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Introduction
In 2011, he U.S. Deparmen o Agriculure convened he Advisory Commitee on Bioechnology and 21s Cenury Agriculure (AC21) o address he issue o he easibiliy o coexisence in agriculure. Heavily weighed wih bioech proponens, he commitee gahered or a series o meeings in 2011 and 2012 wih he ask o esablishing a proocol or coexisence and designing a compensaion mechanism or armers ha are economically harmed by conaminaion rom GMO crops.
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Unorunaely, he commitee was unable o esimae he coss associaed wih GMO presence on non-GMO and or-ganic arms due o a lack o daa. Their inal suggesion or a compensaion mechanism was a orm o crop insurance ha included, in one proposal, a premium o be paid by producers o non-GMO crops.
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The inancial burden associaed wih conaminaion and effors o preven conaminaion are signiican. Some o he coss o armers rom conaminaion include loss o access o markes ha require no GMO presence, and long-erm invesmens associaed wih producing a crop inended or a non-GMO or organic marke, such as organic ceriicaion.
Methodology
In an effor o ill he daa gap ha was used o jusiy an in-adequae policy recommendaion by he AC21, Food & Wa-er Wach, he Washingon, D.C.-based paren organisaion o Food & Waer Europe, and OFARM gahered inormaion rom organic producers and co-op managers on coexisence and GMO conaminaion. We sen a survey o 1,500 armers, ideniied as ceriied organic ield crop producers. Many o hese producers use he markeing assisance services o he OFARM member co-ops. The survey atemped o quan-iy some o he coss associaed wih prevenive measures aken by armers o keep GMO presence off heir arm, he inancial burden o arm-level GMO presence and how GMO presence affecs co-op managers.Ou o he 1,500 surveys sen ou, 87 were sen back or various reasons. O he 1,413 remaining, we received a 19 percen response rae o 268 responses. Farmers who parici-paed in he survey hail rom 17 saes, predominanly in he Midwes, and grow a wide variey o organic specialy crops and organic ield crops.
GMO Crops Are a Major Obstacle to Coexistence
Because using GMO seeds is an excluded mehod under he USDA’s organic sandards, organic armers are responsible or making cerain ha hey do no grow geneically engi-neered crops.
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Wih he prolieraion o hese crops, however, coexisence beween organic, non-GMO and GMO armers has become more and more difficul, due o he poenial
Do you think good stewardship is enough to protect organic/non-GMO farmers from unintended GMO contamination?
Inadequate (31%)Very inadequate (37%)Blank (1%)Very adequate (4%)Adequate (15%)Neutral (13%)
How concerned are you about GMO
Very concerned (59%)Concerned (25%)Neutral (6%)Not concerned (6%)Not concernedat all (4%)Blank (0.4%)
Paths of Contamination
Gene low is a naural process ha osers biologi-cal diversiy in a plan populaion by shuffling geneic inormaion rom he pollen or seeds o closely relaed individuals.
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In crops o he same species, GMO crops can “oucross” or “cross-pollinae” non-GMO crops hrough wind dispersal or pollinaors.
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Some sel-pol-linaing crops can sill be cross-pollinaed, like canola, which can oucross wih nearby plans up o a requency o 55 percen.
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Afer a crop is harvesed, here are several seps during which GMO and non-GMO seeds or grains can become mixed. This can happen during handling or ranspor i ma-chinery is no properly cleaned, or due o a qualiy-conrol ailure or human error during sorage or processing.
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