The Likely Reason Fields Planted With Monsanto’s GMO Sugar Beets Were Torched

The Boat Train – by K Patrick Ryan

Just a few weeks ago we learned that Monsanto’s gmo’ed wheat seeds miraculously returned to life, a full twelve years after a test planting in 16 states, including Oregon, after which the GMO wheat seeds were ‘wholly destroyed’.

If you recall, Monsanto and its whor  excuse me, ‘professors’ claimed that the study involved” ‘Very rigorous’ protocols (that) controlled the work at agricultural research stations”, and at the conclusion of the test planting:    

“GM seeds were burned, buried six feet underground or shipped back to Monsanto”, said Oregon State University professor Robert Zemetra. Wide “no-plant” areas were maintained around test sites to prevent pollen movement from the GM wheat to other crops. Testing sites were checked two years after the trials for the presence of “volunteer” wheat plants that might have popped up.”

The ‘risen from the dead’ GMO’ed wheat popping up thru the Earth came at a very inopportune time for Monsanto’s operations on in Oregon.

After years of fighting vocal opposition from neighboring organic and small family farmers, buying politicians with their lobbyists and burrowing their way into Oregon State University’s crop sciences department; Monsanto finally swayed Oregon’s Department of Agriculture this February into allowing GMO’ed canola seeds to be planted in the Wilamette Valley. (more Here)

But since the ‘very rigorous protocols’ and burning and burying of the wheat seeds and the ‘wide no-plant areas’ failed miserably to curb Monsanto’s dainty and delicate wheat seeds from springing back to life, just last month the Oregon House passed a bill banning canola seeds from the Wilamette Valley for the next five years. Now it remains to be seen if the Senate will in turn approve the bill and pass it on to the governor for signing. (more Here)

Farmers as far away as Kansas are now suing Monsanto for potentially devaluing the wheat they grow and then sell to foreign markets, and an attempt is being made to combine the lawsuits into a Class Action suit. (more Here)

Lost Cree Lake, Jackson County

And now comes word that an ‘arsonist(s)’ has set alight Monsanto’s sugar beet plants that were, until they were torched, growing in SW Oregon’s Jackson County. Note it isn’t a local arson squad going after the perpetrators, but rather Federal Agents. Is it a federal crime to burn a field of, let’s say, corn? I know if someone sets my home alight not to expect agents to come running from D.C. to solve the crime. But again, we live in a fascist state where corporations run the government and we the idiots foot the bill. Just as curious, why is it that this ‘crime’ that reportedly took place in ‘early June’ is only being reported on now, nearly a month after the fact? (By the way, I don’t know the answer to this question, yet)

Federal investigators are asking the public to help solve middle-of-the-night crimes that left ruined fields of genetically engineered sugar beets in rural Jackson County.

The crop destruction took place over the course of two separate nights in early June, when an unknown individual or group destroyed about 6,500 sugar beet plants genetically engineered to stand up to the herbicide Roundup on a pair of privately-owned plots of land leased and managed by Syngenta.

The first act of what the FBI considers “economic sabotage and a violation of federal law involving damage to commercial agricultural enterprises,” took place during the night of June 8, when about 1,000 sugar beet plants on one property were destroyed. Three nights later, the destruction continued on another property, where another 5,500 plants were ruined.

“It doesn’t look like a vehicle was used. It looks like people entered the field and destroyed the plants by hand,” said Paul Minehart, head of corporate communications in North America for Syngenta, a global agriculture corporation based in Basel, Switzerland.

Estimates for the damage were not specified but the financial losses are significant, according to FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele.

A group, Oregonians for Food and Shelter, is offering a reward up to $10,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the culprits.

Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba issued a statement about the sabotage.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time someone has deliberately taken the cowardly step of uprooting high value plants growing in our state. Regardless of how one feels about biotechnology, there is no justification for committing these crimes and it is not the kind of behavior we expect to see in Oregon agriculture,” Coba said.

More than decade ago, environmental saboteurs vandalized experimental crops across the country in a revolt against high-tech agriculture.

Foes of genetic engineering also struck in 2000, when members of the Earth Liberation Front, with roots in Oregon, set fire to agriculture offices at Michigan State University. ELF’s position was that genetic engineering was “one of the many threats to the natural world as we know it.”

Have information about the destruction? Ring the local offices of the FBI at (541) 773-2942 during normal business hours or call the FBI in Portland anytime at (503) 224-4181

A couple more questions.

Why is a Swiss agricultural corporation (Syngenta is another of the very evil corporate entities that are thriving in these thoroughly judaified early days of the 21st century) growing Monsanto’s crap in rural Oregon?

And what is ‘Oregonians for Food and Shelter’? Why are these Oregonians offering up $10K of their own money to find the heroes  oops – culprits – no …  may we say …. ‘terrorists’ who set fire to freaky plants? And, why is setting fire to freaky plants a federal crime? And, just since I’m a bit stoned and in a quizative frame of mind right now, what is NOT a federal crime these days? (The last one’s a question I’ve no hope of answering – not even the sychopath-in-charge, Eric Holder, can figure that one out).

 
I’ll not go into great detail here, but instead give you the broad overview of what Syngenta’s all about. Formed 13 years ago, Syngenta has very close ties to Monsanto, and some of their business overlaps. According to wiki, Syngenta is a large global Swiss specialized chemicals company which markets seeds and pesticides. Syngenta is involved in biotechnology and genomic research. The company was ranked third in total seeds & biotech sales in 2009 in the commercial market.^[2]Sales in 2010 were approximately US$ 11.6 billion. Syngenta employs over 27,000 people in over 90 countries. Syngenta is listed on both the Swiss stock exchange and in New York.

Syngenta is an amalgamation of Novartis and Zeneca. Novartis was formed when Geigy, Sandoz and Ciba merged at different times. Sandoz was the pharmacological lab that produced LSD, the drug our federal government was so eager to turn the world on to that they dosed the French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit one fine morning in 1951. The residents didn’t seem to take too well to trippin’ out – madness and death ensued and the outbreak was blamed on a local baker who must have baked a really funky batch of bread that early morning. I don’t know what happened to the baker, but I can’t imagine his business survived. Oh well…. have to break a few eggs and all that…

Oh, and why is this fine Swiss corporation growing these altered sugar beets in Oregon? Oh right –because it is against Swiss law to grow GMO crops on Swiss soil.

And Oregonians for Food and Shelter? Aside from the fact that they came up with a goose-bump inducing name, OFFS really isn’t about ‘food and shelter’ for the masses. Instead it represents corporate interests that just so happen to make a great deal of money cutting trees and growing crops and selling chemicals for business interests to spray on forests and farm and ranch lands.

Here’s their 2012 Board of Directors:

FORESTRY & WOOD PRODUCTS:

• Eric Geyer, 2012 Chairman, Roseburg Forest Products
• Jerry Anderson, Hancock Timber Resource Group
• Luke Bergey, Miami Corporation
• Ron Borisch, Longview Timber Corp.
• Andy Bryant, Yamhill Environmental Services, Timber Division
• Mike Fahey, Columbia Helicopters, Inc.
• Jake Gibbs, Lone Rock Timber Management Company
• David Hampton, Hampton Affiliates
• Chris Jarmer, Oregon Forest Industries Council
• Greg Miller, Weyerhaeuser Company
• Ted Reiss, Seneca Jones Timber Company

AGRICULTURE & FOOD PROCESSORS:

• Mark Dunn, 2012 Vice Chair J.R. Simplot Company
• Barry Bushue, Oregon Farm Bureau
• Jean Godfrey, Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers
• Mike Iverson, Oregon Fresh Market Growers Association
• Rick Jacobson, NORPAC Foods, Inc.
• Jerry Marguth, Oregon Seed Council
• Blake Rowe, Oregon Wheat Growers League
• Carol Russell, Russell Cranberry Company
• Craig Smith, Northwest Food Processors Association

Currently vacant Oregon Association of Nurseries

CHEMICAL, PROFESSIONAL APPLICATORS, ROW:

• Doug Hoffman, 2012 Secretary WILCO – Winfield, LLC
• Bruce Alber, Past Chair Wilbur-Ellis Company
• Curt Dannen, Crop Production Services, Inc.
• Mike Diamond, Monsanto Company
• Debbie Ego, Rasmussen Spray Service
• Danelle Farmer, Syngenta Crop Protection
• Cindy Finlayson, Umatilla Electric Cooperative, Inc.
• Jim Fitzgerald, Far West AgriBusiness Association
• Jerry Harchenko, Pacific NW Aerial Applicators Alliance
• Brendan McCarthy, Portland General Electric
• Kent Pittard, DuPont
• April Snell, Oregon Water Resources Congress
• Bryan Stuart, Western Regional Alliance
• Andrea Vogt, RISE

All those big names, I’d expect more than a measly $10K reward. Some of these old families have more than $10K in change lost under their couch cushions.

But the real rub is this:

Syngenta and other growers of Sugar Beets in Southern Oregon are breaking laws and, so far, are not being held accountable: 

Biotech company violated USDA isolation requirements for GM sugar beet crops in Southern Oregon; USDA does nothing

Residents of Jackson County, Oregon have organized an initiative to ban the production of genetically modified plants in the county. Organizers of GMO-Free Jackson County have submitted a county ordinance and are collecting signatures with the aim of putting the initiative on the ballot for an election in 2013 or 2014. The initiative was launched in response to concerns that seeds for genetically modified Roundup Ready sugar beets were being grown in close proximity—and illegally—to producers of organic crops.

Illegal plantings all over the Rogue Valley

Last February, Chris Hardy, owner of Village Farm in Ashland, Oregon, discovered that a neighbor was growing GM sugar beet seeds just one-quarter of a mile from his small organic farm in Ashland, Oregon.

The neighbor was growing the beets under contract with biotechnology company Syngenta for seed production.

The problem was that his neighbor’s GM sugar beet plants could cross pollinate with—and contaminate—Hardy’s chard and table beet plants, ruining their organic status.

“I told him ‘are you serious?’” Hardy said. “I thought this was outrageous.”

Another even bigger problem was that the GM plantings violated US Department of Agriculture requirements, which call for a 4-mile separation distance between GM beets and other Beta seeds, which includes Swiss chard and table beets. From February 2011 until July 2012, GM sugar beets were partially deregulated by USDA and subject to the 4-mile separation distance.

Hardy contacted Syngenta about the violation and a company representative told him that there were other GM beet seed production fields throughout the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon.

“He said there was a checkerboard of fields ranging in size from one-quarter to 10 acres being grown from South Ashland up to Grants Pass, a distance of about 25 miles,” Hardy said.

Hardy also contacted the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service about Syngenta’s violation of the 4-mile buffer. The agency sent out an inspector who interviewed Hardy and several other farmers, but nothing resulted from it.

“Syngenta was very cavalier, hopscotching all over the valley,” said Brian Comnes, a retired computer project manager in Ashland and one of the organizers of the GMO-free initiative.

Another organic farmer, Steve Fry, owner of Fry Family Farms in Medford, was forced to destroy a chard crop because he found that a neighbor was growing GM sugar beets 400 yards from his farm. Fry was growing the chard for seed but his customer refused to buy the seed because he was concerned it had been contaminated by the GM beets.

“I can’t grow chard seed because the Syngenta guy is down the street,” Fry said. “Once GMOs are in town, everyone has to go away.”

Collecting signatures to put GMO ban on ballot

Following the discovery of the GM beets, Hardy called a meeting of farmers and citizens in Jackson County to alert them, and they organized GMO-Free Jackson County. In May, the group filed a proposed county ordinance that would make it illegal to grow GM plants in the county.

According to Comnes, the group has already collected the required 4662 signatures to get the ordinance on the ballot, but they aim to get more in case some signatures aren’t valid.
“We’d like to get 6500 by December 8 (the deadline to qualify for the next county election),” Comnes said, noting that the Ashland City Council also backs the initiative.

If they achieve that goal, Ordinance No. 635 would appear on the ballot for the next county election, which could be as early as March 2013 or as late as May 2014. If Jackson County voters pass the initiative, the ordinance would become law a year later, meaning it may not take effect until 2015.

Until then, Hardy says it’s a “crapshoot” for Rogue Valley farmers to grow organic chard and table beets because of the GMO contamination threat.

On top of that, in July USDA-APHIS completely deregulated GM sugar beets so the 4-mile isolation distance to protect chard and table beets is no longer a requirement.

If Jackson County voters pass Ordinance No. 635, the county would become the third in the US to pass a GMO ban, following Mendocino and Marin counties in California who passed similar laws in 2004.

– See more at: http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/november2012/illegalgmsugarbeetsoregon.php#sthash.hx5HghHv.dpuf

I did check, but so far I can find no evidence that our heroes at Oregonians for Food and Shelter have ponied up a $10K reward for information leading to the prosecution of Syngenta…. but now you know why hero(es) burned those god damned gmo’ed sugar beets in the first place.

Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, the FBI hasn’t yet published a toll-free number for folks to call to report GMO’ed crops being grown illegally in Oregon or any other American State. Perhaps they simply don’t have the funds or manpower for such a costly and encompassing investigation…

http://theboattrain.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-likely-reason-fields-planted-with.html