This is the time of year when ghosts return to haunt the halls of the Oregon Legislature. Thus bills that would have had the state set up GMO-free agricultural zones died earlier this year, but the idea was reborn in late May.

House Bill 3554 makes clear the state can create control areas, places where genetically engineered crops would be subject to rules that don’t apply elsewhere. Among them, the Department of Agriculture could bar the growing of biotech crops within a specific distance from organic ones.

An earlier bill in the state House of Representatives would have required the Agriculture Department to establish control areas, while one introduced in the Senate granted the department the same power. Under the new measure, farmers could ask the department to create “market production” districts, in which rules aimed at preventing cross-pollination between biotech and conventional crops could be established.

The burden of proving the need for a market production district would fall to those seeking its creation.

And, while the creation of a district could mean biotech crops could not be grown in it, that is not required. Instead, the state would be required to come up with mitigation strategies and mandatory best practices that “promote coexistence” between biotech growers and their neighbors, among other things.

Still, the agribusiness group Oregonians for Food and Shelter continues to believe it’s draconian because, it says, it limits farmers’ right to grow what they wish, where they wish. It fails to recognize that without limits, would-be organic farmers could be denied that same right.

Meanwhile, organic agriculture is a growing business in Oregon, with some 60 percent of all organic operations in the state certified since 2002, according to a report by the Oregon State University Extension Service. Oregon’s organic farmers account for 3 percent of the total U.S. organic acreage and 5 percent of both farms and sales.

Oregon has long worked to support its farmers, and that’s good. But it cannot support only farmers for whom biotech crops are no problem; it must also work to support those for whom such crops are a threat. This bill seeks to strike a balance between the two. It should be approved.