Comments for GE ban ordinance postponed as board considers changes at http://lakeconews.com , comment 1 to 13 out of 13 comments http://lakeconews.com Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:06:26 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8976 Will this also keep the supermarkets from selling this GE produce. If the county keeps people from growing it, the county should keep people from selling it. Not to mention that corn isn\'t the crop this county needs to be worried about. - cale_page Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:44:45 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8974 Here is the problem: Proponents of this measure started out saying GMO crops are dangerous. If that is indeed the case, then the exception inserted by Mr. Robey for \'medical plants grown indoors\' is dangerous as well. You can\'t have it both ways - if GMO alfalfa (not eaten by people) is not safe, certainly GMO marijuana - (smoked by sick people) is horribly risky. You can\'t have it both ways. Now the main argument being made is that a GMO ban is a valuable marketing tool. If that is the case, let the market take care of it - don\'t try to force something with a heavy handed ban. Do we really want to ban GMO wine grape rootstock? Look at dairy farmers in Humbolt County. They saw a market advantage in producing RBGH free milk, and have used that to promote their product. No government regulation needed. Finally - If Phil Murphy\'s small patch of pear trees make him a farmer, then Lakeport is an industrial sea port. - Hwy175 Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:19:35 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8973 We had GE corn in the 40\'s. It was called hybrid corn. It hasn\'t hurt anyone! All corn today is modified from its original state. - barryslogin Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:05:45 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8971 I can\'t believe that people like Bearer are still buying into the \'we\'ve been doing genetic engineering for thousands of years\'! He also states that we have zero facts. Good God! Bearer and anyone else who sincerely just doesn\'t see why we are concerned, will you please give me a few minutes of your time so I can explain to you what\'s going on? Please email me at sarahryan@post.com and we can talk about this over coffee or in an email or by phone. I just can\'t let people remain in ignorance. Perhaps they only watch Fox and just don\'t know about these things. - bearer Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:39:34 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8970 \"Salmon will never mate with tomatos\" That blurb shows exactly how far out of touch from reality the emotionalisim actually is. In a your perfect world smurf, the septic truck would come to your house once a month to get fertilizer. - bearer Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:36:45 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8968 we KNOW that the corn in question requires large amounts of glyphosate to be used on the entire crop at least twice EVERY year, when glyphostae use goes up so dramaticly it means the day when glyphostae becomes useless is coming much sooner. That means we will have to use stronger and more expensive herbicides to control the weeds that have develpoed glyphosate-resistance, which is bad for the grower and environment but good for the chemical companies. The genetics involved in GE crops are nothing like conventional hybrids, only the truly ignorant or deceitful would suggest they are. Salmon will never mate with tomatos, and the worst part about new technologies is that the downsides are so oftentimes difficult to predict. - smurf Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:29:13 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8967 Supervisor Denise Rushing said “The Japanese have decided to wait for 10 years and let American [color=red]children be the guinea pigs[/color].” Donna,all citizens are connected to planes,trains,and autos. There is no part of our material life that does not have one of those involved. Food would not be dispersed. My point is, the buzzword GE is a scare word. Look at what you eat now. Fruits, and vegetables have been genetically engineered for thousands of years. What is grafting two different types of fruit into a new fruit? Is that anything other then genetic engineering? Banning newer more efficient produce is counterproductive. Are we supposed to believe that we will create a super bacteria from corn? Even if we venture into that fantasy, who who is to say it would not be beneficial to man? Seriously, who would have ever thought a moldy piece of bread would have saved millions of lives? - bearer Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:25:20 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8966 and automobiles may not be the best examples - many people go without any of those EVER in their lives. Substitute those three words with one word - food, short life if you go without that. So seriously folks, all this brouhaha is over a patch of corn used for a maze??? Is that all it\'s good for??? I\'d love to hear from that grower what the difference is between mazes. - Donna Christopher Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:09:34 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8964 \"[i]Reading that statement gives me the feeling that her statement is based on her not getting support or the answer she wanted[/i].\" Not at all -- I wasn\'t among those who attempted to reach out to the Farm Bureau last spring (possibly I should have been), and the individuals who DID make the attempt were told that there was nothing to discuss. To the best of my knowledge no one involved has raised "save the children" as a motivation though I suppose in the broadest sense it is (or should be) behind everything we do. I continue to stand behind the precautionary principle as one -- among many -- wise guidelines for evaluating proposed actions. - vbrandon Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:36:55 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8963 \"Sierra Club Lake Group Chair Victoria Brandon agreed that the rights of growers should be addressed. She said proponents of the GE ban had attempted to initiate a discussion with the Farm Bureau earlier this year, but the effort didn\'t get a positive reception\". Reading that statement gives me the feeling that her statement is based on her not getting support or the answer she wanted. This issue smells of a special interest group attempting to intimidate an agenda with zero facts and a lot of it might be. They use the \"save the children\" clause to garner support. I suppose we should all envision children growing an few extra extremities because of GEs. Using tag lines such as “precautionary principle” to ban something that has been yet to be proven anything more then experimental is absurd. Precautionary principle could have been easily used to describe planes trains and automobiles. Then again, perhaps, if they had been banned we would not have an energy problem. - bearer Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:09:20 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8961 [quote=smurf]it\'s my understanding that the grower has had three plantings of GE corn so far, which means the plants have been in the ground for less than three years as corn is a a Spring planting crop. It\'s absurd to suggest this is farming, as it has nothing at all to do with the production of food or fiber, it\'s only purpose was as a tourist attraction for children, hardly a reason to put the whole new ag marketing program in the dumper-unless you\'re Rob Brown![/quote] [quote]a Lake County GE-free zone would have no negative impact whatsoever on local agriculture[/quote] Let me get this right, the only someone with the GE crop in question which is causing all of these delays is using GE corn as a seasonal tourist attraction for children? I am actually nearly speechless on that one. I don\'t even know how to respond to that other than asking if anyone else is disturbed by this. - purplegirl Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:51:07 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8958 The hostility that this proposal has provoked is more than slightly ironic since practically speaking a Lake County GE-free zone would have no negative impact whatsoever on local agriculture. We\'ve heard a lot about the potential benefits of engineered crops (drought tolerance, better nutrition) but crops that could offer such benefits are still in the earliest experimental stage -- no actual farmers will be planting them for a long time, if ever. And as Broc Zoller stated at Tuesday\'s meeting, Lake County\'s actual agricultural products -- grapes, pears, walnuts -- are so \"minor\" (his word) that biotech companies have no incentive to invest the human and financial resources needed to develop genetically engineered varieties -- meaning that restrictions on the cultivation of GE crops would in practice inconvenience no one. The only exception would be the grower of one small corn maze, and Coalition participants have already expressed their willingness to make any reasonable accommodations necessary to prevent that operation from being adversely impacted. It is indisputable that the choices made by many consumers are influenced by health concerns, and by environmental consequences, and are willing to pay premium prices for products (for example, organic produce) that meets those concerns. This premium could be augmented for products grown in a GE-free environment, IF (as has been repeated many times) GE-free status was incorporated in a comprehensive marketing campaign. On Tuesday the Supervisors clearly expressed their desire for the opposing sides to come together to try to find a solution that we can all live with. I\'m not any sort of farmer and would never presume to speak for the ag community, but I do believe that a dialog of that sort could be productive if everyone involved approaches it in a spirit of open-mindedness and good will. - vbrandon Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:38:40 +0100 http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6240/919/#comment-8957 it\'s my understanding that the grower has had three plantings of GE corn so far, which means the plants have been in the ground for less than three years as corn is a a Spring planting crop. It\'s absurd to suggest this is farming, as it has nothing at all to do with the production of food or fiber, it\'s only purpose was as a tourist attraction for children, hardly a reason to put the whole new ag marketing program in the dumper-unless you\'re Rob Brown! - smurf Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:29:45 +0100