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01/17/08 - California's First State GE Bill On Its Way to Becoming Law
AB 541, which could become California's first state law protecting farmers from the hazards of genetically engineered crops, passed through the Assembly Agriculture Committee on January 16th by a vote of 5 - 0. It will be heard by the full Assembly the week of January 28th.
Introduced by Assemblymember Jared Huffman (6th AD) early in 2007, the bill was held over in the Agriculture Committee in April. Since then, AB 541 has been scaled back to address two provisions related to farmer protections.
AB 541 will enact protections for California farmers against frivolous lawsuits that intimidate and harass those who have not been able to prevent the inevitable drift of GE pollen or seed. It will level the playing field for farmers accused by Monsanto and others of contract violations, and discourage their practice of sampling crops without explicit permission from farmers and prosecuting based on unverifiable testing results.