GMO-Free Boulder

GMO-Free Boulder is "The campaign to rid Boulder County of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) on our public land, in our school lunches, and anywhere else that is tax-payer funded. We are not the human feeding experiment." 

Their website highlights a major problem in Boulder County: the companies who hold the patents on certain seeds are trying to plant GMOs on Boulder County Open Space. The purpose, according to GMO-Free Boulder, is for corporate gain by means of selling these GMOs in the international commodity market. Monsanto is trying to forge their way onto our lands by ensuring control of our agriculture. 

Luckily for us, we Boulderites don't stand for this kind of corporate control and GMO-Free Boulder is an effort towards raising awareness and giving "a voice to the 71% of voters in Boulder County who want GMOs prohibited on public land."

One of the major repercussions for allowing GMO seeds on our open space is that wind carries the seeds and contaminates organic farms that are doing everything they can to stay far away from these patented seeds. Then the farmers who unknowingly are growing GMOs because they blew over from a neighboring farm can get sued by these seed patenting companies like Monsanto for using the seeds without permission. 

GMO-Free Boulder and thousands of local Boulderites have lobbied towards the labeling of GMO foods and banning the use of GMO alfalfa that "would have destroyed the organic dairy farm industry in Boulder County." 

Monsanto had a stroke of luck in 2011 and was allowed to grow GMO sugar beets on public land, and in 2012, "GMO-Free Boulder will continue campaigning to rid GMOs from both public agricultural lands as well as public school lunches."

I love this quote by Ziggy Marley on the top of GMO-Free Boulder's website:

"Genetically Modified Organisms are not something I would feed to myself or my children. The struggle for humanity today and in the years ahead is the struggle to remain free, and especially free from Genetically Modified Organisms as food. Without knowledge, information, choice and a say in society about our food and our land, our basic freedoms are denied. Our lives and our children's lives, the life of earth, plant and seed are today in our hands." 

Below is a video of a Boulder Rally against the use of GMOs (listen to the lyrics of the background music--very relevant!):

GMO-Free Boulder gives us the chance to sign the petition for Colorado legislature to support the labeling of GMOs--I signed it, did you?! 

"That we, the members of the Colorado General Assembly and the people of Colorado, officially declare and recognize universal support in federal labeling of genetically-engineered organisms in food prior to sale."

Damn right we do! I read through the petition and thought it would be useful to show you the most salient statements presented:

1) WHEREAS, Following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (USFDA) approval of the use of genetically-altered material in food in 1992, the growing of genetically-engineered (GE) crops – primarily soybean, corn, alfalfa, cotton, canola and sugar beet – has increased exponentially; and

2) WHEREAS, The Center For Food Safety filed a lawsuit claiming the USDA had violated the law by licensing Monsanto’s GE sugar beets without performing the required study; and

3) WHEREAS, A federal judge ordered that Monsanto’s sugar beet license be revoked until the study was completed; and 

4) WHEREAS, Monsanto’s GE sugar beets comprise more than 95% of the total U.S. sugar beet market; and 

5) WHEREAS, The consumer has a right to know that sugar made from GE sugar beets is genetically-modified; and 

6) WHEREAS, GE foods are currently banned in 50 countries; and

7) WHEREAS, Many companies such as Kraft and Nestle already reformulate their products without GE ingredients for the European Union due to labeling requirements adopted in the EU despite assurances from the U.S. Government that GMO wheat, soy and corn were safe; and 

8) WHEREAS, According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 93% of 2010’s soybean crop was genetically-engineered, and according to the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), GE ingredients are present in about 80% of all conventionally-processed food in the United States; and

9) WHEREAS, Despite widespread agriculture and food industry acceptance of GE organisms, significant public concern (recent polls show more than 90 percent of Americans support GE labeling) exists in respect to the human health and environmental risks associated with the genetic engineering of crops; and

10) WHEREAS, Consumers have the right to know what is in their food in order to make informed choices about whether or not to purchase GE food; and

11) WHEREAS, The U.S. Patent Office is now awarding patents for GE seeds, reversing a century-long policy forbidding patents on living things; and

12) WHEREAS, The county of Boulder, CO has already adopted policy to support federal labeling of genetically-engineered foods; and

I must say, despite the lack of transparency on GMOs and our food system, it does make me happy to see that awareness really is starting to gain traction. I know we live in a city that seriously values health more than most places in this country, but hey--someone has to start saying "No!" to GMOs! 

Go Boulder!