Slightly troubling
The United States has 3,066 counties, represented by the National Association of Counties. Its 50 states have 50 governors, represented by the National Governors Association.
The proposed Farm Bill presently includes a section that would prevent counties or states from passing laws banning or restricting genetically modified organisms within their borders. The section was shoe-horned into the bill during hearings in the House Agricultural Committee Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry, Leonard L. Boswell, (D-IA) Chairman. California representatives Dennis Cardoza, Jim Costa and Joe Baca sit on this committee. It is claimed that nobody knows how this section got into the bill. Cardoza expressed himself as "slightly troubled by this language ..."
Section 123 of the Farm Bill treads on the authorities of state and local government. When a similar bill was introduced in the California Legislature in the last session, an unusual coalition of environmental groups and California counties developed, which defeated it. The Pomboza (Cardoza and former Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Buffalo Slayer-Tracy) were busy trying to gut the Endangered Species Act at the time, and were no doubt "closely monitoring" the clout of their opponents, which would have included opponents to the state bill against local anti-GMO ordinances authored by state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization perhaps sees this section as the last, best chance to destroy its enemy, the anti-GMO groups that constantly proliferate as the real science comes in on the bogus claims for "Frankenfoods" and market resistance for GMO agricultural exports. But it is worth asking states' attorney generals and county counsels throughout the nation if this section doesn't raise a Constitutional issue. The career of Section 123 of the 2007 Farm Bill will tell us a little more about what kind of democratic republic we have left.
Bill Hatch
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6-18-07
Stockton Record
Farm Bill may ease modified crop ban...Hank Shaw
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070618/A_NEWS/706180320
"Frankenfoods"...Section 123 of the federal bill bars state or local governments from banning anything the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already approved. It sounds benign, but the proposal would sweep away existing bans on genetically modified crops in four California counties and block bans proposed in at least 16 other states. The proposed measure has sparked uproar among the sustainable agriculture community, especially among organic farmers, and the office of House Agriculture Committee member Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, has received more than 3,000 e-mails protesting the provision. Cardoza leads the committee's panel on organic agriculture and says he, too, has concerns about Section 123. "I am slightly troubled by this language, with respect to the fact that it was put in, ... towards the end of the legislative process, without proper debate and consideration," Cardoza said. "I will be monitoring this section closely as the Farm Bill process continues to determine how it might affect laws already on the books in California." It is unclear who inserted Section 123 into the federal legislation, but staffers working on the bill say they do not expect it to survive intact. To read the section of the Farm Bill under debate, go to: agriculture.house.gov/inside/Legislation/110/LDP_Secbysec.pdf.