Willamette Valley farmers in Oregon have been up against Industrial Ags planting GMO crops that threaten a booming seed industry. Using methods from a national growing populist movement they created a Community Bill of Rights, giving them a chance to go up against the Big Guys like Monsanto and Syngenta, while preserving their rights to a local food system. The Local Food System Ordinance would protect “Conventional” and “Organic” farmers from further crop contamination by GMO’s being planted. Benton and Lane Counties have written similar Bills of Rights. Benton County’s is on the May 2015 Ballot in Oregon under Measure 2-89. Over 160 county’s nationwide have written Community Bills of Rights that have banned Factory Farming, Fracking and Waste Dumping. Benton County is the first to attempt to ban GMO’s through a CR method.
For more information and to read the initiative, go HERE.
Tags: 2-89, benton county oregon, community bill of rights, family farm, Farm Wars, farmwars, genetic engineering, GMO, gmo ban
Barb’s Note: The Polish people are serious about protecting the family farmer’s right to refuse GMOs and the corporate control that comes with them. We in the US could learn a bit from them when it comes to commitment.
Jadwiga Lopata and Sir Julian Rose, Vice President and President ICPPC
This week thousands of Polish family farmers from the Solidarity trade union turned out to protest in over 50 locations across the country. Over 150 tractors have been blockading the A2 motorway into Warsaw since the 3rd February and hundreds more have closed roads and are picketing governmental offices in other regions. The farmers are vowing to continue the struggle until the government agrees to enter talks with the union and commit to addressing what they see as a crisis in Polish agriculture.
These actions represent a dramatic escalation of protests that have been simmering across the country over the last year. Edward Kosmal, chairman of the farmers protest committee for West-Pomeranian Region said: “We are ready for dialogue. We look forward to meeting with you Prime Minister and beginning a comprehensive government commitment to solving the problems of Polish agriculture. If you do not enter into a dialogue with the Union, we would be forced to tighten our forms of protest.”
The four key demands of the farmers are:
-
Land rights – implement regulation to prevent land-grabs by Western companies and to protect family farmers rights to land – (NB. From 2016 foreign buyers will be legally able to buy Polish land).
-
Legalize direct sales of farm produce – the government must take action to improve farmers’ position in the market, including the adoption of a law to facilitate direct sales of processed and unprocessed farm products (NB. Poland has the most exclusionary policies in Europe around on-farm processing of food products and direct sales, which make it impossible for family farmers to compete with bigger food companies).
-
Extend inheritance laws to include land under lease as a fully legal form of land use.
-
Ban the cultivation and sale of Genetically Modified Organisms in Poland
Quotes from Solidarity farmers trade union press releases on the 2nd and 3rd of February:
“We demand a legal ban on GM crops in Poland. The value of Polish agriculture, unique in Europe, is the unpolluted environment and high quality food production. That’s decisive concerning our competitiveness in global markets.”
“We are entitled to conclude that the European Union blindness deprives people in our country from thinking in terms of the importance of development for Polish citizens, and thus the Polish economy”
“We demand the introduction of legislation that will protect Polish land from exploitation by foreign capital! Agricultural land cannot be sold to commercial companies. It’s part of Polish territory. Once sold it will be lost.”
FHOTOS AND FILMS FROM PROTEST HERE IN THE BOTTOM:
http://landworkersalliance.org.uk/2015/02/polish-farmers-blockade-motorways-across-country/
Jadwiga Lopata and Sir Julian Rose, Vice President and President ICPPC
==========================
ICPPC – International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside,
34-146 Stryszów 156, Poland tel./fax +48 33 8797114 biuro@icppc.pl
www.icppc.pl www.gmo.icppc.pl www.eko-cel.pl
Tags: family farmer, Farm Wars, farmwars, GMO, icppc, land rights, poland, protest, warsaw
Letter from R. Mason MB ChB FRCA to Public Health England
“We now live in a world where it is considered beneficial and necessary to spray poison over all our food and to add more poison (dye, preservatives, flavor enhancers, etc) in processing our food. Then we take more poison to counteract the poisons. Beam me up Scotty, the inmates are insane.” Dr Nancy Swanson; on the history of how corporations have successfully changed the laws in the US to poison our food: 03/04/2014.1
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Scandal_of_Glyphosate_Reassessment_in_Europe.php
The German Rapporteur Member State recommended re-approval of glyphosate to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Professor Dr Dr Andreas Hensel President of the Federal Institute of Risk Assessment (BfR) at a Press release in March 2014 said on behalf of BfR:“These new studies do not suggest that glyphosate has carcinogenic or embryo-damaging properties or that it is toxic to reproduction in test animals. The data do not warrant any significant changes in the limit values of the active ingredient… Worldwide, glyphosate is one of the most common active ingredients in pesticides used to prevent unwanted plant growth in plant cultivation or to accelerate the ripening process of crops (desiccation). Glyphosate inhibits an enzyme (5-enolpyruvylshikimate- 3-phosphate synthase) which is essential for the biosynthesis of certain amino acids. This enzyme is not found in animals and humans.“ 2
This final statement by the German BfR is wrong: glyphosate poisons humans in the same way as it poisons plants. Pesticide scientists and plant scientists have based their assessment of herbicides on complete ignorance of human physiology. UK physicians have failed to question the accuracy of the assessors‘ knowledge. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: disease, Farm Wars, farmwars, genetic engineering, glyphosate, GMO, human gut microbe, monsanto, rosemary mason
Tags: Barbara H. Peterson, dusty dan, Farm Wars, farmwars, genetic engineering, GMO, Health, logic, monsanto
