We're here at the 10th Organic Seed Growers Conference today! Amy Wong and Chris Hardy will be participating in a panel from 2:00pm - 3:30pm in the Alumni Center/Room 111, for "In the Trenches and in State Capitals: Legislative Work to Protect Organic Seed." Please join us!

Details: Given the federal policy shortcomings related to the oversight of GMOs and the protection of organic seed, advocacy groups have been promoting state-based initiatives to fill federal gaps. This panel includes policy leaders who will share updates, stories, and lessons learned with an eye toward strengthening policy and legislative efforts at the state level. Topics include liability for GE contamination; protecting the Willamette Valley from commercial canola cultivation in high-value organic seed production areas; ballot measures to ban GE crops in Southern Oregon; resisting cultural appropriation in New Mexico; and other community organizing examples that aim to protect the viability and integrity of organic seed. This session will provide an opportunity for audience members to discuss other ways to educate, inspire, and advocate for organic seed in their communities and beyond. https://seedalliance.org/conference-workshop-details

The 500 acre cap on canola production in the Willamette Valley sunsets July 1. Additional canola acreage could have disastrous effects on Oregon’s specialty seed industry through increased pest and disease pressures, as well as genetically engineered (GE) and other cross contamination.

Cultivate Oregon is actively working to protect Oregon’s farmers and seeds by lobbying in support of SB 885, the bill to maintain the 500 acre canola cap, as well as requesting that ODA strengthen the agency’s proposed canola rules, which do not offer enough protections against GE and other contamination. 

Cultivate Oregon is looking for members of the seed community to come to Salem next week to speak to why allowing more canola into the Willamette Valley is a bad idea. Funds are available to cover reasonable travel costs. If you or someone you know would be willing and able to come to Salem, please contact us. 

Read ODA’s proposed rules. 

TAKE ACTION! Review Friends of Family Farmers excellent template for submitting testimony and/or talking points if you can testify in person.

 

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WHY PROTECTING THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY FROM CANOLA AND GE SEED IS SO IMPORTANT

Oregon is one of the top five specialty seed growing regions in the world. This unique heritage should be protected and expanded. Unfortunately, the potential introduction of thousands of acres of canola could threaten this legacy, as can further genetically engineered (GE) contamination. Other seed growing regions that have allowed extensive canola cultivation have experienced reductions in the varieties of specialty seed crops that they can grow, as well increased cross contamination issues. For example, radish seed can no longer be grown in Europe—only Oregon and New Zealand

Large-scale canola cultivation poses unique threats to the specialty seed industry in Oregon for several reasons:

 

• Specialty seed needs robust purity—canola for oil does not, thus putting a greater burden on the specialty seed grower to fence out canola contamination.
  
  
• Increased pest and disease pressures (and while this is true of any brassicaceae crop, the risks rise with increased acreage. Specialty seed acreage is arguably less than what is desired by commercial canola production and doesn’t pose as intense a threat.)
  
  
• Strong volunteerism - it is difficult to control volunteer canola plants, which can spread easily.
  
  
• Seed banking - canola seed can remain in fields for several years, even after the canola has been harvested.
  
  
• Various cross pollination concerns--seed purity and GE.
  
  
• It is becoming increasingly difficult to find “clean” GE-free canola seed. For example, in February of 2019 farmers in France and Germany had to rip out thousands of acres of canola fields because the sowed seed was sold as non-GE but was determined to be contaminated with GE-varieties as well.
  
  
• There is a growing need for organic, non-GMO seed. Oregon has the potential to contribute to this, as long as the right protections in place.
  
  
• The U.S. organic seed market for crops was worth more than $460 million in 2015 and is predicted to reach $5.4 billion by the year 2024. However, the supply for organic seed is insufficient. Ensuring protections for organic seed growers could be a major economic opportunity for Oregon. Organic seed can yield between $10K and $50K an acre; GE seed only $1000 an acre. Canola, at best, yields $1500 an acre.
  
  
• Organic seed grower Frank Morton submitted this excellent testimony to Oregon Dept. of Agriculture and it offer a deep dive into why large scale canola production should be kept out of the Willamette Valley.
   
• Limiting the threat of GE contamination through maintaining a cap on canola acreage is also important to seed growers in other parts of Oregon, like the Rogue Valley. Many farmers in southern Oregon source seeds from the Willamette Valley. Further, GE contamination could drift from northern to southern Oregon, endangering seed growers in the south.

Another incident of GE contamination in France and Germany reported on 2/6/2019.

Our two bills, SB434 and HB 2882, will address the issue of GE contamination in Oregon by holding patent holders or licensed manufacturers accountable when GE organisms are found on land without permission of the owner or lawful occupant. These bills WILL NOT pit farmer against farmer. The parties that will be held responsible are the corporations behind genetic engineering, not the farmers who use them since in some instances, contamination is out of the hands of the farmer who planted the seed.

Bayer said on Wednesday that farmers in France and Germany were digging up thousands of hectares of rapeseed fields after traces of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) banned for cultivation were found in seeds sold by the company.

GMO crops are widely grown across the world, but they remain controversial in Europe, where very few varieties are authorized for growing and some countries like France have completely outlawed their cultivation, citing environmental risks.

Checks by the French authorities during the autumn showed minute quantities of GMO seeds, estimated at less than 0.005 percent of the volume, in three batches of rapeseed seeds sold under the Dekalb brand, Catherine Lamboley, Bayer’s chief operating officer for France, said.

Dekalb was previously a Monsanto brand before the U.S. company was taken over by Bayer last year.

The GMO found, which is a rapeseed variety grown in Canada, is not authorized for cultivation in Europe, although it is allowed in imports destined for food and animal feed, Lamboley said.

Bayer issued a product recall but some of the seed had already been sown, representing about 8,000 hectares in France and 2,500-3,000 hectares in Germany, which are in the process of being dug up, Bayer said.

It was not yet known what caused the contamination of the rapeseed seeds, produced in Argentina in a GMO-free area, Lamboley said.

Read Full Article >>

Frank Morton is a plant breeder and founder of Wild Garden Seed in Oregon.

Below is Frank Morton's testimony to ODA regarding canola. 

Regarding the Introduction of Canola to the Willamette Valley
Testimony of Frank Morton/Wild Garden Seed, November 29, 2018

My name is Frank Morton, I reside at 25235 Aurora Lane, Philomath, OR 97370

My wife Karen and I started our specialty organic seed company 25 years ago. We had no idea at the time that we were fortunate enough to have done so in one of the world’s finest seed growing regions, with the climate and natural resources to produce the highest quality seeds of a large number of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. It wasn’t until we became members of the Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Association that I really grasped Oregon’s place in the world as a first-class place to grow the most valuable of all agricultural crops—pure seed for planting.

The rapeseed control districts created to buffer inherent conflicts between oilseed growers and specialty seed growers has worked well for their purpose for more than three decades, during which time Oregon has developed a reputation for the quality, purity, and reliability of its seed production. Along the border with Idaho, restriction of rapeseed production in Oregon protects specialty seed producers inside Idaho. In central Oregon, rapeseed restrictions protect the region’s carrot seed producers from persistent oilseed volunteers in agricultural fields whose seeds cannot be separated from the carrot seed crop.

Now in the Willamette Valley there has been some change of heart regarding our specialty seed industry, apparently some loss of appreciation for how unique this valley is in the world, and a sense that we can allow some losses around the edges, and even take some risks to the heart of the Valley without having a negative effect on what is special about this place. There must now be an idea that we have enough room set aside already for specialty seeds, and we should be able to pack in a canola oil industry as well, with only a little compromise to what has kept this place so special in the world of quality seeds. This is a road paved with good intentions, perhaps, but it will lead to a world of conflict without end. We can see this already, 12 years into this ongoing conflict, that there will be no peace between those who have everything to lose in this coexistence, and those with nothing to lose.

This is the heart of the problem with coexistence between quality seed growers, and growers who crush oil from seed. All the incentive to prevent cross pollination, roadside dispersal, volunteers blooming in fields and fencerows, and fastidious control of pests and disease falls to the growers of seed for planting. There is no economic harm or harm to reputation for the oilseed grower to be cross pollinated or disease infected by neighboring crops or feral crops along the state right of way. Oilseed producers cannot be required to care about these things that are of critical importance to specialty seed growers—indeed, they cannot presently even be compelled to pin an isolation map provided by the WVSSA for the purpose of avoiding cross pollination. Unless the state creates legislation requiring that all brassica growers register and pin their locations on a public map, there is not a realistic scenario to prevent ongoing conflicts. ODA will need to create such a system just for the purpose of trying to foster coexistence between canola and specialty seed growers, something never done before, a pinning system that does not exist, requiring funding that isn’t likely to be forthcoming, for an industry with a farmgate value no one will brag about. Or, we can return to the protected district model that worked well for thirty-odd years, and still works in two Oregon rapeseed control districts.

Like many who have testified on this topic repeatedly over the years, I’m exhausted with repeating what has been said many times before. I nearly did not write this, nearly did not show up to testify, because I feel that the issue is now politicized, that a decision has already been made on some level beyond agricultural reasoning that oilseed canola will be grown in the Willamette Valley, no matter what, and that our special place in the world of quality seed is a part of Oregon’s history, not its future. This makes me very sad, not unlike a clear cut of old growth, seeing something pass away that can’t be returned in my lifetime. Those before us protected it, we are set to let it pass away. For cheap.

But, since I’m here, allow me to list my complaints:

I’m one of very few dedicated organic seed growers in the WVSSA membership. I supply organic growers on every scale directly through my catalog and website in the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Rim. I also supply seed catalog companies in many of these locations, especially catalogs that supply organic growers. Last year we sold seeds in 41 countries. Despite feeling somewhat significant in my worldly impact, I see that my farm is outside the arbitrary “blue line” that I sense must be where all the important seed producers are thought to live and prosper. I’m west of the Willamette, a mile south of Philomath, right beside one of the most significant organic produce farms in the state (Gathering Together Farm, with 65 acres of production). ODA might be forgiven for leaving us out of the protected area, since most organic farms are on marginal lands, and marginal lands are being given over to be the canola ghettos of the Oregon seed industry… but I’m a little surprised WVSSA wouldn’t have pointed me out, as I’m often cited by the organization as their organic token. So, let me be pointed and say that I think I’m as important as my friends at Universal Seed over yonder near Salem, and I think I deserve to have my priority pinning rights as respected as anyone who pays dues and pinning fees to WVSSA. But it looks like ODA intends to take this pinning priority that I’ve maintained for 12 years and do something different as regards pinning outside the blue box… but I have no idea what. I’m not feeling the safety of equal protection under the proposed changes. But I feel sleazy asking you to gerrymander your blue line just to include me, when I know there are other organic growers outside that blue line who don’t even know that seed crops might fit well in their production systems, and that they are in a world class seed growing region. The blue line not only threatens my future as a seedsman, it precludes many other futures that could have been. This is the tragedy of letting our specialty seed growing region erode around the edges. We won’t get that opportunity back to preserve what we now have.

The topic of herbicide resistant GE canola seems to be avoided whenever it comes up. Canola proponents cast the topic aside and insist they won’t be using GE canola. Why not? What will stop anyone from using GE canola? Not the law of the land. ODA states that is within their current authority to appoint advisory boards that can set the boundaries of control areas and “the type of rapeseed species and varieties which may be produced…” So, in theory these boards could prohibit GE varieties, but in reality, there’s no reason to expect that. When GE canola is allowed in the Willamette Valley, organic brassica seed will require genetic testing before it will be accepted by buyers. This is already the case for organic beets and swiss chard grown in the Valley, due to risks from GE sugar beet. When I have to add a $300 GMO test to my $200 pathology test (for Phoma and Xanthomonas), I will have a $500 cost added to every brassica seed lot I grow. My current catalog contains 37 varieties of brassica, so the impact will be significant.

The decision to reverse ODA policy re canola growing in the Valley grew out of the State’s poorly conceived renewable fuels policy. Part of the flawed implementation of this plan included encouraging and subsidizing the production of biofuel canola in the Willamette Valley, which included building a canola oil pressing facility at Rickreal. This investment in a canola pressing plant within a rapeseed control area would seem nonsensical, except the investors had some apparent belief that the control district would be abolished in short order. As we see this did not turn out to be the case, thanks to the commitment of the specialty seed industry to their homeland. But the crushing plant was built in any case, and ever sense, there has been an undercurrent of commitment from the state to see that plant put to use for canola growers. The plant itself keeps arising as something to be supplied with Willamette Valley canola. This is a perverse economic incentive, to somehow make the Valley pay for a poor investment, by undercutting a thriving industry (specialty seeds) with an industry that has been propped up by subsidies from its inception. The Willamette Valley will never be fueled by homegrown biodiesel, and so more recently canola proponents have hailed the plant as a food grade oil facility. Seems to me this poor investment has become a millstone around the State’s neck, and all this flailing about canola and specialty seeds is just an artifact of some grand plan gone askew…and it needs 50,000 acres of local canola to save face, for someone.

Undoing the Willamette Valley rapeseed control district has created new inequities under ODA rules. Currently seed growers in central Oregon enjoy the protection of their control district, and the specialty seed growers there aren’t suffering the conflicts created by the State’s illconceived decision to undo the WV control district. Along the border with Idaho, Idaho specialty seed growers are enjoying the protections afforded by Oregon’s eastern rapeseed control district. I understand that the State of Oregon provided this rapeseed control district at the request of Idaho’s seed industry, which was a considerate thing to do, more than 30 years ago. I’m not feeling equal protection under the rules, here.

A common justification for introduction of canola to the Willamette is the need for broadleaf rotation options for wheat and grass seed growers, something to break pest and disease cycles. There are a lot of options in this regard that wouldn’t threaten the specialty seed industry with disease, pest, and contamination issues. How about legumes as nitrogen fixing cover crops? Clover, vetch, sweetclover for example? These create value by fixing nitrogen that benefits subsequent cash crops, possibly creating more value than the $380/ acre that canola yields. Flax is a historic crop in the Valley, and while the infrastructure for linen production has disappeared, edible and industrial oilseed flax seem like alternatives. For the more entrepreneurial, oilseed poppies are another fall seeded broadleaf crop. The choice of canola as the rotational crop is fraught with conflicts, as we see. There is a good reason the rapeseed control districts were established in the first place, and we should reconsider the wisdom of undoing them.

Finally, basing future ODA decisions re canola in the WV on the OSU Coexistence Study is a selfblinding endeavor. The OSU study was intended to find a way toward coexistence between canola and specialty seed, not to determine the best ag policy for protecting the future of Willamette Valley agriculture. The study ignores the possibility that coexistence of oilseed and specialty seed brassica isn’t good policy. The experience of France and Denmark in this kind of coexistence was that the specialty seed industry faded away and those regions became commodity canola production zones. The OSU study did not really study or comment on these failed attempts at coexistence. The possibility that the Protected district policy is the best policy was given no attention. You don’t find what you don’t look for, so there is no possibility that the OSU study would have concluded that coexistence will always be fraught with conflict and gradual deterioration of the specialty seed sector. The only conclusion really drawn from the study is that large plantings of canola are no more threatening to specialty seeds than large scale plantings of radish or turnip, something I find easy to agree with. I suggest we curtail oversized, under-tended, plots of these commodity scale seed productions within the protected district, rather than opening up the protected district to another commodity brassica, which increases the threat to specialty seed production into the future, and Oregon’s future as a world class place to grow quality seed for planting.

Thank you for considering these comments.

Frank Morton