Genetically Modified Plants
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Genetically Modified Plants
- From: S* Y*
- Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 08:48:43 -0800
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year to one of the most wonderful group of folks on the Internet!
I am continuously amazed at the knowledge, grace, humor, excellent
writing, kindness and wisdom of this group, even when folks are
disagreeing. The contrast between this group and my other main email group
(computer geeks- for work) is always refreshing.
On a bit of a tangent, I'm asking for some advice. For our international
friends, California is an odd state in that it is possible for regular
folks to get a piece of legislation on the ballot, thus bypassing the
legislature and politicians completely. Sometimes this leads to very odd
legislation. Sometimes it leads to good things.
An organic farmer in Sonoma has decided to organize an initiative that
would require the labelling of foods with genetically engineered organisms
(GMOs). I can see both sides of this- on the one hand, it is good to know
what one is eating and how it gets there. On the other hand, it will be an
excuse for companies to raise the price of food. The companies argue that
since scientists have not found GMOs unsafe, they don't need labelling.
However, there have been some recent studies showing that this might not be
completely true. And this group also knows better than most that genes in
plants are fairly mobile.
In Europe, I believe GMOs are not generally accepted. This is leading to
interesting trade difficulties with US agriculture trying to basically cram
the GMOs down the EU's throat by using the WTO. I think a similar debate
does not occur in this country because most folks don't realize how much of
their food contains GMOs. Most of the soy and corn in this country comes
from genetically engineered seed.
Does anyone have ideas about good ways to gather signatures? For
California ballot initiatives, the requirements are quite stringent so it
basically must be done in person. My current ideas are to setup a booth in
front of the local organic food store, farmer's market, etc. If anyone
knows of gathererings that would have a receptive audience, please let me
know.
If you're interested in more information, see http://www.calrighttoknow.org.
Thanks!
Sunia
Menlo Park, California
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunia Yang Networking Systems
Senior Network Specialist Stanford University
sunia@stanford.edu 241 Panama Street
(650)723-3543 Stanford CA 94305-4122
