We have arrived at a crossroads in modern history:
Biodemocracy or
Biotechnology. Although organic and sustainable farming is
the fastest
growing component of world agriculture, 150 million acres of
genetically
engineered (GE) crops are planted across the U.S., Canada,
Argentina,
and China.
These Frankencrops are damaging public health, polluting the
environment, contaminating organic crops, and steadily
turning the
world's 2.4 billion farmers and rural villagers into
bioserfs.
After a decade of steady growth, Monsanto and the Gene
Giants have run
into a stubborn wall of resistance, even in the United
States. On March
2, 2004 Mendocino County California became the first county
in the U.S.
to ban GE crops and animals. Now activists in dozens of
counties across
the country are organizing to implement similar bans.
To help defend the Mendocino ban and spread GE-Free zones
throughout the
Americas, the Organic Consumers Association has launched a
new campaign called the Biodemocracy Alliance.
But of course the biotechnology industry and corporate
agribusiness are
determined to stamp out this Biodemocracy movement before it
spreads any
further. Major grassroots victories over the past three
weeks in
Australia and Britain--where public pressure has kept GE
bans or
moratoriums in place, despite all-out lobbying by the White
House--have
put the Biotechnocrats on red alert. An unholy alliance,
whom we've
dubbed the "Terminators," have stepped forward to terminate
citizens'
democratic rights to legislate their own laws on genetically
engineered
foods and crops.
As Allan Noe, the Vice-President of Crop Life International,
a front
group for Monsanto and corporate agribusiness, told the San
Francisco
Chronicle on March 30, "We're looking at a number of things
to remedy
the situation... a court challenge to Mendocino's ban, an
attempt to
pass state legislation to prevent counties passing such bans
or persuade
the federal government, which regulates biotech products, to
halt local
bans."
Underscoring the biotech industry's contempt for public
opinion, the
California Rice Commission approved the nation's first
commercial
planting of a highly controversial pharmaceutical
drug-spliced
genetically engineered rice on March 29, despite warnings
from the
Consumers Union, the OCA and other groups that this Pharm
rice, spliced
with human genetic material, would endanger public health
and pollute
the environment.
This Biodemocracy petition (see below) will help the OCA put
pressure on
three of the ringleaders of the Terminators: California
Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Monsanto, and the Farm Bureau. We are
watching the Terminators' every move, and will hold
accountable those who move to suppress democracy and force
an evermore unpopular technology, genetic engineering, down
our throats.
To:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Monsanto Company
800 North Lindbergh Boulevard
St. Louis, MO-63167
California Farm Bureau
2300 River Plaza Drive
Sacramento, CA 95833
There is mounting evidence that genetically engineered
foods, crops, and animals pose unacceptable risks for public
health, the environment, and the survival of family farms
and traditional rural communities.
Therefore, we the undersigned, declare that people and
communities across the United States and the world have an
inalienable right to pass laws banning the cultivation and
production of genetically engineered crops and animals.
Any government, elected official, judicial body,
corporation, or trade association interfering with this
basic right is guilty of the crime of suppressing democracy
and will be held accountable.
