Testimony of Jack Kittredge.
Testimony of Jack Kittredge on HB 3012
owner, Many Hands Organic Farm, Barre, MA. 01005, (978) 355-2853
coordinator of NOFA/Mass Social Action Program
before the Joint Committee on Natural Resources
November 13, 2003
Good Morning. My name is Jack Kittredge. My wife and I own Many Hands Organic Farm, a 55 acre mixed crop and animal operation in Barre, Massachusetts, and are active in the Massachusetts chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association. We sell to about 50 families in Worcester County, supplying them with all of their fresh produce during the approximately 20 week growing period. We also sell to several area restaurants and a health food store in town.
Farming is not a huge industry in Massachusetts, accounting for less than 1% of the labor force. Still, we Commonwealth farmers account for about half a billion dollars in sales, and keep about a third of that as net family income. Perhaps more important, although the average size of farms is declining, their number is increasing. More and more people are farming as a part-time, secondary source of income . In that growth of farms, organic farms represent the fastest growing farm sector in Massachusetts.
Organic farms, raising fresh, high quality food without synthetic chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or herbicides, have a growing market among today's health conscious public. At my farm in Barre, the customers often drive 40 minutes or more to purchase our organic meat or produce.
But the feasibility of organic farming is based on the premise of wholesome, unadulterated food. And all food comes from an initial seed or fertilized egg. Organic regulations strictly prohibit genetic modification, so unless we can find unmodified sources for our crops and animals, we are out of business.
Study after study has found that the presence of genetically modified crops on adjacent farms guarantees that pollen will drift onto organic operations and contaminate their crops. Once a crop is contaminated by GM pollen, there is no way to clean it up.
I cite the Mexican maize study by Berkeley scientists Chapela and Quist (http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=410),
another one on corn by the official Institute of Ecology in Mexico (http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=409),
an Australian study on engineered canola spreading to nearby fields
(http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7784386%255E1702,00.html), and
a British government study on oilseed rape indicating it can travel up to 26 km and stay viable for up to 16 years
(http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2003/031013b.htm).
The casual way in which the federal government has allowed the release of untested GM traits into agriculture is truly tragic. The American people have become guinea pigs for the biotech companies . If it continues we will see the end of the organic industry and the genetic contamination of our fields forever.
But the biotech companies are not stopping at food. They now have engineered crops that will produce contraceptives, vaccines, solvents and many other non-food chemicals. They do this knowing full well that pollen from these pharmaceutical crops will also blow into adjacent fields and contaminate them. So what crops do they use to produce these chemicals? Unbelievably, they are growing most pharma products with food crops, primarily corn!
What will happen the first time a home gardener feeds her sweet corn to her child, and that kid has an allergic reaction to the pig vaccine that contaminated it? What will happen when couples working on fertility find that they have been eating foods inadvertently containing contraceptives? I believe it is the responsibility of the Massachusetts state government to prevent these tragedies waiting to happen.
The federal government, which has totally failed to regulated GM in food, last March issued weak regulations calling for better training for farmers, dedicated equipment and more frequent inspections at pharma sites, and increased distances between pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical crops. But the studies which show that pollen can travel for 26 kilometers (almost 15 miles) and GM seed remain viable for 16 years make such meager regulations clearly ludicrous.
We need to stop gambling with our health, our environment, our very lives. We need protection from a clear and present danger. I ask that you pass House 3012, which bans open air field tests of pharmaceutical crops until rigorous and enforceable regulations can be put in place to protect us.
Thank you.
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