Rethinking Resistance to Corporate Rule

• In March 2004, Mendocino County, CA became the first community in the US to ban the farming of genetically altered crops and animals. Even though corporate agribusiness poured $621,000 into the opposition campaign, the measure passed with 56.5% of the vote. Humboldt County organizers are currently gathering signatures for a similar measure for the November 2004 election. To read the text of the Mendocino ordinance click here. To read the text of an anti-GMO ordinance that would also restrict corporate constitutional "rights" click here.

• Nine states have banned non-family-owned corporations from engaging in farming or ranching, or owning farmland. Nebraska (‘Initiative 300’ - 1982), South Dakota (‘Amendment E’ - 1998), achieved their success through ballot initiatives which amended their state constitutions. Unfortunately, the South Dakota amendment was declared unconstitutional by a Federal Circuit Court in 2003. Similar measures have been achieved by Pennsylvania townships through ordinances passed by township governments. A number of the PA townships are also discussing similar legislation which would ban corporate logging or forest land ownership. To view the text of the Southampton Anti-Corporate Farming Ordinance (PA) click here.

• In Sonoma County, CA, the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center's 'Food Systems, Corporations and Democracy Program' has two local projects aimed at shifting local decision making from the realm of private, property-based, corporate, "market" decisions to the realm of public, democratic decisions focused on the "commonwealth":

1) ‘Sonoma County Green Genes’ is organizing to pass resolutions at city councils and school boards calling for a moratorium on the release of all genetically engineered crops and foods, and for full corporate liability for harms resulting from any releases of GMO’s. (The city of Sebastopol has already passed the resolution); and

2) The ‘Occidental Town Hall Coalition’ has organized a dozen town hall meetings around the county - each attended by 250 to 500 people - to discuss the problem of and strategize solutions to the expansion of corporate-owned industrial vineyards, and the resulting loss of diverse small and family farms and local agrarian culture. They are writing ordinances that redefine "farming" and county land use policies away from corporate interests, and toward the interest of the people and wild nature.

• Many cities in the US have passed resolutions against genetically engineered (GE) crops – Cleveland, Boston, San Francisco, Austin, Minneapolis and many other smaller towns. These resolutions are largely non-binding but they are a potential first step toward enacting policy to ban planting of GE crops. The city of Boulder has a policy that bans GE crops from city-owned land. Citizens in Mendocino County, CA are gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would ban growing genetically engineered crops.

• In 2002, the Arcata City on Democracy and Corporations (instituted by Measure F: the Arcata Advisory Measure on Democracy and Corporations) proposed its first legislation to the Arcata City Council. The ordinance called for a cap on the number of "formula" (chain) restaurants in the city. The measure prohibits further expansion of corporate chain restaurants and ensures that no such restaurants can be developed in the downtown area. The Committee is currently working with Arcata Main Street (an organization that advocates on behalf of downtown businesses) to ascertain if there is citizen support to expand the ordinance to include chain retail establishments as well. For a PDF of the ordinance on formula restaurants click here.

Next Page