Jr versus Sr agricultural rights
The question, it seems to me, is whether a new agricultural practice that damages old traditional agricultural practices be allowed to continue or even exist. Like when the court found in the water-challenged Klamath area, the older water-rights holders had the option to say they would be damaged if junior rights holders were allowed to continue. With bill 633 now headed for a House vote to take away local control of genetically modified organisms, (GMOs), and give it to the obviously GM fans in Salem, there could be a field day for lawyers. Courts will be tied up who knows how many years if it passes.
It would be a great foot in the door for the big bio-tech corporations who would rejoice in even ten more years of getting farmers hooked on lower yeilding crops, and probably without the locals' knowledge if the past is any measure. The chance to sell a larger amount of their chemicals is the end game. Forget their mantra of feeding the world and all that malarkey, new studies are discounting that all the time, and finding new health risks like allergies and mystery gut bacteria. The rest of the world has said, "We just don't buy it."
Syngenta, the big Swiss bio-tech company, who with the blessing of the Oregon Farm Bureau, surreptitiously and illegally introduced GM sugar beets to the Rogue Valley, has now been banned from planting any GM crops in it's native land. Who are these Farm Bureau folks anyway? At least you know that the politicians supporting GM crops will get something out of it. Take the intrepid Oregon legislator who launched House companion bill HB3192 out of his committee, albiet with an exclusion for our very own Jackson County.
And what makes the environment and traditional farmers in Jackson County any more special than any other county in Oregon? Because 'we just don't buy it?' Because we were the principal county that called the pols out on the issue? We have names. Like the one who said he couldn't meet with the local growers here because he had a meeting with my group at the exact time. I may be a blogger, but I sure don't have a 'group' and certainly had never talked to him. But I'm a researcher and I know the harm GM crops can cause. And the wheat fiasco just proved my point.
Crops of all shapes and sizes are potential export items, and the foreign importers don't want anything to do with it for all kinds of health reasons. Somewhere along the line politicians started ignoring the will of the people even to the exclusion of science, as in this case. You can see red flags a mile away with GMOs and on closer inspection, as legislators are required to do, the science is overwhelmingly against the bio-tech giants. But junk science seems to stick when there is payola involved. Especially when the Food and Drug Administration's ex-Monsanto folks only require the bio-tech corporations to evaluate heir own products. Where in the world of products does that happen? Certainly not in fish packing plants, or kids toys.
Besides the pol who invented a phantom group for me to get out of meeting real constituents, another one told me that "our farm policy" was something better left to them. Well, I don't agree that simply taking away regional control is any sort of 'farm policy.' Farmers in every corner of Oregon know much more about farming than arm-chair farmers in the Capital. And I'll guarantee they don't like having to plough under their organic crops because some Swiss corporation snuck in something that rendered their crop useless. Now that is economic sabotage, not the other way around as the Mail Tribune famously splashed across their front page when someone dug up test plots of GM beets near Medford.
Maybe Syngenta dug up their own GM beets. Monsanto sure blamed saboteurs when someone snuck in some GM wheat seeds with a shipment of regular wheat in Eastern Oregon recently. Giant class action lawsuit against Monsanto going on there now. And who was that free-lance writer who got the issue of a few dead beets front and center in the newspaper anyway? I'll tell you that those kids who shot out sixty car windows in Central Point caused real economic sabotage. That sure didn't hit the paper like a few beets did. Very fishy. The Oregon legislature will reek a lot worse than a truck load of rotting beets if they pass a ban on local control of growing food. What would they do next, outlaw any kind of crop that wasn't genetically modified just to get the campaign contributions?
This kind of thing is where democracy ends and fascism starts. Right here, right now. Remember, fascism is just government teeming up with industry for their mutual benefit at the expense of everyone else. Granted, most people don't know a GM crop from a GM truck, but that's no reason to railroad them all. Jackson County just got a little more organized and started educating people around here as to what is going on compared to the rest of the state, hence the fear of being thrown out of office around here. The big corps move faster than community consensus can be built, hence the need for an end-run bill like 633 to pre-empt local referendums on the subject. SB 633 was filed just shortly after Jackson County declared that they were going to vote on banning GM crops next May. What a coincidence.
Since the GMO Free Jackson County Facebook page has had 7 million views, I thought I'd do my civic duty to bring this up now before a next week House vote and put it on Facebook too. Lots of viewers would like to know whether real people can make their representatives reflect their wishes and have that extrapolated to brother and sister farmers elsewhere. Or will Oregon be a blueprint for taking away farmers rights to the unimpeded practice of their craft nationwide. Isn't rule number one for government 'First do no harm?'
It would be a great foot in the door for the big bio-tech corporations who would rejoice in even ten more years of getting farmers hooked on lower yeilding crops, and probably without the locals' knowledge if the past is any measure. The chance to sell a larger amount of their chemicals is the end game. Forget their mantra of feeding the world and all that malarkey, new studies are discounting that all the time, and finding new health risks like allergies and mystery gut bacteria. The rest of the world has said, "We just don't buy it."
Syngenta, the big Swiss bio-tech company, who with the blessing of the Oregon Farm Bureau, surreptitiously and illegally introduced GM sugar beets to the Rogue Valley, has now been banned from planting any GM crops in it's native land. Who are these Farm Bureau folks anyway? At least you know that the politicians supporting GM crops will get something out of it. Take the intrepid Oregon legislator who launched House companion bill HB3192 out of his committee, albiet with an exclusion for our very own Jackson County.
And what makes the environment and traditional farmers in Jackson County any more special than any other county in Oregon? Because 'we just don't buy it?' Because we were the principal county that called the pols out on the issue? We have names. Like the one who said he couldn't meet with the local growers here because he had a meeting with my group at the exact time. I may be a blogger, but I sure don't have a 'group' and certainly had never talked to him. But I'm a researcher and I know the harm GM crops can cause. And the wheat fiasco just proved my point.
Crops of all shapes and sizes are potential export items, and the foreign importers don't want anything to do with it for all kinds of health reasons. Somewhere along the line politicians started ignoring the will of the people even to the exclusion of science, as in this case. You can see red flags a mile away with GMOs and on closer inspection, as legislators are required to do, the science is overwhelmingly against the bio-tech giants. But junk science seems to stick when there is payola involved. Especially when the Food and Drug Administration's ex-Monsanto folks only require the bio-tech corporations to evaluate heir own products. Where in the world of products does that happen? Certainly not in fish packing plants, or kids toys.
Besides the pol who invented a phantom group for me to get out of meeting real constituents, another one told me that "our farm policy" was something better left to them. Well, I don't agree that simply taking away regional control is any sort of 'farm policy.' Farmers in every corner of Oregon know much more about farming than arm-chair farmers in the Capital. And I'll guarantee they don't like having to plough under their organic crops because some Swiss corporation snuck in something that rendered their crop useless. Now that is economic sabotage, not the other way around as the Mail Tribune famously splashed across their front page when someone dug up test plots of GM beets near Medford.
Maybe Syngenta dug up their own GM beets. Monsanto sure blamed saboteurs when someone snuck in some GM wheat seeds with a shipment of regular wheat in Eastern Oregon recently. Giant class action lawsuit against Monsanto going on there now. And who was that free-lance writer who got the issue of a few dead beets front and center in the newspaper anyway? I'll tell you that those kids who shot out sixty car windows in Central Point caused real economic sabotage. That sure didn't hit the paper like a few beets did. Very fishy. The Oregon legislature will reek a lot worse than a truck load of rotting beets if they pass a ban on local control of growing food. What would they do next, outlaw any kind of crop that wasn't genetically modified just to get the campaign contributions?
This kind of thing is where democracy ends and fascism starts. Right here, right now. Remember, fascism is just government teeming up with industry for their mutual benefit at the expense of everyone else. Granted, most people don't know a GM crop from a GM truck, but that's no reason to railroad them all. Jackson County just got a little more organized and started educating people around here as to what is going on compared to the rest of the state, hence the fear of being thrown out of office around here. The big corps move faster than community consensus can be built, hence the need for an end-run bill like 633 to pre-empt local referendums on the subject. SB 633 was filed just shortly after Jackson County declared that they were going to vote on banning GM crops next May. What a coincidence.
Since the GMO Free Jackson County Facebook page has had 7 million views, I thought I'd do my civic duty to bring this up now before a next week House vote and put it on Facebook too. Lots of viewers would like to know whether real people can make their representatives reflect their wishes and have that extrapolated to brother and sister farmers elsewhere. Or will Oregon be a blueprint for taking away farmers rights to the unimpeded practice of their craft nationwide. Isn't rule number one for government 'First do no harm?'
posted by Alaskacafe at 5:11 PM
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