GMO-free Maine would be boon for state

While the Legislature and the administration have good reasons to be proud of its last session, not all the news coming out of Augusta is rosy. Your article “Senate morphs bill to ban GE crops” (BDN, June 19) reveals some of the seamy, dark side of this Legislature’s activities.

“Our democratic process … subverted … a breach of trust betrayed … faith in the legislative process destroyed,” your article quotes Wayne representative Linda Mckee. “This is the most disappointing thing I have experienced in seven years in the Legislature.” This is strong language from a characteristically gracious and effective legislator. What precipitated this upset was some last minute maneuvering by Sen. Richard Kneeland of Easton at the behest of corporate lobbyists who managed to successfully halt legitimate inquiry into the economic benefits of Maine being free of genetically modified (GM) crops.

While we applaud the governor for health care reform, budget mending and political skills, his agricultural and economic initiatives are stuck in old thinking. To improve our economic prospects Gov. Baldacci is offering us his “Pine Tree Development Zones,” more tax reductions and incentives for big businesses to locate in Maine’s disadvantaged areas.

Never mind that this approach has been found deficient for several decades now. Stewart Smith, currently University of Maine professor of sustainable agriculture, writing in 1984 expressed considerable doubt that reducing taxes to attract business development was worthwhile (see “Alternative Approaches to Economic Development” Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, Orono 1986). Others more recently have called this approach “a field of dreams” strategy that pits one state against another in a nobody-wins race to give away tax dollars.

A GMO-free Maine could be a boon for the state. It would open up promising market for Maine farm products, and implementing the strategy would not involve more tax giveaways. It deserves to at least be considered as a new and innovative way to stimulate our rural economy. While Gov. Baldacci was a co-sponsor of the proposed 1996 federal GM foods labeling act and in his campaign for governor expressed reservations about GM crops, since his election he has been silent on the issue. He has allowed his Commissioner Robert Spear to set his agenda and lead the charge in support of this risky and unproved technology. Transgenic contamination is now widely acknowledged to be unavoidable, and hence there can be no co-existence of GE and organic crops. Why should we risk the livelihood of our rapidly growing number of organic farmers?

Industry knows that when given a choice, consumers strongly reject genetically engineered (GE) crops. Over 35 countries have enacted or announced laws that restrict GE imports and/or require labeling of foods containing GE ingredients. According to a recent ABC news poll 93 percent of Americans want GE food labeled and a Time magazine poll found that 58 percent would not eat GE foods if they were labeled as such. No wonder industry has fought food labeling tooth and nail.

Some will say that fear not facts drives the anti-GMO agenda; others will say farmers need all the tools that they can get to survive in agriculture, and still others think the technology will solve hunger, poverty and malnutrition. It is time for the governor to step outside the cocoon of corporate media and the frenzied propaganda from the special interest tub-thumpers and obtain a balanced view of what actual benefits might accrue were Maine to become a GMO-free state.

He needs to appoint a representative, balanced task force to look at this issue, and he needs to direct Commissioner Spear to find the funding to do it.

Ron Poitras is coordinator of Buy Local, Eat Fresh delivery service, a project of the Hancock County Locally Grown Foods Project. He lives in Surry.