According to many activists, the crops of innocent organic farmers are about to overtaken (any moment now) by genetically modified invaders, and despoiled by the chemicals often paired with them. “Organic Farmers Pay the Price for Contamination,” screams a typical blog post headline, this one by Food and Water Watch.........
Activists claim they are taken this position to protect innocent farmers who have not only found their crops contaminated, some of whom, they say, have been sued by Monsanto et al. after the contamination occurred — essentially victimized twice. In fact, there is not one recorded case of that happening — not one court case in the United States or Canada in which a farmer whose crops were accidentally cross fertilized or otherwise were found to have GMO crops growing on their land were sued........
A key point to make: there is no scientific term as “contamination” in agriculture — it’s an ideological designation used to demonize the historically natural phenomenon of cross fertilization........Ironically, If there is any contamination going on, it is often as likely to come from pest species that originated on organic cropland but spread to GMO farms that were otherwise protected from these pests.
When it comes to contamination, organic pest control methods, including pesticides, have not been effective at controlling insects, weeds, and fungal pests. That point was made in the wake of the Marsh v. Baxter ruling, in which Baxer noted that he believed he had a powerful case that his farm faced “contamination” and not his neighbors organic property:.........To Read More....
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