Taste of Timmins Petition for Organic/Non-GMO Farms
Posted: July 24, 2013
Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Members
The Taste of Timmins organization has set up a petition against GMO seeds on Change.org directed at the Timmins City Council. The petition reads:
“We, the community, represented by Taste of Timmins, want to state that we would like to see the City of Timmins and area support/fund ONLY ecologically sustainable agriculture and to keep GMO seeds OUT of Northern Ontario. If the goal is truly food security and financial success for farmers and the agricultural sector in the north, then GMO seeds represent the opposite.
Northern Ontario has remained relatively pristine and is an environmental treasure worthy of protecting. The use of chemical fertilizers threatens waterways (through fertilizer runoffs), toxic pesticides threaten surrounding wildlife habitats as well as the health of surrounding communities and children and GMO seeds endanger economic freedom and infringe on organic farmers who are at risk of having their fields contaminated by GMO seeds (and be potentially sued for no fault of their own for patent infringement).
We can and should take advantage of the unique opportunity we have to make Northern Ontario the first region in the country to say NO to GMO and lead the way for the rest of the country.
There is a strong growing movement against companies like Monsanto and if we lend support to this movement we can defeat these companies efforts to dominate/control our food supply. Many countries in Europe and even in parts of the U.S. there is resistance and an enlightened understanding of just how dangerous GMO seeds are to food security (contrary to popular belief that GMO seeds are the answer to food security). There is also strong evidence that organic practices/farms CAN feed their own regional populations. We agree that trade is important and relevant, but GMO seeds and conventional toxic farming practices or strict mono-culture farming are not the solution. There are revolutionary ways to produce food and cash crops that aren’t environmentally hazardous and Northern Ontario farmers can lead the way- with the support of visionary leaders.
We will be siting various documents, articles, research and testimonies to support our argument. We hope the City of Timmins and its officials will stand behind this important petition. ”
– from Taste of Timmins