12 May 2015

Benton County, Oregon, where I live, has a controversial measure on the ballot for next week’s local elections that would ban all GMO organisms in the county as well as establishing a legal right to a local food system, and allowing citizens to sue on behalf of local land and water systems.  You can read it here.  And here’s some pro and con.

Oregon State University, where I work, is vehemently opposed to this measure, claiming it would interfere with all kinds of genetic research, not just agriculture.  I don’t know if this is true or not, but I expect if the measure passes it will be immediately tied up in courts for a while.  An Oregon ballot measure last year to require GMO labeling was defeated, and many OSU scientists spoke out against that too, which leads me to believe that their opposition is not solely on the basis of the threat to research.

Meanwhile, philosopher of science Roberta Millstein of the University of California, Davis has written a brilliant examination of the GMO problem (or is it?) — here it is.  Stay tuned.