In the past 3 weeks, the Obama administration has unbelievably chosen to approve three biotech crops, Roundup Ready genetically modified (GMO) alfalfa, Roundup Ready genetically modified (GMO) sugar beets and a new industrial biotech corn for ethanol production. Obama's recent approval of them will allow them to be planted as early as this spring, despite widespread acknowledgement that these crops are certain to contaminate both conventional and organic farmers non-GMO crops. Only last Friday, the USDA's approval of the new industrial biotech corn for ethanol production occurred despite massive outcry from major food companies who know that it will contaminate and possibly ruin the food they sell to you everyday.
These decisions are a devastating blow to our democracy and the basic rights of farmers to choose how they want to grow food on their land and the rights of consumers who increasingly choose organic and sustainably grown food for its positive health and environmental impacts. Please join us in telling President Obama that it's time to stand up to Monsanto and reject these GMO crops today!
Please add your name to the letter to President Obama and Secretary Vilsack below that was originally drafted as a response from organic and sustainable farmers and activists during the EcoFarm conference recently to the decision to approve GMO alfalfa:
Dear President Obama and Secretary Vilsack,
[While gathered at the 31st Annual Ecological Farming Conference to celebrate the growth of the organic industry as a vital, mainstream segment in agriculture.]
We were greatly disappointed to learn of your decision to fully deregulate genetically modified (GMO) Roundup Ready alfalfa. This decision undermines opportunities for farmers in America, particularly in important export markets for conventional alfalfa and in the growing organic dairy industry. It also severely restricts the choice of farmers and 50 million U.S. consumers who every day exercise their right to consume food that is certified organic and free of GMOs, that are yet to be proven safe for human consumption and our common environment.As farmers and leaders in the organic and sustainable agriculture community, we are profoundly concerned that the development and release of GMO crops have progressed rapidly, with inadequate oversight, scant public testing, and minimal public debate.
Collectively, we stand united in the firm belief that it is incumbent upon our nation’s regulatory agencies to put independent, peer-reviewed science over the vested financial interests of corporations who have shown a consistent disregard for our nation’s laws, sound scientific theory, the livelihoods of family farmers, and the health and well-being of our citizens and the environment.
As members of the fastest growing and most profitable segment in agriculture today, we are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has refused to protect the livelihoods of conventional and organic family farmers from the loss of a main livestock forage.
According to university scientists, the deregulation of GMO Roundup Ready alfalfa could lead to the genetic contamination of all conventional and organic alfalfa within five years. As a result of this decision, organic and non-GMO farmers have lost another vital tool in their toolbox to expand into highly profitable domestic and foreign markets, eliminating important market opportunities for beginning farmers and ranchers at a time when they can least afford it.
The approval of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa is yet another example of the agricultural biotechnology industry forcing an entirely unnecessary product onto the market not for farmer benefit, but simply to improve their bottom-line.
As any farmer worth their salt will tell you, alfalfa - a perennial legume - does not suffer from the same weed pressures as other crops, such as corn, soybeans, cotton and canola and that is why ninety-three percent of the alfalfa hay in the U.S. does not use any herbicides. In addition, by approving GMO alfalfa, the Obama administration has further weakened production agriculture since the increased use of herbicides will only lead to an increase of glyphosate-resistant superweeds, which have been called “the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen,” by Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts as reported in TheNew York Times on May 3, 2010.
Last year, when the National Academy of Sciences released the report, Toward Sustainable Agriculture Systems for the 21st Century, it concluded that in order to meet the urgent demands of U.S. agriculture with regard to climate change, energy and water shortages and a rising population, “national agricultural policies and research programs should look beyond focusing only on low costs and high production and adopt a holistic perspective to farming that encompasses multiple end goals.”
In order to protect the biological integrity of our nation’s seeds and the organic industry, we call upon you as President to immediately rescind the recent of approval of GMO alfalfa and instruct the Secretary of Agriculture to implement a moratorium on the further approval of genetically engineered crops until the issues over the science, contamination and labeling are more transparently reviewed. In addition, we call for a further review of all scientific evidence regarding GMO alfalfa and independent testing on the long-term effects of all GMO crops on human health and the environment.
In approving GMO alfalfa, the Obama administration has undermined the most vibrant sector in agriculture today, placing an unfair tax on the rights of America’s farmers to grow food that is protected from genetic contamination. The USDA’s decision was ill informed, wantonly ignoring the basic biological principles of pollination and good agricultural practices.
We now join with previous generations, from the Founders of our Constitution to those who fought to free our nation from prejudice during the long battle for civil rights, in a renewed struggle to defend the livelihoods of family farmers and our basic right as citizens to choose the type of food that we want to grow and consume.
As such, we call for an immediate revocation of the decision to fully deregulate Roundup Ready alfalfa and to create a biotechnology regulatory process that effectively and democratically investigates the impact of this unproven technology on human health, the environment and farmers’ long-term ability to meet the challenges of 21st century agriculture.
Respectfully,
Ecological Farming Association
Food Democracy Now!
Center for Food Safety
Straus Family Creamery
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
National Young Farmers Coalition
Californians for GE-Free Agriculture
National Organic Coalition
California State Grange
Lundberg Family Farms
Swanton Berry Farms
The Greenhorns
Food & Water Watch
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
National Center for Appropriate Technology
Nature’s Path Foods
California Climate & Agriculture Network
Jacobs Farms-Del Cabo
Lewis Family Farm
Credo Action
Roots of Change
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
Pesticide Action Network
Organic Consumers Association
Slow Food USA
Amigo Cantisano & Jenifer Bliss
Organic Ag Advisers
Heaven & Earth Farms
San Juan, CA
Thomas Wittman
Board President
Ecological Farming Association
Gabriel Howearth
Founder, Seeds of Change
Buena Fortuna
Michael Pollan
San Francisco, CA
Blackie Foundation,
Point Reyes Station, CA
Wildfire Hearts Hands Feet,
Carmel, CA
Diane Dempster, President
Tilth Producer’s of Washington
Benjamin Watson
Board Member
Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity
Larry Jacobs
President
Jacobs Farm / Del Cabo, Inc.
Nanda Coleman (aka: Betty Beekeeper)
Beekeeper/food eater
San Jose, CA
Shirley Ward
Farm and Garden Manager
Esalen Instutute
Big Sur, CA
Diane Del Signore
Executive Director
Community Alliance with Family Farmers
Davis, CA
Jo Ann Baumgartner
Director
Wild Farm Alliance
Robin Seydel
La Montanita Coop
Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Gallup, New Mexico
Ron Whitehurst
Pest Control Adviser, Co-Owner
Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, Inc.
Ventura, CA
Jan Dietrick
Executive Director
Dietrick Institute for Applied Insect Ecology
Ventura, CA
While G
Karen Salinger
Sales Manager/Owner
Veritable Vegetable
San Francisco, CA
Rick Williams
Harmony Farm Supply and Nursery
Sebastapol, CA
David Little
Little Organic Farm
Petaluma, CA
Jim Reichardt
Sonoma County Poultry
Petaluma, CA
Jill Adams
Crescent Moon Farm
Santa Rosa, CA
Sam Earnshaw
Community Alliance with Family Farmers
Watsonville, CA
Tammy Pierson
Veggielation Community Farm
San Jose, CA
Virginia M. Salkowski
R-evolution Gardens
Nehalem, OR
Zoe Hitchner
CASFA
Santa Cruz, CA
Elizabeth Koltai
Amy’s Farm
Ontario, CA
Ed Cohen
Earthly Edibles Family Farm
Korbel, CA
Eryun Smith
The Abundant Table Farm Project
Oxnard, CA
Sarah Nolan
South Central Farmers
Bakersfield, CA
David DeLaPaz
Of the Peace Foundations
Sarah Domke
Green String Farm
Petamluma, CA
J.T. Rehbock
Continential Bioregional Congress CBC IX
San Francisco, CA
Hana Rehbock
Linfield, OR
Sandy Lewis
Lewis Family Farm
Essex, New York
Anna Marie Carter
Dag Falck
Julie Fallon
Colleen Cabot
James R. Churchill
Ian S. Wilson
Moira Burke
Cynthia Maglaras
Nickulas Maglaras
Alisha Strater
Margaret Liebman
Leah Taylor
Sharon Setty
Lauren Scott
Mary Dixon
Tom Dixon
Anna Vinitsky
Jeff Boesch
Christina Jensen Augustine
Lee W. Miller
Sandra Ward
Ken Kimes
Jay Nitikman
Janet Bryer
Max Bryerbass
Wendy Krupnich
Lisa Bunin
Joey Smith
Ariane Lotti
Sara Mcdonald
Cary Schlussl
Stephanie Rawlings
Todd Champagne
Lane Selman
Patricia Becker
Theresa Lyngso
Joe Dickson
Doug Gosling
Mike Adams
Lou Preston
Ariana Gehrig
Stacy Shutts
Annie Helens
Julie Zabel
Tammy Kleen
Pamela Callagher
Eric Cardenas
Lisa Masteller Parker
Maggie Preston
Jennifer Reichardt
Misga Nuyttens
Alannag Kull
Anie Hehner
Katharine Sontag
Ariana Milmar
Brooke Budner
Julie Zabel
Alexandra Lyon
Rick Christianson
Peter Ruddod
Rachael Richardson
Robert DuBois
David Hernick
Leah Sonkfur
Bu Nygrens
Deborah Suppres
Susan Ditz
Jean Hays Gunn
Alice Dorr
Jim Cochran
Annie Main
Jennifer Snder
Thao Pham
Thea Maria Carlson
Laura McKissack
Robin Boyle
Michael Lipert
Jane Sooby
Klara East
David East
Laura Cainthers
Karen Davis-Brown
Paul Cheatham
Milana PeBenito
Phineas Ellis
Robin Mitchell
Howdy Goudey
Gayle Ross
Shawn Seufert
Mark Baxter
Sara Cogan
Erica Walz
Arty May
Susan Kauffman
Joann Baumgatr
E. Eric Winders
Alison Malisa
Leah Atwood
Maria Reynolds
John Baer
Sue Dern
Arinna Grittani
Loren Luyendyk
Paula Manalo
Pal Unkenhill
Sandy Rintuul
Neena McNair
Justin Valone
David Perkins
Michael Davis
Sean Culman
Sara Gaucher
Doron Comerihart
Patrick Archie
Udi Lazimy
Bob Scowcroft
Francisco Preston
Jenna Hines
Beth Seufert
Molly Bloom
Rawley Johnson
Scott Washkowiak
Thomas Cameron
Ruthanne Jahoda
Mark Calhoun
Janell Lundgren
Cameron Frisbee
Sky DeMuro
Ian Wilson
Anne Hamersky
Anna Smith Clark
Eric Humel
Batra Kagan
Alison Cebulla
Alise Echele
Henry W. Art
David Apple
Melinda Lundgren