys into the myth that the U.S. needs to boost production to feed the world - an argument often made to force those who might otherwise oppose GMOs to support them.
Nebraska needs to double its food production in the next 20 years to help feed the world, said Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege, chairman of the Agriculture Committee.
Genetically modified seeds will allow this to happen, he said.
"I think we are taking a proactive step," he said.
Several senators said they were uncomfortable approving a bill without clear problems, but the measure gained 35-2 first-round approval.
It seems that the only roadblock to this bill passing might be the provisions pre-empting local control of fertilizer. My hope is that the fertilizer issue is big enough to sink the bill, even though it could easily be amended to just cover seeds and then passed. Fertilizer runoff is a major environmental problem and local areas should have the ability to regulate it to keep their drinking water clean and their waterways healthy. As for the GMO part of the bill that seems inevitable? Well... write your Senators if you're in Nebraska, but it seems like it's too late.
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