Organic farmers sing biotech blues

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Organic farmers sing biotech blues
Date: 14 Jul 2003 11:34:01 -0000

From: News Update from The Campaign
Subject: Organic farmers sing biotech blues

News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods
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Dear News Update Subscribers,

Organic crops are being contaminated by genetically engineered crops.
The article posted below titled "Organic farmers sing biotech blues"
from Monday's Des Moines Register discusses this ongoing problem.

At a recent debate over genetically engineered foods in Sacramento,
California, David Hegwood, Counsel to the U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture, was confronted about this fact by an organic farmer
during the question and answer session. Hegwood responded that
the "USDA was looking into this problem."

Frankly, there is not too much to look into. It is clear that
genetically engineered crops are contaminating organic crops. The
only responsible action by the USDA would be to confine the growing
of genetically engineered crops to greenhouses. But since Secretary
of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, used to work in the biotech industry,
such an action by the USDA is very unlikely.

The fastest way to rapidly reduce the acreage of genetically
engineered crops being grown in the United States is to pass the
mandatory labeling legislation into law. If genetically engineered
foods are labeled, most consumers will not buy them. And if
consumers do not buy genetically engineered foods, farmers will not
grow these crops.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THE QUICKEST WAY TO PROTECT ORGANIC
AGRICULTURE FROM CONTAMINATION IS TO GET THE LEGISLATION TO
REQUIRE THE MANDATORY LABELING OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED
FOODS PASSED INTO LAW.

The labeling legislation, called the "Genetically Engineered Food
Right to Know Act of 2003," will be introduced before the U.S. House
of Representatives later this month by Representative Dennis Kucinich
(D-Ohio).

If you have not already sent an e-mail and printed out a form letter
to mail to your House Representative asking him or her to co-sponsor
the labeling legislation, please do so now from our web site at:
http://www.thecampaign.org/alert-house.php

Thanks for participating in the effort to protect the purity and
integrity of organic agriculture!

Craig Winters
Executive Director
The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

The Campaign
PO Box 55699
Seattle, WA 98155
Tel: 425-771-4049
Fax: 603-825-5841
E-mail: mailto:label@thecampaign.org
Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

Mission Statement: "To create a national grassroots consumer campaign
for the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass
legislation that will require the labeling of genetically engineered
foods in the United States."

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Organic farmers sing biotech blues

By PHILIP BRASHER
Des Moines Register - Washington Bureau
07/14/2003

Washington, D.C. - Farmers who are trying to fill America's growing
appetite for organic food are battling more than just bugs and weeds.

Genetically engineered corn and soybeans are becoming so widespread
that organic growers - who count on selling their crops for two to
three times as much as conventional varieties - say they are having
trouble keeping biotech contamination out of their crops.

Federal rules bar the use of biotechnology in organic agriculture,
and even the slightest bit of biotech contamination can cut the
value of the crop by a third or more.

"The first load of corn you send out with every new crop you hold
your breath," said Roger Lansink, an organic farmer near Odebolt,
Ia. He said a "huge percentage" of organic corn probably contains
traces of biotech residue.

Organic crops can be contaminated in a variety of ways. Bags of seed
often include traces of biotech varieties. Depending on weather
conditions and farming practices, organic corn can easily
cross-pollinate with biotech corn in nearby fields.

Lansink had a load of soybeans test positive for biotech
contamination two years ago and almost had to sell the crop for half
what it was worth as an organic crop.

Dave Vetter, a Nebraska farmer, said his organic corn crop tested
positive for biotech residue three years in a row, and he lost a
customer as a result.

Food companies and livestock producers are increasingly forcing
farmers and grain elevators to test organic commodities to detect
any traces of biotech material, known as GMO for genetically
modified organism.

"The trend for difficulty is going up and will continue to get worse
if the planting trends for GMOs continues as they've been in the last
several years," said Lynn Clarkson, president of Clarkson Grain Co.
Inc. of Cerro Gordo, Ill., a major supplier of biotech-free grain to
U.S. and foreign companies.

Biotech crops have exploded in popularity with conventional farmers
since the late 1990s. This year, 81 percent of the soybeans and 40
percent of the field corn grown nationwide is genetically engineered
to protect the plants from herbicide or insect damage.

Sales of organic foods, meanwhile, have been growing by 20 percent a
year. To meet the demand for organic crops and biotech-free seed,
some companies already are starting to look for foreign sources. An
Indiana seed company that supplies Clarkson's contract farmers is
growing its crops in South America.

In the European Union, a new law regulating agricultural
biotechnology will allow countries to isolate genetically engineered
crops to prevent unwanted pollen spread.

A recent survey of U.S. organic farmers by the Organic Farming
Research Foundation found more than half of the 990 respondents said
the government wasn't doing enough to protect them from biotech
contamination. Eighteen farmers in the survey said their crops had
tested positive for biotech material.

To some extent, the organic industry brought its problem on itself.

When the U.S. Department of Agriculture originally proposed rules for
organic agriculture in the mid-1990s, they would have allowed the
use of biotech seeds. But USDA reversed itself after receiving
thousands of comments opposed to the provision. Not only are organic
crop farmers barred from using biotech seeds, but livestock
producers also are required to use organically grown feed.

The USDA rules, which took effect last year, don't require organic
crops to be tested for biotech residue, and the department says that
unintentional biotech residue doesn't prevent a crop from being
called "organic."

But that doesn't stop organic food companies and organic livestock
producers from requiring seeds and crops to be tested for GMO
content.

Both the testing requirements and GMO tolerances - the amount of
biotech residue permitted in a crop - vary from company to company.
Some grain companies test organic grain if it is to be sold for food
but not for animal feed. Other companies test everything.

The financial stakes for farmers are large: Organic soybeans that
can be sold for food go for $12.50 to $14.50 a bushel. Feed-grade
soybeans sell for about $9 a bushel, still about $3 more than
conventional soybeans.

Eden Foods Inc., a Michigan-based manufacturer of organic soy milk
and other products, requires testing of both seed and harvested
crops. Eden uses seed varieties that were developed by Iowa State
University without biotechnology.

Heartland Organic Marketing Cooperative, a grain handler in Stewart,
Ia., doesn't test the organic crops it buys so long as they are to be
used for animal feed and not food.

"If you end up at the end of your growing season and end up with corn
that's been cross-pollinated, which is not to be unexpected, there's
nothing in the (USDA) rules to say you can't move that through an
organic process," said Bob Turnbull, Heartland's marketing manager.

But some livestock producers, including meat industry giant Tyson
Foods Inc., which raises organic chickens, want their grain tested
anyway. Tyson, a customer of Clarkson Grain, allows up to 1 percent
biotech residue.

Organic corn growers probably face the biggest challenge, since
pollen can spread for long distances on the wind. Farmers say they
try to plant at different times than their neighbors and plant away
from biotech fields.

But even those steps aren't foolproof. Vetter, the Nebraska farmer,
planted a double row of trees around his farm, and he says the
neighbor upwind of him doesn't plant biotech varieties, yet Vetter's
organic crops have still been contaminated. "We don't really know
where it's coming from," he said.

Lansink typically plants his corn several weeks after his neighbor to
prevent the crops from pollinating at the same time. But this year,
because of the wet spring, his neighbors were forced to plant later
than usual, so the crops could pollinate simultaneously.

Organic farmers have little recourse if their crops are contaminated.

Lansink and some other growers asked the Iowa Legislature to set up
an indemnity fund to compensate farmers when specialty crops were
contaminated, but the idea didn't get anywhere. The money would have
come from a fee on all corn and soybean growers.

The Heartland co-op is in arbitration with a farmer whose soybeans
tested positive for biotech residue and had to be sold at
conventional prices.

Contamination problems

Crop purity isn't just a problem for organic farmers. Foreign buyers
in Europe and Asia, where many consumers don't want to eat
genetically engineered foods, insist that U.S. grain companies test
for biotech residues in corn and soybeans.

OVERSEAS: British supermarket chains like Marks and Spencer and Tesco
allow no more than 0.01 percent. Japan officially allows up to 5
percent, but Japanese companies typically have lower limits, industry
officials say.

TESTING: The most commonly used tests are supposed to detect
contamination levels of 1 percent or higher. A more sophisticated and
expensive method detects levels down to 0.01 percent.

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If you would like to comment on this News Update, you can do so at
the
forum section of our web site at: http://www.thecampaign.org/forums

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