In the News: Boulder Banning of GMOs

Organic Consumers Association links us to this article written by Dr. Mercola, an osteopathic physician who runs the website Mercola.com, which is dedicated to natural health from a MD perspective. 

In November 2011, 250 Boulder County residents gathered to discuss GMO crops on county-owned land. Their support, along with the support via the recommendation from Boulder's Food and Agriculture Policy Council, led to the official phasing out of GMOs on our open space. 

Voted 5-4 in support of the council's recommendation to ban GMOs, all 16,000 acres of county-owned land currently using GMOs will be forced to change back to the traditional use of non-GMO seeds! Farmers had petitioned to use GM sugar beets and were turned away after the clear opposition of any use of GMOs in Boulder County. 

The Boulder Daily Camera quotes John Nibarger, Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee member, "There's the voters' side of this, and there's the farmers' side of this...I think we heard rather strongly...(that a lot of voters) don't want to see GM crops."

Check out this article to read more in detail. 

Another interesting recommendation is the Citizens Cropland Policy, which would consider allowing farmers to grow GMOs--but only if they can prove that the benefits outweigh the risks; a task no one seems to be able to do! The policy does call for a GMO ban, but also calls for studies to be done on county cropland soil to see if any health concerns can be attained from the results of soil testing. The boards ended up slightly changing the policy that officially mandated the banning of GMOs:

"Many of the policies in the (Citizens Cropland Policy) reflect what was the starting point for [Cropland Policy Advisory Group] discussions...The majority report (in the draft policy) reflects the changes from a single voice to the chorus of voices that was the intention of the policy development process." 

One organization to check out, called GM Know, posted a bullet-point list of the "guiding principles" of the Citizens Cropland Policy. Some of the highlights include focusing on annual testing of soil quality, "regenerative agricultural practices," ban of GM crops on Boulder County Open Space (BCOS), ban of pesticides glyphosate and neonicotinoid, and management of sustainable livestock grazing practices.