J&J Counties 

Protecting our Farms, our Families, our Future

 

Roption3.jpgecently a group of local farmers in Oregon’s Rogue Valley joined together to create the Our Family Farms Coalition (OFFC). Their first priority: pass the Family Farms Measure (15-119) on May 20, 2014 and keep genetically engineered crops out of Jackson County.

 

Text of the Family Farms Measure

 

15-119 Ordinance to Ban Growing of Some “Genetically-Engineered” (defined) Plants (by initiative petition)

Question: Should Ordinance Ban Growing of “Genetically-Engineered” Plants (defined) in Jackson County and Allow County/Private Persons to Compel Enforcement?

Summary: This ordinance would ban any person from propagating, cultivating, raising or growing “genetically-engineered” (defined) plants in Jackson County.

The Ordinance also:

  • Requires affected persons to harvest, destroy or remove all genetically engineered plants within 12 months of the enactment of the ordinance;
  • Provides exemptions for certain health, educational, scientific and medical research institutions if activities are conducted under secure, indoor laboratory conditions;
  • Allows for inspections of private property by County code enforcement officers after obtaining a search warrant;
  • Allows for enforcement of the ordinance by the County and by private persons or groups through the State court system;
  • Provides for contested hearings and appeals for alleged violations;
  • Allows the County to recover the cost of abatement from the property owner or the person causing the violation;
  • Defines the terms “genetically engineered,” “organic agriculture,” and “organic;”

See the full ordinance

 

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3 Responses to “Kick Genetically Engineered Crops Out of Rogue Valley!”

  1. Patricia Behr says:

    Hooray for these farmers!!!

  2. molecule says:

    This is awesome.

    The OFFC can also organize a subcommittee as a Committee of Correspondence, much as our founders had done in the 1770s to eradicate slavery. The irony of our Constitition is that, through the efforts of the Committees of Correspondence, composed of citizens, artisans, businessmen, producers, consumers, etc., ALL states had agreed to ban slavery. By unanimous agreement, of ALL states, in 1776, the slave trade was over. After ALL states had agreed in 1776 to eradicate slavery, the brotherhood who gave us the Constitution in 1789 snuck slavery back in. The 12-13 years between 1776 and 1789 form the black hole of American history. Most original documents have been destroyed.

    The point is that Committees of Correspondence work. As Oregon’s spontaneous Jackson County Committee of Correspondence, a small group of public minded citizens could maintain maps of the farms (farmers actually) that are poisoning the soils and water supplies of their neighboring farms. (There is no economic reason a farmer would pay extra for GMO seeds, and get lower yields as well, unless they’re using glyphosate as well. It’s the glyphosate that is the precursor-companion to the GMOs.)

    This could bring quiet, gentle, open, and factual, humiliation onto the farmers who are poisoning the crops and water supplies of their adjoining farmers. Using a copy of the county’s tax map as a starter, the Committee could identify the offending farms by coloring them in red. The tax maps are public information.

    By gentle public pressure, the anti-social farmers will get the message and they may voluntarily decide to become human again. The definition of a Marxist is someone who puts “getting money” ahead of doing the right thing.

    To start, the Committee would be very careful not to slander a farm that wasn’t using GMOs (or equally as bad, or maybe even worse, glyphosate). But once a farmer had been notified that the Committee of Correspondence would be holding a public meeting concerning his farming operations, and inviting him to attend and answer charges, and once testimony was gathered from adjoining farmers, the Committee’s map could add the offending farm. Other farmers would quickly get the picture.