Two Oregon Counties Ban Genetically Modified Crops

With its moderate winters and dry summers, southern Oregon yields bumper crops of herb and vegetable seeds, and activists. In 2012, an organic farmer named Chris Hardy attempted to lease four acres of farmland with the hope of growing vegetables, herbs, and seed crops. But when the owner of the property told him the other half of his land was being leased to Syngenta, the Swiss agribusiness company, to grow genetically modified sugar beets for seeds, Hardy recoiled. “That was kind of the show-stopper right there,” he said.

Hardy said he had already leased property down the road and worried that his plants might be cross-pollinated with the genetically modified ones, rendering them useless. His discovery was the beginning of a campaign that culminated on Tuesday, when two counties in southern Oregon, Jackson and Josephine, passed ballot measures banning most genetically modified crops. (An exception is for research).