i don't work on a farm or for an organic producer i'm just a highly opinionated private citizen that buys a lot of organics mostly organise actually so i realize that the synthetics topic has been delayed and isn't going to be voted on at this meeting and i find that a little bit conce understand delaying it is creating an indefinite grace period in which processors can keep unapproved ingredients in their products so therefore i'd like to urge you to move forward as quickly as organic consumers don't want synthetic ingredients of any kind in there for you not even if they are supposedly nutrients as an organic consumer if i want vitamin c if i eat an orange if i want a carrot if i want iron i'm going to have a cheeseburger you know it's real food and i strongly suspect that you know other organic consumers feel the exact same way and i suspect x that the actual motivation for synthetics being proposed for inclusion in organic standards is not due to them wanting to be able to make our food healthier with their artificial nutrients  more so that the chemical companies providing them can in on the massive organic market and get their piece on a different topic and i realize genetic engineering is not on this agenda either  but since they want evidently titian for inclusion at some point in the future again and since i have you here as a captive audience i would simply like to say that as a consumer i would never and i'm sure information in your mind when the subject does come up because i believe it inevitably will with the biotech pressure that squeezes down on the u s d a and the f d a to promote their agenda we can't we cannot depend on them to keep genetically modified and untested of unproven healthy items out of our food supply so we are reliant on you to at least keep them out of the organics we don't realize what every day that you go to the store and walk the aisles of the supermarkets are looking at hundreds  i would say seventy percent of the products in the supermarket now why is it important to know which products are genetically modified well if you listen to the american academy of environmental medicine they say that every doctor in america should prescribe non g m o diets for everyone they point out that genetically modified foods when fed to animals in laboratories have shown reproductive problems and immune system problems accelerated ageing dysfunctional regulation of cholesterol and insulin organ damage and gastrointestinal disorders to name a few let's take a look at reproductive problems if you happen to be an unfortunate rodent fed genetically modified so the various experiment you may end up with damaged testicles testicles a change from pink to blue changes in the ovaries and uterus the d n a of the offspring function differently at the embryo stage the babies were smaller the babies died at five times the rate and by the third generation most lost the ability to have babies somebody are growing in their mouths these are astounding results but you won't hear them from mainstream t mainstream media because they've largely been close lipped about the subject of the health dangers of genetically modified foods that's why it's important to educate yourself about these dangers so you can choose healthier choices as recommended by the american academy of environmental medicine you know how do you choose non g m o foods go to non g m o shopping guide dot com non g m o shopping guide dot com you can download a free o shopping guide you can look at all the categories and see thousands of products that are non g m o and you can learn about some of the health dangers and why it's important to avoid g m o foods now you might ask how is it that our government with the food and drug administration how could they allow such dangerous foods on the market well the answer is this i think you'll find it let's say interesting maybe even funny the policy of the f d a says that the agency is not aware of any information showing that these foods these g m foods are significantly different and on that basis they say absolutely no testing is necessary no labeling is necessary safe all lies they've been fined convicted fined seven hundred million dollars just for the p c b lies they're in charge of determining whether their genetically modified foods are safe now why is it that the f d a gave monsanto that foods all wrong say and that the scientists at the f d a repeatedly warned of allergies toxins new diseases a nutritional problem they had urged their superiors to require a long term study now twenty years later evidence shows that their concerns were validated and scientists were vindicated but we're all of a sudden the situation we're reading dangerous food now the scientists that discovered the problems are often fired stripped of responsibilities forced out the nih tenure the ny times funding denied access to g m c the scientists in russia for example who tested the g m saw it on their rats and more than half  babies died within three weeks she was told that her boss was under pressure from his boss she could do no more genetically modified research in fact papers were burned on her desk as a method of intimidation samples were stolen from her laboratory typical but very unfortunate we have a situation now where we have the biotech companies using tobacco science which is largely rigged to avoid finding problems supported by a largely ignorant government that thinks g m most of the say of the same feeding it to humans and we're now seeing since g m o is reduced in the mid ninety's and upsurge of very serious diseases which could easily be promoted because of the genetically modified food so it's our job individually on our own study the problems and make healthier choices to learn about the problem go to a responsible technology dot org responsible technology dot org you can watch free videos online like hidden dangers in kid which is linked to cancer you can find that at a video called your milk on drugs just say no you can listen to audio as read articles and you can join the tipping point network we can help with the outreach bring this  important crucial information to others to create a tipping point of consumer rejection to force g m o is out of the market this happened in europe within a single week virtually every major food company committed to stop using jam and greediness and that was when the tipping point was achieve that happened when a single food safety scandal caused seven hundred fifty articles to be printed in europe seven hundred fifty articles were going to month and that created the tipping point of consumer rejection which forced g m goes out of the market same way parents learning about the health dangers of bovine growth hormone they've been kicking out the bovine growth hormone for most american dairies it was kicked out of wal mart's milk starbucks in your plate and that in most american dares so we now have a plan to engineer a tipping point against genetically engineered foods responsible technology dot org to sign up for the tipping point network and be sure to sign up for the free electronic newsletter to keep you informed about the health dangers so that you can help protect yourself and your family the key is this the government is not protecting us we have to do it ourselves but right now there are millions of people seeking to avoid g m and really it's be one of those people stay healthy they saw it explode in europe so we think five percent of u s shoppers five percent fifteen million americans would be sufficient to cause the drop in market share to demonstrate a trend and have them scampering for another german gradients and so i ask you to please join me in this wonderful endeavor to speak for our great grandchildren to speak for our gut bacteria to speak for the for over eighteen years starting in eastern washington residing in western washington and i produce along with i will spring organics also on bash which has been doing organic tofu for over thirty five years so between the two certifying agency and as most people know that that was pretty much part of the pilot for getting the national gannett standards put together and what i wanted to come in address today was the issue of geno's which everybody is real producer were not as confused but were a little miffed that now we've been we've established long working relationships with our organic certifying agency and and now and putting together a lot of time and energy for our documentation and working relationships and now and there's another agency the nancy m o cryogenic in this coming in saying well you need to work with us so that we can ensure consumers are the consumers are going to compete like wait a minute organic means work more closely with us producers so that we can totally sure people that if it's organic it's not a g m if it's non organic sure another agency should be able to step in and help now but if we've made this commitment to be organic in one she knows it's part of our you know our stand on then working with the agencies as is could be really helpful and i've i've worked very hard to establish working relationship with the farmers to grow my soybeans i've been to their farms i know them personally and break bread with them all the time and they're on the front lines trying to protect our food and we're doing everything to support them and we need we need to just be able to take that and made a decision that genetically modified organisms genetically modified food is the functional equivalent of can they make this decision without the depth of research into the functional the labeling of genetically modified organisms this was twelve years ago monsanto immediately went into action they had a extraordinary advertising campaign that began to run in the united states with men in white coats and these are the men in white coats you never want to be taken away by believe in and you know with little petri dishes saying that they're going to feed the world noble purpose except that the precautionary principle dictates that before we start consuming unlimited amounts of genetically modified food i mean how low if we are what we eat wouldn't be nice to know what's how this food works in our body so we'll know what we are to become we're not be interesting so monsanto have this great advertising campaign that was aimed really had knocking down any attempt to bring about a labeling well since i've been to do so legislation and successive crop congress since for labeling for safety testing and to protect farmers organize a group of members of congress to introduce a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate person you we have to do more than that we have to we have to move to strike down the citizens united with a public financing campaign so we can really have a so we think about the preconditions for life the air the water the land but we we also can't think of it in terms of our own selves there's a type of thinking that puts mankind at the apex of all creatures great and small but there's another type of thing that is holistic and integrate it that says that we are part of a seamless web of li and that we have no claim to existence that should supersede that of any other creature who is part of life in fear factor that we're all in this together on the president of arkansas and company were dedicated organic up aeration in summers arkansas my family's been in the organic or in the egg business for three generations i appreciate all your time and effort in ensuring that the organic market and the organic market is quickly on its way to that egg producers operate on low margins and high volume it's the adoption of this principle that is the main reason that several major cage big polluters have utilized a very housing organic production furthermore the absence of specific standards pertaining to stocking densities indoor hand out as well as a lack of definition for soil has also contributed to this and fueled the fire  there's a variation in organic a production today that's alarming it ranges from eighty five thousand birds in one house five hundred thousand birds on a farm all the way down to two to three thousand birds on a small family farm the board needs to follow with a with the proposed recommendations on animal welfare this is the only way to ensure the spirit and intent of the law is met we have a unique opportunity to preserve an environment where a producer with one barn can compete with the producer as one hundred barns apples to apples anything less would destroy the market for the consumer and the producer alike there's a vast majority of producers who support change they support outdoors on soil and stocking densities at set limits these thoughts are echoed by probably well over one hundred producers and well over thirty percent of the production we need your help to stand firm in the marketplace lax standards have created an environment where in the last five years we've seen three to five percent of producers exploit certain aspects of the standards and grow to represent about thirty percent of the total marketplace if not stop this trend will continue its ultimate lee ultimately we will begin to produce least cost or get out of the business a vast majority of grocery buyers will speak with their pocketbooks and their ideal second we've got to get a standard in place that allows for uniform and consistent supply and with my last few seconds i just like to say that i think welfare does matter in organic livestock production i think that's why eggs and milk have a higher penetration than other items consumers can speak with their emotions when they buy that product and outdoor access is a part of that i also think that the the f d a program should focus on their objective inside the house and not  that you guys should echo that opinion to them from oregon state i've worked on fireblade research now for twenty years and much of it on alternative products are just going to go through the army list for the alternatives we have and why we're pessimistic about control with those products that we have now and if you look at the screen there i've got stigma circled as one target of a product in the floral cup and circle as the other target a book of product and next slide please we have these help to control for blood but they're not standalone products that are about thirty to fifty percent effective generally next line late bloomer this is where oxy tetracycline fits in and then in the pacific northwest here it's our it's our niche product we want to getting some results but it just is not a good product on its own and then we have this nice that's coming along blossom protect and we think it's also fitting into this this because this window next like we get better control if we put the two products together two blossom protects giving really pretty good control in our research plots so you can see there that we've doubled the number of treatments but with nona biotech projects we're getting pretty good control next line all right so this is the issues we have right now we just started working with the yeast and we don't really understand why it's affected that's number one number two it's yet unregistered number three we've got a learning curve lots and lots individuals are going to have to learn a new way to control for blight and there's many many people out there before the cost of control is probably going to go up and i don't know what impact that's going to have on production but that's going to happen and then finally and it may be the most important is this distribution of biologicals and when and about next go out to growers they get almost the same product that we do as researchers when it comes the biologicals we're always working with the very best products and i'm not always sure the growers get the best products when the when they when they get it on their farm from the companies and biologicals are much harder to handle  and we get really good stuff and i'm not sure that's always win happens out there in the distribution so reinstating hot seat on the n o p list would provide time to work through these i'd like to ask two questions one is you don't worry on this string budget over the years we've been funded by grower groups in the northwest here and also by the u s ski aides are these competitive grant process these and i think that grant they're talking about is probably mine that didn't get funded last year but i don't know