A battle is being waged in Oregon’s grocery stores, wheat and sugar beet fields, restaurant tables and pantry shelves. The long-simmering national debate over genetically modified organisms figures to hit fever pitch this summer, with Oregon at the forefront. Three separate but related events last month built momentum here for the crusade against GMOs:
- On May 15, the grassroots group Oregon Right to Know launched a statewide initiative campaign to require labeling of all GMO food products.
- On May 20, voters in Southern Oregon’s Jackson and Josephine counties approved measures to ban the growth of genetically engineered crops. Benton and Lane county voters may see similar ballot measures this fall.
- On May 24, an estimated 6,000 people rallied in downtown Portland in the second-annual March Against Monsanto. Elsewhere that day, activists marched in 46 other states and 52 countries on six continents.
“A lot of us are just beginning to understand what GMOs are,” says local mom and backyard gardener Susan Laarman. “It’s been kind of a secret.”
Part of the national frenzy has to do with events in Oregon. In April 2013, a discovery by a Pendleton wheat farmer found that his crop tested resistant to the herbicide glyphosate. In fact, tests showed it was a variety of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready.
Immediately, Japan and Korea suspended their purchase of wheat from Oregon because they don’t buy GMO-contaminated crops. Hundreds of millions of dollars in wheat exports were at risk. Asia has since resumed purchases after further tests showed no contaminants, but the story “put Oregon on the map,” Laarman says.
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“It pointed out the vulnerability to farmers not able to sell their crops if they’re tainted with GMOs,” she says. “The market is still shaky and farmers are still nervous because prices have fluctuated, and this is Oregon’s main agricultural export crop. There’s too much to risk.”
Read the full, original article: Oregon now epicenterof national GMO debate
