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Environment
Starting in 2010, The John Merck Fund's environment grantmaking was separated into three program areas (Climate & Clean Energy, Environmental Health, and Rural New England). Grants made previously through a broader Environment Program are listed below.
2009 Grants
The New England Environment
Air Quality, Clean Energy and Climate Change
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$15,000 |
| To publish a comparative analysis examining the costs of continuing to operate New Hampshire's only coal-fired power plant versus employing clean energy alternatives. |
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$35,000 |
| To identify cost-effective strategies for meeting Connecticut's carbon cap, implement and enforce efficiency building codes, and design model financing programs to increase efficiency investments. |
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$60,000 |
| To reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout New England by encouraging increased reliance on renewable energy sources and energy efficiency, and full implementation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. |
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$100,000 |
| To implement comprehensive energy policy reform in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, that will shift nearly $1 billion to energy efficiency; advocate for upgrades to a regional transmission system that promotes renewable power; and work at the federal level to promote leading-edge energy and climate policy lessons learned from New England. |
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$40,000 |
| To help New Hampshire reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing energy efficiency in buildings, particularly in the commercial and industrial sectors. |
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$35,000 |
| To boost energy efficiency, advance wind power development, and build support for climate action and other clean energy initiatives in Maine. |
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$100,000 |
| To assist Northeast states in adopting and implementing energy efficiency policies. |
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$50,000 |
| To improve design and implementation of the Northeast's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in order to assess its efficacy and share best practices with designers of a federal cap-and-trade program. |
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$35,000 |
| To identify and implement innovative approaches to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency in Vermont. |
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Environmental Health
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$125,000 |
| To reduce exposures to toxic chemicals by winning fundamental reform of chemicals policy in Connecticut, while contributing to the national movement for precaution and safer alternatives. |
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$50,000 |
| To recognize 2009 Sparkplug Award winner, Environmental Health Strategy Center Executive Director, Michael Belliveau. |
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$100,000 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions. |
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$125,000 |
| To protect Minnesotans from toxic chemicals in consumer products through a health-based campaign that achieves near-term chemical policy successes while building toward comprehensive state and national reforms. |
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$25,000 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions |
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$5,000 |
| To provide professional facilitation for a stakeholder group reviewing the problem of toxic chemicals in children's products in Maine. |
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$9,000 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions. |
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$10,000 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions. |
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$53,500 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions. |
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$20,000 |
| To collaborate with Maine's Native American leaders to build support for reform of federal chemicals policy among Native communities nationally. |
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$17,500 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions. |
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$30,000 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions. |
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$15,000 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions. |
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$17,500 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions. |
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$12,500 |
| To protect human health from toxic chemical exposures where we live, work and play, in 2010 by: ensuring strong implementation of Maine's precedent-setting safer chemicals policy; participating in a national coalition to comprehensively reform federal chemicals policy based on the Maine model; and cultivating a new generation of state leadership as safer chemicals champions. |
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Protecting Farmland and Forests in Vermont
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$65,000 |
| To expand the number and viability of the central Vermont farms within the Food Works network. |
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$35,000 |
| To promote on-farm composting and soil-building practices that create regenerative food and soil systems on Vermont farms. |
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$35,000 |
| To provide incubation services for new farmers, support the development of land access partnerships, and take advantage of new land infrastructure opportunities within the Intervale. |
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$40,000 |
| To provide opportunities for students to create and participate in inquiry-based, professional-quality field research. |
New England Working Landscapes |
$18,000 |
| To promote agricultural economic development, land and job preservation and new, value-added entrepreneurial enterprises in Vermont. |
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$25,000 |
| To develop and implement a new technical assistance program model to meet the critical needs of Vermont's organic dairy farmers. |
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$20,000 |
| To support new farmers and economically viable farm operations in the Rutland area. |
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$50,000 |
| To deliver comprehensive risk management services to Vermont cheesemakers to ameliorate microbiological risks in the cheesemaking environment. |
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$15,000 |
| To launch an annual event celebrating Vermont's leading position in the artisan and farmstead cheese industry. |
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$45,000 |
| To promote local, fresh food in Vermont, including via development of a website that provides a gateway for all agro-tourism experiences in Vermont. |
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$60,000 |
| To support the economic viability and environmental sustainability of Vermont agriculture and agriculturally related enterprises. |
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$20,000 |
| To develop an agriculture strategic plan for the Farm to Plate Investment Program, and facilitate strategic investments in sustainable food systems. |
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$35,000 |
| To provide Upper Valley farmers with enough viable markets so that their businesses can survive and expand. |
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The Environment Beyond New England
Air Quality, Clean Energy and Climate Change
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$50,000 |
| To catalyze the nation's largest public pension funds to reduce energy use in their real estate portfolios by investing in energy efficiency, encourage asset owners and managers to adopt best practices in efficiency, and spur companies they invest in to decrease energy use in real estate they build, control or manage. |
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$75,000 |
| To protect public health from the dangers of toxic waste from coal-fired power plants by closing the loopholes that currently allow such waste to be disposed without any environmental rules or oversight. |
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$50,000 |
| To implement strong energy efficiency policy initiatives in Iowa; and to successfully challenge a proposed major new coal plant in Michigan. |
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$50,000 |
| To ensure that the Michigan Public Service Commission effectively implements new state-mandated energy efficiency standards; and to use the state's new Integrated Resource Planning process to prevent permitting for new coal-fired power plants proposed in the state. |
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$50,000 |
| To protect and implement Ohio's recently adopted energy efficiency standards, and to advance important 'next generation' energy efficiency policies in the state. |
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$50,000 |
| To support the transition to cleaner energy sources through public and business endorsement of strong energy efficiency standards for investor-owned and public utilities providing electricity and natural gas in Iowa. |
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$60,000 |
| To halt the development of new coal-fired power plants by stopping the flow of private and public capital into these investments. |
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$75,000 |
| To make colleges and universities more sustainable by securing institutional commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. |
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$75,000 |
| To prevent construction of new coal-fired power plants in the Midwest and begin the orderly retirement of the region's existing fleet of coal-fired plants. |
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$100,000 |
| To create one of the largest community marketing initiatives promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency in the country by challenging cities and households to reduce net energy use by 20 percent. |
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$75,000 |
| To establish efficiency initiatives in six diverse communities; recruit influential and vocal champions for energy efficiency across the state; persuade the Kansas Corporation Commission to treat efficiency as a priority; and promote a statewide energy efficiency standard. |
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Environmental Health
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$50,000 |
| To stimulate broad public support for implementing state, national and international chemicals policies that protect the health of Arctic people, wildlife and the environment from chemical pollution. |
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$100,000 |
| To raise awareness about the association between toxic chemicals and developmental disabilities and that those with developmental disabilities may face greater risks from chemical exposures; and to promote good health and reduced exposures by collaborating with environmental and other disability organizations to advance chemicals policy reforms. |
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$100,000 |
| To examine the expanding research on the connections between environmental toxins and autism; educate the society's primary constituency and others on the risks of environmental neurotoxicants; and work collaboratively with local and national environmental, health and disability groups for comprehensive chemicals policy reform. |
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$50,000 |
| To harmonize state and federal advocacy seeking to ban the endocrine disruptor Bisphenol A from food and beverage containers, and to infuse public health and breast cancer prevention perspectives into the federal chemical policy reform debate. |
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$60,000 |
| To win fundamental reform US domestic and foreign policy on hazardous chemicals and stimulate the United States' re-emergence as a global leader in achieving international protections from chemicals pollution. |
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$25,000 |
| To develop and begin to implement an agenda for regulatory reforms of federal chemicals policies at the Environmental Protection Agency. |
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$75,000 |
| To advance the use of green chemicals through chemicals policy by gaining business support for chemicals policy reform, promoting safer alternatives to toxic chemicals, and disseminating safer alternatives using the 'Green Screen' Wiki (a web-based resource.) |
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$35,000 |
| To reduce and prevent environmentally related disease in children by informing pregnant women, parents, physicians, public interest organizations, policymakers and the media about Columbia's research findings. |
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$50,000 |
| To reform the chemical industry so that it is no longer a source of harm through: chemical policy reform; promoting safe substitutes, clean production and green chemistry; developing strong communication tools; coordinating market campaigns; and championing environmental justice. |
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$160,000 |
| To educate national learning and developmental disabilities groups about environmental links to learning disabilities, translate emerging science, cultivate opportunities to support chemical policy reform, and increase the groups' collaboration and partnerships. |
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$110,000 |
| To reduce children's and adults' exposure to toxic chemicals and protect health by achieving steps toward state and federal comprehensive chemicals policy reform. |
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$65,000 |
| To accelerate demand for chemical policy reform through HealthyStuff.org, by broadly providing information about the presence of toxic chemicals in consumer products. |
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$40,000 |
| To extend Canada's precedent-setting ban on the endocrine-disrupting chemical Bisphenol A in baby products to all canned food containers. |
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$150,000 |
| To facilitate an integrated national campaign to reform US chemical policy while continuing state-level efforts to ban specific chemicals, market-based strategies to reduce chemicals use, and public interest representation within international deliberations to improve chemicals regulations. |
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$50,000 |
| To educate purchasers, policymakers and environmental and public health activists on the benefits and tradeoffs of biomaterials, and to guide the marketplace toward sustainable products. |
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$48,000 |
| To promote a market transition towards less toxic consumer electronic products, and stricter rules in the European Union, and potentially beyond, to control or eliminate the use of toxic chemicals in the electronics sector. |
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$25,000 |
| To advance international and national toxic chemicals reforms that reduce harm to human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants. |
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$100,000 |
| To raise awareness of environmental factors, particularly toxic chemicals, that can harm brain development and contribute to learning disabilities and behavior disorders; to prevent toxic chemical exposures, especially among pregnant women and children, through changes in chemical policies and practices; and to build a nationwide members' network working to reduce the incidence of learning disabilities in future generations. |
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$75,000 |
| To substantially reduce the mercury content of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, foster purchase of the least toxic and longest-lasting energy efficient lighting, and promote shared business responsibility financing for the recycling of discarded mercury-containing lightbulbs. |
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$50,000 |
| To use online and on-the-ground organizing to educate and mobilize mothers and families around environmental health issues such as toxic chemical exposure in consumer products, air quality, food and water safety. |
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$30,000 |
| To improve state legislators' capacity to better defend and promote initiatives to ban the use of toxic flame retardants and other dangerous chemicals, inform legislators about policy options states can consider moving toward comprehensive chemical policy reform, and engage legislators in the federal chemical policy reform debate. |
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$150,000 |
| To engage people of faith in building support for comprehensive state and national chemical policy, and mobilize the faith community to lend its powerful moral voice to the ongoing and urgent debate around federal chemical reform policy. |
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$75,000 |
| To reduce the public's exposure to hazardous chemicals by promoting fundamental reforms of the federal regulatory structure. |
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$50,000 |
| To use the findings of the Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging report to move policies that will foster healthier living for all ages by building alliances with key organizations, particularly AARP. |
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$26,880 |
| To secure adoption of groundbreaking policy reforms that protect human health and the environment from the impacts of toxic chemicals while serving as a model for other states and a driver for federal reforms. |
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$35,000 |
| To coordinate a national strategy that promotes extended producer responsibility policies; build momentum in eight states ready to consider those policies; establish extended producer responsibility as an effective tool to address climate change; and increase organizational capacity. |
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$10,000 |
| To support 45 member states and more than 100 local government members in developing and implementing policies to minimize the release of mercury from fluorescent lamps. |
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$45,000 |
| To employ science, policy development and legal reforms in implementing the precautionary principle in state and federal chemicals policy. |
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$90,000 |
| To establish a new precautionary federal chemicals policy by 2015 by launching and winning a critical mass of comprehensive policy reform measures in key states to tip the balance for achieving reform at the federal level. |
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$40,000 |
| To stimulate the design and application of safer chemicals and products consistent with principles of sustainable production and green chemistry, and to provide technical assistance to states and public advocates in reforming chemicals policies. |
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$24,000 |
| To secure adoption of groundbreaking policy reforms that protect human health and the environment from the impacts of toxic chemicals while serving as a model for other states and a driver for federal reforms. |
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$15,000 |
| To secure adoption of groundbreaking policy reforms that protect human health and the environment from the impacts of toxic chemicals while serving as a model for other states and a driver for federal reforms. |
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$25,000 |
| To secure adoption of groundbreaking policy reforms that protect human health and the environment from the impacts of toxic chemicals while serving as a model for other states and a driver for federal reforms. |
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$134,120 |
| To secure adoption of groundbreaking policy reforms that protect human health and the environment from the impacts of toxic chemicals while serving as a model for other states and a driver for federal reforms. |
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Genetically Engineered Food and Agriculture
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$225,000 |
| To prevent any new approvals and/or commercialization of genetically engineered crops and contain the crops already approved by promoting strict environmental and human health federal and state regulations on genetic engineering, including mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food products already on the market; and to prevent monopolies on the global seed supply by opposing patents on seeds and corporate takeovers of seed companies. |
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$25,000 |
| To advocate within the USDA's agricultural biotechnology rulemaking process for an appropriate balance between the interests of farmers and the environment and those of the biotech industry; and to educate and organize farmers through the new Farmers Rights, Farmers Choice Campaign. |
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$35,000 |
| To maintain 'certified organic' as a credible GE-free label; create a regulatory framework that recognizes the economic harm to farmers and rural communities from contamination by genetically engineered crops; and protect the right and capacity of farmers to grow non-GE varieties. |
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$85,000 |
| To promote a resilient agriculture system based on sustainable practices rather than one focused entirely on short-term productivity by: seeking a federal ban on the outdoor production of pharmaceutical and industrial crops; strengthening the regulatory framework for all agricultural biotechnology products; and assessing the role genetically engineered products and sustainable practices play in confronting the looming crises of global warming and food scarcity. |
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$55,000 |
| To attempt to stop commercial introduction and any further planting of genetically modified crops, specifically alfalfa and wheat, until environmental, economic and health questions about the release of these plants into the environment can be answered and potential problems addressed. |
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