[excerpt:]
Supervisors unanimously agreed Tuesday to develop an ordinance that would place a "precautionary" moratorium on the use of crops that carry transplanted genes from other species to make them more nutritious or easier to grow.

[T]he supervisors' action was prompted by a nine-month study of the laws and risks associated with such crops, which are being planted on a growing share of the world's farmland. Among its findings:

• State and federal laws provide inadequate oversight. The USDA does not know the location of many GE test sites. Some crops not approved for human consumption have found their way into the food supply.
• Lack of safety testing leaves a potentially dangerous void in understanding long-term health effects of GE food, which is still largely unlabeled in the U.S.
• Farmers worldwide have reported their crops being tainted by stray GE pollen, subjecting some to patent infringement lawsuits from large biotechnology corporations...

The full article is available on the Santa Cruz Sentinel website.

See also:
Genetically Engineered Food Crops within Santa Cruz County 2.7MB
- 5/24/06 report to the Board of Supervisors

Limit on genetic farming in Santa Cruz
- 6/10/06 San Francisco Chronicle