We received a mailer from the anti-measure M campaign as did probably most of Sonoma County. This one has allegations that I've not heard before and I'm concerned - I can't see how this could possible be true but with the AMA logo on this one, many people might not question whether it's honest or not.
It claims Measure M will ban cancer treatments, west nile virus vaccine, and numerous other GE medical and veterinary treatments and vaccines.
What's the real story and where can a person find more information to combat this directly?
Thanks!
"Mad" Miles
10-09-2005, 03:24 PM
Just read the ordinance. It can be found at GE Free Sonoma's Website: https://www.gefreesonoma.org/ Click on "Initiative Text" in the left column near the top.
The ordinance does not ban medical treatments derived from genetically engineered organisms. It specifically states:
(b) Nothing in this Ordinance shall make it unlawful for state or federally licensed medical or agricultural research institutions, medical or agricultural laboratories or medical or agricultural manufacturing facilities in Sonoma County to conduct licensed medical or agricultural research or production involving transgenic organisms whose reproduction in the environment can be physically contained (following USDA protocols and guidelines at the BSL-3-Ag containment level or greater as outlined in USDA Departmental Manual No. 9610-001).
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Recombinant DNA drug research is conducted in closed laboratories, not in open fields or greenhouses.
Hope this helps. The scaremongerers are fast at work.
"Mad" Miles
Deb
10-09-2005, 08:48 PM
I have been digging deep into this subject this weekend as I am preparing a speech on GMOs for my public speaking class. I found the reference to the AMA opposition on the League of Women Voters website. If you go to the link and read the 20 page Council on Scientific Affairs report from 2000, from which the AMA makes recommendations, from you will see there is actually support for both sides of the issue. And I would imagine that a lot has developed since 2000.
I feel that the recommendations (adopted AMA policy) have been stretched to benefit those opposed to Measure M. #6 states "...AMA does NOT support a moritorium on planting genetically modified crops, and encourages ongoing reserch ..." I have expressed to the LWV that I don't think that means the AMA has a position on OUR specific measure. Talk about taking things out of context.
#7 states "...AMA recognizes that the government,, industry, and the scientific and medical communties have a responsibility to educate the public and improve the availabitity of unbiased information on genetically modified crops and of research activities." Like that is happening.
The final word is "The AMA will monitor the forthcoming final rule for plant pesticides from the Environmental Protection Agency and respond as appropriate." That was in 2000. I just searched the AMA site and there is nothing more current.
So, you decide how valid the AMA letters are on the oppositions literature.
Poppy Paws
10-10-2005, 08:31 AM
I've received two large glossy cards from anti-M forces, nothing from pro-M.
Who is spending all that money to try to defeat M?
Why do they feel compelled to misrepresent the measure?
I'm thinking Monsanto and friends are very worried.
I hope Sonoma County is not for sale, and is not too gullible to see through these tactics.
Deb
10-10-2005, 11:06 PM
I don't have the answers to pixies questions, but I did just find this great website. It addresses the issues from a well rounded place.
Genetically Engineered Crops "Ruin Fields for 15 Years"
GM crop 'ruins fields for 15 years'
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Published: 09 October 2005 the independent
GM crops contaminate the countryside for up to 15 years after they have been harvested, startling new government research shows (https://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/landing.asp?id=1216).
The findings cast a cloud over the prospects of growing the modified crops in Britain, suggesting that farmers who try them out for one season will find fields blighted for a decade and a half.
Financed by GM companies and Margaret Beckett's Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the report effectively torpedoes the Government's strategy for introducing GM oilseed rape to this country.
Ministers have stipulated that the crops should not be grown until rules are worked out to enable them to "co-exist" with conventional ones. But the research shows that this is effectively impossible.
The study, published by the (https://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/landing.asp?id=1216)Royal Society (https://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/landing.asp?id=1216), examined five sites across England and Scotland where modified oilseed rape has been cultivated, and found significant amounts of GM plants growing even after the sites had been returned to ordinary crops. It concludes that the research reveals "a potentially serious problem associated with the temporal persistence of rape seeds in soil."
The researchers found that nine years after a single modified crop, an average of two GM rape plants would grow in every square metre of an affected field. After 15 years, this came down to one plant per square metre - still enough to break the EC limits on permissible GM contamination.
Last night Pete Riley, the director of GM Freeze, said; "It is becoming clearer and clearer that it is going to be impossible to grow GM crops in Britain."
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This GMO news service is underwritten by a generous grant from the Newman's Own Foundation, edited by Thomas Wittman and is a production of the Ecological Farming Association www.eco-farm.org <https://www.eco-farm.org/ (https://www.eco-farm.org/)
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