From the Bangor Daily News
Brooklin voters will head to the polls on Saturday to vote on whether they will designate their community as the first in Maine to ban the growing and cultivation of genetically engineered crops or animals. The warrant article reads: "Shall the town vote to protect its agriculture and marine economies, environment and private property from irreversible Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) contamination by declaring Brooklin a GMO-free zone?"
"The purpose of the article is to ask Brooklin residents to protect our town lands and waters by not cultivating genetically modified organisms - plants, trees, fish and animals - in Brooklin," Marilyn Anderson, who submitted the petition, said recently. "Once introduced into the environment, these invasive life forms can never be recalled."
Since Brooklin has several organic farms, the issue centers on the feared contamination of organic crops by GE crops and the resulting legal implications.
"Simply stated, this article is about preserving the environment and human health," Anderson said. She said it would not be enacted as a town ordinance, but rather as a statement of policy.
The creation of a genetically engineered-free zone is being promoted vigorously by GE Free Maine, a 6-month-old advocacy group based in Mount Desert that is seeking to create GE-free zones around the state.
"It is our duty to take the issue to town meeting, the purest of our democratic institutions, a place where the issue can be decided face-to-face by local residents without the interference of out-of-state lobbyists," said Rob Fish, co-founder of GE Free Maine. "Towns have a responsibility to protect the rights of farmers and landowners who choose not to grow [GE crops] on their land."
Brooklin Selectman George Eaton said recently that the petition was accepted by the Board of Selectmen for inclusion in the town meeting warrant not because the board was taking a stand for or against the issue, but because it wanted voters to have a say.
"This issue is about preserving community, about reclaiming the rights of farmers and landowners to keep their land free from GE organisms," Fish said recently. "By declaring a moratorium on planting GE seeds, communities can assert that they, not corporations, define our food system."
GE Free Maine, which has about 800 people on its mailing list, is funded through private donations and grants from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund Force and the Brower New Leadership Fund.
Most GE seeds and crops are produced by two major chemical companies, Monsanto and DuPont. Monsanto has patented its GE seeds and, according to a report issued in January by the Center for Food Safety, the company has initiated lawsuits against 140 farmers for patent infringement. Many of these farmers maintain that their fields were contaminated with seed or drifting pollen from nearby GE farmers.
"Maine is at a crucial juncture in the debate of GE crops," Fish said, adding that only 6,100 acres out of 1.25 million acres of Maine farmland are planted with GE crops, all of it corn and soybeans.
"But biotech companies are pushing for increases," Fish said. "They are also planning to introduce genetically engineered trees, salmon and other plants and animals in the next few years."
GE Free Maine co-founder Meg Gilmartin pointed out that "about 70 percent of all processed food contains genetically engineered ingredients,"
"There has been virtually no nonbiased testing. We are not sure of the health effects. We are not sure of the environmental effects."
"GE farming does what nature never would do," Fish maintained. "Should we really throw these crops out there without testing? We need to let science and testing catch up and provide a legal framework to protect farmers from unwanted contamination."
Fish and Gilmartin said that Maine is in a unique position to become a GE-free state. A bill to achieve that was substantially changed during the last legislative session into a study that concluded that Maine's efforts should center on promoting the growing organic market as well as traditional agriculture.
Last fall, petitions similar to the one in Brooklin were submitted to selectmen in Kennebunk and Kennebunkport. Kennebunk selectmen did not place the issue on their town meeting warrant and GE Free supporters still are working with Kennebunkport officials.
"Right now, it is virtually a race to see which state will be GE-free first," Fish said. "That state will be able to use that designation as a powerful marketing tool."
