The Oregon Govenor has called a special legislative session for this year. This special session is comprised of an all or nothing set of bills. Three of the items in the package include PERS reform, small business tax relief, and seed preemption.
I am in favor of all of these issues, I think that if passed this package will help out not only farmers, but small businesses in our state, rural communities and schools. The one issue though that I feel the most strongly about is the Seed Preemption portion.
I have written about this bill before, I even testified in favor of it during the last legislative session. And so I’m writing again to push the point that we NEED to have the control of GMO seeds and seed production be at the state and federal level of government, not at the county level!
There are 36 counties in Oregon. Three of which already have anti GMO bills that are trying to get on the ballot, my fear is that this is only the beginning to a statewide campaign to end the ability for us to use tools that are safe and have been proven safe time and time again! Plus if you start to have regulations differ from county to county, it would be a great hardship to those who farm across county lines. Not to mention, pollen doesn’t stop at a county line, so where does that play in regulations?? Another main issue is the fact that the issue of GMO’s is so complex putting that burden of regulation onto counties and county commissioners would be terrible.
We need to make sure that extremely complex issues of statewide concern, remain controlled at the state level.
You can read more about this issue by clicking here, and if you feel so inclined to contact your legislator today that would be greatly appreciated! I know that they are getting flooded with calls from the other side of this issue, but it would be great to hear from more people who support this package and can see all the benefits that it would bring not just to farmers, but small businesses alike.
NuttyGrass 
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