August 2013
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| Sugar beet. CC photo by USDA on Flickr |
It's not too hard to understand why
such anti-American behaviour should emerge in this particular State.
The State has already had more than its fair share of
awareness-raising events.
Earlier in 2013, another GM-impossible
happened there: rogue GM wheat was found growing on an Oregon farm
(see CONTAMINATION DÉJÀ VU - June 2013). Such genetic
pollution by a GM plant not approved anywhere in the world could cost
American farmers billions of dollars. Despite Department of
Agriculture scouring of grain elevators, fields and research
stations, the source of the contamination hasn't been found: it could
happen again any time, anywhere.
The State is also still trying to
contain a 2006 escape of GM bentgrass used on golf courses, which has
migrated 13 miles from where it was originally planted.
Oregon seems to have a lively history
political activism. Around 1996-2001, the 'Earth Liberation Front',
(a loose organisation of autonomous individuals and covert cells) was
particularly busy in this State: spray-painting buildings, gluing
locks, committing arson and other acts of sabotage to businesses it
considered to be unethical. The Earth Liberation Front has also been
active against GM development.
Random anarchist action would be a
politically convenient explanation, but the story behind the
sugar-beet decontamination incidents is much more interesting.
Consumer preference in the US is
steadily swinging over to natural produce. As the Organic Consumers'
Association explained:
“Maybe it's the high cost of healthcare. Or the fact that organic food just tastes better. But American consumers are increasingly willing to pay a premium price for foods and products that they believe are healthier, environmentally sustainable, and humanely produced.”
This is evidenced by the fact that
organic and 'natural' products now constitute over 13% of the US
grocery purchases. Sales of certified organic products are projected
to reach approximately $35 billion in 2013. So-called 'natural'
products, which in reality are routinely produced with pesticides,
chemical fertilizers, animal drugs, GMOs, and sewage sludge, are
expected to exceed $50 billion in 2013.
The Organic Consumers' Association
concludes that if these 'natural' products containing GMOs and
synthetic chemicals and residues were truthfully labelled, sales of
organic would very quickly double.
In Oregon, organic farmers have become
increasingly influential players in this up and coming market. Their
herbicide-free and pesticide-free seeds find buyers across America.
Last year, organic farmers in Jackson
County discovered, quite by chance, that biotech giant, Syngenta, had
been leasing 30-40 plots of land for growing GM beet in their midst
for about a decade.
GM sugar-beet is grown for bulk
processing but can pollinate table-beet and chard which are eaten
with minimal processing or raw.
Small producers of organic seed
panicked at the finding and within 72 hours had called a meeting of
local farmers and citizens.
Their first action was to gather 6,700
signatures for a 2014 ballot measure which would ban GM plants form
Jackson County altogether.
Fearing the possible cost of monitoring
and enforcing such a measure, the local authorities tried to figure
out a politically-correct way for Syngenta and organic farmers to
co-exist.
This led to a series of meeting with
the biotech company to devise a system of growers' associations with
maps and coloured pins to show crop locations, plus the rules and
bylaws needed to keep it all together, and how people would get the
pins and voting rights.
However, despite “hoping for an open
dialogue” (Syngenta), and “representing themselves as
wanting to be part of the community”(Jackson
organic grower), Syngenta wouldn't say what it was growing
nor where. The final meeting ended when the Company's
representatives walked out.
Within days, two of Syngenta's GM beet
plots were removed.
OUR COMMENT
Presumably the two GM beet plots destroyed were the only two whose location was known. There are another 30-40 GM plots somewhere out there for activists to get their hands on.
Here's a thought. The Oregon Department of Agriculture suggested there was “no justification for committing these crimes”. If defending yourself with a gun (i.e. killing a person who's threatening you) is justifiable in America, why shouldn't defending yourself against a threat to your health by pulling up a few plants be OK?
Background reading on contamination
incidents:
STRICT LAWS NEEDED FOR GENE POLLUTION - GMFS Archive, April 2009
THE DAY OF THE TRIFFID FLAX - GMFS Archive, November
2009
WAVES OF GENE POLLUTION - GMFS Archive, January 2011
SOMERSET GM CONTAMINATION - March 2011
GM FOOD THROUGH THE BACK DOOR - July
2012
WHY COEXISTENCE IS IMPOSSIBLE - January 2013
GM COTTON HERE, THERE...NOWHERE - February 2013
SOURCES:
- Gaining Ground: Organic and 'Natural' Grab 13% of All US. Grocery Sales, Organic Consumers' Association, Organic Bytes, 1.08.13
- Kimberley A. C. Wilson, Genetically engineered sugar beets destroyed in southern Oregon, The Oregonian, 20.06.13
- Kimberley A. C. Wilson, Tensions between Jackson county growers, GMO company peaked days before beet destruction, The Oregonian, 15.07.13
- Suzanne Goldberg, US Department of Agriculture probes Oregon Monsanto GM wheat mystery, The Guardian, 22.06.13
- Heidi Ledford, Hunt for mystery GM wheat hots up, Nature News, 17.07.13
- Earth Liberation Front, Wikipedia
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