Greetings from Windham County GEAG!

GEAG stands for Genetic Engineering Action Group and is pronounced with a hard 'Gee' because it sounds funnier and we liked it. Ours is one of the earliest organized Vermont groups working to keep GMOs out of Vermont. Here's our statement of mission:

"The Windham County Genetic Engineering Action Group (GEAG) is a grassroots organization based in southern Vermont whose mission is to halt the release of genetically engineered organisms into the environment and the food supply until there is conclusive independent evidence that they will not harm our health, the environment or Vermont agriculture."

Our goals are twofold: pass legislation to halt the spread of GMOs in Vermont and perform communications/outreach to educate and persuade Vermont citizens why this issue is important.

The Windham County GEAG began three years ago as an outgrowth of a food issues group at the Brattleboro Food Cooperative. We are an all-volunteer group of residents in southern Vermont who are passionate about halting the spread of genetically engineered (GE or GMO) food and crops in our state.

GEAG and the anti-biotech movement in Vermont emerged in direct response to a flawed regulatory approach that puts corporate profits ahead of human and environmental health and safety. For instance, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is legally mandated to regulate industries to safeguard the public. In reality, FDA policy-makers (often biotech executives) have a proclaimed mission to "foster" biotech, hence FDA deregulation and a lax testing regime fraught with risks.

Vermonters are taking matters into our own hands. If the federal government will not serve our interests as mandated by law, we will assert our rights to self-determination and reclaim our local democracy, polluted by corporate campaign cash.

In the long-term, we seek to restore the traditional systems of food production and delivery in this state. Before the age of chemical crop production, food production occurred close to home; that is, the consumers supported their neighbor farm families and the working landscape. Vermont continues to be an agricultural state, but it is changing and the state's rural character is imperiled.

We support small, diversified family farms by encouraging legislative policies that honor their existence. We support community-supported agricultural (CSA) projects that close the gap between our producers and consumers. We support improving our school lunch programs that include locally-produced foods in our children's diets. We support "Buy Local" marketing programs that teach our citizens the values of invigorating our local farming sector as an economic engine. And we support agricultural practices that sustain our soils and healthy lifestyles.

In so doing, we preserve our food choices, keep our money in the Vermont economy and resist encroaching corporate control.

Please join us!!!

www.gefreevt.org