At its meeting last Tuesday, the board approved seven new members for the committee, which started meeting in January and 13 members plus half a dozen alternates.
The committee itself took a straw poll for new members, suggesting several the board approved.
Going forward, the committee will include Michelle Scully, Lars Crail, Victoria Brandon, Broc Zoller, JoAnn Saccato, Melissa Fulton and Andre Ross, with alternates Lorrie Gray and Marc Hooper.
Supervisors also considered a slate of recommendations for registering GE products on a crop-by-crop basis that came from the Lake County Farm Bureau.
Those recommendations included registering GE crops grown in the county; creating a five-member advisory committee to advise the agricultural commissioner; having the agricultural commissioner compile and maintain a list of commercially available crops and make the list available to the committee; creation of a list of GE crop guidelines created by the agricultural commissioner and the GE advisory committee; annual compliance audits to be conducted by the California Crop Improvement Association; and a sunset and expiration of the registration process in five years.
In addition, it's recommended that the crop producers won't have to pay for registration process costs, and that exact locations of crops won't be publicly disclosed, although a request can be made to find out if a GE crop is planted within a two-mile radius.
Board members voiced their support for letting the renewed committee review the commendations and report back.
Brandon told the board that the clauses in the Farm Bureau proposal looked familiar, including some the advisory committee couldn't reach consensus on during its deliberations earlier this year.
She said the guidelines would need more balancing to make them acceptable to the generate public. Brandon also suggested that it wasn't desirable to have representatives of specific groups on the new committee.
Board Chair Denise Rushing asked Brandon how long it would take for them to look at the recommendations. Brandon suggested it would probably take about two meetings, but the seven-member committee could move more quickly and come up with something next year.
Zoller, who said he didn't feel that the committee's composition had represented the county, noted, “We're having trouble reaching agreement and I don't really see that changing.
He added, “There needs to be trust in our institutions.”
Zoller said there was still a fight amongst group members over whether or not GE crops should even be allowed in the county.
The Farm Bureau recommendations are predicated on the idea of coexistence between conventional and GE crops, Zoller said. He pointed out that it sets up a science-based advisory board to help foster that coexistence.
Organic farmer Phil Murphy told the board that he was opposed to having someone specifically representing either the Sierra Club or Farm Bureau – both groups he belongs to – on the committee.
“I don't want anyone coming into this with a position locked in place,” he said, noting that such group representatives don't have flexibility beyond a stated position or platform.
Rather, he noted, they need people who can compromise. “We need to develop a plan for coexistence here,” he said.
Murphy, who said the committee was “off to a good start,” asked the board to be careful with who it ultimately selected to be members. He added that he thought there are people on both sides committed to a good result.
Lake County Farm Bureau Executive Director Chuck March said it's been his group's position that there be no regulation whatsoever on GE crops. However, he said his board of directors supported the nine recommendations.
March said he felt that conventional farming was giving a lot by agreeing to the proposals. He added that he felt the seven-member committee's proposed composition would lead to stalemates.
Rushing said she wanted the committee to make a recommendation on the proposals. “I don't want this process to continue on any longer than it has to,” she said, but she wanted the group to vet the proposal in order to honor the process that has been taking place. Fellow board members agreed.
Supervisor Jim Comstock suggested that the committee doesn't have to come to unanimous agreement – as it has done in the past – on the recommendations. He doubted the group would agree 100-percent on the proposals, but that they'll have majority and minority stances, which was acceptable.
The board then unanimously approved the slate of seven proposed committee members and two alternates.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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