Environmental for Food Justice

Ban on genetically engineered crops stands as Federal court approves settlement YEARS OF EFFORTS BY LOCAL FARMERS AND CITIZENS YIELD VICTORY Moderator’s Note: More good news on the legal front of the movement to ban genetically engineered crops. Followers and readers of this blog know that organic farmers and food sovereignty activists in Jackson County, Oregon managed in May 2014 to pass an ordinance through a countywide election that banned GEOs (a.k.a. GMOs). The ordinance was challenged by GE crop growers backed by Monsanto, Syngenta, and other biotechnology corporations and their armies of lawyers and lobbyists. In a second Federal Court ruling, the novel ordinance has been upheld with the approval of a crucial settlement agreement that will allow current growers of GE crops (alfalfa) in Jackson County to continue their current GE production cycle until the GE crop is replaced in the next crop rotation. These growers would then have to comply with the current ordinance and switc...

New law affirms rights to native foods and foodways ORDINANCE IS FIRST TO ADDRESS GE SALMON Moderator’s Note: In what is sure to become a widely replicated action, The Yurok Tribe of California has just announced the adoption of an ordinance supporting indigenous food sovereignty while banning the use of genetically engineered organisms (GEOs), including both plant and, in a first, animal species. The ordinance specifically establishes a ban on AquaBounty’s transgenic salmon  (trademarked as AquAdvantage salmon), which was recently approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and earlier by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The inclusion of GE salmon is especially important and speaks to the cultural, economic, and ecological significance of wild salmon to the Yurok. The Yurok Tribe ordinance joins a growing list of tribes, municipalities, and counties endorsing resolutions or adopting ordinances that ban GEOs to protect indigenous, other traditional, and organic fa...