Dealing with the concerns regardign GMO at a grassroots level

Starting with Richmond BC, and ending with North Vancouver, 63 municipalities have declared themselves to be GE free in British Columbia, through a resolution and vote in by their councillors.

Many of us were present at the North Vancouver city hall, presenting our appeal to the council members, to consider declaring the town to be GE free. Tony Beck & Eco Urbia had presentation for ten minutes. We had a two minute slot.

All of us were thilled to see the councillors pass the resolution by an unanimous vote to declare itself GE/GMO free and then to go a step further, to check possibility of actually enforcing a ban of production or sale of GMO in their municipality. This, if enforced, will be a first in Canada. And in September this year, the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) is planning to have a province wide vote on declaring the region GE/GMO free. We hope it passes, at which point the municipalities will then inform the provincial Govt to enact applicable regulations. A core group of volunteers are now engaged to help this process along.

Meanwhile, following discussions on the STOP_GMO_BC forum and conference calls, with participation from across BC including Prince Rupert and Vancouver island, several steps have been enacted by enthusiastic volunteers. Creation of the google group email bulletin board was one. Dropbox was another. Preparing master file with all municipalities with contact details of the mayors and councillors, as well as separate sheet for details of volunteers are being prepared. The effort is collective, but of particular mention, from my point of view, are guiding influence of Tony Beck, suggestions from Linda Cheu, input and involvement from Laura Yates and Teresa Lynn are notable. I have no doubt more will step up the plate in due course.

Tony Beck has prepared more than one verstion of a standard letter to be sent out to all mayors and councillors of all municipalities. I have taken the two page version and added one more to the two references already included in it. I added the Royal Canadian Society's recommendation to Health Canada about adopting the precautionary principle in approval mechanism for GMO.

A sample letter, as sent out by me to the mayor of Delta is included in page 2. people are welcome to amend it, or write their own and send it to their own mayors and each councillors.

Meanwhile, a small but mushrooming parallel group of people, of a wider region incorporating other regions of Canada as well as in the US, are forming another small core group, calling themselves FOOD_HEALTH, and had their second conference call, involving :

• Dr. Shiv Chopra from Ontario
• Tony Mitra from BC
• Cathering from the Minnesota
• Ms Gloria Dixon from Ontario
• Rose Stevens from Manitoba
• Merenka Cerny from California
• Rick Adam from BC

Meanwhile, Ms Aruna Rodrigues of India, an ordinary citizen, has been for the last ten years, engaged in an extra-ordinary work - taking the Government of India to the Supreme Court, on a public interest litigation, on account of introduction of untested, unverified and potentially harmful GMO on the citizens of India.

She took two years to collect all the data before moving the Supreme court. She has been fighting the Govt for 8 years now in the supreme court. The case is drawing to a close, and there is a perception that she might have more than an even chance of winning, and forcing the Government of India to stop blanket approval of GMO and place a sort of a moratorium on all future entries of GMO while mechanisms for rigorously testing them for safety is sorted out and put in place.

I spoke with Aruna on phone for the purpose of creating an awareness Podcast. You can listen to the story in her own voice.

As David Susiki says in support of stopping approval og GMOs unless they are thoroughly tested for safety, there are an increasing number of scientists around the world that have scientific research done that places questions on the claims made by makers of GMO products, or the safety of using their companion pesticides.

Some of them have been interviewed by me for the sake of creatign awareness through podcasts and videos. One of them is Dr. Thierry Vrain. Another is Dr. Dave Goulson.

Dave Goulson, in UK, conducted the research and field test on the effects of Neonicotinoid pesticides that cause debilitating harm to bumblebee population that pushes towards decline or collapse of bee population. It was his research paper that triggered an alarm in EU and ended in EU imposing a two year ban on these pesticides, while the British Government has granted him some funds to conduct further research on this subject.

Dr. Thierry Vrain of Canada was himself a Genetic Engineer that retired about the time when the human Genome project was being completed. IN he last years of hiw work around the turn of this century, he was on one side involved in trying to create Genetically Engineered plants that would be resistant to some hostile nematodes, and on the other side, telling the public that there was nothing to worry, with regard to safety of GMO. But soon after he retired, as the Human Genome Project came to conclusion and revealed starting and unexpected details, Thierry changed his position on GMO and since has become an outspoken critic of the technology, proving that the very science behind the GMO technolog is based on false and discredited notion of how DNA and genome ecosystems work for an organism.
You can find those interviews by clicking on their picture.