Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- Dairy farmer Dennis Leonardi, who describes himself as a "taxpayer and law-abiding citizen," will soon harvest the genetically engineered corn he grows to feed his 400 cows.
But a measure on the Nov. 2 ballot in Humboldt County would make Leonardi's harvest illegal -- and possibly send him or anyone else growing such crops to jail.
"This is a measure that has gone over the edge," said Leonardi, a third-generation Ferndale farmer. "It's absolutely ridiculous to make criminals out of farmers."
Three other California counties are attempting to pass similar measures on Nov. 2 that would ban genetically engineered plants and animals from their borders. Supporters of the ban argue that biotech crops poses a risk to human health and the environment -- contentions the industry strongly disputes.
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The ballot measures in Butte, Marin and San Luis Obispo counties don't criminalize genetically engineered agriculture like Humboldt County is attempting to do. Those three counties have followed the lead of Mendocino County, which passed the nation's first ban in March, providing for small fines and the destruction of the biotech crops. Organizers in several more California counties are collecting signatures in hopes of qualifying their own anti-biotech measures in early 2005. Activists in Hawaii, Vermont and elsewhere are also circulating local petitions and urging politicians to pass similar legislation. Critics of biotech crops say the bans are needed to ensure that farms that grow conventional and organic crops aren't inadvertently cross-pollinated by biotech varieties.
