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...

Cartoon by Jack Weins. Courtesy of Health Impact News Federal court upholds local ban on GMO crops IS THIS BEGINNING OF END FOR UNRESTRAINED PROLIFERATION OF BIOTECH CROPS? Devon G. Peña | Las Colonias de San Pablo, CO | June 3, 2015 The struggle against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has reached an especially significant milestone: Yesterday (June 2), a Federal Magistrate Judge, Mark D. Clarke, partially dismissed a lawsuit that was brought by commercial alfalfa growers seeking to overturn a 2014 Jackson County, Oregon ordinance that bans the planting of GMO crops. Jackson County is one of the major West Coast locations for commercial plantings of GMO seed crops for alfalfa, various turf grasses, and beets. The ban is based on an innovative local ordinance that was approved by Jackson County voters in the 2014 November general election. Almost on the same day opponents, backed by Monsanto and other biotechnology corporations, deployed legal teams to assist a select group of Jac...

Corn Mother. Cristina M. Perez Yes on Colorado Prop 105 AN ACEQUIA FARMER EXPLAINS SUPPORT FOR LABELING Devon G. Peña | Las Colonias de San Pablo, CO and Seattle, WA | October 10, 2014 I am a farmer in Colorado’s San Luis Valley and I support Prop 105, our state’s citizen-initiated referendum for the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods; also known as GMOs for genetically modified organisms. In a democracy, citizens must have access to information in order to make decisions affecting their quality of life. The right to know is a basic right in a true democracy. By logical and legal extension of this basic principle we have a right to know what is in the food we eat and how it is produced. The right to know about our food is already codified in the law in the form of required nutritional labels and other information used by consumers to make decisions, for e.g., about dietary restrictions involving consumption of sodium, fats, and sugar or carbohydrates. Indeed, the sale price ...