"Monsanto Laws" Sweeping the Nation-House Bill 671, Senate Bill 631

[chlamor]

"Monsanto Laws" Sweeping the Nation Take Away Community/County Rights to Ban GMOs

From: The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina) <http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columns/story/2420322p-8797890c.html

May 19, 2005

A growing stake in the biotech crops debate By HOPE SHAND CARRBORO -- Goodness grows in North Carolina? Not if the General Assembly approves bills that would pre-empt local regulations on genetically modified crops and trees.

House Bill 671 and Senate Bill 631 aim to prevent towns, counties or cities from passing any ordinance, regulation or resolution to control any kind of plant or plant pest (including invasive plant species). The bills would usurp local control by making the state Department of Agriculture the only body in North Carolina with the authority to regulate plants.

These bills are not a homegrown initiative, but part of a nationwide biotech industry campaign. Similar bills, containing identical language, have cropped up in at least nine other states as part of a campaign by industry to prevent citizen initiatives like those passed in three California counties last year that prohibited cultivation of genetically modified crops.

Proponents of the seed pre-emption bills, including the Agriculture Department, are championing the interests of corporate "gene giants" such as Monsanto and Syngenta -- not citizens. Whether you're for or against genetically modified seeds, the pre-emption bills represent an anti-democratic measure to take control away from communities. Just as the corporate hog industry won legislation to prohibit local jurisdictions from keeping out supersize hog farms in North Carolina, now the gene giants are trying to muzzle debate by eliminating options for local regulation of genetically modified crops.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/laws052005.cfm

[spooked911]

1. That is outrageous and sounds like it will piss a lot of people off

Heck, this is the kind of thing that makes people secede from a country or overthrow the government.

Just fucking outrageous. Fucking bio-facists.

[Cha]

2. It's really freakin' scary

what's happening to our very right to eat healthy food ..all in the name of corporate power.

I know some people who come in our co-op who support pataki and bush but verily Love our organic produce..I don't think they would be too happy with this shyte in New York.

"Gene Giants", indeed!

What's it gonna take to wake up the dozing masses..before it's too late?

[havocmom]

3. Forcing farmers to buy corporation seed year after year instead of

saving their own seed for corps is the REAL danger of GM foods. Patented plants find their way into a field (DNA verified) via dropped seeds along roadways, birds & rodents carrying seed, pollination, and Monsanto sues the farmer for patent violation.

Third world farmers cannot afford GM seed year after year. US and Canadian farmers get sued when GM crops pollute their fields.

When corporations own the seeds, food is gonna get hard to come by. You unhappy about oil companies controlling your gas tank? How ya gonna feel when Monsanto owns your belly?

[Eloriel]

4. And just in time, too

Revealed: health fears over secret study into GM food
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1490785&mesg_id=1490785

[chlamor]

5. Food Slander Laws in 13 States

There are 13 states in the USA which currently have passed anti-free speech, anti-activist food slander laws:
Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan (passed just last week), Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas.

"Food Slander" Is Now a Crime

by Gar Smith

On August 17, a group of activists dumped a mixture of Diet Coke, NutraSweet (aspartame) and rBGH-enhanced milk (produced from cows injected with genetically engineered hormones) onto the pavement at Atlanta's Cheshire Bridge Shopping Center.

The demonstration, sponsored by the Pure Foods Campaign (PFC), took its inspiration from the Boston Tea Party. But while dumping tea was considered a patriotic act in Boston Harbor, dumping soda, sweetener and milk is considered a crime in Georgia.

"Food slander" laws, in force in Georgia and at least ten other states, make it a civil crime to denigrate or criticize food products without a "scientific basis," explained PFC coordinator Ronnie Cummings. "Industry lobbyists admit that these laws are probably unconstitutional... their real purpose is to intimidate activists and concerned consumers."

<snip>

In Georgia, South Dakota, Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Colorado and Louisiana it is now against the law to publicly criticize corporate food products under so-called "food disparagement" laws promoted by agriculture, chemical and biotechnology industry lobbyists. Similar laws are under consideration in Ohio and Illinois. "These laws are intended to curtail the right to free speech, to make it illegal to hand out leaflets or to dump rBGH milk in the gutter," Cummings charged.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/slancrime.html