Boulder County scraps research initiative for GMO crop transition

Boulder County commissioners have scrapped a plan for a sustainable agriculture research program that would help it transition away from the use of GMOs after the hunt to find someone to run the program became mired in controversy. County open space staff placed the blame for the failure squarely on area farmers who fiercely opposed the county's RFP process, alleging it was unethical and biased toward organic farming. Last year, the county decided it would begin phasing out GMO crops on its open space farms and issued a request for proposals to create a transition program. Two entities bid: The one-man Mountain High Research from Fort Collins, and nonprofit Rodale Institute, a proponent of organic farming.Commissioners, on staff recommendation, rejected both those bids as insufficient and issued a new RFP, to which Colorado State University and Western Sugar applied. CSU had partnered with Rodale on the original RFP, which an employee of the university helped to write. That raised the ire of farmers and rebukes from an ethics expert.