After reading the opinion piece published in the Daily
Courier on March 24th by Barry Bushue with the Oregon Farm
Bureau, I felt I had to share my opinion. I was appalled by his
solicitous tone towards our community when in fact his concern is paid for by
biotech companies such as Monsanto and Syngenta who have no regard for our community’s
needs or well-being. He is a man-for-hire and does not have our interests
in mind. How can he? He doesn’t live here, raise a family here, pay for local taxes, grow food from our soil, save seeds from plants grown in the Rogue Valley or
fish our rivers. The “non-profit” agencies he touts he is president of accepts
big money from corporations who profit on exploiting fertile land like the
Rogue Valley with their billion-dollar seed industry made not from or for
nature. http://www.politifact.com/oregon/statements/2013/oct/11/rick-north/do-two-state-agriculture-groups-have-ties-biotech-/
His double-talk is meant to frighten our community.
His words are threats, rather than facts, and a common big-government,
big-corporation scare-tactic that we shouldn’t swallow. Why didn’t
he just come out and say “hey Josephine County, don’t do what you feel is
right, do what you’re told so my Big-Ag corporate thugs won’t have to bully
you!”??? We should not buy into Mr. Bushue’s Feudal System.
We shouldn’t let his authority-complex influence our vote for what is right for
our community.
Measure 17-58 is good for Josephine County – for our
food, farms and our families.
GMO farming is banned in many parts of the world for the
environmental harm it does. It is banned where people care about the land, their family's health and the future of both, not about corporate profits. GMO
farming put billions of dollars in the pockets of large companies, not local
families. GMO farming is not safe. It encourages prolific use of
toxic poisons that destroy our soil, water, honey bees and other pollinators, not to mention the
ills caused by the food it creates. It’s simple. It doesn’t take a
rocket scientist to know that GMO farming is bad. When did this type of
farming become “what’s good for us”?!?! It isn’t.
Like many small-time family farmers here in Josephine
county, my family began farming as a way to feed our family healthy food.
We do things like our family has done for generations with no pesticides or
chemicals or genetically modified seeds - just like my grandfather did on
his farm in Myrtle Creek. We have more food than we know what to do with
and without GMO seeds.
Why does GMO farming threaten my traditional farming method?
Why can’t we co-exist with GMO farming? The reason is simple: My
garden and the food I grow is ruined by GMO farming. My garden
doesn’t do the same to GMO farming. On a larger scale, our local
exports suffer from their contamination http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/07/17/202684064/in-oregon-the-gmo-wheat-mystery-deepens
GMO seeds are not natural in any sense. Their DNA is
created in a lab with foreign information (this is NOT the same as a hybrid-seed).
These seeds are then owned by corporate
giants. These Frankenstein seeds create plants that release pollen that
contaminates other plants through pollen drift. It travels for miles, and
when it lands on my garden, my plants - such as corn, chard and beets -
become contaminated. I can no longer save my seeds. If I do,
I could be sued by these corporate giants that own the DNA of these plants (and
yes, they have sued for millions of dollars…) I cannot eat the plants because
they are contaminated and not safe. I cannot sell my plants because I am
not a GMO farmer. GMO seed companies who grow their seeds in our Rogue Valley soil are
not threatened in this same way. We cannot sue them for our pollen drift
(why would we?!) Our pollen won't create plants that survive their toxic
chemicals.
GMO farming is a bad idea. We can’t co-exist.
They lose nothing. We lose everything.
Because I farm and live in Josephine County and I want to
keep my family, animals, rivers and soil safe, I will vote YES on
measure 17-58 in May.
