SALEM—A bill to create “control areas” for increased regulation of genetically modified crops in Oregon has died in committee, but the basic idea may be revived.
House Bill 2674 would require the Oregon Department of Agriculture to designate control areas where biotech crops would come under new restrictions, such as isolation distances to prevent cross-pollination with other crops. Genetically modified organisms growing outside control areas would be “subject to eradication.”
Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, said the bill was too narrow in scope to keep alive, since Oregon agriculture faces other conflicts between crops that don’t involve genetic engineering.
For example, growers have similar cross-pollination concerns about canola and related brassica species and between the newly legalized crops of hemp and marijuana, he said.
While Clem allowed the bill to die during an April 21 work session of the House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water, he said there will be an ongoing effort to create a tool for ODA to resolve such disputes.
It’s possible such a proposal will be considered by the House Rules Committee, where bills can stay alive until the end of the legislative session.
Friends of Family Farmers, which supports GMO regulation, favored a more specific mechanism for dealing with biotechnology conflicts, said Ivan Maluski, the group’s policy director.
Biotech crops are unique because herbicide-tolerant varieties can cross with wild relatives, potentially turning them into the equivalent of invasive species, he said.
Foreign markets are also sensitive to GMO presence in crops, Maluski said. “Our preference would have been that we focused very narrowly on the issues surrounding genetic engineering.”
Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an agribusiness group that supports biotechnology, is heartened that HB 2674 has died in committee and plans to oppose similar concepts, said Scott Dahlman, its policy director.
“Coexistence is not enhanced by directing a state department to tell farmers what they can grow and how they can grow it,” he said.
Farmers who own land that’s often been in their family for generations can’t simply move their operations to grow a genetically engineered crop within a designated control area, Dahlman said.
He said such growers would be effectively be cut off from using the newest technology if they aren’t located within a control area.
Oregonians for Food and Shelter is instead supportive of ODA conducting mediation to resolve such conflicts, as proposed in House Bill 2509, which is headed for a vote on the House floor.
“We think that is the way to move forward,” he said.
Source: www.capitalpress.com