AUGUSTA – Maine’s organic produce community is expected to turn out in force Monday at a public hearing for a three-year moratorium on growing genetically modified or engineered plants.

The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. before the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry at the Cross State Office Building.

LD 1219 – An Act to Establish a Moratorium on Genetically Engineered Plants – is sponsored by Rep. Linda Rogers McKee, D-Wayne, the House chairman of the Agriculture Committee.

The bill would establish a three-year moratorium on planting or cultivating genetically engineered plant parts, seeds or plants out-of-doors, or in greenhouses for commercial crop production. The moratorium would begin this October and end in 2006.

That would give the Maine Department of Agriculture time to prepare a marketing plan that uses the moratorium as a promotional tool for Maine’s agricultural products.

Leslie Cummins of Co-op Voices Unite! – a grass-roots, anti-GMO [genetically modified organisms] group – said, “A moratorium for three years will give the time for both sides to present their points of view and for the government to test these crops for safe consumption, and give environmental safety to farmers who are hard-pressed by lawsuits across the country because of pollen drift.”

“More and more evidence is emerging that these products are indeed directly harmful to a person’s health and to the soil,” Cummins continued. “We as a group hope to highlight the religious and philosophical concerns about the unnatural crossing of species boundaries to produce unknown and unlabeled foods.”

Cummins said many of the approximately 6,200 farmers in Maine were contacted regarding the issue and urged to write letters to their state representatives and senators, as well as attend any legislative hearings to testify in favor of the ban.

Sharon Tisher, chairperson of the Public Policy Committee of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, recently wrote in favor of LD 1219.

“To put Maine agriculture on the map, and give real meaning to ‘Get Real, Get Maine!’, consumers want the choice not to buy GE food,” wrote Tisher.