Speaking Up For Farmers & Our Community

After reading the opinion piece published in the Daily Courier on March 24^th 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.