A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call from a representative from the New Mexico Department of Agriculture to attend a forum on the coexistence between traditional, organic, conventional, and genetic engineered agriculture. Participation in the forum was by invitation-only to keep the number of participants to a number that would allow for dialogue around the issue. I was honored to be part of the invite list, probably because of my past work with Seed Sovereignty, Farmer Protection, and the fact that we addressed the Regents of New Mexico State University with concerns about their directions in the genetic engineering of chile within their research activities. The forum was attended by representatives of USDA, the seed industry, NMSU, Monsanto, DuPont, beekeepers, organic farmers, and others…
I will have to write more about this experience later but will leave this post with a quote from Citizen Fish:
“Don’t point the finger until you’ve shaken the hand… Get to know the way these people understand…”
This quote is shared given my experience on this day where I was interacting with farmers who plant GMOs and other researchers and bureaucrats who have their different perspective on this issue… An interesting day to say the least…
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