GE Free Yukon
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
GMO Risk or Rescue? Helping Consumers Decide competition.
GE Free Yukon is a close knit collaboration of farmers, social activists and consumers whose motivation is to keep the Yukon a GE crop free zone. Without mandatory labeling there is a need for a focused ubiquitous movement to create a GE Free region
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Tom
Last Name
Rudge
Website
Organization
GE Free Yukon
Country
Canada
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
GE Free Yukon
Organization Website
Organization Phone
867-393-4628
Organization Address
PO Box 20228 Whitehorse, Yukon, Y1A 7A2
Organization Country
Canada
Your idea
Name Your Project
GE Free Yukon
Country your work focuses on
Canada
What makes your approach innovative?
This project has no outwardly threatening mandate and through the time and energy of willing participants there will come a tipping point when all people within the Yukon will understand what genetic engineering is all about.
With a presence at the local Fireweed Community Market, GE Free Yukon has given many people a new outlook upon their food system. With a web presence people can get involved at what ever level they feel comfortable with. Networking with other farmers and Government departments becomes easier with more people involved
Supporting a local food system is important to the people here and using a slow sustained approach it will become the norm. The Yukon is and will remain GE Free.
Describe Your Idea
GE Free Yukon is a close knit collaboration of farmers, social activists and consumers whose motivation is to keep the Yukon a GE crop free zone. Without mandatory labeling there is a need for a focused ubiquitous movement to create a GE Free region
How will you sustain your solution?
The project can easily continue throughout the years to come because there is an ongoing presence of Certified Organic growers, processors and consumers who support a more local sustainable form of producing food here in the Yukon. With most of the food having to be shipped in by truck any farming that does occur falls under a spotlight and with continued education fewer and fewer people trust the rhetoric of the large agri-businesses.
As long as there is farming in the Yukon, the drive to remain a viable lifestyle will depend on keeping a GE Free status. The pristine magic and mystery of Canada's north will always keep people coming to visit and looking to the north as the last great sanctuary for farm species at risk and buffered regions for crop biodiversity.
The Yukon has a highly educated population and to build a sustainable food system here makes sense to a lot of people from school students to college entrants to anyone buying food at the market. The presence of a GE Free Yukon builds.
What will be the impact of your solution?
First nation people will also find solace in a GE Free region because of their wild crafting or gathering of local plants. They live with sustainability as a part of their culture and cannot abide with any corporation deciding to patent a wild plant that is a part of their heritage.
Although the IMPACT is not something to strive for, it is a daily routine, the solution, the awareness, it is something that will be visible throughout North America. It is a way of life and will become an example for other jurisdictions within Canada and possibly around the world. With a sustained awareness within the local communities of the Yukon the thought process will be carried through to new generations.
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| GEFreeYukon.jpg | 47.93 KB |
 | 135 weeks agoTom Rudge said: Thanks Elizabeth.. it truly IS a work in progress but the freedom for the residents and farmers to make the choice makes it well worth ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 135 weeks agoTom Rudge updated this Competition Entry. |
| 135 weeks agoElizabeth Araujo said: Tom it's great to see that you are already building on an existing community, awareness and practices. It sounds like you have been ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 135 weeks agoTom Rudge updated this Competition Entry. |
| 135 weeks agoTom Rudge submitted this idea. |
