The Environmental Debate, Third Edition

Politicizing the Environmental Debate, 2000–2017 217

wine is unmarketable in Europe and Japan. Fourth,

Mendocino County has 150 organic farmers and

wineries; if organic crops become contaminated

by GMOs, the organic farmers and wineries will

lose organic certification and their products will

not be marketable as organic. Over one third of

Mendocino County’s wine grapes are organic and

are an important source of county revenue. Fifth,

banning GMO crops will make Mendocino crops

attractive in markets where there is a demand for

food that is organic and pure.

Through cross-pollination, GMOs will irre-

versibly contaminate native plants and trees, may

create new super-weeds, and may disrupt impor-

tant ecosystems.

Because of wind-and insect-borne GMO pol-

len drift and transport of GMO seeds by birds,

animals and humans, without passage of the

ordinance, property owners who wish to keep

their land GMO-free, will be unable to do so.

Source: “Prohibition on the Propagation, Cultivation,

Raising and Growing of Genetically Modified Organisms in

Mendocino County,” mindfully.org/GE/2004/Mendocino-

CountyMeasure-H.

native intrinsic DNA has been intentionally
altered or amended with non species specific
DNA. For purposes of this ordinance, genetic
modification does not include organisms cre-
ated by traditional breeding or hybridization, or
to microorganisms created by moving genes or
gene segments between unrelated bacteria.

(b) DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid means a com-
plex protein that is present in every cell of an
organism and is the ‘blueprint’ for the organ-
ism’s development.

B. Ballot Statement Supporting
Passage of the Ordinance
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
threaten county agriculture and commerce
in several ways. First, Pollen and seed from
GMOs travel great distances, contaminat-
ing non-GMO crops. Second, wind-and
insect-borne GMO pollen can cross-polli-
nate with commercial and native grapevines,
threatening the economic viability of organic and
conventional wineries. Third, GMO-polluted

Environmentalism as a Special
Interest
Those of us who were children during the birth
of the modern environmental movement have no
idea what it feels like to really win big.
Our parents and elders experienced some-
thing during the 1960s and 70s that today seems
like a dream: the passage of a series of powerful

environmental laws too numerous to list, from

the Endangered Species Act to the Clean Air and

Clean Water Acts to the National Environmen-

tal Policy Act.

Experiencing such epic victories had a searing

impact on the minds of the movement’s founders.

It established a way of thinking about the envi-

ronment and politics that has lasted until today.

Document 156: Michael Schallenberger and Ted Nordhaus Proclaim

the Death of Environmentalism (2004)

Michael Schallenberger and Ted Nordhaus co-founded the Breakthrough Institute in 2003 with the aim of developing

new approaches to energy, environmental, and economic policy. According to their thinking, while it was suitable

for the environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s to be laser focused on such issues as clean water, clean air,

and endangered species, a twenty-first century movement to promote sustainable development calls for a more wide-

ranging, global approach that takes into account health, social, and economic policies and values.