Maine: Bangor Daily News column
Monday, June 2, 2003 Biotech battle is costing Maine’s farmers
(Excerpt: visit http://www.bangornews.com/ for full text)
This fall, Rolande and Doug Poland will load 250 dairy cows on trucks and ship them to Indiana. They’re also shipping most of their farm equipment.
Then they will sell off what’s left of their 400 acre farm in Richmond and leave the state for good. Two sons, both farmers, are already gone. When the Polands leave they will take with them 30 years of knowledge and hard work and a profitable dairy farm.
“You have to go where you feel comfortable,” Rolande Poland said. “In the last five years it hasn’t been comfortable. There are too many opposition groups [in Maine].”
Welcome to the battle over agricultural biotechnology, a battle that pits activist groups like Greenpeace and Co-op Voices Unite against farmers like the Polands.
In Washington, D.C., activists trying to stop the use of modern biotechnology to improve agriculture have struck out. Congress has refused to buy the activists’ scare stories, listening instead to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, all of which find biotech crops and biotech treatments for animals to be safe for humans and for the environment. Shut out in Washington, the activists moved the battle to states like Maine.
The first shots were fired over bovine somatotropin, a hormone found in cows. Scientists developed a synthetic version that, when given to cows, increases milk production. Recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and dairy farmers, like the Polands, began using it. The activists didn’t like that and began a disinformation campaign that continues to this day.
Visit the Co-op Voices Unite Web site and you can read about the horrible things that supposedly happen to cows receiving rBST.
“We’re very cow-oriented people,” Rolande Poland counters. “I wouldn’t harm my cows.” Since the Polands started using rBST they haven’t seen any bad effects - no health problems and the cows don’t get as fat.
Milk production has increased.
Nevertheless, the state instituted a quality seal for milk that lets milk producers label their products as coming from cows that are not treated with artificial growth hormones. That program, coupled with the disinformation from groups like Co-op Voices Unite, has made it harder and harder for farmers like the Polands to sell their milk. So they are leaving.
“The use of biotechnology on this farm helped to put three kids through schools that were very expensive,” Rolande said. “As long as my milk meets quality standards I should be able to sell it.” She can do that in Indiana….
Shut out in Washington, the activists have moved their anti-biotechnology crusade to the states. Bill after bill has been submitted that would hamstring Maine farmers and food producers and increase their costs. For some it has become too much. It’s one reason Rolande and Doug Poland are leaving. “I love Maine. I’ve lived here all my life,” Rolande said. “We decided not to stay and fight.”