I hope this GMO ban goes into effect. It's wonderful that there is at least one county in the US with enough informed voters to get this measure passed.--Tom Mathews

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Laurel Hopwood <[log in to unmask]>
To: CONS-SPST-BIOTECH-FORUM <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Fri, Nov 11, 2016 7:37 am
Subject: GMO Crops Headed for Ban in Sonoma County

https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/11/10/gmo-crops-headed-for-ban-in-sonoma-county/
GMO Crops Headed for Ban in Sonoma County
11/10/16
(edited)

Sonoma County voters appear to have banned GM crops in unincorporated 
areas of the county, approving Measure M by a margin of 56-44 percent in 
unofficial results. Under the measure, farmers could not plant any GMO 
seeds or grow GMO crops in unincorporated areas, which includes the 
majority of vineyards, dairies and farms in the county.

Sonoma joins five other California counties that have already passed 
bans on transgenic crops: Mendocino, Marin, Trinity, Humboldt and Santa 
Cruz.

Proponents say the ban is necessary to protect the county’s organic 
fields from cross-pollination.

Under U.S. law, says Karen Hudson, head of the campaign for the measure, 
if 1 percent of a farmer’s crop is contaminated by genetically 
engineered pollen, it becomes illegal for that farmer to use the seeds 
for the following year. “All of that seed belongs to the corporation 
that owns the patent on those seeds,” she says.

Hudson also worries about increased use of herbicides in GMO plants. 
Many of them are engineered to resist herbicides like Roundup. “Spraying 
a crop with the same herbicide in a field over and over for several 
years depletes the soil of its nutrients,” says Hudson. “And it also 
creates weeds that are resistant to that particular herbicide.”

The ordinance would take effect as soon as election results are 
finalized, which is expected in early December.

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