Healthy Intuitions: Please stand to protect the rights of organic farmers everywhere! Every voice counts!

Don't Let Monsanto's GMOs Contaminate Organics!

Right now the U.S. Department of Agriculture is working with biotech lobbyists to finalize a plan so Monsanto’s GMO crops can contaminate organic and non-GMO farmers crops at will. Even worse, the USDA’s new plan could force these farmers to pay for crop “contamination” insurance to protect themselves against unwanted contamination by Monsanto’s patented genetically engineered genes.

When Monsanto says “coexistence”, what they really mean is: “We will contaminate organics”.

Despite claims by Monsanto and the USDA, nobody can overrule the laws of biology and dictate how plants reproduce. Patented GMO pollen is spread by wind, insects, birds and animals and no matter how much Monsanto denies it, their GMO crops will contaminate and destroy the integrity of farmers’ organic and non-GMO crops.

Even worse, if the USDA's new AC21 guidelines are adopted, organic farmers may lose the right to sue Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta and the biotech bullies for economic loses resulting from GMO contamination of their organic crops!

Re: Docket No. APHIS-2013-0047-0001

Dear Secretary Vilsack,

I strongly oppose the AC21 recommendations on “coexistence” of conventional, organic and genetically engineered crops. Mandating GMO contamination prevention measures is the only real solution.

USDA’s “coexistence” plan would institutionalize an allowable level of transgenic contamination in crops across the U.S. If implemented, the proposal would inappropriately require the victims of contamination – organic and conventional growers – to buy insurance or pay into a fund to compensate themselves for unwanted contamination, lost markets and other damages. This is simply unacceptable. Any scheme intended to compensate farmers for damages caused by GMO contamination must first address the root causes of contamination by stopping gene flow and holding patent holders and those who profit from GMO crops accountable for any contamination.

USDA should scrap any proposal that relies on “voluntary” “prevention through education,” which wrongly and unfairly puts the burden for contamination prevention and redress on the victims of contamination. Instead we urge USDA to:

1. Institute a moratorium on the planting of any new genetically engineered crops until a set of mandated best practices to prevent GMO contamination are implemented by all farmers who use genetically engineered seed.

2. Initiate immediate, mandatory action to prevent further GMO contamination of our seed supply.

3. Hold those who own, promote, and profit from genetically engineered products liable for the economic, market, and social harms cause by their products, and establish a mandatory process whereby the patent holder pays compensation for GMO contamination they fail to prevent.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Please stand to protect the rights of organic farmers everywhere! Every voice counts!

Don't Let Monsanto's GMOs Contaminate Organics!

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