Sanders and GMOs

[Cassandra Lista]

 
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TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK

Legally Sanctioned Deceit

‘Please issue a public statement opposing H.R. 1599, and please lead a movement in the U.S. Senate to defeat this bill, or any version of a bill that would preempt state or federal mandatory labeling of GMOs.’ – Ronnie Cummins, in an Open Letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders

Open a newspaper, turn on the TV news, click on your favorite news site . . . chances are you’ll see a picture of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an article about where he’s speaking, a quote about something he said.

The media can’t get enough of Bernie Sanders right now. So we’re asking Sen. Sanders to use his media star power to draw attention to an issue that 90 percent of Americans care about. We’re asking him to speak out publicly about Americans’ right to know if their food contains GMOs.

We specifically want Sanders to speak out against H.R. 1599, the wrongly named Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, which we’ve more aptly named the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know Act).

The DARK Act is nothing more than legally sanctioned deceit. We need to stop this bill in the Senate. No one is in a better position to rally U.S. Senators against this pro-industry, anti-consumer legislation than Sen. Sanders.

Read Ronnie’s letter

Read the press release

ACTION ALERT

100,000 in 7 Days

Photo: AP

Today, in an Open Letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders, we are calling on Sen. Sanders to lead the charge against legislation­ H.R. 1599­written and funded by Monsanto, that is intended to strip Americans of the basic right to know whether or not our food contains genetically engineered ingredients.

We are also asking you to help us get 100,000 signatures on this petition to Sen. Sanders over the next seven days, to reinforce how important this issue is to the majority of Americans, and persuade Sen. Sanders to speak out..

Why Sanders?

Because he is a Senator from Vermont, a state whose GMO labeling law will be repealed if Congress passes H.R. 1599, or any similar bill that preempts states’ rights to label GMOs.

Because he is a sponsor of the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act, introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore) to establish a uniform federal standard for mandatory labeling of GMOs­a bill which is doomed, if Congress passes H.R. 1599.

Because he is an outspoken critic of corporate influence. And H.R. 1599 is a prime example of companies like Monsanto buying laws that are written for the sole purpose of protecting their profits.

Sen. Sanders may be our last hope. We need 100,000 names by next week. Please sign this petition. Share it on social media. Email it to your family and friends.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Bernie Sanders: Protect Our Right to Know. Stop the DARK Act!

ACTION ALERT

Let's Get Personal

First, we absolutely want you to contact your Senators and ask them to reject any federal bill, including a possible senate version of the DARK Act, that would preempt mandatory labeling of GMOs, at the state or federal level. We need to fill every Senator’s inbox with messages in the next few weeks.

Second, after you use the form above to contact your senator, please pick up the phone and dial 202-224-3121. Ask for your Senator, then explain why you're calling. (Not sure? Find your Senator here). Then post on your Senator’s Facebook page. When you post, be sure you include “I am a constituent”).

We need to do all of the above. But we need to do more, and we need to do it before Congress reconvenes, after the August recess. We need to get personal. And by that, we mean we need to meet with Senators and/or their staffers, in their home district offices. And we need to do it fast!

On July 23 (2015), the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1599, a bill written by the biotech and processed food industries that preempts states’ rights to pass laws requiring the mandatory labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and would prevent passage of a federal mandatory GMO labeling law.

Monsanto and Big Food spent $29.9 million to sway the 275 U.S. Representatives who voted against your right to know. And you can bet they’ve already spent, or are still spending, at least that much to lobby Senators, in order to turn the DARK Act into law.

And that’s on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars they’ve already spent to defeat GMO labeling bills and ballot initiatives in multiple states.

We don’t want to see any version of the DARK Act introduced in the Senate. But sources say there’s a Senate version in the works. We need to stop it. And we need your help. Please contact your Senator. And then contact us camp...@organicconsumers.org about getting personal.

Email us if you want to attend or organize a meeting camp...@organicconsumers.org

Find scheduled meetings (check back frequently for updates)

Tips on organizing a meeting (scroll down)

Download your DARK Act flyer

TAKE ACTION: Tell Your Senator: Support Consumer and States' Rights. Reject Rep. Pompeo's DARK Act­H.R. 1599­and any other federal legislation that would preempt states’ rights to label GMOs!

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

Big Deal

The G.M.O. experiment, carried out in real time and with our entire food and ecological system as its laboratory, is perhaps the greatest case of human hubris ever. It creates yet another systemic, “too big to fail” enterprise ­ but one for which no bailouts will be possible when it fails. - Mark Spitznagel and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, New York Times, July 13, 2015

Earlier this month, Mark Spitznagel, founder and chief investment officer of Universa Investments, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, scientific adviser at Universa Investments, worte a piece for the New York Times, comparing Monsanto’s GMO empire to the U.S. banking system.

It was an interesting analogy. And a frightening one.

We’re often asked, why GMO labeling? With so many problems facing this country, and the entire world, what’s the big deal?

The deal, as we all know, is bigger than labels. It’s bigger than GMOs.

The deal is, this toxic industrial monoculture, invented by Monsanto in order to sell millions of tons of chemicals like cancer-causing glyphosate, poses a threat to the world’s entire ecosystem.

And like it or not, you and I, and our children and grandchildren, are a part of that ecosystem.

Spitznagel and Taleb nailed it. Our government might have been able to bail out the banking system. But if our ecosystem experiences a systemic failure, there will be no bailouts.

Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our GMO labeling legislative efforts)

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Seeding Fear

All giants fall. Monsanto’s day is coming.

Neil Young’s new documentary, “Seeding Fear,” tells the story of Alabama farmers Michael White and his father who were sued by the agrochemical giant in 2003 for patent infringement of its GMO soybeans.

The film I would like you to see tells the story of a farming family in America, but the same thing is happening around the world,” Young added. “It is a story that takes 10 minutes of your time to see. It is a simple human one, telling the heartbreaking story of one man who fought the corporate behemoth Monsanto, and it illustrates why I was moved to write ‘ The Monsanto Years.' – Neil Young


Watch the video

More here

NEW STUDY

On Edge

‘ . . . we have been mortgaging the health of future generations to realise economic and development gains in the present. By unsustainably exploiting nature’s resources, human civilisation has flourished but now risks substantial health effects from the degradation of nature’s life support systems in the future.’ – The Rockefeller Foundation

We’re trashing the planet. And driving its health to the edge.

That’s how one reporter summarized a new study, “Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch,” from the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health.

The report, written by 15 leading academics and policymakers, concludes that there’s hope. But only if we act. Before it’s too late.

Read the study

Learn more

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

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'We Must End Monsanto's Colonization, Its Enslavement of Farmers'

Factory Farm Runoff Is Polluting Lake Erie, but CAFO Sewers Are Not the Answer

Scientists Say Supposedly Miraculous Ingredients in Weed Killers Don't Actually Work

Top 10 Toxic Ingredients Used by McDonald's

Genetically Modified Salmon Headed to Rivers and Stores

McDonald's Begins Closing Restaurants across U.S. As Clean Food Movement Sweeps America

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