The Board of Directors of farmer-run OSGATA has voted unanimously to withdraw as a member of Organic Trade Association and to terminate OTA's membership in OSGATA over their role in the Stabenow-Roberts GMO Labeling law preemption bill (DARK Act Stabenow-Roberts (S.764).
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ORGANIC FARMER GROUP Dumps ORGANIC
TRADE ASSOCIATION
OSGATA Cites
Betrayal Over Monsanto-Backed GMO LABELING BILL
Washington,
ME, July 13, 2016 – By a unanimous vote of its Board of
Directors, the organic farmer-controlled Organic Seed Growers and Trade
Association (OSGATA) has withdrawn its membership from the Organic Trade Association (OTA). OSGATA’s
decision was prompted by OTA’s duplicity
towards organic farmers and consumers when a small number of OTA board members endorsed a dangerous Senate bill
that would immediately preempt existing strong state GMO Labeling laws that are
widely supported by the Organic community and ninety percent of consumers.
Biotech
giant Monsanto is universally recognized within the Organic community as
organic’s greatest threat. Recent revelations have made clear
that the OTA has created numerous close partnerships with Monsanto including
intensive lobbying efforts by the notorious biotech-linked lobbyist Podesta
Group on behalf of the deal brokered by Senators Stabenow (D-MI) and Roberts
(R-KS). The Stabenow-Roberts
(S.764) is a Senate bill – backed by industrial agriculture and large food
conglomerates and whose primary intent are nullifying of historic mandatory GMO
Labeling laws passed by huge margins in Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and Alaska
legislatures and relieving multinational food companies of the requirement to
clearly label products that were produced by genetic
engineering. OTA support for
the Monsanto-backed bill proved essential for passage. Last week
Stabenow-Roberts passed in the Senate by a narrow four-vote margin of victory
on a vote of 63-30.
“It’s
important for the world to understand that it was the Organic Trade Association that killed our state
GMO labeling laws by backing Monsanto’s Stabenow-Roberts bill,” said Maine
organic seed farmer and longtime OSGATA President,
Jim Gerritsen. “It’s clear that Organic Trade Association has
come under the control of a small group of lobbyists controlled by giant-food
corporations that also own organic brands. In an effort to protect their
own bottom lines and those of their parent companies, the reckless actions of
these large parent-owned organic companies threaten the survival of organic
farmers and the organic community we have all worked so hard for decades to
build. The Organic Trade Association can
no longer be trusted and it’s clear that organic farmers can no longer condone
this dubious trade association’s troubling behavior. Effective
immediately, the farmer-run organic seed trade group OSGATA resigns from OTA and we call on other honest organic
organizations and companies to do the same.”
OTA’s efforts
in support of the industry-backed bill included misleading assertions made to
its membership and the public about what the bill would accomplish. These
assertions included false statements that the bill will require mandatory
disclosure of GMO ingredients nationwide and would cover thousands more
products than Vermont’s and other states’ GMO labeling laws. The FDA, Consumers Union, and
numerous others have pointed out that the bill’s definitions, ambiguities, lack
of penalty authority, and other provisions fail to guarantee on-package product
transparency.
Further, OTA’s efforts had the intentional effect of misleading
Senators into believing the bill had the full backing of the organic industry
when the truth was the exact opposite. The OSGATA Board of Directors has terminated OTA’s membership in OSGATA due to violations of OSGATA’s Code of Ethics. OSGATA’sCode of Ethics requires that members refrain
from false or misleading statements to the public and/or conduct that brings
discredit on OSGATA or himself/herself. See, OSGATA Bylaws, Article 8 – Code of Ethics.
“OSGATA is a well-respected farmer-run membership
trade organization dedicated to protecting and developing organic seed for
organic farmers around the world” said Lisa Stokke, OSGATA Board officer and representative from OSGATA-member Food Democracy Now! based
in Iowa. “OTA’s devious actions
constitute serious violations of our Code of Ethics and
dictated that OSGATA immediately terminate
their membership. OSGATA’s withdrawal
from OTA and their termination of membership serves to
completely sever OSGATA from any further
destructive actions by the OTA and the
handful of dishonest corporate lobbyists that falsely represented the organic
industry to our elected officials in Washington DC. It’s important to us
that Congress and the public understand that OTA’s values
and interests do not match nor represent that of the Organic community, including
organic family farmers and the millions of organic consumers who purchase more
than $40 billion of organic food annually based on a relationship of trust,
openness and transparency.”
OSGATAad
been a member of OTA for eight
years. OSGATA’s members had become
distressed in recent years over OTA’s increasingly
divisive behavior on many issues important to organic farmers. In 2015,
by a unanimous vote of its membership, OSGATA members
voted to vigorously oppose OTA’s proposal
for an involuntary tax on organic farmers, known as the “Organic
Checkoff”. OTA continues
to misrepresent its Organic Checkoff proposal to federal officials as having
widespread support among organic farmers. OTA’sfalse
assertions have been strongly challenged by a growing army of vocal opponents.
OSGATA gained
notoriety in 2011 when it became lead plaintiff in the landmark federal
lawsuit, OSGATA et al v. Monsanto, in which organic farmers and
their allies fought to challenge the validity of Monsanto’s transgenic seed
patents and sought court protection for farmers from potential Monsanto patent
infringement litigation should Monsanto’s patented seed trespass onto and
contaminate their organic crops.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., rewarded farmers with a
partial victory when it held that Monsanto is judicially estopped from suing
any farmer whose crops inadvertently become contaminated by trace amounts of
Monsanto’s patented seed technology.
“In OSGATA et al v. Monsanto, we showed we weren’t afraid
to stand up to the biggest patent bully on the face of the planet,” said farmer
and OSGATA board member, Lyn Howe of Beach Road Farm
in Hawaii and acting Director for Hawaii Seed Growers Network. “Now that
it’s become clear OTA has teamed up with
Monsanto and is endangering everything that we believe in, this is the last
straw. It’s high time we leave OTA behind and
join and work with others who understand organic farming is the right way to
farm and the wave of the future.”
Organic
Seed Growers and Trade Association
OSGATA is a farmer-controlled national non-profit membership
trade organization of certified organic farmers, certified organic seed
companies, organic seed professionals, affiliate organizations and individuals
dedicated to the advancement of certified organic seed. OSGATA is
committed to protecting, promoting and developing the organic seed trade and
its growers, thereby assuming that the organic community has access to
excellent quality certified organic seed, free of genetic contaminants and
adapted to the diverse needs of local organic agriculture.
Contact:
Lisa Stokke, Secretary, OSGATA Board of Directors
PO Box 362 Washington, ME 04574
Jim Gerritsen, President
Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association
Washington, Maine
207)429-9765 office
NY Times. The Elders of Organic Farming.
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Wednesday, July 13, 2016
OSGATA (ORGANIC SEED GROWERS and TRADE ASSOCIATION) DUMPS OTA OVER DARK Act
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