{"id":30294,"date":"2011-12-09T07:58:38","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T07:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/?p=30294"},"modified":"2011-12-09T07:58:38","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T07:58:38","slug":"article_24465","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/article_24465\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds Pack Meeting to Both Decry, Defend GMOs on Boulder County Open Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page<\/a> and our Colorado News page<\/a>.<\/span>
\nLONGMONT — A boisterous crowd of hundreds — at one point punching through the Longmont Conference Center’s fire occupancy limit and forcing an attached room to be opened — had their say about genetically modified crops Thursday night and Friday morning during a 9 1\/2-hour public hearing on Boulder County’s proposed Cropland Policy.<\/p>\n

Dozens of speakers stood before the county commissioners to either vent about the dangers of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, on open space land or to herald them as a sensible science-based solution for an increasingly populous and hungry planet.<\/p>\n

Conventional farmers demanded they be given the freedom to grow the crops they want while organic farmers and gardeners denounced GMOs as a dangerous experiment. Tempers became short at times, with members of the crowd clapping, laughing and shouting out and prompting Commissioner Ben Pearlman to plead repeatedly for order.<\/p>\n

The meeting, which started at 6 p.m. Thursday, ended at 3:30 a.m. Friday.<\/p>\n

The public hearing was the culmination of more than two years of debate, public meetings and committee reports about how Boulder County should manage agricultural activity on open space acreage.<\/p>\n

The final decision on the proposed Cropland Policy rests with the commissioners, though no date has been set for a vote.<\/p>\n

Boulder resident Brook Stableford, who opposes GMO crops, incorporated some performance theater into his 3-minute presentation, pulling out a cigarette and comparing the practices and assurances of the agribusiness industry to those offered by the tobacco industry decades ago.<\/p>\n

“It’s the same scam all over again,” Stableford said.<\/p>\n

Daniel Bush, one of several Colorado State University professors who spoke in defense of bio-engineered crops, called the GMO detractors members of an “anti-science movement.”<\/p>\n

“They are ignoring the science because they don’t believe it supports what they believe,” he said. “It becomes a religious belief in some ways.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONGMONT — A boisterous crowd of hundreds — at one point punching through the Longmont Conference Center’s fire occupancy limit and forcing an attached room to be opened — had their say about genetically modified crops Thursday night and Friday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[7],"organicbytes":[],"countries":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHundreds Pack Meeting to Both Decry, Defend GMOs on Boulder County Open Space - Organic Consumers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/article_24465\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hundreds Pack Meeting to Both Decry, Defend GMOs on Boulder County Open Space - 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