POLICY :: GMO Legislation

Recent Updates:

Written by Pete Price, July 10th, 2006

On June 28 the Assembly Agriculture Committee unanimously passed SB 1056

(Florez), which prohibits local citizens and elected officials from enacting

any ordinances that would affect seeds or nursery stock, including

genetically modified organisms used in agriculture. The vote was 8-0.  The

action by the Agriculture Committee was not unexpected, especially given

that a majority of the committee had signed on as co-authors of the bill. 

The committee heard lengthy testimony from both supporters and opponents,

with supporters focusing on the benefits of biotechnology and the difficulty

of farming under different rules from county to county.  Opponents,

including many citizens who came from around the state, acknowledged that a

statewide set of consistent rules might be preferable, but that local

citizens had been left with no alternative because the state has no rules

governing the use of GMOs in agriculture.  Last year, in fact, the same

Assembly Agriculture Committee heard a bill that would have protected

innocent farmers whose crops were contaminated by GMOs, and failed to even

give the bill a motion for a vote.

SB 1056 is slated to be heard by the full Assembly when the Legislature

returns from summer recess on August 7.  The bill likely has the votes to

pass the Assembly, but faces a much less certain future when it returns to

the Senate for a final vote. The bill's sponsors and supporters, including

the biotech industry, the California Seed Association and the California

Farm Bureau, have made recent overtures to determine if amendments could be

taken to the bill to remove the objections of opponents.  The answer to that

question is still unknown, especially at the very end of the two-year

legislative session, which ends on September 1.  August in the Legislature

is always a very hectic time, and hardly ideal conditions for negotiating

major legislation.   

History:

• Bill to Preempt local control of GMOS is back (Summer 2006)
• The Sonoma County initiative attempts to place a moratorium… (Spring 2006)
• Fight to pre-empt local decisions on GMOs (Summer 2005)
• Farmer liability for GMO drift (Fall 2002)
• We're proud of our history of successful legislative efforts.

Get Involved!

Our board of directors takes a strong role in setting the organization's policy directions. If you want to know more about this work, contact Dave Runsten, CAFF's Executive Director dave@caff.org
Phone: (530) 756-8518 extension 25 Fax: (530) 756-7857
U.S. Mail: CAFF, P.O. Box 363, Davis, CA 95617

State Legislation

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Federal Legislation

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