Our friends at Whittled Down tipped us off to a bill introduced in the state legislature here would protect New Mexico farmers from liability if their fields are unintentionally contaminated with genetically modified seed. We all know the Monsanto game of suing farmers who are the victim of monsanto GMO patented seeds that have blown into their fields and who are sued for growing the patented seed. New Mexico has a chance to protect it's farmers and do the right thing. Please tell your state representative to vote YES on HB259 - Private Right of Action Act - sponsored by Ben Lujan. HB 259 amends the Environmental Improvement Act, the Water Quality Act and the Oil and Gas Act to allow private citizens to enforce the pollution provisions of those statutes. So please call or email your representative TODAY as this may be voted on as soon as today! Representative Rudy Martinez (Grant, Hidalgo): rudy_s_martinez@msn.com; (505) 986-4233 Representative Andy Nunez (Dona Ana): annunez@zianet.com; (505) 986-4423 If your representative isn't listed above, you can call the Capitol switchboard at (505) 986-4300. You can tell your legislator that the Private Right of Action Act will: Supplement the environmental enforcement ability of state agencies at a time of limited budget Enable local citizens to sue a company that is polluting and get a court order to make the company stop polluting Make it possible for local groups that might not have the resources to get reimbursed for litigation costs, including legal fees and expert fees, should the local group prevail Require that the state receive any civil penalties ordered by the court.
4 comments:
My personal view is, farmers should be able to take Monsanto to court for polluting their ground with their gm seed, not the other way around.
Dave, Utah
I'm with Dave/Susan here. If you want to become a certified organics farmer and Monsanto spoiled your soil it takes at least 10 years to clear up. Who is paying the compensation?
Reality check:
Any New Mexico farmers being sued by Monsanto for their seed, etc.?
Monsanto has a massive presence in New Mexico as this is a Ag state. The company has invested 100's of millions of dollars into NMSU and Saphire for GMO chili's and algae. I cannot comment to farmers actually being sued for seed, but that scenario is certainly possible with this size of investment.
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