Sustainability Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2011 09 21

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My name is Eve Reshetnik Brawner, and I live at 1600 Spruce, in Longmont. I want to express my gratitude to the people and the government of Boulder County for their brilliant inspiration, wisdom, and foresight in securing tens of thousands of acres of open space to preserve, in perpetuity, our quality of life. Preserving these lands empowers us to protect our natural environment, our wildlife habitats, the beauty and character of this special place, our fabulous views, our recreational opportunities, AND our food security. Boulder County CAN and SHOULD be a prototype for sustainable land management. One of the county's responsibilities is the control of noxious invasive weeds on our open space lands. I realize this is not an easy task, and that it's very tempting to look for a `Silver Bullet' solution to the problem. Since 2002, Boulder County commissioners and their advisors have been seduced by the claim that the cultivation of Genetically Engineered Round -Up Ready corn offers a safe, non toxic, `Silver Bullet' solution. But it doesn't. These claims are made by the giant, amoral, monopolistic, profit hungry corporations that dominate global agriculture, and they're NOT looking out for US. GMO's are NOT the future the Silver Bullet turns out to be toxic lead. In only 14 years, the fairytale of `GMOs to the Rescue' has already begun to unravel, as they careen down their reckless path and leave in their wake SuperWeeds and SuperPests, dead soils and toxic forage, and as they contaminate the crops of non -GMO farms, as their unnatural genes are detected in pregnant womens' placentas, and the incidence of food allergies skyrockets. GMO agriculture is NOT cost effective. It's dependent on non renewable petrochemical resources that are in ever decreasing supply, at ever increasing cost, both in dollars and in environmental devastation. And all the risks of GMO agriculture have been externalized to the farmers, the land, and the consumers.