Submitted by: Submitted by reflexsilver
Views: 10
Words: 1493
Pages: 6
Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 01/23/2016 11:08 AM
New GMOs, herbicides threaten to force family off
organic farm
By Ken Roseboro
(../../organicnongmo/newslettereditor.php)
Published: October 6, 2014
Category: GMO Environmental Risks
RSS (http://www.nongmoreport.com/rss.xml)
Print Friendly (http://www.printfriendly.com)
(../../nongeneticallymodifiedfoodorganic/gmofoodenvironmentalrisks.php)
To access all the articles in this month's issue of The Organic & NonGMO Report ,
SUBSCRIBE NOW (../../books_newsletters/organic_and_nongmo_report.php).
Note: This article is about the challenges facing a family whose organic farm is threatened by
new genetically modified, herbicide resistant crops and the herbicides used with them. The
family did not want to reveal their names for fear of negative repercussions from their
conventional farming neighbors. As a result, the family’s names and location of their farm have
been kept confidential.
Laura often wakes up in the middle of the night fearing for the future of her family’s organic farm.
Her fear is a cloud of toxic herbicides drifting over her farm, killing her crops and bees,
threatening her family’s health, and ultimately forcing her family to leave their beloved farm.
Unfortunately, Laura’s nightmare scenario is a very real possibility with the proposed
introduction of new crops that are genetically engineered to withstand sprays of dicamba and
2,4D herbicides. As farmers plant these two GM crops, which are likely to receive approval
soon by US government agencies, they will be spraying massive amounts of the two herbicides
that are known to drift and kill “nontarget” crops growing on nearby farms such as Laura’s.
Ecological diversity
Laura’s organic farm is a treasure of biodiversity in a sea of largescale, industrial GMO corn
and soybean farms. Along with Laura, the farm is owned and operated by her husband and
several relatives. The farm produces organic grains and vegetable seed and has been certified...