Crop Biodiversity in the United States
Author: Tanya Berry
Contact: tanberry@pdx.edu
RAFI published their 2014 finding from the Summit on
Seeds. According to RAFI, in the last 20
years we have lost 33% of biodiversity in agriculture. Of course there are several reasons for
this: Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMO) foods, planting what is profitable, population increase which increase
the demand and climate changes to name a few.
It has been all over the news, regarding GMO food produce and
production. GMO foods have been modified
genetically to conform to many things producers want such as fresher produce
longer, longer shelf life, crops more resilliant to pets, larger fruits or less
seeds to name a few reasons.
Even on Oregon’s November ballot, Messure 92 would have
required all food produce and producers to modify the labeling of the foods to
show if any or part of the food(s) have been genertically modified. The ballats were so but No votes beat it by
approximately one half of a percent.
There are missed emotions as the voting results show. Some what to know what they are eating,
however the other side just states it will drive food prices up. Approximately 80% of the processed foods
include GMOs.
Another is the US is going majority of the Worlds crops today
for profit. Unfortuately, the major
crops are only a few such as wheat, cotton, corn, hay and rice. This does not pave the way for
bediversity. There are organizitions
such as RAFI, ICUN and Syngenta that are bringing public awarenes to these issues
and assisting farmers to develop biodiverse crops.
RAFI USA
Non-GMO Project
http://www.nongmoproject.org/learn-more/
Ballotpedia
http://ballotpedia.org/Oregon_Mandatory_Labeling_of_GMOs_Initiative,_Measure_92_(2014)
International Union for Conservation of Nature
http://iucn.org/
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.
No comments:
Post a Comment