California Group Abandons Banning Biotech Ballot Strategy
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center dumps strategy to ban state biotech crops.
Compiled by staff
Published: Mar 2, 2006
Following consecutive defeats at the ballot box, the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center sponsored campaign, Californians for a GE-Free Agriculture, abandoned its statewide campaign strategy to ban biotech crops in California.
The defeat of Sonoma County Measure M, one of several biotech ban ballot measures sponsored by the GE-Free coalition, led OAEC to abandon their statewide campaign this month. Last year, the coalition announced ambitious plans to qualify several ballot measures throughout California for the November 2006 election.
The Press Democrat reports that, "Leaders in the GE-Free Sonoma campaign (OAEC) acknowledge their defeat halted their statewide efforts to secure county-by-county bans on GMOs."
"As voters learn more about the benefits of biotechnology, they come to oppose ballot measures that deny consumers access to quality foods and threaten the livelihood of family farmers," says Marko Mlikotin, spokesperson for the California Healthy Foods Coalition. "Biotechnology provides family farmers access to science and technology that ensures food quality and protects California's role as the leading agricultural state in the nation."
The California Healthy Foods Coalition is a family farmer led grass roots and public education program that promotes agricultural innovation and the benefits of biotechnology. To learn more about the coalition and its growing membership, visit www.feedingthefuture.org.
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