Thought you might be interested in the following article, received from the
Campaign for Mandatory Labelling and Long-term Testing of all Genetically
Engineered Foods, info@natural-law.ca
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Thanks to Eric Kindberg, Organic Farmers Marketing Association, at
<Erorganic@aol.com> for distributing this message
COTTON: ORGANIC GETS A BREAK, GENETIC STRAIN BREAKS DOWN
Cotton made news on two fronts last month, with The New
York Times reporting a deal for the organic cotton industry with
several clothing companies (November 6, 1997), and dozens of
farmers reporting heavy losses of a genetically engineered strain
of cotton (November 23, 1997). Levi Strauss, Nike Inc., and the
Gap have agreed to buy organic cotton, mix it with ordinary
bales, and produce clothing that is a blend of both. Organic
cotton farmers, who have struggled in the past, called the deal
"fantastic." But Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" cotton, which had
been genetically engineered to resist spraying with Roundup weed
killer, has failed to do so, and produced significant losses for
farmers. At least 46 Mississippi farmers say they lost as much
as 40 percent of their Roundup Ready cotton, and officials report
complaints from seven other states. The USDA has warned farmers
to avoid planting more of it.
RESOURCES
Information on the USDA's National Organic Program and
National Organic Standards is available on the World Wide Web at
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop
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The Campaign has also sent a number of other articles on genetic engineering,
generally fact filled and well referenced as to source materials. Most are
not as encouraging as this one. I can forward to anyone interested, or to
the network, on request.
All the best,
Betty Gras
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