California Wine Country foolishness...

From Reuters comes this little bit of moonbattery: bq. California Wine Country Considers Biotech Ban A measure to ban genetically modified crops in the heart of California's wine country has qualified for a local ballot, officials said on Friday. bq. The measure, which would impose a 10-year moratorium on raising genetically engineered crops and livestock, is now eligible for the Sonoma County ballot, said Gregory Conko, director of food safety policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. bq. "It's an important symbolic victory for biotech's skeptics," Conko said. "It certainly is something that should make supporters of biotechnology, including myself, a little bit nervous." bq. Activists gathered 9,000 signatures -- more than needed to qualify the measure -- which county supervisors now may enact or put to voters in a special election as soon as May or June. If the measure is approved, Sonoma would become the fourth California county to ban raising genetically engineered foods. bq. Genetically modified wine grapes are not grown in Sonoma County but farmers are interested in using genetic engineering to develop products to replace pesticides, said Ben Drake, chairman of the California Association of Winegrape Growers. And these activists? bq. Activists claim the value of biotech crops is outweighed by unknown health and environmental effects, a message they expect will resonate in Sonoma County as in neighboring counties. bq. "We talk about healthy farms and healthy organic foods for our counties, that's our trademark," said Frank Egger, a northern California environmental activist. "Stopping genetically engineered crops is an enhancement and a protection for today's farmers." Emphasis mine - they CLAIM but they offer no concrete proof. They are appealing to the emotions of people who do not farm, who have no knowledge of commercial agriculture -- only this fuzzy "Geeee... It would be nice to get back to the land" sort of feeling. These are the 9,000 people who signed the proposal and the problem is that these people outnumber the farmers by quite a few votes. The article also mentions that the two other CA Counties which banned GM crops are: bq. Voters in neighboring Marin County, an affluent area north of San Francisco, approved a ban in November. Last March voters in Mendocino County north of Sonoma County passed the nation's first county-level ban on genetically engineered crops. bq. By contrast, voters in three other California counties rejected similar measures in November, providing some relief to companies and farmers who stand to benefit from the fast-growing business of genetically modified foods. Emphasis mine again -- fast-growing because they work. A farmer is not going to switch to a new crop unless they have a solid understanding of how to grow it and a solid assurance that it will make more money for them than the original crop. GM works -- plain and simple. It is only a matter of doing in the laboratory what breeders have been doing in nature for ages. I would like to see that activist try to eat a mouthful of the original corn before those pesky plant hybridizers got their mitts on it -- they would loose all their front teeth on the first bite.