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Biotech industry gives record $150,000 to fight proposed altered-crop ban (Monday, Feb. 2, 2004 -- CropChoice news) -- Mike Geniella, The Press Democrat, 01/31/04:
UKIAH -- A consortium of the world's largest producers of
genetically engineered crop products has pumped $150,000
into a campaign to defeat a Mendocino County ballot measure that would be the first in the nation to ban such products.
It is the largest contribution ever funneled into a
Mendocino County campaign, county election officials said.
"We just don't see contributions of this magnitude," County
Clerk Marsha Wharff said.
The donation by CropLife America, a Washington-based
industry lobbying group representing Monsanto, Dow and
DuPont corporations among others, so far is the only
financial support reported by a citizen committee opposing
Measure H on the March 2 ballot.
The committee, set up by the Sacramento-based California
Plant Health Association, has hired the former manager of
the Ukiah Valley Chamber of Commerce to orchestrate the
anti-Measure H drive.
Until now, the largest contribution ever made in a local
election was $80,000 in 1994 by former timber giant
Louisiana-Pacific Corp. to bankroll a committee supporting
two candidates for the county Board of Supervisors.
CropLife's $150,000 contribution dwarfs the $18,000 raised
so far by local supporters of Measure H. With a month left
before the election, the anti-Measure H group is positioned
to spend at least $3 per registered voter on direct mail and
local radio and newspaper ads to convince them the ballot
initiative is a "dangerous precedent." As of Jan. 2, there
were 46,480 registered voters in Mendocino County.
In 2002, CropLife contributed $3.7 million to a successful
statewide campaign in Oregon to defeat a measure that would
have required the labeling of foods produced from
genetically engineered crops. Mendo-cino's Measure H does
not require labeling.
More funds possible
CropLife spokesman Allen Noe said Friday the organization is
prepared to pump more money into the anti-Measure H campaign
if necessary.
"Measure H in our view is a dangerous precedent. It's poor
public policy to let a political subdivision like a county
dictate standards for the industry," Noe said.
Measure H backers cried foul.
"There's no way we can match dollar-for-dollar the huge
amount of money these multinational corporations are going
to put into this campaign," said Els Cooperrider, co-owner
of a Ukiah organic brew pub and key organizer of the Measure
H campaign.
Cooperrider said she's convinced, however, that Measure H
will win despite the campaign war chest being assembled by
critics.
"They're underestimating the intelligence of Mendocino
residents, who know corporate bullying when they see it,"
she said.
Measure H, if approved in the March 2 election, would ban
the "propagation, cultivation, raising and growing" of
genetically engineered crops.
For decades, growers, seed companies and researchers largely
relied on cross-breeding of closely related plants to
develop new agricultural products and to enhance old
favorites.
But since the 1970s, a fast-emerging biotechnology that
allows genes to be taken from anywhere and inserted into
another plant or animal species has eclipsed traditional
breeding practices and forever altered certain species.
96.3 million acres
Since 1996, farm land in the United States devoted to
genetically engineered food crops, such as corn, wheat,
tomatoes and soybeans, has grown from 3.7 million acres to
96.3 million today, according to the Pew Initiative on food
and biotechnology. The nonprofit research organization is
funded by the Pew Charitable Trust and administered by the
University of Richmond in Virginia.
Researchers today are exploring a variety of new genetically
altered crops, including developing wine grape plants that
would be resistant to troublesome diseases, such as Pierce's
disease.
Monsanto, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroScience, DuPont and
other agricultural biotechnology companies contend that
genetically engineered crops are safe and subject to
adequate regulatory review.
Cautionary report
Critics, however, cite a report released Jan. 20 by the
National Research Council of the National Academy of
Sciences that found it may be difficult to completely
prevent genetically engineered plants and animals from
having unintended environmental and public health effects.
On Jan. 22, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced it
will consider regulatory changes to keep up with rapidly
changing technology.
Noe said that is why Measure H isn't needed. "There's
already a coordinated framework in place to address the
concerns," Noe said.
Cooperrider said Mendocino County is currently free of
genetically engineered agricultural crops.
"That's the way we want it to stay. As a former scientist, I
know these companies can't adequately protect our food chain
from errant genes," said Cooperrider, a retired medical
research scientist.
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