Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Whole Foods Supports...GE Alfalfa?
January 24, 2011 10:23 AM (PT)
http://food.change.org/blog/view/whole_foods_supportsge_alfalfa

Whole Foods boasts one of the most extensive selections of certified organic 
products, and the store earns many (many) of my hard-earned dollars by 
claiming to care about personal and environmental health. So you can imagine 
my surprise when I received an action alert e-mail from the grocer that 
actually supported the coexistence of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa and 
organic crops. Baffled and a bit irritated, I investigated.

Like many sustainable food publications, Whole Foods' blog, "Whole Story," 
has been covering the GE alfalfa saga. As we've reported here on Change.org. 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is poised to approve Monsanto's 
Roundup Ready, GE alfalfa for spring planting. "Whole Story" reports that 
there are two possible options for GE alfalfa: One, the USDA can fully 
approve the planting of GE alfalfa with no stipulations. Or two, the agency 
can authorize "partial deregulation," otherwise known as "coexistence." This 
plan would limit the planting of GE alfalfa to certain regions in certain 
states. Whole Foods says it supports the second option and even goes so far 
as to encourage readers to contact the USDA, White House, and their 
Congressperson to express support for the coexistence plan.

But "Whole Story" failed to provide, well, the whole story. There's a third 
option that would be even better for the environment — not approving GE 
alfalfa at all, in any scenario. This third option may be the underdog, but 
it's not yet off the table.

The problem with coexistence is that it still leaves the door open for 
contamination of the organic food sector and puts some farmers in an unfair 
situation. As we've seen with Monsanto's Roundup Ready corn, cotton, and 
soybean plants, GE crops seldom stay in their designated regions. Through 
pollen transfer, these Frankenfoods escape and mingle with organic and 
conventional crop varieties. Once an organic crop contains altered genes, it 
can no longer be considered organic. Rogue GE alfalfa genes would obviously 
threaten the livelihoods of organic alfalfa farmers, but the situation 
becomes far more serious when you consider the fact that most organic beef 
and dairy cattle also dine on organic alfalfa.