It's not too late to keep his promise

[Cassandra Lista]

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President Obama: Pledge to Veto the DARK Act!

Dear Cassandra,

On July 23, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill which is intended to permanently prevent passage of any state or federal law mandating the labeling of GMOs in your food.

H.R. 1599 is now before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. A Senate version of the bill is expected to be introduced soon.

Please ask President Obama to pledge that he will veto H.R. 1599­or any similar bill that would preempt GMO labeling laws.

There are two excellent reasons he should do this.

First, President Obama promised labels on GMO foods, in a campaign speech he gave in 2007, in Iowa. He said, “Here’s what I’ll do as President . . . . We’ll let folks know whether their food has been genetically modified, because Americans should know what they’re buying.”

Second, on May 20, 2009, President Obama issued an Executive Order against passing federal laws that preempt state laws. In a memorandum to heads of executive departments and agencies, the President wrote that “preemption of State law by executive departments and agencies should be undertaken only with full consideration of the legitimate prerogatives of the States and with a sufficient legal basis for preemption.”

In other words, he said, don’t preempt state laws unless you are on sound legal ground. According to the latest legal analysis of H.R. 1599, and according to a recent ruling by a federal judge on Vermont’s GMO labeling law (Act 20), there is no constitutional basis for preempting state GMO labeling laws.

H.R. 1599 was introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.). It’s called the "The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act," a name created to intentionally deceive busy lawmakers into thinking this bill is good for consumers.

We call it the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, because that’s what it actually does. It gives Monsanto the legal right to deceive consumers about what’s in their food.

A recent report says that since 2013, Monsanto and Big Food have spent $143 million in lobbying expenditures that mentioned GMO labeling. And those 275 U.S. Representatives who voted for H.R. 1599? They took in $29.9 million in contributions from agribusiness and Big Food, in 2014 alone.

We need to pressure our Senators to reject H.R. 1599 and to support mandatory labeling laws. But we also need to hold President Obama accountable for his campaign promise and remind him of his Executive Order on Preemption.

Please ask President Obama to pledge to veto the DARK Act, or any bill that would preempt GMO labeling laws.

 

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