Environmental for Food Justice

Charting the transgenic threat A TOOL FOR ACTIVISTS AND FARMERS Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | November 4, 2014 Note: In the world of seed saving and plant breeding, this is the biggest news all year. A new peer-reviewed scientific journal, Food Contamination , has just published a meta-analysis of the GM Contamination Register that was compiled over the past ten years by Genewatch and Greenpeace.  Janet Cotter (Greenpeace) and Becky Price (Genewatch) were the lead compilers of this important database. Here is my take on the significance of this sort of data mapping for  farmers concerned with protecting the genomic integrity and organic or biodynamic status of their land race and heirloom crop varieties. Image courtesy of Transgenic Study Blog One of the most significant issues in the debate over the environmental impacts of transgenic [1] crops is the irrefutable scientific fact posed by gene flow.   As a farmer, seed librarian, and plant breeder, I am deeply concern...

Is Tyson the Red Queen of GMO myth-making? Big Bang About Chilling-Out? ASTROPHYSICIST TYSON WAXES POETIC ABOUT GMOS Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | August 1, 2014 In an interview posted on YouTube on July 24 , astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the charming and brilliant host of the popular TV documentary series, Cosmos , defended the  use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for food crops. Tyson emphasized that opponents needed to “chill out” and characterized opponents as unwitting victims or manipulative purveyors of the “fear factor”. Responding to a question from a French journalist, the usually humorous interlocutor seemed somewhat stumped at first and then responded by rifting away with an explanation of how humans have been genetically modifying plants for more than ten thousand years; ever since people first domesticated wild plants and animals in the invention of agriculture. Fair enough. Are conventional (Mendellian) breeding techniques and the beautifully varied an...

Huichol yarn weaving of a sacred ceremony for maize USDA Co-Existence Policy Proposal Statement of Dr. Devon G. Peña The Acequia Institute Submitted to USDA-APHIS | March 4, 2014 I am submitting this statement to express opposition to the proposed USDA co- existence policy. As a plant breeder, seed saver, traditional acequia farmer, and agro-ecologist familiar with the scientific evidence on gene flow I am unequivocally opposed to this policy. Asking for co-existence with GMO crops means seed-savers and plant breeders like myself have to accept the inevitability of severe business losses due to damage to our native seed stocks and active plant breeding programs. I ask that you consider the fact that farmers like myself are the keepers of the nation’s diverse bioregional ‘arks’ of native seeds and these are the ultimate basis of all agriculture in this country. As vulnerable traditional seed savers, we cannot accept co-existence. The scientific fact of gene flow makes it so. Let’s not p...