Urgent: Tell your Reps to Protect the Valley by Supporting HB 2427

Pretty but deadly to organic farmers

This is an urgent call for YOU to tell your representatives that they need to stand up to help protect the unique, world-class Willamette Valley organic seed industry from the insanity of subsidized canola crops, which will destroy the valley as an organic seed nursery. 

The Oregon Ag. Dept. proposes to sacrifice the livelihood of small farmers and nursery growers, just to allow Big Ag to grow genetically modified canola so that they can suck up big subsidy dollars for canola as "biofuel."  

Despite the evidence of genetic drift every time genetically altered crops are planted out, Oregon Ag is pushing this scheme.

The worst part is that this is an irrevocable blunder.  Once the gene modified crops are introduced, we will get gene drift, as canola is promiscuous, and all the brassica seed growers up and down the valley will be destroyed, as they will lose the organic certification for their seeds.  Then the big growers will benefit from destroying their neighbors' livelihoods.

If we let canola into the valley, we're trading top-dollar, high value, unique nursery crops for a cheap commodity canola that can be grown anywhere and that we don't need grown anywhere.

Call your state reps and senators and tell them to PROTECT THE VALLEY, SUPPORT HB 2427

Esp. if you live in Brian Clem's district, call!  He sits on (and is a former chair of House Ag Committee), and he's taking the position that it's up to Oregon Ag. to decide this -- but Oregon Ag Department follows the money, not the best interests of the people of the Willamette Valley.

We are in a critical juncture in our fight to protect our seed & vegetable growers in the Willamette Valley from the threats posed by canola, and we need you to weigh in with the Oregon Legislature.

The canola issue is coming up before the legislature in the form of HB 2427 and we have a chance to restore the protections that were in place until very recently. While we and our allied farmers won a lawsuit against ODA’s canola rule last fall, they have gone ahead despite the opposition, with a new rule that opens up half the Willamette Valley to the dangers of canola, and the Legislature is now our best hope to win this fight.

In the coming days, the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee is expected to take up a debate on HB 2427 and canola. Many legislators are still ‘on the fence’ on this issue and a call and email from you WILL help make a difference at this critical time. Many legislators are simply inclined to listen to ODA because they view them as the "experts" on agriculture, but ODA has ignored important research on the impacts of canola in the Willamette Valley, and instead has yielded to pressure from the biofuel industry and a handful of growers who would benefit from introducing this controversial crop.


At a February 14 Senate hearing, ODA Director Katy Coba told the committee that "it's fair to say in other parts of the world specialty seed industries have been destroyed by large amounts of canola. And that there is a level of canola where you do jeopardize specialty seeds but we just don't know what that acreage is." Our question is, if this is the case, why is the ODA gambling with the future of the Willamette Valley and our food supply? Canola poses major threats to specialty vegetable seed, fresh market vegetable, and clover producers by incubating several devastating pest and diseases and physically contaminating seed lots. These industries together are worth over $100 million annually in agricultural production, and sustain many farm families.

Further, the vast majority of canola is genetically engineered to be herbicide resistant, which adds an additional threat to our organic vegetable and seed industries, as cross-pollination with canola contaminates organic crops, eliminating their value, and cross-pollination between canola and certain weeds can lead to ‘super-weeds’ that will require more aggressive herbicides to control.


Your State Representative needs to hear from you as a constituent to give them the push they need to do the right thing as HB 2427 is debated and comes up for a vote.


Not sure who your legislator is? Use this link: http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/


To send your legislator an email use this link: http://www.leg.state.or.us/writelegsltr/

Here is a sample script. Please add any personal perspectives on this issue and what it means to you as a farmer or eater:

Dear Rep. _____

My name is ___.  As your constituent, I strongly urge you to support HB 2427. The Willamette Valley is the heart of Oregonʼs lucrative specialty seed, fresh market vegetable, clover, and organic industries.  It is recognized for having unique a climate and the perfect conditions which have allowed these industries to thrive.

The Willamette Valley should be preserved and protected for these special purposes from the pest, weed and cross-contamination risks from canola. Allowing canola production in the Willamette Valley protected district would undermine this world-renowned resource, and the Valley’s economically important vegetable seed production industry, and large network of vegetable growers as well as our local food supply.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture made a major mistake by abruptly changing the rules to open up significant portions of the Willamette Valley to canola earlier this year, abandoning its long-standing and science-backed protections that prevented canola from contaminating the Willamette Valley.

Canola can be, and is, grown in most of the rest of Oregon.  Let’s keep it that way. 
Please support HB 2427 and restore protections from canola to our one-of-a-kind Willamette Valley.

Sincerely,

Thank you for your continued efforts in this fight!

Protect the Priceless Jewel, fertile, uncontaminated Willamette Valley Farmland

Genetically Tampered Canola threatens to destroy the
Willamette Valley specialty seed growers livelihood -
Thanks Oregon Department of Ag!

It is truly, staggeringly, astoundingly, chart-toppingly stupid-to-the-point-of-insane to imperil a singular world resource of the exact conditions needed to grow precious specialty food crops that command top dollar and provide food security insurance in a threatened world, simply in order to grow a near-worthless commodity product (canola oil) that is only hot because of outrageous and unjustified subsidies as fuel for cars.

If this wasn't so deadly serious you would be justified in thinking this was like a "Candid Camera" skit, where the idea was to propose something so outrageous that people would be justified in tarring and feathering anyone who proposed it.

Below is an email from Kendra Wolf, a MoveOn member in Beaverton, who created a petition on SignOn.org, the nonprofit site that allows anyone to start their own online petition. If you have concerns or feedback about this petition, click here.

Dear Salem MoveOn member,

Oregon is a major producer of the world's seeds for European cabbage, Brussels sprouts, rutabaga and turnips. Recently, our Department of Agriculture decided to allow 2500 acres for the growing of GMOs (genetically modified organisms).

The introduction of genetically modified canola would not only threaten the livelihood of seed farmers but would also pose serious dangers (such as increased pesticide use and herbicide-resistant superweeds) to the environment.

That's why I created a petition on SignOn.org to the Oregon Legislature, which says:

Stop the Oregon Department of Agriculture's decision to open 2500 acres to genetically modified canola.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Genetically modified canola has been genetically altered to withstand the herbicide Roundup, allowing farmers to spray more herbicide without destroying their crops. The cross-pollination of genetically modified crops with weeds creates superweeds that are also herbicide resistant.

The Huffington Post reported that more than two dozen weed species have become "resistant to Roundup's chief ingredient glyphosate, causing farmers to use increasing amounts both of glyphosate and other weed killing chemicals to try to control the so-called 'superweeds.'" This dilemma facing farmers is now driving up the "volume of herbicide needed each year by about 25 percent," and farmers are forced to use older, more dangerous herbicides as a result.1

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Kendra Wolf

Source:

1. "Genetically Modified Crops Have Led to Pesticide Increase, Study Finds," The Huffington Post, October 1, 2012.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=285870&id=60259-19567772-L3ffAYx&t=4

This petition was created on SignOn.org, the progressive, nonprofit petition site. SignOn.org is sponsored by MoveOn Civic Action, which is not responsible for the contents of this or other petitions posted on the site. Kendra Wolf didn't pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.

Want to support our work? MoveOn Civic Action is entirely funded by our 7 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

Short summary of arguments against Bridgasaurus

There are 800+ million reasons to oppose "Bridgasaurus Boondogglus," the fossilized relic of 1950's style auto "planning."  Here's a good, short summary of just a few of those arguments.

Stop "Bridgasaurus Boondogglus" petition building up steam!

We're building up steam, but we still need you and all your friends to sign a petition to tell the SKATS agencies to stand up to that most dangerous creature, Bridgasaurus Boondogglus, a fossil unearthed from the 1950s Highway Planning, fossil-fuel wasting mindset.

We need many signatures to tell SKATS to keep Bridgasaurus from putting an $800+ million stomp on the Highland, Grant, and West Salem neighborhoods and from destroying Wallace Marine Park ... not to mention eating up precious resources from everyone in Salem. 

The Chamber of Commerce and the Homebuilders are working day and night to push this monstrosity.  They have paid folks twisting arms in local governments.  We have the facts, logic, reason and common sense on our side, and people power.  But we only have that power if people stand up and say that we're not interested in blowing hundreds of millions on a gigantic time-warp highway dinosaur.

If you want to see how absurd this project is, look at the "funding" options game --
http://salemrivercrossing.org/Funding.aspx

The projected local damage for this thing -- $30,000,000 a YEAR for 30 years -- is the exact amount that Salem-Keizer schools is projected to fall short next year (after already laying off hundreds, including every middle and elementary school librarian).  And that's with the West Salem library hours cut to 16 a week.  And NO transit service on weekends at all, in Oregon's capital city.

We've reached some signers already. But if we are going to have an impact, it's critical that more people sign our petition to Salem Keizer Area Transportation Study agencies.

Our petition is herehttp://signon.org/sign/no-bridgasaurus-in-salem --
please sign and spread it around:  http://signon.org/sign/no-bridgasaurus-in-salem
Can you please forward that link to five of your friends right now -- or to everyone in your address book who will be hammered by this thing?  With your help, we can reach our goal! 

P.S.  If you want to stay involved in the battle against Bridgasaurus, you can get on the No3rdBridge mailing list -- go here and request an invitation to join the list: 
http://groups.google.com/group/no3rdbridge?hl=en

Don't miss this one in the busy December whirl

(NOTE:This terribly misnamed movie is about our insane sickness financing system, not forests.)

Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
Showing at Salem Progressive Film Series in The Historic Grand Theatre,
Thursday, December 13, 2012    7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)

ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: how can we save our badly broken healthcare system?

American healthcare costs are rising so rapidly that they could reach $4.2 trillion annually, roughly 20% of our gross domestic product, within ten years. We spend $300 billion a year on pharmaceutical drugs – almost as much as the rest of the world combined. We pay more, yet our health outcomes are worse. About 65% of Americans are overweight and almost 75% of healthcare spending goes to preventable diseases that are the major causes of disability and death in our society.

It’s not surprising that healthcare is at the top of many Americans’ concerns and at the center of an intense political firestorm in our nation’s Capitol. But the current battle over cost and access does not ultimately address the root of the problem: we have a disease-care system, not a healthcare system. The film examines the powerful forces maintaining the status quo, a medical industry designed for quick fixes rather than prevention, for profit-driven care rather than  patient-driven care.

ESCAPE FIRE also presents attainable solutions. After decades of resistance, a movement to bring innovative high-touch, low-cost methods of prevention and healing into our high-tech, costly system is finally gaining ground.

Filmmakers Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke interweave dramatic personal arcs of patients and physicians with the stories of leaders battling to transform healthcare at the highest levels of medicine, industry, government, and even the U.S. military. ESCAPE FIRE is about finding a way out of our current crisis. It’s about saving the health of a nation.

Related articles -

1) interesting thoughts in an essay here

• One doc's review of EscapeFire: It had drama, pathos, irony, and the graphics were good 2) too!
 

Coal Trains and Selling Out the Willamette Valley

The Willamette Valley contains most of Oregon's population; it extends from Portland in the North to Eugene in the South. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anyone who lives in Salem and environs needs to anticipate what coal exports really mean here:  Selling out our future for the empty promise of a few jobs.  Look at the states where King Coal has had its way (West Virginia, Kentucky, PA), and compare them to Oregon.  Now, which is the better model?

Coal exports down the Columbia and up to Bellingham and down to Coos Bay mean the destruction of livability in the Willamette Valley in service of global capital seeking to maximize profits by externalized costs (environmental devastation, climate disruption, reduced property values all along the routes of these behemoth coal trains), with no benefits to the people paying those costs (us).

Coal exports are a gigantic step backwards for the US.  Not only does it return us to the days of colonial status, exploited for our raw materials and stuck with the negative consequences, but it would help ensure a runaway carbon nightmare of the Six Degree C (11F) hotter global temperature average, which is pretty much a nightmare future in the best case.

Anyone with children or grandchildren or simply a modicum of concern for the future needs to realize what a serious threat we face from continued use of coal. 

Bottom line:  if the Iranians and North Koreans had a thousand 100-megaton nukes each and the means to drop them on any place in the world, that would only be a tiny fraction of the threat we face from coal.  It's only the limits of our primitive monkey-based brains that make it so easy for us to see threats from other bands of monkeybrains and so hard to recognize the much more potent and serious threats we unleash upon ourselves.

Related articles

• Red Means Stop for Big Coal Exports in the Pacific Northwest

WORD: 3d Bridge a Gigantic Boondoggle

Oregon State Highway 22 (Willamina-Salem Highway) intersects Oregon State Highway 223 in Polk Station. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What's most interesting is that the most-reliably anti-tax groups in Oregon, the Chamber of Commerce and the Homebuilders -- two groups that fight ferociously against taxes usually -- got up and waved their hands about "future growth," and made empty claims about the need to build this monstrosity for the vague "future" needs.   Thus, they showed their true colors:  they aren't against making you pay higher taxes, just taxes that provide you with services.  If you have to pay higher taxes so they can make a lot of money, hey, they're all for that.

That tells you just about everything you need to know about this project:  It's nothing but a money grab by land speculators and developers who are salivating at the thought of sprawling all the way to Dallas and all the money they can make if they can buffalo the people of Salem into building them a bridge (and paying for it!) that will only hurt Salem and benefit them.

Not only do we not need this project, it's the epitome of making the problem worse at great expense.  Traffic counts over existing bridges are already declining and will continue to do so, and Salem's congestion problems are not a function of how many lanes go over the river but the idiocy of how we handle the traffic at each end.

Moreover, the Highway Lobby's refusal to apply least-cost planning methods to what little congestion we face in Salem for a couple of brief periods daily tells you everything you need to know -- this isn't a solution to a problem, this is a profitable project that they want to ram down our throats regardless of all other considerations.  If Salem had a serious congestion problem, it would be greatly reduced if not eliminated instantly just by staggering the start times for state government workers and offering good cross-river transit options.  A "fast-pass" electronic toll collection system on the existing bridges would not only provide all the money needed to address the problems with the existing on and off interchanges, it would also encourage carpooling and other reductions in cross-river trips.

Of course, these wouldn't put millions of dollars into the pockets of the land speculators and the concrete lobby businesses who care about nothing but taking your money and making it theirs.

Bridge project is a $687 million boondoggle

On Nov. 5, dozens of Salem residents filled the City Council chambers to say no to building a $687 million bridge and freeway from Highway 22 to Interstate 5.

Their testimony was eloquent and convincing about the fact that this project is destructive, too expensive, not needed and should be rejected by the council. They said we can relieve congestion by fixing the bottlenecks at both ends of the bridges and by improving transit, all at a much lower cost.

Alternative 4D, as the third bridge is called in the staff report, will not relieve congestion on the existing bridges and will destroy 160 residences and small businesses.

The only testimony in favor of the third bridge came from the homebuilders association and the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, but when pressed by Councilor Chuck Bennett if they would be in favor of imposing tolls or raising taxes to fund the third bridge, they could not give him a straight answer.


The council will hold a work session on Nov. 28 and resume the public hearing on Dec. 10. I hope concerned citizens will mark their calendars and plan to be at the Salem City Council to continue to oppose this $687 million boondoggle.



Jim Scheppke
Salem

Be there Nov 4 for citizen activism at its best

Citizens doing the job that the elected officials have shamelessly and shockingly shirked for sure:

Say NO to the $687 Million 3^rd Bridge

On Monday, November 5^th the Salem City Council will hold a public hearing on a recommendation to build a new bridge and freeway connecting Highway 22 and I-5. The plan would destroy residences and businesses on both sides of the river and would do little to relieve rush hour congestion on the existing bridges. And to make it worse, Salem residents would bear most of the costs, with increased property or gas taxes — maybe even tolls on the existing bridges.

To learn how you can oppose the 3^rd bridge, please plan to attend:

NO 3^rd Bridge Briefing

Sunday, November 4^th, 3 pm

Salem Public Library, Anderson Room

For more information visit our Facebook page: NO 3^rd Bridge

JimScheppke, Campaign Coordinator

503-269-1559

no3rdbridge@comcast.net

NO Third Bridge Briefing Will Inform Salem Residents

 in Advance of City Council Hearing

Salem, Oregon – Concerned Salem residents will get the opportunity to hear from experts about the proposal to build a new $687 million freeway spanning the Willamette River and connecting Highway 22 to I-5.

The NO 3rd Bridge Briefing will take place on Sunday, November 4^th at 3 p.m. in the Anderson A meeting room at the Salem Public Library.

The featured speaker will be Scott Bassett, a transportation policy analyst for fifteen years, who has been following the planning process for the 3^rd Bridge. Bassett will describe in detail the 3^rd Bridge plans that will be considered by the Salem City Council at a public hearing on November 5^th at 6:30 p.m. He will also show how the need for a new bridge is now highly questionable in light of declining traffic on the existing bridges, and he will present his ideas on how to relieve congestion at peak hours without spending many hundreds of millions on a new bridge.

Also speaking at the briefing will be a member of the project Task Force who is not in favor of building a 3^rd bridge. Doug Parrow, who represented the Bicycle Transportation Alliance on the Task Force, will give an insider’s perspective on the project, and explain why he believes better infrastructure for bike transportation is one answer to relieving traffic congestion.

Bob Krebs, a member of the project Oversight Team for the Salem-Keizer Transit District Board, will share how planning for the 3^rd bridge will proceed from here. The District has not taken a position on the 3^rd bridge. Krebs will also share his ideas about how better mass transit between West Salem and downtown might be a viable solution to relieve peak hour traffic congestion.

Following the presentation there will be time for audience members to have their questions about the 3^rd Bridge answered by the expert panel. Panel members will also explain how citizens can participate most effectively at the Salem City Council public hearing on November 5.

Fighting back against The Enemy of the Human Race (coal)

"The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses."  - Utah Phillips

After the hottest summer in recorded history, extractive industries are still attempting to dig in the backyards of communities across the country, release carbon into the air, and poison people in their all-consuming quest for more dirty energy.

As author and veteran climate activist Bill McKibbon recently wrote, "It has become a rogue industry, reckless like no other force on Earth. It is Public Enemy Number One to the survival of our planetary civilization." He lays out in concrete numbers what most of us know - that climate change is real, it is caused by humans, and the reason it is happening is simple: greed.

What we don't hear as often is what groups are doing to fight back. And RESIST grantees are not standing idly by – they are on the frontlines of the devastation. Yes, these are the wealthiest most powerful corporations in the world, but that's not stopping grantees such as Citizens for Huerfano County and Erie Rising in Colorado, or Beyond Toxics in Oregon, or United Mountain Defense in Tennessee.

And this RESIST Newsletter shares a few of their stories...

Confronting Energy Tyranny
By Ceal Smith
An aggressive energy boom is sweeping across the country. And although the technologies are new, the consequences for the people and the planet are familiar. For those caught in the crosshair, hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) and massively scaled, remote-concentrated solar are two of the newest yet most disastrous dangers being forced upon our communities and the planet.

One City, Two Worlds
By Lisa Arkin
Eugene, Oregon is actually two different communities, with two different standards for the environment and public health. And when one of those communities is home to poorer families, more immigrants and more people of color, it seems to have fewer rights to health and safety. And then the polluters come knocking.

Polluters: Kiss Your Profits Goodbye
By James Kane
It’s a cold, rainy November morning on the slopes of an abandoned strip mine somewhere in the southern Appalachians. Dead grass carpets the slowly decaying, slumping piles of mining waste, hurriedly piled against the vertical gashes in what was once a mountain ridge. Mining companies abandoned this place long ago, but someone refuses to forget.

Read and download the entire Newsletter here.

All of these groups are RESIST grantees. They are fighting for the survival of their communities and for the planet by taking on the largest corporations in history. Your support makes that possible. Please donate now!

259 Elm Street | Somerville, MA 02144 US

Related articles

• Coal fight looms, Keystone-like, over US Northwest.
• Five Reasons to Stop Coal Exports in Its Tracks

Hard Truth about Coal (aka "The Enemy of the Human Race")

Coal on the Marches line (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As you read this, coal exportation threatens our right to live in a healthy community.  Coal exportation will pollute our air and water with toxic coal pollution, put our communities' safety at risk, clog our railroads and waterways, and recklessly stoke the climate crisis all the way.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way.  Oregon has always been at the forefront of this issue.  Over 25 communities across the Oregon and Washington have passed city resolutions calling for an area wide environmental impact statement to assess the full implications of the coal export projects.

Governor Kitzhaber and the state agencies have the power to stop this invasion on our right to a healthy community. They can deny or delay permits and demand evaluations from federal agencies to block coal exportation here in Oregon.

Want to learn more about how coal exportation will affect Salem?
Want to learn what you can do about it?

Come to our Coal Hard Truth Forum!

Salem Coal Hard Truth Forum
Wednesday October 10th, 7:00-8:30pm

Willamette University
College of Law
Paulus Lecture Hall (Room 201)
245 Winter Street SE, Salem
(Refreshments Provided)

Join us for an evening of panelists and Q & A, with experts talking about the health, economic, and environmental impacts of coal export projects in Oregon and Washington.

Speakers include

• Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health at Portland State University, senior physician at Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Hospital, and member of the Social Justice Committee and Board of Advisors for Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR),
  
• Reverend Rick Davis of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Salem, and
  
• Peter Frick-Wright, a frequent contributor to The Oregonian, Bike and Sierra Magazine, which sent him to cover the first coal export terminal proposals in 2010.

I'm happy to email you the official invitation and any more information you would like on this critical issue. You can reach me at lucy@greencorps.org

Related articles

• Editorial: Coal trains, terminals need comprehensive environmental reviews
• Oregon Activists Say No to Coal Exports

A message we should all endorse

WEIRD: Oregon Ag Dept working to undermine Oregon Ag

The Willamette River Valley (Photo credit: Wikipedia)This is another example of how moneyed interests capture public agencies and bend them back and use them as weapons against the public interest instead of regulators on behalf of the public well-being.

Allowing genetically tampered crops loose in the Willamette Valley is unwise, unnecessary, and totally undesirable. There is no benefit to Oregonians from allowing the gene tampered foods to intermix in the Willamette Valley -- the only benefit is to the corporate interests who would be only too happy to despoil the Willamette Valley and destroy its status as a haven for organic producers.

The industrial "phood" that results from gene tampering is designed solely to allow corporate interests to capture the entire food supply and destroy peoples' ability to grow pure, real food.

Good afternoon ~

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has fast-tracked the approval of canola production in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. This would include Genetically Modified Canola.

This would mean that our crops that are related to canola (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussel sprouts, etc) would be at risk for cross pollination and contamination by GM canola.

Many gardeners rely on seed grown in the Willamette Valley for their home gardens.
Please read the letter below from the Seed Ambassadors and act now to express your thoughts on this issue.

Please comment by THIS FRIDAY to prevent the Oregon Department of Agriculture's temporary rule permitting GM canola and thus, bypassing the public comment period.

It is up to us to protect the genetics of our food.
Thanks!
Marisha

Hello Everyone!

We here at the Seed Ambassadors Project haven't sent out any e-mails in a while, but are compelled to do so today: There is an immediate threat to our food supply because the Oregon Department of Agriculture has fast- tracked the approval of canola (including GM canola) production here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

As many of you may know the Willamette Valley is one of the top 5 places in the world for growing and supplying specialty seed and maintaining seed diversity. Seed grown here not only is sold by local Oregon companies, such as Adaptive Seeds, but is also bought by other seed companies such as Johnny's, Fedco, and lots of others both nationally and internationally. Basically, seed grown here supplies the world with food.

One of the specialty seeds that the Valley is perfect for is brassicas, which includes broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, rutabaga, turnip, radish, kale, cabbage, etc. Canola is also a brassica but spreads rampantly and cross pollinates with a lot of other brassicas with detrimental effects. Oregon State University has conducted research proving that canola will cross pollinate with many different crops including turnips, broccoli raab, some kales, rutabaga, and possibly radish and broccoli.

Meaning the presence of canola production in the Willamette Valley will definitely contaminate and destroy those other seed crops. Without doubt.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) has previously maintained a canola exclusion zone in the Valley. However, in the past few months there have been a series of meetings held behind closed doors to change this zone to allow canola (including genetically modified canola) to be grown in the valley unchecked and with disregard to existing seed pinning map isolation guidelines.

ODA only just released a press release on Friday, August 3rd saying they will grant a temporary rule to allow canola this Friday, August 10th.
By issuing a temporary rule the ODA is avoiding the requirement for public comment and therefore behaving unilaterally with only special interests in mind. Not only does this decision harm seed growers but GM canola cross pollination will also potentially threaten the livelihood of any of the certified organic growers in the area. There are good reasons why canola has been banned in the Willamette Valley by ODA up to this point, and pressure on ODA to lift these bans needs to be countered.

Please contact the ODA and Governor Kitzhaber yourself and make your voice heard! It does not matter if you are not an Oregon resident, this decision effects everyone in a huge way and they need to be reminded of that.

And spread the word!

ODA phone number: (503) 986-4552
ODA Director Coba: KCoba@oda.state.or.us

Governor Kitzhaber: (503) 378-4582 ; or email

Remember, we only have until this Friday, August 10th to change this decision!


Check out the following links for more information:

Friends of Family Farmers: Willamette Valley Immediately Threatened by Canola

2006 OSU Special Report on Canola Outcrossing Potential in the Willamette Valley

GMOs At The Door, Wild Garden Seeds, Frank Morton

Willamette Valley Farmers Continue the Canola Debate, OregonLive.com

Thanks for your time and help!

Sarah Kleeger
Andrew Still

Visit Beaver State Permaculture

Related articles

• the last thing we need: gmo canola oil in the willamette valley

Hugely important as Salem squanders precious funds on 3rd Bridge Fantasies

All the nonsense in the draft environmental impact statement about the value of time saved is just that: Nonsense. Auto drivers want free lunches forever, and are not willing to pay anything like the costs of their autobahn fantasies. Given a choice, only a few will pay tolls to get somewhere faster.

This is a crucial article for Salem, given that our local transportation and construction moguls are dying to tap taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars to throw yet another auto bridge across the Willamette, based on imaginary increases in what counts as "congestion" in Salem and the supposed willingness of drivers to pay tolls.

Most importantly, notice that the planners' fantasy includes tapping property taxes directly, again showing that the line about "roads are paid from gas taxes" is complete and utter BS.

The project is a corporate welfare vampire that needs to be killed dead as soon as possible.

If you click on that table above it will take you to Boondoggle Central, the website for the scam, where you can play with various funding streams and see just how outrageously high tolls, registrations, and gas taxes would have to be to fund this one without adding yet more property tax burdens in Salem, where we already have insane numbers of people who are underwater on their houses and who will be foreclosed in increasing numbers if the boondoggle gets underway.

In fact, that's what people really need to understand -- when you build a boondoggle in a contracting economy, you not only waste precious funds, you drown people on the margin completely, people who would have been able to stay in their homes without the excess tax burden used to fund a wasteful scheme.

Poisoning Marion County for Profit: Brooks slated for yet more airborne toxics

Air Pollution Smoke Stack (Photo credit: EnvironmentBlog)Hey Marion County Neighbors!

Don't you just love the smell of burning plastics in the morning?

Feeling like the air near Salem is just too darn breathable? Wouldn't you rather breathe in tons and tons of hazardous pollutants and see particulate toxins enter the foodchain right here in the heart of the Willamette Valley by landing on produce and fields and in streams?

Then you're in luck! Agilyx Corp. wants to satisfy your craving for more pollution for you!

They're proposing to build a plastic trash burner up in Brooks, already the epicenter of air-quality insults in Marion County. In other words, they propose to dump millions of tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere over the project lifetime, while spreading a fine dust of toxic particulates and hydrochloric acid all over! What nice neighbors, eh? Oh, and they don't plan to pay anything for using our sky and our precious world-class farmland as their free toxics dumpsite.

And don't worry about the PVC -- they say they're going to screen out the PVC wastes first, since PVC combustion releases incredibly toxic and nasty products. And we all know that mistakes never happen when plowing through tons and tons of waste garbage that all pretty much looks the same and arrives in truckloads!

Here's the abbreviated notice. (pdf)

What does Agilyx Corporation do that affects air quality?

The company proposes to construct and operate a pyrolysis energy reclamation facility. They will produce a synthetic crude-oil like product from plastic feedstock. The feedstock will consist of plastics not feasible for recycling. The feedstock must be pre-screened to remove polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics. The oil product will be sold to off-site customers.

The proposed operations will emit Particulate Matter (PM), Fine Particulate Matter (PM10/2.5), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2),Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Greenhouse Gases (GHG), and Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) to the air. Additional detailed information regarding operations and emissions can be found in the review report.

Table 1
Criteria Pollutant Proposed Emission Limit (tons/yr)
Particulate Matter (PM) 24
Fine Particulate Matter (PM10) 14
Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) 9
Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) 39
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) 39
Carbon Monoxide (CO) 99
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) 39
Greenhouse Gases (GHG) 74,000 (67,100 metric tons)

Table 2
Hazardous Air Pollutants Proposed Emission Limit* (tons/yr)
Individual HAP (HCl) 9
Combined HAPs 24

*HAP PSELs are being established to ensure the source remains a minor source of HAPs pending further emission factor verification analyses.

For more on the criteria pollutants, see http://www.deq.state.or.us/aq/forms/annrpt.htm

Comments due: Written comments due: 5 p.m. September 5, 2012

Where can I send my comments?

Patty Hamman, Regional Permit Coordinator
(503) 378-5305 or Toll Free (800) 349-7677
750 Front Street NE, Suite 120
Salem, OR 97301-1039
(503) 378-4196 (Fax)
hamman.patricia@deq.state.or.us

Where can I get technical information?

Karen White-Fallon, Permit Writer
(503) 378-5315 or (800) 349-7677
750 Front Street NE, Suite 120
Salem, OR 97301-1039
(503) 378-4196 (Fax)
white-fallon.karen@deq.state.or.us

Where can I get background information?
Information about this project is viewable online by clicking the following link(s):
• Permit (pdf)
• Evaluation Report (pdf)

Imagine helping people struggling with addiction instead of destroying them

The only thing accomplished by criminalizing drug addiction is ensuring that people like this won't seek help.

Daily Kos: The One Comic That Explains Just How Screwed America Is

Oh how I wish this wasn't so deadly accurate.

Mayors attack schools - link

Mayors back parents seizing control of schools
By Stephanie Simon
 
Hundreds of mayors from across the United States called for new laws  letting parents seize control of low-performing public schools and fire the teachers, oust the administrators or turn the schools over to 
private management.  

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/18/us-usa-education-trigger-idUSBRE85H0J620120618

GRIM but important - ClubOrlov: Fragility and Collapse: Slowly at first, then all at once

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2012/06/fragility-and-collapse-slowly-at-first.html

I wish I could find obvious holes in this. Meanwhile, Salem is blowing millions planning for an absurd multi-hundred million dollar highway bridge to handle the traffic demand of the hypothetical future that exists only in dreams of business as usual with cheap gas and more suburban sprawl.

Coal is the enemy of the human race, the slow "screw the future" suicide system

This is an excellent post by Cliff Mass, UW meteorologist on his weather blog, on why coal trains are a REALLY BAD IDEA for the environment & human health.

Also, Professor Dan Jaffe, of UW Bothell, has documented the substantial contribution of Asian pollution to our background pollution levels (see here for one story on this). This is really scary stuff!

Here are some highlights. Want to see the coal dust blowing off a coal train? Click on this image to see a video of a coal train in British Columbia...you will see HUGE amounts of dust blowing off into a scenic river basin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jixOquzgNqk

Even worse...once the coal gets to China they burn it, producing all sorts of particulates and gases that then moves across the Pacific to worsen regional air quality problems here in the Northwest. In fact, Professor Dan Jaffe, of UW Bothell, has documented the substantial contribution of Asian pollution to our background pollution levels (see here for one story on this).

Disaster in the Making: More Oregon parents not having kids vaccinated

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20120508/UPDATE/120508012/1001

The move among parents to resist vaccination for children is depressing on many levels.  The worst part is realizing how, given that all too soon we're going to have plenty of problems getting the tax revenue necessary for maintaining first-world levels of public health in the first place, some parents are voluntarily creating non-vaccination issues to boot.

There's no easy answer.  Our legal systems treat children as little more than pets, items of property.  Thus, the property owners (aka parents) can refuse vaccinations of their "property" without consequence to themselves, but with plenty of consequence to others, and sometimes to the non-vaccinated children.

For good reasons, we've got seatbelt laws, and laws that forbid letting kids ride in the back of open pickup trucks.  But the law makes it easy for parents to claim a religious scruple against vaccination of their children.  What's the difference?  There used to be lots of arguments about how seatbelts made certain crashes more dangerous.  Of course, those arguments are mostly bunk, like the arguments about vaccinations.  But if we let parents expose their kids to serious and occasionally fatal diseases through failure to vaccinate, why can't parents decide whether their kids should wear a seatbelt?