Regulating De-regulation in Iowa
by John Drury
First off, congratulations are in order to Linda and Blog for Iowa on the one year anniversary. Linda has obviously put a lot of work and dedication into this site and it really is a fantastic resource. It truly is an honor to be a contributor and I thank her for allowing me to be a part of the team.
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.
