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72 SEEDWORLD.COM DECEMBER 2015 ORGANIC ACTIVISTS WOULD like you to believe their brand preexists in nature the way fresh air and clean water do. It does not. Organic food only exists because we have come up with a legal framework by which to define it a mind- numbing legal framework... just ask any organic farmer whos behind on his paperwork. If we were to decide tomorrow that certain GMOs would be acceptable as organic as President Clinton suggested we could rewrite the law. Or we can leave things the way they are embroiled in controversy. Its up to humans to define what organic means either way. Then theres the notion that GMOs contaminate organic crops as if were talking about dumping efflu- ents into a pristine stream full of brook trout. Were not. Were talking about politics plain and simple. GMOs are completely safe. So if politicians should ever decide to agree that GMOs actually contaminate organic crops it will be a political decision to devise a legal construct saying so not a scientific decision. So why is the idea of GMO contamination embraced so fervently by organic activists Simple. Their aim is to sideline agricultural genetic engineering and thereby prevent GMO farming from moving forward. Yes the USDA National Organic Program does stip- ulate how and when organic crops can become con- taminated by synthetic pesticides. But there is nothing in Americas or Canadas standards that explains how GMOs contaminate an organic crop. Organic farmers are only prevented from making use of GMOs due to a political aversion to this science that exists in urban organic circles. Lets be clear. Not a single organic crop anywhere in America or Canada has ever been decertified as a result of pollen or plant-material drifting onto it from a GMO crop. Not one. And yet even the proponents of GMO farming have come to believe that GMOs contaminate organic crops wondering how they can help prevent it and most absurdly how to insure organic farmers against it. Apocryphal stories abound of organic shipments being rejected by buyers who we are told insist on absolute genetic purity. But 43 percent of American organic food tests positive for prohibited pesticides a number thats even higher in Canada. Why dont organic buyers ever reject those loads Simple. Organic stakeholders no longer care about synthetic pesticides or synthetic fertilizer even when used fraudulently by organic farmers. They have concluded erroneously that the only way forward for organic farming is to ban all new GMO crops. Nice try but the jig is up. And no it is not inflam- matory or mean-spirited to point any of this out. Its the law. Organic standards were written by organic stake- holders so there is absolutely no excuse for ignoring them. Theres been peaceful coexistence between organic and GMO farmers since GMOs were first introduced two decades ago. And there is in point of fact no basis for a GMO free definition of organic. The whole premise of being organic is after all pure artifice from start to finish. The time has come to stop organic activists from creating controversy where none exists. We should strengthen the peaceful coexistence that has always existed between organic and GMO farmers wherever GMOs are grown and look forward to the day when we might even see the worlds first certified-organic genetically-modified crop. In fact it would be mean-spirited to do otherwise. SW Organicum Politica Artificiales MISCHA POPOFF policy advisor for The Heartland Institute and former USDA contract organic inspector Organic farmers are only prevented from making use of GMOs due to a political aversion to this science that exists in urban organic circles. Micscha Popoff