Regulating De-regulation in Iowa

The Iowa House and Senate have both recently passed legislation that will
pre-empt local governments from controlling the types of agricultural
seeds that are planted in their counties and municipalities. This piece
of legislation, known to some as the GMO bill, known to others as
legislation for no apparent reason, is on its way to Governor Vilsack
and unfortunately is expected to get his signature.
 
Perhaps one of the more interesting things about this legislation is
that not one of Iowa’s counties or cities has attempted to pass an
ordinance to control agricultural seeds. So here is the state
legislature stepping in pre-empting them from ever having the ability
to protect their communities from the unknown effects of genetically
engineered crops. Senator Tom Rielly, a Democrat from Oskaloosa said,
“ I think this is a good first step in the regulation of agricultural
seed in Iowa.” Huh? Don’t you mean the de-regulation of agricultural
seed, Senator?
 
Rep. Mark Kuhn, a Democrat from Charles City, worked tirelessly trying
to stop this bill from passage and he’s to be commended. He pointed out
in House debate and in a two-page letter to every senator before they
voted that there seems to be a “misunderstanding among legislators that
the State of Iowa already regulates genetically engineered agricultural
seeds and this bill is needed to maintain uniformity across the state.”
In fact, the State of Iowa has no regulatory control over genetically
engineered seed. Counties could not stop them from being planted even
if they wanted to so taking away local control when they didn’t have it
in the first place seems beyond pointless.
 
One can’t help but wonder why our state legislature would waste its
time on such non-issues as this. It seems as though the Biotech
industry is simply purchasing legislation ensuring that there will
never be any state or local regulations on genetically engineered
seeds. There is a need for a discussion on this topic and non-GMO and
organic growers need to be a part of it and so far, they have been
excluded.
 
This legislation will prevent any further study or discussion on the
issue. I urge Governor Vilsack to veto this legislation and allow
meaningful debate to take place.