Comments for Board gives anti-GE ordinance OK in first read at http://lakeconews.com , comment 1 to 21 out of 20 comments http://lakeconews.com Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:42:57 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8674 do a wonderful job of cutting thru the clutter and static and laying out the facts in a very understandable way. - Donna Christopher Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:01:35 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8657 \"We are the leader!!!! Can\'t you smell it? I sure can. All the genetically enginered marijuana growing in back yards throughout the county. It would be a shame if a mutant clone pot plant got created and wiped out the harvest. The other bad thought is if it got graffed with the pear trees in the county (\"pot head pears\"). I can see the ag commissioner with a bunch of bureaucrats talking with a pot-head medicinal backyard farmer about the origin of his planting stock. This whole thing is stupid. It hurts consumers and growers (food and grape).\" I have heard some pretty ridiculous statements about genetic engineering but that last one takes the cake. I appreciate Victoria\'s response but I think there is something that needs to be cleared up because people are really missing a few major points. First of all, genetic engineering may be considered the \"newest technology\" but it really cannot be compared with any other NATURAL propogation method because IT IS NOT A NATURAL PROPOGATION METHOD. Historically, there are basically three methods for propagation. All of which CAN occur naturally. 1) Open Pollination 2) Hybridization 3) Cloning Open Pollination is when pollen or seed is carried naturally (either by animal, insect, wind or rain) with the end result being the reproduction of a plant of the same variety. This is the type of propagation most consider “natural” but it is a common misconception that it is the only type of natural propagation. Hybridization is when two plants of a different species, genus or family procreate. Despite the widespread belief that humans invented this type of propagation, it has been happening in nature for thousands of years. For example, peppermint plant is a natural hybrid (dating back to 1,000 years B.C.) of watermint (Mentha Aquata) and spearmint (Mentha Spicata). On the other hand, manual forced hybridization has only been around for a few hundred years or so. Plants of different species are likely (but not guaranteed) to hybridize with similar characteristic because they share many of the genes and a similiar DNA sequence. As well, for the same reasons, hybrids are likely (but not guaranteed) to reproduce results similar to the characteristics of the hybrid parent plant. However, hybrids of two different genus or families will rarely reproduce with similar results. In fact, what you will most likely get from a hybrid of two different genus or families is a mixed match combination of any of the many different characteristics of the combined parent plants which could be wide in range due to the dissimilar genes and DNA. Cloning is when a piece of the actual plant is used to reproduce rather than the seed or pollen of a plant. Many asexual plants (plants that don’t need a partner to pollinate) reproduce in this way. Humans have adapted this method of propagation, as well, to reproduce plants with reliable DNA structures. This type of propagation is used very consistently and reliably, in nature, via three methods . The first is called layering. This is how one of the first cloned plants called King’s Holly (over 43,000 years old) has reproduced itself and how the creosote bush continues to stay alive as the oldest known living cloned plant. It involves plants reaching the ground and rooting themselves to create a new plant while still attached to the original parent plant. Eventually, the parent plant dies off but the new plant with a separate root system stays alive and continues to grow and reproduce. Humans do this manually and call it “serpentine rooting”. The second way is called cutting. This is when a piece of a plant falls to the ground, no longer attached to its original parent plant, but still reproduces an identical plant by rooting itself. Humans also have adapted this method, calling it a “cutting”. The third method of cloning is a bit more complicated because it combines the complete DNA structures of two different plants. This method is called “grafting”. In nature, it happens when two different pieces of plants combine to create a new plant. For instance, if a tree in a forest falls onto another tree in a forest and both still carry a life force this life force may combine to make a new tree before the other two trees die off. Humans have adapted “grafting” and it is used most often to create new and improved plants. ON THE OTHER HAND, genetic engineering has never occurred naturally because IT CANNOT OCCUR NATURALLY. That is because genetic engineering is when genes are artificially put together into species which would never intermingle (even on a good day) that is why they have to GENETICALLY ENGINEER them to! So comparing clones, grafting or even hybridization to genetic engineering is pretty ridiculous. - purplegirl Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:35:44 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8633 (a) there is no such thing as GE marijuana (b) if there were, it would not be exempted from the restrictions in the ordinance (read it for yourself at http://www.lakelive.info/cra/finalordinance.pdf (c) no grape, pear, walnut or other Lake County crops now grown are affected by this measure (d) if an environmentally safe genetically engineered crop is developed that would be beneficial to local ag, there are provisions in the ordinance to allow its cultivation without overturning the whole thing (e) no genetically engineered (unlabelled!) food products sold in grocery stores are affected, the ordinance applies to crops ONLY. - vbrandon Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:21:18 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8624 idea what an impact and news item this is/was, until I needed to go to Burlingame yesterday... literally every radio channel I flipped to included this as a news item....explaining of course where Lake County was!!! - lenny Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:56:32 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8622 We are the leader!!!! Can\'t you smell it? I sure can. All the genetically enginered marijuana growing in back yards throughout the county. It would be a shame if a mutant clone pot plant got created and wiped out the harvest. The other bad thought is if it got graffed with the pear trees in the county ("pot head pears"). I can see the ag commissioner with a bunch of bureaucrats talking with a pot-head medicinal backyard farmer about the origin of his planting stock. This whole thing is stupid. It hurts consumers and growers (food and grape). - COMMONSENSE Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:38:22 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8614 vote on the introduction of new, untested medications to the consumer? Should the public vote on untested, revolutionary surgical procedures? Since when did the average citizen acquire the credentials to okay or reject new science? YOU VOTE WITH YOUR POCKET BOOK AS A CONSUMER, or at least YOU COULD IF THESE PRODUCTS WERE LABELED, as they are in MOST OTHER DEMOCRACIES. - Raphael Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:40:11 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8606 I posted that last post not egbjr, something is messing up the posts in the system again. - purplegirl Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:07:25 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8605 \"Shall we put all drugs submitted for market approval up to a vote to the peeps also?\" Good point. This is our FOOD we are talking about not just some plants we are planting for fun and pleasure. There needs to be some sort of responsibility by our government to protect and inform consumers. You can\'t make an educated choice (or vote) if accurate and current information is not there due to lack of accurate testing, labeling and virtually no regulation when it comes to genetically altered foods. This IS food we are talking about. - egbjr Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:48:46 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8603 it might be a good idea. Just as soon as all the facts are in on it, all the research has been done, EIR\'s completed and testing complete. Then we can take all of the very highly technical information and give it to the flat earth crowd to vote on. Shall we put all drugs submitted for market approval up to a vote to the peeps also? How about a vote on all imports, especially those from China? Hell, let\'s vote on everything and then we have no need for any of the bureaucracies or agencies we now employ. Just being logical. - Donna Christopher Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:03:58 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8601 intentions. It seems to me, though, that this is a topic that we the citizens should be able to investigate on our own, come to our own intelligent conclusions and then VOTE on it! This is a democracy after all. Our board of supervisors is only a few people and should not be making decisions like this on their own. Leave it to the voters. - justbeinglogical Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:10:20 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8596 of it\'s time\' trying to catch Kenny \'doing something wrong\'. Wow - must be why we got the new Sheriff\'s substation here. Gee THANKS KENNY :wink: Are you really up to no good or just a tad paranoid? hehehe - Donna Christopher Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:28:49 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8591 \"He said he knows of no scientific, peer-reviewed document that shows GMO dangers to health. The only concern that has been raised involves a corn that is resistant to the organic compound Bacillus thuringensis (Bt), which has been known to damage the health of livestock.\" I think I am going to print this statement out and frame it. Only a blind man could not see the irony in this statement which in itself supports the opposite argument. Point being, the reason we aren\'t seeing any documentation about test results and harmful effects is because it HASN\"T BEEN TESTED WELL ENOUGH. As far as \"peer reviewed\" documentation goes, aspartame and cigarettes documentation were \"peer reviewed\" and accepted as having \"no danger to health\". This was based not only on \"peer reviewed\" but \"government reviewed\" documents. Obviously, people still don\'t get that there is a tendency to present the positive results and bury the negative to get their products passed for financial gain despite the \"dangers to health\". In fact, we now know that despite the \"peer reviewed documents\" in many cases, products have been deemed safe and have been proven both harmful and deadly, after further time and testing. And, the fact that it can make animals sick should raise a HUGE red flag that it could also have the potential to make humans sick and that it NEEDS to be tested more thoroughly. [color=red][b]Here is something for everyone to think about... concerning the FDA and \"peer reviewed documents\" in regards to Genetically Engineered Food... \"There is no mandatory testing, there is no mandatory labeling, what they did set up is what they call a voluntary consulting process. So, if you\'re putting a new genetically engineered food on the market, you can choose if you wish, to consult with the FDA if you have issues. ... Can you imagine this with drugs? If you tell the drug companies, \"Oh, no, you don\'t have to test, you don\'t have to label your drug, but if you think it\'s going to kill somebody, you should probably consult us.\" I mean, no one would accept that. No one would accept that with car safety, no one would accept that with virtually any aspect of what\'s going on, yet we\'re accepting it with genetically modified food? [/b][/color] - Andrew Kimbrell who runs the Center for Food Safety (CFS) as well as its parent organization, the International Center for Technology Assessment. - purplegirl Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:26:38 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8589 by ANY stretch, it\'s the beginning of a whole new marketing program for Lake County ag products that several growers have been working on for some time, so this is hardly a \"feel good\" measure. Many thanks to Kenny Parlet, Steve Hajik and Brock Zoller for providing us with so much comic relief, Parlet with his near-total flip-out, Hajik with his \"I have no idea how to do my job\" routine, and Zoller with his, \"well, the walnut, rice and forage crop growers will have to work something out\" to protect themselves from contamination from GMO crops, thanks for making it clear that there are no answers for that problem! - smurf Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:03:48 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8583 did GMO\'s become the fabric of America exactly, was it when Benjamin Franklin planted them in his backyard? Special interest groups?...Yeah, I would say that the majority of the US population, the fabric of America, wanting the labeling of these foods, is a very special group to whom the federal government should pay attention, and would if it did its job. - Raphael Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:55:21 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8578 eating unlabeled cloned meat fairly soon, thanks to the government\'s no-choice corporate "free-market" notions (no labeling = no consumer choice = no fair competition between cloned and regular meat producers = putting regular meat producers out of business unless they adopt the new technology!) The rest of the population that does not raise its own meat, is not vegetarian or can\'t afford organic foods will also consume this untested laboratory experiment, like compliant guinea pigs, and this will include young children and adolescents ingurgitating tons of fast food meat. Unless we do something as consumers...which is not impossible. Dean Foods, under pressure from consumers, has publicly rejected milk from cloned cows for its dairy products. Democracy and freedom are uphill battles, not just against world tyrant, but against corporatism, corporations and industries attempting to have more rights, more influence over government than the people do. - Raphael Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:46:36 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8582 Great another feel good vote. These special interest groups are determined to undermine the fabric of America one strand at a time. - bearer Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:47:11 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8581 No matter what you think about this, I think that Ed Robey\'s addition of an exception for \'plants grown indoors for medical purposes\' is downright hypocritical. If GE is unsafe - which it may well be - why is it ok to allow in the county for medical marijuana? Idiocy at its finest. - Hwy175 Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:28:25 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8573 and the FDA are bullied by the administration to not do their job, so that a product or technology can be pushed faster on the marketplace, it takes the courts, the only power in this nation that is still keeping us from total governmental corruption and oligarchy, to force these agencies to live up to their responsibilities to the public (Bush the decider decided their responsibilities were to industry and the corporate bottom line). Too bad this issue has become political and argued by a couple of confused conservative board members along narrow ideological lines...the food we ingest is neither Republican nor Democrat, neither are the crops. To get the FDA and the USDA to do their jobs (proper studies, as is required by law) is not a political agenda, it is not a conspiracy. About "taking tools away from farmers", nothing has been taken away, it is simply placed on hold, the way DDT, another very convenient farming tool of a different kind, should have been placed on hold and properly studied before being released into the environment. And Alfalfa is not the only crop Lake County should be concerned about...GE grapes are coming, next will be pears, and eventually anything that grows. The board has made a sensible, practical, common sense decision to protect not only the farming community, but the public, until these products are proven safe. Next we must fight, as consumers, at the national level to get these food products labeled, for if farmers claim the right to have a choice to use this technology, consumers must claim the equal right to have a choice whether to ingest these products, whether to expose their infants and young children to them. How can we have a functional free market without basic consumer choice? The industry does not want labeling and has forced its agenda on the government and its bureaucracies, thinking a large part of the public might otherwise reject its products...so the industry did not want to take a chance, and has essentially made competition, the very foundation of the free market, so far impossible. The local farmers are talking about competition, but there is no fair competition as far as the consumer is concerned, what the farmers mean is keeping up with a stealth technology, an unfairly applied technology whose end-products cannot be openly tested with the consumer according to free market principles, only sneaked in covertly, in other words imposed...so much for "choice" and "competition". The GE industry has even attempted to prevent non GMO products from being advertised and labeled as such...so much for the GE industry\'s version of the free-market! Should corporate interests continue to trump consumers\' interests, as has been allowed under the Bush administration, as would be allowed under any corrupt administration, whether Democrat or Republican? (corporate profits, like crops, are apolitical...they are opportunist, and grow wherever conditions are optimum, regardless of consequences). - Raphael Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:32:02 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8577 :oops: Too bad we can not tie up all those infavor of this...and forse feed then on meat from cattle forced fed this crap....Just a thought!!!! - Littlered56 Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:04:04 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6055/919/#comment-8574 With so many issues to stay on top of, I must admit this is not one I follow closely. However, my gut instinct tells me tinkering with nature is not such a good idea. Thanks Denise, Ed, and Anthony for approving this measure to ban GE crops. - ccolelewis Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:20:42 +0100