From: David Letourneau [mailto:david@pacislands.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2000 10:25 AM
Subject: Genetic Alert!!
Importance: High
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Vice President Al Gore
Governor George W. Bush
In the time and space you now have between the past presidential primaries
and the national campaign, please consider the sanctity of our agricultural
crops and the plight of the American farmer. The work of millions of
farmers worldwide for ten thousand years is now being endangered by genetic
pollution. Seeds developed, in genetic combinations never found in nature,
in the laboratories of the USDA, biotechnology companies and our
universities threaten the stability of our global food base and the
livelihood of American farmers.
Already the pollen from genetically engineered (GE) corn has contaminated
the fields of corn farmers growing customary non-GE varieties. Pollen from
genetically modified canola has been transferred to wild mustard growing
nearby, and soy bean farmers have found their seed stocks to have been
genetically altered. With dozens of more food crops presently being tested
prior to release for open field production this unprecedented threat grows
greater with every growing season.
This is not business as usual! Foreign genes have been introduced into the
genome of our food plants and seed stocks. This is not the slow gradual
evolution of plant and seed development but a radical, revolutionary change
in the genetic structure of what we eat. Genes from pathogenic and
antibiotic resistant viruses and bacteria and from organisms that have never
been part of the human diet are being introduced into our food supply.
These living organisms are being fed to our children and being released into
our environment with little known about their potentially disastrous
effects.
This is not being done to feed the starving. Studies by Food First! show
there is enough food to feed everybody on this planet. This is a problem of
economics and distribution. People with money do not starve, people without
do. This is not being done to improve the nutritional value of plants. A
healthy living soil will grow healthy living plants. This is being done to
enrich and empower a few over the many.
On Super Tuesday, March 7, 2000, USDA Secretary Dan Glickman announced the
release of the new National Organic Program Proposed Rule for public
comment. He stated that genetically engineered foods and products from
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) would not be allowed in organic
production. But this Proposed Rule is woefully lacking in any measures to
prevent the contamination of organic crops by genetic pollution. "There is
no wall high enough that can be erected around a GMO crop to prevent pollen
drift," stated Nature's Path President Arran Stephens on March 2nd.
Last year Secretary Glickman announced the formation of the USDA Advisory
Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology and the membership of this committee
in January of this year. But without your help this may be too little too
late.
In 1998 275,000 people expressed their written opposition to the USDA's
proposal to include GMOs in organic production during the public comment
period after the release of the first National Organic Program Proposed
Rule. As a consequence genetically modified organisms of any kind were
excluded from the new Proposed Rule. But the entire program is threatened
by the uncontrollable and unregulated open field production of genetically
engineered crops. Once a GE crop has been approved there is no tracking or
regulation of such crops. We simply do not know how much and where these
crops are being planted and grown. This is a back door way of killing a
very important and vibrant segment of American agriculture. Organic
agriculture has been in formal existence for more than twenty five years,
having served humanity for aeons, and is the fastest growing segment of our
agricultural economy at more than 20% a year for the last ten years and with
a market value of over $6,000,000,000.
I am asking you to speak out NOW and support the farmers and consumers of
America and those abroad who wish to grow and buy unadulterated food. Speak
out in favor of strictly regulating the growing of genetically altered
crops, support the labeling of genetically engineered foods to give
consumers the freedom of choice, oppose the patenting of life and of
genetically modified seeds and you will save American agriculture and the
American farmer.
Respectfully yours,
David L. Letourneau,
PII Director of Environmental Affairs
DLL:kj
Member, California Agricultural Trade Delegation, WTO 3rd Ministerial
Conference
Member, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements GE Working
Group
Member, California Certified Organic Farmers Board of Directors & Chairman,
Government Affairs Committee
Organic Farmer
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