Action Alert: Sign on to Say No to GMOs

[grulla]

Another GMO action alert, this time from Cornucopia. Keep signing, the squeaky hinge gets the oil. https://www.cornucopia.org/2019/08/no-gmos-in-organic/

[Mr. Wizard]

Done! Don't understand USDA's rationale. If you allow GMOs in organic products, is it still organic???

[Islander]

"Testing the waters." If this should pass, the USDA Organic seal would become meaningless. It's not "talking politics" to note that this is the president's agenda. Every appointment to a government agency has been a person antagonistic to that agency's purpose.

[grulla]

This is what happens when big government is involved in running something like a USDA safe food organization certification, it becomes a political football fraught with corruption and conflicts of interest. What is needed here is an organic certification operation in the private sector, as a NON-or NOT-for-profit organization with people with organic expertise from organizations such as Cornucopia, OCA, HH, Mercola, Sayer Ji, Mike Adams, and so many more, on the board of directors, to enforce no-nonsense organic, biodynamic, and regenerative produce and meat growing/raising guidelines.

[Islander]

What is needed here is an organic certification operation in the private sector...

We already have one: The Non-GMO Project. https://www.nongmoproject.org/product-verification/

And I would delete Mike Adams from your list of reliable voices. The once-responsible nutritionist has morphed into a right-wing extremist even more deranged than Alex Jones. He's become so unrealistic as to be dangerous; even his most devoted former fans have stopped following him.

[Islander]

This article from Organic Consumers Association may reference the same issue, but if so, it is far broader and deeper than the one from Cornucopia. https://www.organicconsumers.org/blo...B+631+Saturday

[Mr. Wizard]

Thanks for sharing the article, Islander. As it notes, the new government "SECURE" procedures would still allow developers to patent these GE foods. If these foods were "close-enough-to-nature" foods, why would a patent be needed. Real food requires no patent!!

[Islander]

Jim Gerritsen, owner of Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine, where he primarily grows organic Maine Certified seed potatoes, is president of the national trade organization Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA). In March 2011, led by Gerritsen, OSGATA filed a lawsuit against Monsanto to prevent it from suing farmers who have been contaminated by their genetically modified seeds, based on patent infringement. The argument was that life itself could not be patented. The suit ended at the Supreme Court, where SCOTUS refused to hear it. However, American farmers gained partial protection with the ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. which issued an estoppel, ordering Monsanto not to sue farmers for patent infringement should they become contaminated by trace amounts of Monsanto's patented seed technology.
Jim is a powerful voice for organic agriculture, in Maine and nationwide. You can find more in Wikipedia.

[Julieanne]

I was involved in setting up the first organic certifying organisation: NASAA (National Association of Sustainable Agriculture Australia), and it was quite a while before there was a government organisation. There are now several, and NASAA is still one of the best. It took some time before government would even accept that organic agriculture was a growing industry. I don't have the numbers that show who uses which organisation - I'm a bit out of the loop these days. Those were interesting times.

[Islander]

Wow! That is something to be proud of, Julieanne. We have some truly extraordinary members here!