Go! Stop GM Alfalfa.

The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) is close to making a decision to register a genetically modified (GM) alfalfa variety developed by Monsanto.

The following website contains a petition it is urging all concerned consumers to sign to try and prevent this from happening.

http://www.freshthemovie.com/blog/

Apparently in a report issued by the USDA it makes the claim that not enough consumers care about organic foods for it to justify blocking the registration of Monsanto’s GM alfalfa.

This is blatantly absurd. Consumers of organic foods buy them because they want reassurances about what has not gone into them (i.e. pesticides and genetically modified organisms), and they have collectively formed a loud enough voice to prevent many GM crops from being introduced in Europe, Asia, Canada and the US, (notably GM wheat which was withdrawn from the registration process in 2004 by Monsanto because of widespread, global market resistance to it).

Alfalfa is a forage crop that is an essential part of organic crop rotations and is used extensively as feed for animals raised naturally or organically. If GM alfalfa is introduced onto the marketplace it will pose a serious threat to both organic and conventional farmers.

The trait that is genetically engineered into these crops is a resistance to herbicides, so that farmers can use chemicals (like Roundup) to kill weeds whilst leaving the crop itself untouched. Unfortunately, as in the case of GM canola, a crop that has become the dominant variety now grown worldwide, that resistance has proven hard to contain once released into the field. Farmers are increasingly having problems with “volunteer” canola plants which are appearing in subsequent non-canola crops and which cannot be killed by spraying.

That is the basis of consumer resistance to GM foods, because they want to maintain a choice between crops that have been grown conventionally (with chemicals) and those that have not, and GM traits make that a much harder line of distinction to maintain.

Alfalfa is a huge, staple crop that farmers use to help naturally replenish nitrogen back into their soils (thereby reducing the use of chemical fertilisers) and it is used by beef and pork producers everywhere a pasture and winter feed for their animals.

I urge you to sign the petition to prevent registration of GM alfafa and spread the word where you can.