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EJ: How did you first learn about GE crops in your area? 

FM: I was at a meeting of the Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Association in Oregon in 2006 when a member told us that he had planted GE sugar beets. None of the other members of the association had any idea this had happened. We were never informed by the USDA. Nobody asked the seed association whether this would have any impact on us. So basically a lot of us felt like we weren’t consulted about this, but there was a sort of fatalism about it among the membership because they didn’t think there was anything that could be done about it.

I am the only 100 percent organic seed farmer in the group, so it fell to me to make the organization realize the long-term consequences of us having GE crops in the valley. I told the group that whether they were conventional or organic, their customers would not want to have GE seed contamination. The group actually did agree with that perception. However, they insisted that because the USDA allowed this happen, we were powerless to do anything about it. So, nobody wanted to get involved, except eventually I did.

EJ: How do GE crops threaten farmers of organic or conventional (non-GE) crops?

FM: This past January, one of the members of the seed association lost a multimillion dollar contract with a European seed company because the company perceived a risk of contamination from GMOs now that GE crops were being allowed in the Willamette Valley. This is precisely what I envisioned happening. When this member reported that he had just lost a multimillion dollar contract not because of contamination but because of the fear of the risk of contamination, suddenly the conventional growers completely got it.