Oregon Lawmakers’ Sneaky Attempt To Prevent Counties From Blocking GMO Crops

TND Exclusive / By Citizens For Transparent Government /

Citizens For Transparent Government has learned lawmakers in Salem have stuffed SB-633 into the proposed agenda for September 30th’s special session called to resolve Oregon’s budget impasse.  Passage of SB-633 would strip the ability of individual counties to block GMO-grown products within county boundaries.   Regardless of one’s view about SB-633 and GMOs in general, this action is an affront to transparency and a blatant effort to push this bill into law outside normal government session.

Why is this happening?  Lawmakers beholden to special interests know they did not have sufficient support to pass SB-633 during the normal 2013 session.  Now, they’re trying to push SB-633 into law without the general public knowing about it.

GMO Free Josephine County issued an action alert earlier today.  If you live in Oregon, click here to read it.

The Center for Food Safety also published an alert, reprinted below.

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SB 633, the preemption bill that would have stripped the rights of Oregon counties to control their local agriculture, has reportedly been quietly inserted into a  complicated tax and pension package currently under consideration by state legislators. According to the Oregonian, legislative leadership included a new version of the policy from SB 633 “as a bargaining chip” to pass a tax bill to fund schools and public services [1].

Our legislators should not be bargaining away our rights in order to appease each other. Stop the inclusion of this bill NOW by contacting your state legislators to voice your opposition to the inclusion of SB 633 in any tax and pension reform package.

If the policies from SB 633 become law in this tax bill, all local control of agricultural seed and seed products could be removed – replaced by a “one size fits all” policy dictated by the state. This bill is a thinly veiled attempt by the chemical companies to silence concerns over genetically engineered foods and gut all county efforts at addressing the growing of genetically engineered (GE) crops.

Jackson county voters succeeded in putting a measure to ban the growth of GE crops on the May 2014 ballot. While Jackson County may be exempted from SB 633, the proposed law would preempt all planned and future similar initiatives in other Oregon counties. Oregon citizens deserve to have their voices respected. The policies in SB 633 do nothing to protect local sustainable agriculture. Instead it takes away the rights of citizens to protect their food sovereignty.

Local policies such as the Jackson County measure have been instrumental in eliminating GE crops in other states.  Several counties and cities in California, Hawaii, Washington, and Maine have already adopted policies to ban the growing of GE crops in their counties. Oregon counties should be allowed the same level of local control as these other states. But the policies in Senate Bill 633, would strip counties in Oregon of their abilities to craft appropriate county-wide seed policies, instead giving exclusive regulatory power over seeds, and products of agricultural seed, to the state, preempting local authority. This could make it impossible to establish local policies which put restrictions or prohibitions on genetically engineered crops.

Your state legislators need to hear your strong opposition to the inclusion of SB 633 now!

You can read the original bill language here

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[1] http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/09/inclusion_of_gmo_crop_policy_i.html#incart_river_default