Farmers Sign On to GE-Moratorium Pledge at Augusta Trades Show

On January 8,9 and 10, 2002, Co-op Voices Unite!, the political arm of the food co-ops of Maine, manned a booth at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show in Augusta. The group, an educational lobbying organization that represents the 6,000-member, $7 million market of Maine’s 14 food co-ops, was pleased to represent the “alternative point of view” to all farmers of Maine who may be contemplating growing genetically altered crops. CVU’s major thrust at the show was to ask Maine farmers to voluntarily sign a pledge for a three-year moratorium on knowingly planting GE crops within the state.

The booth created a sensation: Seventy new pledges were gained, creating a farmland total of 30,000 GE-free acres, which is nearly three times as much land as the total certified organic farm acreage. During the Trades Show, CVU saw that the farmers who were most concerned about the GE issue were those growing feed for livestock and poultry. Dairy farmers who grow soy and corn were looking for direction from the University of Maine and from agriculture commissioner Bob Spear as to which stance the state was going to take toward GE crops.

Maine is at a fork in the road. The state’s farmers may be in a unique position because the corn grown within Maine may be unpolluted by GE pollen drift, as opposed to most of the corn grown in the Midwest and Canada. Archer, Daniels, Midland Co. pays premium prices for non-GE corn and soybeans. International prices on the marketplace don’t concern Maine feed growers so much as many other pending issues related to GE, such as lower yields of corn and soy after growing the GE crops for four or five years; quality and nutrition of the crop; or the creation of superweeds that demand additional, expensive and harsh applications of herbicides. Legal problems that farmers across Canada and the United States are embroiled in because of pollen drift from Roundup Ready corn and canola are pressing, as well. Although Maine is a microcosm for some of its crops, CVU reminded those attending the Trades Show that the rest of the world does not want this technology and is passing labeling laws, moratoriums, or altogether banning GMOs from their countries.

Co-op Voices Unite! has been working with food issues for over three years, especially with genetically modified organisms. The group was successful, along with MOFGA, in lobbying for passage of GE cross-contamination legislation in the previous legislative session. Working together again, they will present a bill before the fall 2002 Legislature asking for a moratorium on planting of all GE crops. This 2002 moratorium bill will have the support of hundreds of Maine farmers who already pledged not to grow GE crops.

Our sister state of Vermont is working on a similar moratorium: a town-to-town vote against GE crops. Thirty towns have already passed legislation. Future plans to spread to all of New England are in the works.

Any farmers wishing to sign CVU’s moratorium pledge may call 207-359-2282.

--Leslie Cummins, CVU