In a challenge to the Oregon Department of Agriculture's temporary ruling to allow the planting of canola in previously protected areas of the Willamette Valley, Friends of Family Farmers (FoFF), Center for Food Safety (CFS) and three Willamette Valley specialty seed producers have jointly filed suit to stop the ruling from taking effect.
A press release on the Center for Food Safety's website posted today states that the ruling allowing planting of canola "would irreparably harm the state’s organic agriculture production and specialty and clover seed industries."
Quoted in the release, Leah Rodgers, Field Director for FoFF, said, “We had no other option than to go to the courts. We have tried to work with the Kitzhaber administration to slow down this process and engage all stakeholders in public notice and comment, but ODA steamrolled producers and have rushed to open 1.7 million acres in the Willamette Valley to canola, a low-value crop with a huge, adverse impact on several high-value industries. This could mean disaster for Oregon’s seed and organic industries.”
If you want to know more or are concerned about this issue, check this list of actions you can take.
Read the other posts in this series, Oily Process: Canola Needs Closer Look, Canola Controversy Heats Up, A Voice from the Field, Despite Decision, It's Not Over, ODA Caves to Canola, Write Right Now, Seeding Change and Legislature Passes Ban.
Photo of canola field in Washington County by Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives, via Wikimedia Commons.
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