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States
Introduce Numerous Bills to Regulate Genetically Modified Foods
by Britt
Bailey
http://environmentalcommons.org/gmo-regulation-2007.html
Following a two-year span during which the corporate farming sector
lobbied heavily in support of state bills aimed at keeping local governments
from regulating genetically modified organisms (GMOs), 2007 state legislatures
are now filled with bills confirming farmer and consumer concerns about such
foods and crops.
It has been a decade since multinational corporations
began blanketing the planet with their patented varieties of genetically
modified seed. With little government oversight, poll after poll has shown that
consumers would like to see greater supervision of genetic engineering including
all-out limitations on their cultivation.
From late 2004-2006, nearly
twenty state legislatures attempted to subdue the growing resistance to
genetically modified organisms. In the wake of four California counties and
numerous New England towns passing local measures restricting the growing of
genetically engineered foods, states began passing "preemption" laws removing
the ability of local governments to regulate seeds and plants.
Nearly
every state hearing on the preemption bills erupted into an emotional discourse
on the specific impacts of growing GMOs and the toll which this mode of farming
exacts on the environment and public health. Inadequate federal oversight,
economic impacts, risks to organic practices, lack of legal liability in the
event of contamination, need for public notification, potential health concerns,
and harm to natural resources were all listed as reasons why local communities
should be able to decide whether genetically modified foods should or should not
be grown. Thus far, Missouri is the only state that seems to be shoving the
concerns related to genetic engineering under the rug. Unlike prior years, when
state preemption bills had company, Missouri's SB364 is the only bill in 2007
introduced to remove local authority over anything related to farming.
Legislators seem to be responding to the wishes of the people. Already
in 2007, state capitols are filled with bills aimed at protecting small family
farming systems and consumers from the impacts of genetically modified foods.
Perhaps it is a combination of continued public outcry, along with the rice
contamination fiasco that occurred in August 2006 (when an unapproved
genetically engineered rice variety caused billions of dollars of damage to
farmers throughout the United States), that is giving legislators enough
backbone to defy the wishes of the multinational corporate agriculture industry.
Under current US law, the makers of the genetically modified crops bear
no responsibility for damages caused when the crops spread through environmental
or human action. Now, four states are carrying bills making the agricultural
biotechnology industry liable in the event another contamination occurs. Three
states are hearing bills calling for a moratorium on food crops genetically
engineered to produce pharmaceuticals. Illinois and Tennessee are calling for
labeling of foods derived from genetically engineered crops. Five states,
California, Hawaii, Minnesota, New York, and South Dakota, are calling for
notification systems in which genetically modified foods become a part of the
public record.
After ten years of national public debate over the
effects of commercializing genetically modified organisms, we seem to be turning
a regulatory corner. Perhaps State legislators have recognized that federal
regulations are inadequate to protect their state farming interests. Perhaps
they have recognized that the regulatory offices of Monsanto and Dow are simply
too close to the offices of the USDA, FDA, and Congress. As states continue to
introduce bills protecting against the impacts arising from growing genetically
modified organisms, will the federal government act next to preempt the states?
All of this begs the question, where is the oversight of farming and
agriculture best deliberated - at the local, state, or national level? Given the
federal government's track record on the issue, we may want keep it local and
allow communities and farmers to decide how best to regulate their soils and
foods.
To stay up to date on GMO bills introduced in states across the
United States, see Environmental Commons' "Food Democracy Tracker,"
http://environmentalcommons.org/gmo-tracker.html
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