Senior News April, 2004 Vol. 25. No. 4

 

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Granny Green Genes takes to the streets to get signatures

Joint conference will be rich with workshops, information

Make riding a bus a comfortable and easy way to travel

Funeral Consumers Alliance to hold annual meeting

Investment clubs

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I'm amost 62 years young and I've lived in Humboldt County since 1976, raising my son, Andrew. Now I'm the extremely proud granny of his three-year-old daughter, Sehonna Claire Devine.

For 12 years, until 1999, I was the owner/manager of a vegetarian fast food business called Soy Devine, still fondly remembered by many who continue to ask, "Where can I get one of those Cajun Tofu Burgers?" Well, you can't get those delicious items any more, but Granny Green Genes, as I'm known by many in the community, still dishes up some food for thought when called upon to talk about the threat to our food supply from something called genetic engineering.

Genetic engineering, the process used to create genetically modified organisms (GMOs), involves transferring the DNA of one species into the genetic blueprint of a completely different species. In one of the first Frankenstein-type experiments, GMO researchers spliced the genes of a fish with the genes of a tomato. This is neither natural nor wise.

The first commercial crop targeted for this type of experiment were the soybeans that I was using to create the Soy Devine product line in the 1990s. Monsanto Corporation decided to splice the genetic material of U.S. soybeans with genes from e-coli bacteria to create a soybean plant which could withstand huge doses of their proprietary herbicide, Round-Up. I started reading everything I could and networking with others across the country who shared my concern about this subjugation of the natural order in the fields and farms of our country, in the process becoming an educator myself.

Now, almost ten years later, I am involved with a citizens' effort to offer the voters of Humboldt County a choice to vote for a county ban on the growing of genetically modified crops, including trees and salmon (ideas which are in development and headed for commercialization). Volunteers are out gathering the 4,500 qualifying signatures we will need to turn in this summer to get on November's ballot. If you want to sign, look for us at grocery stores and community events.

Mendocino County voters approved their Measure H - creating a ban on GMO crops in the county - by a 56-44 percent margin in the March 2 election, the first in the country to do so. Biotech advocates spent $620,000 to defeat that measure. That vote is being celebrated in California and beyond as a major victory for farmers and citizens working to create safe havens for their own local organic and GMO-free agriculture. Since then the state of Vermont has passed a Farmers' Protection Act to hold biotech companies liable for unintended cross-contamination with GMOs.

If you want to get involved in our efforts to create a safe haven here for traditional, heirloom and organic agriculture, we're looking for creative and energetic people of all ages to join us. We have two regular meetings a month - in Arcata, 6:30 p.m., fourth Thursday at Redwood Peace & Justice Center, 1040 H Street; and in Eureka, CATS office, 315 P Street, 6 p.m. second Wednesday.

Martha Devine is also known as Granny Green Genes and a frequent member of the crews collecting signatures. For more info contact Mike Gann or Angela Flynn at 826-1031 or Martha Devine at 442-3481. Get more details from the group's web site, www.growgmofree.org or e-mail soydeva@webtv.net.