A year ago this month, voters in Jackson County – led by local family farmers trying to protect their crops from GMO contamination – voted overwhelmingly to ban genetically engineered crops from being cultivated within their borders. This landslide win was a victory for grassroots activists and a rebuke for Monsanto and other corporations that spent BIG money to defeat the measure.

But now, a sneaky new bill, HB 3212, is moving through the state legislature that would undermine Jackson County’s trailblazing legislation. It gives the same industrial farm interests that fought GMO labeling the right to sue counties, cities and the state for “compensation” due to important laws that protect the environment and the public.

Groups representing family farmers, such as Friends of Family Farmers and Our Family Farms Coalition, are opposing HB 3212 since it would also undermine laws meant to protect family farmers and organic farmers from being damaged by industrial agricultural practices. Laws protecting family farmers from GMO-contamination or pesticide over-spraying, for example, would be undermined by HB 3212.

The bill has already passed the Oregon House and could soon be considered by the State Senate.

We need all hands on deck to fight this damaging legislation. Click here to find the phone number and email of your State Senator. Then, ask them to OPPOSE HB 3212 since it doesn’t protect the public, family farmers, or the environment!