LAKE COUNTY >> After four failed attempts to regulate genetically engineered crops locally, Lake County may have missed the boat. Legislation that removes a county or city”s authority to regulate its plants, crops or seeds without state approval quietly slipped through the state assembly in late August.
Assembly Bill 2470, signed in by Gov. Jerry Brown on Aug. 25, explicitly transfers the regulation authority to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) secretary. GE crops go unmentioned and, according to senate floor analysis, the bill was written in response to the city of Encinitas” proposed policy for invasive plants.
But the bill has created quite a stir. The clause that changed the hands of regulatory authority was slipped in late.
Although the CDFA has yet to complete its analysis of the bill and some refute it having anything to do with local genetically engineered organism (GMO) regulation, the freshly adopted law clearly takes away local authority in regulating plants. Regardless of current CDFA Secretary Karen Ross”s intentions, her successor could easily use the bill to regulate GMO use on a statewide level, critics claim.
In Lake County, Agriculture Commissioner Steven Hajik strongly doubts any CDFA secretary, now or ever, will use the law to regulate GMOs, though. His concern lies with the county”s current inability to ban the broom, an invasive plant species that is also sold commercially.
“This bill is basically to prevent invasive species from being sold in nurseries; the issue of GMOs isn”t in the mix,” Hajik said.
However, multiple counties, including Sonoma and Humboldt, have scrambled to pass bans on GMOs before the bill”s effective date on Jan. 1, 2015, and the issue brings to surface Lake County”s past attempts to ban GMOs, which have effectively fizzled out in a mess of contention.
The first effort in 2005 started small when the Lake County Coalition for Responsible Agriculture (CRA), made up of business members and farmers, attempted to pass a three-year moratorium on Roundup Ready alfalfa after its use was proposed in the county. Despite hundreds of signatures, the Board of Supervisors (BOS) voted 3-2 against the ordinance, with District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown, District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith and past District 3 Supervisor Gary Lewis dissenting.
Confusion over why the CRA had pursued a single-product moratorium was a part of the ordinance”s failure and the CRA began work to pursue a full moratorium, according to Big Valley Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians Environmental Director Sarah Ryan.
However, logistics of the second proposed ordinance also prevented its success. At its first reading, the BOS voted to pass the initiative. But District 1 Supervisor Ed Robey was replaced by Jim Comstock before the second reading. With Comstock”s vow to tip the vote against the initiative once he assumed office, the board created a committee to delve into the issue further instead of taking a second vote that would most definitely be its demise.
Thus, in 2009, the Genetically Engineered Crops Citizens” Advisory Committee was born, consisting of 13 members of various backgrounds and interests. At the first meeting, the committee agreed any decisions would be made by a full consensus of all 13 members. In hindsight, committee member Victoria Brandon said she would have suggested otherwise.
“We thought we had been charged with finding a consensus and if we could meet that kind of standard, the recommendations we put forward would be much stronger,” Brandon explained. “Now, I think that standard of consensus is really unworkable, especially under a topic of such disagreement.”
Under that standard, the problem of committee member stubbornness truly created the barriers to pulling together a solution, according to Brandon.
Eventually, the committee told the BOS they were deadlocked and decided to trim down the number of members. By written ballot, each member voted and Brown and District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing approved the committee”s recommendations. Six members lost their seat on the committee and the remaining seven, including Brandon, Michelle Scully, Melissa Fulton, Marc Hooper, JoAnn Saccato, Lars Crail and Andre Ross, attempted to pull together a product of their study for the BOS.
Early 2010 saw a BOS vote in favor on the set of proposals, attached to a 70-page report and offered by the committee. Most importantly, the recommendations included creating a registration framework with the agricultural commissioner that would oversee the use of genetically engineered crops in the county. A unanimous vote of approval for the recommendations was made by the BOS after 40 meetings and hundreds of hours of work by the committee.
Curiously to some, though, the recommendations for the overseeing GE crop use slipped as quietly off the BOS”s table as AB 2470 slipped onto the governor”s desk. Nothing came of the proposals and four years later, even the memory of what happened to the proposals is difficult to recall for many.
“It was put on the supervisors” desk and I think that”s where it still is,” Broc Zeller, a committee member, said.
Even Brown, who was partly responsible for overseeing the committee since its inception, admits he”s not sure what happened to the proposals.
“Nobody could come to a conclusion. I thought it was a waste of time anyhow because of how it was presented to us,” Brown said. “In the end, it was an attempt by some to just gain control over the winegrape and pear industries. A purely symbolic effort that had no meaning.”
Looking back, others disagree with Brown though and are disappointed the effort was of no avail.
“I think we came up with something that would have been very effective locally,” Brandon said. “I would have liked to see them adopt our regulations but now they”ve missed the boat on local control.”
The last attempt to regulate GE crops in Lake County came with Measure P at the Nov. 4 elections. The first anti-GMO initiative to make it on the ballot, it”s wide-sweeping deregulation of “natural plants,” understood by most voters to include marijuana, was its downfall. If passed, the measure might have been read to allow unlimited grows.
It would have been hard to predicted AB 2470 in advance; Humboldt County has succeeded in passing its anti-GMO ordinance just after the state”s new seed law was signed in and just before it goes into effect. But the initiative was already in the works before news of 2470 came out. If Lake County ever wanted to limit or control GMO use though, it will have to get the CDFA secretary”s signature first.
Fortunate for GMO opponents, Lake County”s agriculture includes very few GE crops. Ryan is only aware of some Roundup Ready alfalfa and corn being grown in the county.
She still looks apprehensively into the future as superweeds become increasingly resistant to Roundup (or glyphosate), the chemical GE crops were originally designed to tolerate. With AB 2470, she”s turning her attention to education efforts.
“It”s unfortunate that door is closing, but I still think there”s opportunity for change,” Ryan said. “There”s still people working in Lake County to promote local, organically grown foods.”
