Oregon Now Epicenter of National GMO Debate

A battle is being waged in Oregon's grocery stores, wheat and sugar beet fields, restaurant tables and pantry shelves.

June 12, 2014 | Source: Sustainable Life | by Jennifer Anderson

For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page, Millions Against Monsanto page and our Oregon News page.

A battle is being waged in Oregon’s grocery stores, wheat and sugar beet fields, restaurant tables and pantry shelves.

The long-simmering national debate over genetically modified organisms figures to hit fever pitch this summer, with Oregon at the forefront.

Three separate but related events last month built momentum here for the crusade against GMOs:

• On May 15, the grassroots group Oregon Right to Know launched a statewide initiative campaign to require labeling of all GMO food products.

• On May 20, voters in Southern Oregon’s Jackson and Josephine counties approved measures to ban the growth of genetically engineered crops. Benton and Lane county voters may see similar ballot measures this fall.

• On May 24, an estimated 6,000 people rallied in downtown Portland in the second-annual March Against Monsanto. Elsewhere that day, activists marched in 46 other states and 52 countries on six continents.

“A lot of us are just beginning to understand what GMOs are,” says local mom and backyard gardener Susan Laarman. “It’s been kind of a secret.”

Laarman was the volunteer spokeswoman for the local March Against Monsanto, which targets the St. Louis-based biochemical company that produces Roundup pesticides and Roundup Ready pesticide-resistant seeds for farmers. Monsanto bills itself as a “sustainable agriculture company,” but has produced polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polystyrene (Styrofoam), saccharine, aspartame, Agent Orange and dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT).

After the GMO issue put a scare into Oregon’s wheat industry a year ago, everyone from progressives to farmers, Libertarians to environmental activists has been lining up behind the cause.