Jackson County residents have recently succeeded in securing a ballot location for Jackson County Measure 15-119 in May of 2014. The measure, if passed, would prohibit production of genetically modified crops in Jackson County, Oregon. However, the debate is now further complicated by Oregon Senate Bill 633 which makes it clear that the legal right to ban GMO crops rests solely with the State of Oregon and not a county.
In Jackson County, Senate Bill 633 is seen by some as an attempt to undermine the effort required to bring a measure banning GMO crops to a ballot vote. While SB 633 unquestionably impacts the county's right to control seeds, it less clear just how such power might be used in the State of Oregon. If the objective is to prohibit the production of GMO crops, which body (Oregon State or Jackson County) is more likely to pass a prohibition? Many advocates for a GMO-free Jackson County appear decidedly opposed to state control on the grounds that local control lends itself to local sovereignty. But if the aim is to prohibit GMO crops and not local sovereignty then the issue becomes far more complex. For example, most of Oregon's most agriculturally invested counties have historically voted in opposition of any governmental control over agriculture (including Jackson County). If this turns out to be the case in the future, then it may well be the State of Oregon, with its population base in left-leaning urban centersthat is better suited to pass a ban on GMO crops than Jackson County or many other Oregon counties.
I will leave predicting such outcomes to pollsters, but to me the heated debate over GMO crops in Jackson County is about more than just control over genetic modification and seed sovereignty It is also about how sovereignty ought to be defined by geography. It is the same dichotomy that has historically driven debates over individualism vs. collectivism. In other words, when we speak of the greater good, to what geographic extent should that greater good apply.
If we ban GMO crops in Jackson County but they remain legal in Josephine County, how do we regulate farmers who plant along the county border. If Oregon bans GMO crops, but Washington does not, how do we convince seeds that they cannot blow across the state line. If the United States prohibits acts of terror, but other nations remain disinterested in the dealings of private groups, how do we guarantee that those terrorists don't hop on a plane? Jackson County may successfully ban GMO crops. I would vote in favor of the ban. But the larger issue of how to control individual decisions with collective impact without dismantling sovereignty .. that is far more complex.
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