Tuesday, February 12, 2008

State Assembly Passes GE Bill

Just a quick post to give kudos to the California State Assembly for passing AB 541, which makes California the first state to protect farmers from the hazards of genetically engineered crops.

If it passes the Senate, it will become the first law in the country to actually protect small farmers against harassment and frivolous lawsuits from big, agri-businesses.

AB 541 will enact protections for California farmers against frivolous lawsuits that intimidate and harass those who have not been able to prevent the inevitable – the drift of genetically engineered pollen or seed. It will level the playing field for farmers accused by agricultural biotechnology companies and other patent holders of contract violations, and discourage the practice of biotech companies sampling crops without explicit permission from farmers and prosecuting based on unverifiable testing results.

The scaled back version that passed the Assembly has the support of the California Farm Bureau as well as California Certified Organic Farmers, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, the National Farmers Union and many food safety and environmental organizations.

I encourage everyone to contact their State Senators to let them know you want them to pass this bill as well.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Monsantos current practice is to sue farmers if they find that their crops contain any patented GMO material regardless of how it got onto the farm which is because of wind, water, and insect pollinators...the biotec industry is out of control...keep your stuff in a green house people or dont do it!!! you are ruining our farms.....