Monsanto’s Roundup® Barred From Supervisors Meeting But Okay For High Schoolers

Roundup®, the world’s most used and most controversial herbicide, will not be allowed in the Board of Supervisor’s meeting room. Pima County policy prohibits “weapons” including “items which are not designed for use as weapons but which may be used in a harmful manner” from numerous areas. “Personal-sized chemical deterrents which are carried for personal protection” are allowed, along with” pocket knives with blades less than three inches.”

Albert Lannon from the Avra Valley Coalition had asked Huckelberry for permission to bring a sealed container of Roundup® to use as a visual aid while addressing the BOS during the Call to the Public. Ignoring the initial request, Huckelberry’s response to a second request was brief:

After consulting with our Security staff you will not be allowed to bring this into the Board hearing room.

The implication is clear: Roundup®, with its active ingredient glyphosate, is too dangerous to be near the Board of Supervisors, but it’s okay to use a mile from a high school, and even closer to other residents of the Avra Valley. There are ongoing disputes with Saguaro National Park and Tucson Water over aerial spraying of glyphosate which has sickened Avra Valley residents and their pets, and killed a rancher’s cattle forage.

There is high public interest in the Pima County Board of Supervisors February 21 vote whether or not to support Monsanto’s request for Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) status for a planned Avra Valley GMO corn seed factory. When the issue was brought to the BOS by the County Administrator November 22 after months of secret meetings, more than 50 people spoke in opposition. The Supervisors postponed the vote to February 21 and ordered five public meetings and the convening of a Science Advisory Committee. FTZ status would cut Monsanto’s property taxes by two-thirds.

According to emails obtained by the Arizona Daily Independent, Huckelberry told Star reporter Tony Davis last October that the secrecy was not to thwart expected opposition by Supervisor Ally Miller. He did not, however, explain why he thought it was necessary. Emails also show collusion between Sun Corridor Inc. (formerly TREO), Huckelberry, County Communications Director Mark Evans, and Supervisor Sharon Bronson in creating attacks on Bronson’s opponent in the 2016 election, Kim DeMarco. County staff are barred by law from trying to influence elections. Sun Corridor Inc., a public-private economic development organization, just received over one-half-million dollars from the BOS. Bronson serves on its Chairman’s Circle.

Speakers at the packed Monsanto meetings in January were overwhelmingly against both the big tax break FTZ status would bring the agri-chemical giant and the idea of locating a seven-acre greenhouse near Marana High School. Marana Town Council Member Herb Kai sold 155 acres to the corporation. At first Monsanto spokespeople said there would be “moderate” use of herbicides and pesticides, but changed their position several meetings later to “not much, if any” in the face of an outraged public.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup®, has just been labeled a cause of cancer in California, and a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organization. Many countries and localities have banned or heavily restricted the use of glyphosate and its additives. GMO crops are engineered to resist glyphosate so that the herbicide kills only non-crop plants. The result has been increased resistance to the poison by unwanted plants, and the widespread killing of the food of the monarch butterfly caterpillar. Monsanto’s traveling Ph.D. Amanda McClerran, at the District 3 public meeting, offered to create a monarch butterfly sanctuary in exchange for FTZ support.

Glyphosate, a vital ingredient in a GMO factory such as the one planned for the Avra Valley, is linked to non-Hodgkins lymphoma, fatty liver disease, autism and other diseases. Health professional Janay Young, whose father used to farm the land sold to Monsanto, is the mother of two Marana High School students. She and other parents have been telling local officials about nearly 12,000 studies in the last four years linking glyphosate to birth defects and miscarriages, Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, gastro-intestinal problems, and endocrine disruption causing diabetes, heart disease, infertility and thyroid disease.

Young and her allies are trying to convince the Marana Unified School District Governing Board to reconsider the “partnership” it approved with Monsanto. MUSD’s support for FTZ status gave the school district a half-million dollar one-time payment in place of the $3-1/2 million it would collect in taxes over the next five years.
Pima Community College’s Governing Board, described by county officials as “up in the air,” actually voted 3-2 to deny Monsanto their support.

According to the Star’s Tony Davis in a January 28 article, Supervisor Richard Elias, who has opposed the Monsanto deal, was surprised to find out that a BOS “no” vote would probably kill Monsanto’s chances of FTZ status and a two-third property tax reduction. Newcomer Steve Christy, who has been favorable to the deal, also didn’t know that opposition would close the door. FTZ status is determined by federal officials but rely on the positions of local elected bodies. The corporation is being close-mouthed on its plans should FTZ status be denied and hard lobbying is likely to be in play.

County officials have not answered another vital question: With Monsanto closing three similar facilities in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Connecticut, cutting 90 jobs, will the 20-30 promised full-time jobs in Pima County actually go to county residents?

February 21: Will the Board of Supervisor’s meeting be “The Last Roundup” for Monsanto in Pima County? Will Supervisor Elias stand with constituents or cave in to corporate pressure? Is there a third possible vote to kill the deal and spare the people of the Avra Valley the potential grief it would bring? Stay tuned, or better yet, show up at the BOS meeting, 9 a.m. February 21, 130 W. Congress Street, and be heard.

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