GMO War

I don’t know where this is going but it is going. May 20 saw voters in two Oregon counties, Josephine and Jackson counties, passing ballot initiatives barring the raising of GMO crops. It’s the little engine that could given that opponents of GMO raised $375,000 as compared with ag industry giants such as Monsanto, Syngenta and Du- Pont Pioneer who put up $1 million in support of GMO. Somebody who is very much on top of this story is my colleague from the Northwest Ag information network, Greg Martin. Here he is. “Not sure if this is a portent of things to come but Oregon’s Jackson County has voted to ban the growing of genetically engineered or GMO crops within the County. The action will obviously be an issue for agriculture in the county. Washington State recently defeated an initiative that would require GMO labeling and Congressman Doc Hastings says this isn’t the last we’ve heard of this issue. HASTINGS: The issue is out there. It has just come come to the United States here recently. It has been going on in Europe for some time. No, I don’t think this issue is necessarily going to go away but I you need to look at the facts and understand what the GMO means and frankly what the benefits of that has been in the past.”