On November 22, when more than 50 speakers took issue with Pima County plans to support tax breaks for a Monsanto GMO greenhouse in the Avra Valley, the Board of Supervisors postponed a decision until February 21. They also ordered that meetings be held in each district for public questions and comment.
At issue is a letter of support for state designation of Monsanto’s newly-purchased 155 acres near Twin Peaks and Sanders Roads in unincorporated Pima County as a “Foreign Trade Zone.” Under state law this would cut Monsanto’s property taxes by two-thirds. The land was purchased from Marana Town Councilmember Herb Kai.
Turnout for the meetings has been high, with about 60 people at the Oro Valley Library January 9 and over 100 at the Ellie Towne Community Center January 17. Speakers have overwhelmingly been critical of Monsanto’s GMO seeds and herbicides, citing studies linking them to cancer, autism, fatty liver disease, endocrine disruption and human cell death. Speakers are especially concerned that the highly-automated GMO factory is about one mile from Marana High School.
At the Oro Valley meeting Monsanto’s representative admitted there would be “moderate” use of chemicals. Avra Valley residents have concerns based on aerial spraying of buffelgrass with Monsanto’s glyphosate by Tucson Water and Saguaro Park. Both have caused neighbors, and their pets, to be sick, and runoff after a rain has killed a local rancher’s cattle forage.
At the meetings Pima County Economic Development Business Services Director Patrick, along with Monsanto’s Ph.D. Amanda McClerren, tried to answer questions and take in public comment to relay to the Supervisors. At the January 17 meeting in District 3, Supervisor Sharon Bronson was present to hear it herself, but said she was unwilling to answer any questions from her constituents. By a show of hands, most of those present were from District 3, although not many from the distant Avra Valley.
About 20 people had questions, ranging from why no meetings were scheduled in the Avra Valley where people may be at risk, to why Monsanto, with their merger with Bayer giving them over $60 billion, wants a tax break, to GMO safety. One ten-year-boy asked how, if GMO seeds killed bugs that ate the plants, those plants could be safe for humans?
After Dr. McClerren stressed that everything would be kept inside a seven-acre greenhouse, several people wanted to know what cover crop, GMO or natural, would be planted on the unused land outside of the greenhouse. Neither McClerren or another Monsanto representative, Kyle Smith, knew the answer.
McClerren suggested that the corporation would partner with the community to do things like, perhaps, a monarch butterfly sanctuary. That drew angry murmuring. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, kills milkweed which is the food of the monarch caterpillar. Monsanto is held responsible for the drastic decline in the monarch butterfly population as a result.
In her presentation, which included slides and video, Dr. McClerren stressed that well-known safety violations and tens of millions of dollars in fines were “the previous Monsanto.” She said those problems were when it was a chemical company, but “now it’s a seed company.” Several speakers took issue with that, pointing out quite recent cases of the corporation being fined millions for violations of law.
Another 15 speakers sought to give input to the supervisors. An Avra Valley cotton grower was the only person to speak in favor of GMOs and Monsanto, saying the company’s patented seeds allowed him to use less pesticides and herbicides. Two other farmers suggested that their organic methods, no GMOs and no chemicals, was a better way to feed people.
A senior from Picture Rocks performed an anti-Monsanto rap that ended with, “Listen up Dear People while I end this little rap / Huckelberry and Monsanto – they’re both full of crap.” The crowd then joined in, shouting “No no no to Mon-san-to.”
Several other district public meetings are scheduled, to be followed by the convening of a “Science Committee” before the Supervisors vote on February 21.