GE-Free Petition in Mendocino County CA Will Spark a Major Battle

4,147 sign GM crop petitions

October 10
Ukiah Daily Journal (Calif.)

Now that she's collected what appears to be enough signatures to qualify for
the ballot an initiative banning genetically modified crops in Mendocino
County, Els Cooperrider is bracing for a new battle.

She said the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which has members like
Monsanto, has indicated it might send people to Mendocino County to educate
residents about genetically modified foods.

Monsanto and other corporate giants spent more than $5 million in Oregon
last year to successfully fight the labeling of genetically engineered
foods, Cooperrider noted.

"So we're in for a fight here," she said.

The effort to get the issue on the ballot, on the other hand, was relatively
easy, said Cooperrider, who spearheaded the effort with her husband, Allen.
The couple owns the Ukiah Brewing Company, the country's only certified
organic brew pub.

Cooperrider said she thought she might need to hire signature gatherers
because there wasn't much time to obtain the 2,579 signatures necessary to
qualify for the March ballot. But, by Friday, volunteers had collected
4,147.

"It took six weeks. We didn't have to hire anybody," Cooperrider said. "It
was a great effort."

While the signatures have yet to be verified, the sheer number indicates
likelihood of success, she noted, and county clerk-recorder's officials
agreed.

Of the signatures collected, between 1,500 and 2,000 were collected in
Ukiah; around 1,000 were collected in Willits and Laytonville; and the rest
were from the coast, between Gualala and Fort Bragg, Cooperrider said.

The proposed ordinance is intended to protect Mendocino County's organic
farms, Cooperrider said. Local crops potentially could be contaminated, via
pollination, by genetically modified plants, she said. Such things have been
known to occur, Cooperrider noted.

If that happens, organic farmers could no longer market their produce as
organic, she said.

Even non-organic crops in the county could be adversely affected by the
growing of genetically modified crops, which, as far as anyone knows, has
yet to occur here, Cooperrider said.

Wineries in the county would not be able to market their product in places
like Japan or Europe -- where there is greater opposition to genetically
modified foods -- if there was fear of contamination, she said.

The initiative would affect only the growing of genetically modified crops
in Mendocino County, not their sale in stores, she stressed.

"This is strictly about growing," Cooperrider said. She said food sitting on
grocery-store shelves is not a danger to the local organic industry.

"When (genetically modified) corn comes in on the shelf with your Kelloggs
corn flakes, it may not be a good thing to eat, but if spread into a field,
it won't convert organic crops to genetically engineered crops," Cooperrider
said.

The County Clerk-Recorder's Office estimates it will take about a month to
verify the signatures on the initiative