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Fear is a powerful motivator.  The fear spread through our community by large chemical corporations, about job losses and complete collapse of the economy, has struck fear unnecessarily into the hearts of many locals and perpetuated the spreading of half truths and blatant corporate lies. This fear has derailed an already confusing issue.

Turning the focus to the eating GMO (GE food) is another way people are blurring this complicated issue even farther. This distraction takes away from the reason communities are speaking out and counties are passing bills to protect themselves. Yes, labeling is important, but we need to address the real concerns around recent county initiatives.

We are talking about the application of experimental and restricted use pesticides used on, and in, open-air GE field trials. We are talking about the application of incredibly large amounts of incredibly toxic pesticides in close proximity to our schools and our homes, and the impact it is having (and has the potential to have in the future) on our children, their learning and their health.

We aren’t talking papayas or future potential, we are concerned about Chlorpyrifos, Atrazine, Dicamba and pesticides that are banned in many places yet applied to our backyards at rates up to 10 times national averages.

It is completely misleading to make statements about the lack of danger associated with GMOs when you don’t stop for a moment to address the real dangers or issues. We aren’t talking (with recent county initiatives) about the safety of our corn chips. We are talking about pesticides that are proven to damage life, harm kids, create birth defects and damage environments. This is better researched, supported and clarified by science then your satisfaction with the substantial equivalence of GMOs and conventional food crops.

More and more institutions (medical, ecological, agricultural and even recently the UN) are realizing they have been fed mostly marketing and half-truths by GE lobbyist and vested interests. Due to loops holes and backdoor deals (like self-regulation, the conditional registration exemption, subsidies, substantial equivalence and the revolving door) deception has been occurring for decades, possibly for a 100 or more. But now as we truly advance in our understanding of working with the natural world we create the new future for food production.

So while your 90-day studies on the consumption of GMO food have left you feeling comfortable with eating them, this isn’t why we are passing bills to protect our families and communities. We are passing bills to protect our children and future generations from the damage caused by experimentation by chemical corporations.

Keep talking money and economy and we will keep talking about saving children’s lives.