4/11/05

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1. Take Action: Oppose CAFTA!
2. Colorado Ranchers and Conservationists Fight Oil Exploration 
3. Update: Syngenta's Lost Corn Has Antibiotic-Resistant Gene
4. Scientists Sound Warning On BioPharm Crops

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TAKE ACTION: OPPOSE CAFTA! 

Next week, the Senate will begin consideration of The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which was signed last year but still requires ratification. CAFTA is a regional agreement between the US and five Central American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic,and Guatemala. 

CAFTA would eliminate agricultural tariffs much like NAFTA did—while prohibiting the use of price supports or supply management systems to establish fair commodity prices. Like NAFTA, CAFTA could also force countries to relax environmental, health and/or public safety standards if they are 
shown to interfere with trade by curtailing a company's investments. 

CAFTA would also increase the power of biotech companies and agro-chemical companies at the expense of farmers in the U.S. and in Central America. Over 100 organizations recall the adverse effects of the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) and are opposing CAFTA. Wednesday, April 13 is a national call-in day to oppose CAFTA. If you are interested in participating, contact nffc@nffc.net. 


COLORADO ALLIANCE OF RANCHERS AND CONSERVATIONISTS FIGHT OIL EXPLORATION

In Colorado ranchers and farmers suffer from irresponsible oil and gas exploration that often disrupts production and pollute groundwater. Last week a broad alliance of ranchers and conservationists in Colorado lost an attempt in the state legislator to advance a bill that would have ensured fair negotiations between producers and the energy extraction industries. 

Surrounding the legislative efforts were horror stories about the blatant disregard of private property by gas and oil companies. One corn grower reported how an oil company would "show up during harvest time and place a pump in the middle of your field." Others report oil spilling into fields and water tables disrupting production and polluting resources. 

Current federal regulations strongly favor big gas and oil companies and Colorado producers had hoped to pass local control legislation similar to legislation now in effect in eight other Western states. In defeating the effort BushGreenWatch reported that, "The industry (also) called hundreds of constituents in all 11 Committee members' districts, telling them that if 1219 passed, their gas bill would immediately sky-rocket."

UPDATE: SYNGENTA'S LOST CORN HAS ANTI-BIOTIC RESISTANCE GENE

New information has just been released about an unapproved strain of genetically modified corn Syngenta "accidentally" sold for four years. The product, Bt10, contains a gene resistant to the commonly used antibiotic, ampicillin. 

Syngenta, along with the EPA and USDA, which are jointly in charge of investigating the case in both the U.S. and E.U., did not release news of the gene until a week after the company originally admitted the mistake. They said they didn't believe the information was relevant to the health and safety discussion and that the gene was dormant in crops grown from Bt10 seeds. Globally, scientists, doctors, environmentalists and food safety advocates worry that releasing  these genes into the environment could lead to an aggravation of the growing antibiotic resistance problem.

SCIENTISTS SOUND WARNING ON BIOPHARM CROPS 

A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists concludes that genetic engineering of corn and soybean to produce pharmaceutical and industrial substances poses a severe risk of contamination of the food supply--unless substantial changes are made to the commodity production and management practices applied to pharma crops. 

In the report, titled "A Growing Concern," the  scientists found that pharma crop contamination of the food supply is likely through one of two major routes: physical mixing of pharma and food seed during production, harvest, storage, transport and handling; and cross-pollination of pharma and food crops. 

While pointing out that biopharming has the potential to yield "useful products that would have beneficial effects on human and animal health," UCS recommends immediately halting outdoor production of pharma food crops and exploring alternatives for pharmaceutical production, such as non-food crops and 
fermentation and cell culture systems. 

Cultivating a vision where rural and urban communities join together
 to ensure abundant family farms, healthy critters, clean water and a wild Earth.  

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Rural Updates!
Scotty Johnson and Aimee Delach
National Rural Community Outreach Campaign
sjohnson@defenders.org