What You Can Do To Keep GMOs Off Your Dinner Table

From Organic Consumers Association:  Why do we categorize factory farms (euphemistically called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs by the government and industry) the “malevolent profit-driver and lynchpin” of industrial and GMO agriculture?

  We need to aggressively mobilize a full-blown online and on-the-ground food fight, complete with marketplace pressure, popular education, boycotts, litigation, brand de-legitimization.  Factory farming is a trillion-dollar industry that has a devastating impact on food quality, human health, animal welfare, farmworkers, rural communities, water quality, air pollution, biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, two-thirds of all farm animals are now confined on factory farms. In the US the figure is even higher—90-95 percent. ”

Food Columnist for NY Times and Time magazine, Marc Bittman quit his dream jobs after hearing what the World Health Organization had to say about factory farming, of which GMO crops and foods are an integral input.   He said: My new dream job is to get healthier food onto the plates of more Americans.

Is Organic Food from China safe for your family?  Get the details from the Food Revolution Network

Time to Stop Letting Our Planet Be Destroyed by Greed, Politics,Poisons!

 

 Progress: First Nations are leading the way on the Failing, Flawed and Dangerous GMO Technology –  If Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau can stand up for native peoples’ rights in Canada, we should be able to get the US to do same when it comes to citizens not wanting invasive GMO salmon http://earthjustice.org or promiscuous GMO crops.  8/31/2016 update “The biggest problem with genetic engineering in agriculture is that it runs completely against the grain of sustainable agriculture. It separates the domain of science from the domain of farming community. It externalizes everything that was internal to the communities and formed the basis of sustainability: seeds, manure, pest control and more than anything, community knowledge of agriculture. Biotechnology in agriculture today stands as the manifestation of corporate power that is shaping the food and farming policies in India. That is the reason why we must see biotechnology less as science and more as politics.  Genetic engineering (GE), strangely, rides on the slogans of feeding the world and sustainability. It also claims that transgenics, a major product of biotechnology, can increase yields and reduce pesticide use, two traits that have produced more controversy than success.”

“We have heard the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that honouring the rights of First Nations are a “sacred obligation” to the Liberal Government of Canada,” said Hereditary leader and chief councilor Willie Moon, “our people have spoken we want salmon farms out of our territory.”
The rudeness with which the salmon farm employees were told to conduct themselves was in stark contrast to the integrity of the people performing ceremony with cedar bows. It was hard to witness.from www.cleansingourwaters.com

 New Threat to Homeland Security?  Pesticide Spraying Drones Approved by FAA and Available from Monsanto –  Domestic Terrorism now enabled to your doorstep compliments of US Government, along with hackers who see a new opening: Dumping herbicides and pesticides from the sky seems like something the government should oppose, but instead, somehow the corporate giant has won federal approval for this monstrous development (FROM ARTICLE)

FAILING, FLAWED,DANGEROUS GMO TECHNOLOGY Here   Millions Spent, No One Served: Who Is to Blame for the Failure of GMO Golden Rice?

GMO Interests and US Government Forcefully Propagating GMO Policy and PR

 

Now:  GMO Shenanigans on the internet! BEWARE of a hijacked video of retired biotechnology scientist Dr. Thierry Vrain on YouTube talking about Toxic GMOs supplanted with a pro-GMO talk!  He is a  happily retired ORGANIC FARMER, speaking against GMO!

FOR AUTHENTIC GMO UPDAT E FROM CORNELL UNIVERSITY STUDENT EXPOSING GMO: GMOWTF.com website directly from Robert, the Cornell Student who says: “I am a student who is skeptical of the industry-sponsored pro-GMO claims espoused by my school, Cornell University in upstate Ithaca, NY.  I am deeply concerned that Cornell is supportive of organizations such as Monsanto. I feel such organizations are doing a great deal of harm to our environment, global health, and scientific integrity.  I am also troubled by the trend of Cornell students being led to believe this rhetoric as scientifically sound. This is a dangerous phenomenon at any place of higher learning, particularly a prestigious Ivy League school such as Cornell.”

Labeling UPDATES:  http://sustainablepulse.com/2016/08/01/food-safety-experts-slam-president-obama-over-gmo-labeling-legacy/#.V6JJImWuf-Y

 

 

http://www.naturalnews.com/054856_GMO_labeling_President_Obama_Dark_Act_20.html#

 

Critical to Call White House Requesting President Obama VETO False GMO Labeling S.764 Bill (202) 456-1111 or (202) 456-1414

7/31/16 Update: Obama went against the People and signed the flawed Food “Disclosure” bill, even with an official White House  Peoples’ Petition to Veto and FDA critical remarks in their technical comment.  We will continue to expose the two major Establishment parties’ incestuous GMO Myths .  Now, check out other excellent options for food labeling in this election: Libertarians and Greens.  The two party conventions showed the Establishment control is fracturing!

State laws resulted from citizen action; this national bill ignored citizens’ interests and rights in favor of corporate interests.  If you don’t act now, and the President signs the bill it will become a very bad anti- consumer law.  We Americans will be denied the right to know what is in our food.  Very easy to leave a comment on the White House lines. This flawed bill, if not vetoed, will become law for a 2 year deferral on voluntary QR code labeling  only – nothing in plain English on package as FDA customarily requires.   It’s such a hastily drafted bill with conflicts and errors, of which the primary intent was to knock out Vermont’s mandatory food labeling law which went into effect July 1st, 2016.  Please  share widely as the more voices heard by Obama, the better!  Click here for more details or scroll down to prior posts for important details.

Demand White House Response on Petition for People not Profits!

7/27/16  Update from GMOFreeUSA:  **100,000 signatures achieved** on a Whitehouse.gov petition site urging President Obama to veto the DARK Act, AKA S.764 – Many thanks to all of you who signed! In just a little over two weeks we reached our goal, making this petition one of the fastest to have reached its goal in the history of the Whitehouse.gov petition site.  Now that we’ve met our goal, we need to light up the Whitehouse switchboard with phone calls demanding that President Obama veto this sham of a GMO labeling bill!      This is our last chance to stop this terrible bill! *Please call today to reinforce that the President must VETO this anti-consumer bill (202) 456-1414 (202) 456-1111 

On 7/26/16, only 860 more signatures needed to petition White House for a veto response on S.764, otherwise known as the “Dark Act”of GMO food labeling.  We must use every avenue to try protect the integrity of our food supply and the American people, especially for our kids and future generations.  Obama originally campaigned for GMO food labeling and his own FDA found many problems with this bill.  This bill, if signed, will usurp mandatory state labeling laws already passed by VT, CT, and ME.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/veto-dark-act-s764

Don’t Let Politics Ruin Your Family’s Health!

Stop this fraudulent labeling bill [S. 764] in its tracks to save GMO labeling! Important message from Consumers Union:  The Senate just voted to block all state GMO labeling laws, including the historic Vermont bill that went into effect on July 1st. Defying Vermont’s citizens and consumers nationwide who want easy-to-read labels, some Senators sold us out to Big Food and Big Ag. It’s outrageous that our elected officials are siding with Monsanto and food industry lobbyists to thwart consumers’ interests to know critical ingredients in our food, especially due to the scientific-acknowledged creation of new potentially allergenic proteins from the GMO process itself. Having cleared the Senate, this new anti-labeling bill is headed to the House – but it’s not too late for us to speak up for GMO transparency.  Contact President Obama to VETO this bill. Also HERE

Consumerist gives you the real scoop, even the FDA doesn’t like this bill! “When the text of the bill, written by Sen. Pat Roberts (KS) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI) — who have received a total of more than $2.1 million in campaign contributions from agribusiness donors this year alone — was first released, the Food and Drug Administration responded with a Technical Assistance Memo [PDF] that outlines the potential for new loopholes.https://consumerist.com/2016/07/12/federal-gmo-labeling-bill-opens-more-loopholes-than-it-closes/

From NY Times: “The biggest problem with the Senate bill is that — instead of requiring a simple label, as the Vermont law does — it would allow food companies to put the information in electronic codes that consumers would have to scan with smartphones or at scanners installed by grocery stores. The only reason to do this would be to make the information less accessible to the public.” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/opinion/a-flawed-approach-to-labeling-genetically-modified-food.html?_r=0

From  Bloomberg article today:   Americans Are Buying Gene-Edited Food That’s Labeled Non-GMO “Products made possible through gene-editing have landed on grocery shelves. Whether they’ll stay there is up to shoppers wary of technological tinkering.”and ““There’s an overall distrust of Big Food and Big Science.” “Doug Gurian-Sherman, director of sustainable agriculture at the Center for Food Safety, said today’s conversations about gene-editing remind him of GMOs in the 1990s — the rhetoric is lofty and promises abound about healthier food and drought tolerance. “This is largely unproven” Gurian-Sherman said. (quotes from Bloomberg article).

 

The “Fix” is In! Shameful GMO Unlabeling Bill Quietly Pushed Through Congress Just Before Summer Recess

7/11 update: S.764 will go to the US House Rules Committee Tuesday 7/12/16 for  reconciliation with the Senate  bill.  And then onto the President’s desk.  You can contact the White House directly to express your support for an Obama VETO on the bill.  

Money doesn’t just speak – it hollers, co-opts… runs the country…with citizen interests, independent science, and whole food integrity sacrificed in favor of industry profits. US food supply has been increasingly tainted from the pesticide-saturated GMO crop system, which lacks robust risk assessment and monitoring from government regulators. Much, much worse than President Dwight D. Eisenhower envisioned when he warned the public of the “military-industrial complex” before leaving office. Genuine GMO Labeling would have enabled families to be better informed about what’s in their food and to protect their families by becoming able to link certain food intolerances to novel GMO-created allergens and health conditions.  Like peanut and gluten ingredients labeled today to protect health. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/08/485145450/senate-passes-a-gmo-labeling-bill-that-the-food-industry-likes

Monsanto, its Congressional cohorts, and other GMO-related interests got their bill passed and dished out by Congress, while US health care founders and Americans’ life expectancy continues its decline. Americans will have to own a smart phone to interpret labels which have so many exemptions, deferrals and loopholes that they are of no use to consumers earnestly trying to keep GMOs off the dining table.

Why is the new GMO food legislation is so controversial? In short, GMO-related interests could not tolerate a legitimate, mandatory state GMO labeling law that had teeth and informed the public.  So, just as Vermont’s law became enacted July 1st, the industry couldn’t stand it any longer.  Special interest-controlled lobbyists and related GMO interests acted with haste and overflowing bankrolls to tilt more politicians into voting for an ill-fated “unlabeling” law so GMO labeling wouldn’t have to be fully implemented across the food industry!  First attempts at promoting  a similar federal labeling law failed earlier this year, so strategy was shifted to quietly sneak it in to usurp the enactment of a genuine state labeling law from VT, as well as other labeling laws from Connecticut, Maine, and Alaska.

If industry spokesmen say GMO foods are identical to regular food, how can such foods be uniquely patentable? They want it both ways and patents provide legal protection  while waterfalls of money (some from taxpayer-funded food subsidies) enable regulatory agency green lights with inadequate risk assessment. Last, but not least, this new federal legislation is discriminatory to people of less means who may not be able to afford a cell phone to read the cryptic “QR code label”and they will not be able to compare on-package labels in the grocery store.  Absolutely shameful and another symptom of an increasingly dysfunctional and corrupt government which has lost its way and the trust of the people. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says the Senate proposal is designed to intentionally confuse consumers, exempt many genetically engineered ingredients including widely used cooking oils, has no compliance features, and undermines democracy.