To: The Oregon State House, The Oregon State Senate, and Governor Kate Brown
STOP SB633 - SAVE LOCAL CONTROL OVER GMO AGRICULTURE
Vote against SB633 which takes away the rights of Oregon Counties to manage their local agriculture. What's right for Linn County may be totally inappropriate for Benton County. This bill is a naked power grab by biotech companies to stop local control.
Why is this important?
Oregon Bill Would Bar Local GE/GMO Policies
Although Washington is getting a lot of buzz on its labeling bill, Oregon is also a hotbed of activity in the fight against genetically engineered (GE) crops. Citizens in Jackson County (in Southern Oregon) have successfully achieved getting a GE crop ban on the May 2014 ballot. Citizens in four other Oregon counties are also hard at work on similar county GE crop bans.
These local policies have been instrumental in eliminating genetically engineered crops in other states. Several counties and cities in California, Hawaii, Washington, and Maine have already adopted policies to ban the growing of GE crops in their counties. Oregon counties should be allowed the same level of local control as these other states. But local policies such as these are now in jeopardy in Oregon due to a biotech industry-backed bill in the Oregon Senate.
The bill, Senate Bill 633, would strip counties in Oregon of their abilities to craft appropriate county-wide seed policies. SB 633 would give exclusive regulatory power over seeds, and products of agricultural seed, to the state, preempting local authority. This would make it impossible to establish local policies which put restrictions or prohibitions on genetically engineered crops.
The bill is being heard in the Senate Committee for Rural Policy and Economic Development on March 12th, so please take action today!
Tell your state Senator to oppose this bill!