I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
A bill that would protect small farmers from liability over inadvertent presence of genetically-modified crops failed to pass the House Monday. The bill failed after two votes by the full House.
The bill, HB 46, failed on the first vote 42-27. The second vote was a 34-34 vote, which meant the bill failed, as bills need a majority to pass the House.
The bill aimed to protect “farmers from liability to manufacturers of genetically engineered products in the event those products inadvertently grow on a farmer’s land,” according to the bill’s Fiscal Impact Report. This comes after the biotech company Monsanto has sued a number of farmers when the genetically-modified crops that Monsanto patented appeared on smaller farmers’ land.
The farmers say the crops grew because of pollen blown from nearby land.
CBS looked at Monsanto suing small farmers for having genetically modified crops on their land back in 2008.
Rep. Paul Bandy, R-Aztec, sponsored the bill.
Bandy told KUNM that he brought the bill because he once managed a co-op.
“And I could see how this law, that were that genetic material to come in contact with the seed that our farmers were saving that they would be liable to the manufacturer,” Bandy said.
