Farmers Fear Contamination From Genetically Engineered Crops

Feb. 21 - KGO (KGO) -- Is it a real danger or a politically engineered scare? A Bay Area politician has entered the genetic engineering controversy on the side of organic and conventional farmers worried about contamination from genetically engineered crops.

Proponents of the Food and Farm Protection Act say it's about time the law catches up with the threat genetic engineering poses to California agriculture.

Assemblyman Jared Huffman, (D) Santa Rosa: "Now if the federal government was providing adequate oversight in this area, perhaps the absence of a state policy would be less glaring."

Santa Rosa Democrat Jared Huffman is sponsoring a bill that would give conventional farmers the right to sue for economic losses if their crops are contaminated by genetically engineered plants and would protect them from liability if they unknowingly produce genetically altered crops.

A.G. Kawamura, CA Sec. Of Agriculture: "This is one of those areas, as has been many other areas in the scientific realm, that as a nation we look toward a sound policy that allows us all to move forward as a nation."

Martina Newell-Mcgloughlin, U.C. biotech director: "Well I think it's excessive and unnecessary."

Martina Newell-Mcgloughlin is director of biotech research for the University of California system.

Martina Newell-Mcgloughlin: "There's only a small number of crops that are grown in California for which this would be an issue. This would be cotton and rice. Both of those are largely 'selfing.' That is both of those crops do not tend to have their pollen flow any distance."

Scientists may disagree, but to rice growers here in the Sacramento Valley, the threat of contamination is very real.

Woodland farmer Tim Miramontes points to genetic contamination in long grain rice crops in Arkansas last year as proof it could happen here.

Tim Miramontes, Woodland rice grower: "Japan imports about 40 percent of California's rice. And if Japan found contamination in California's rice, they could shut imports down and cripple the California rice industry."

Four California counties already ban or restrict genetically engineered farming, including Santa Cruz and Marin.

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