Tag Archives: Monsanto

The DARK Act’s On Its Way to a Senate Vote: Please Speak Out Now

This vote may occur tomorrow, please speak out now, and pass the word. A new version of the anti-GMO labeling bill commonly known as the Deny Americans the Right to Know or DARK act which is euphemistically named the SAFE Act (Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, 2015) seeks to stop states like Vermont from enacting their own GMO-labeling laws and force companies also  to take GMO-free labels off food labels. The Senate may vote this week on this Act, please take a minute to take action: Send a letter to your Senators, or call.

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JustLabelIt.Org

Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, writes in EcoWatch (March 15): Last night, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) filed a new version of the anti-GMO labeling bill widely known as the DARK Act, which would prevent states from requiring labeling of genetically engineered (GMO) foods and stop pending state laws that require labeling from going into effect. We urge the Senate to reject this bill that favors the interests of corporations over those of the people. See her article here.

Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group: “Americans want to know everything about their food — including what’s in it and how it was produced. This is a trend that should be encouraged, not frustrated, because food and farming have enormous impacts on our health and on the environment. Congress has encouraged consumer interest in food by requiring many food disclosures – ranging from the amount of fat, sugar and salt to whether juice was made from concentrate.

Yet tomorrow, the Senate may take a step backward by denying people the right to know about the presence of GMOs. Under the Roberts version of the bill we call the Deny Americans the Right Know, or DARK Act, people would have to call a different toll-free number or scan a different website for each and every product – and there’s no guarantee GMO information would even be provided. It’s ridiculous to expect the American people to wait on hold in grocery aisles or to fumble through websites on mobile phones to find out what’s in their food.

But that’s exactly what the new version of the DARK Act contemplates, even though nine out of ten Americans consistently tell pollsters they want the right to know and want an on-package disclosure.

Why are food companies fighting our right to know? Read more here.

Earlier this month, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved the DARK act (which is what has sent it now to a full floor Senate vote). 14 Senators voted to remove States’ rights, 6 stood up for States. Visit Natural Society for Christina Sarich’s article listing these Senators.

Children Most at Risk

For just One reason why every one of us needs to be concerned about GMOs in our food, please see this detailed article at Environmental Working Group, which focuses on the (excessive) pesticide use in GMO crops.

Excerpt:

“GMO corn and soybeans have been genetically engineered to withstand being blasted with glyphosate – an herbicide that the World Health Organization recently classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The proximity of many schools to fields blanketed in the chemical puts kids at risk of exposure.

But it gets worse.

Overreliance on glyphosate has spawned the emergence of “superweeds” that resist the herbicide, so now producers of GMO crops are turning to even more harmful chemicals. First up is 2,4-D, a World War II-era defoliant that has been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease and reproductive problems. Young children are especially vulnerable to it.

A new EWG interactive map shows the amounts of glyphosate sprayed in each U.S. county and tallies the 3,247 elementary schools that are located within 1,000 feet of a corn or soybean field and the 487 schools that are within 200 feet. Click on any county on the map to see how much GMO corn and soy acreage has increased there as well as the number of nearby elementary schools.

The 15 states outlined on the map across the center of the country are the ones where the Environmental Protection Agency has approved the use of Dow AgroSciences’ Enlist Duo – a combination of glyphosate and 2,4-D – on GMO corn and soybeans engineered to tolerate both weed killers.

The chart shows the 10 states with the most elementary schools within 1,000 feet of a corn or soybean field. These states account for 53 percent of the total acreage planted with genetically engineered GMO corn and soy. EPA has approved the use of Enlist Duo in seven of them.

The inescapable connection between GMO crops and increased use of toxic herbicides is one reason why many people want to know whether the products they buy contain GMOs. Polls show that more than 90 percent of consumers favor labeling GMOs, but without a mandatory labeling law, they have no way to know for sure.” Please continue reading here.

For other reasons to oppose the DARK Act, please visit Just Label It, and especially read this article: Top 10 Reasons to Oppose the Senate DARK Act.

Again: The Senate may vote this week on this Act, please take a minute to take action: Send a letter to your Senators, or call. Please spread the word as you can in your networks.

 

Urgent: Speak Out Today To Stop The New DARK Act (Which Kills GMO Labeling)

Congress votes tomorrow on a newer sneakier version of the Monsanto Dark Act. Please take a moment to sign or call or send a letter to Congress.

Visit GMO Free USA to learn more about GMOs and why we need to label them.

Friends of the Earth offers a phone number and a sample script for your phone call to Congress.

Food Democracy’s Take Action page here will send letters to the President and your Congressfolks for you.

From Food Democracy Now‘s email: “Breaking: The Monsanto Protection Act is Back and WORSE than ever! Once again Monsanto and giant food companies are scheming behind the scenes to pass a bill in Congress that would kill mandatory GMO labeling efforts and replace it with a gutted version that will preempt states’ rights and give the illusion of oversight.

This week the House of Representatives is expected to vote on an Orwellian bill, the so-called “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act” (H.R. 1599) that would make it illegal for states to pass common sense GMO labeling and now also prohibit states or counties from banning or regulating GMOs in any way.

The vote is scheduled to take place this Thursday and we need all hands on deck to stop the Ultimate Monsanto Protection Act and convince members of Congress not to violate states’ rights in an effort to kill GMO labeling. This plan is so devious that it radically speeds up the approval process for new GMO crops; limits the FDA’s and USDA’s ability to conduct premarket safety reviews; declares GMO foods “safe” and allows GMOs to be labeled “natural”!

This is a blatant power grab to deny Americans their basic right to mandatory GMO labeling and protect flawed GMO products – and we can’t allow them to get away with it. We need your help today. Every voice counts!”

Please drop in at Food Democracy Now to send a letter.

Or drop in to send letters to House and Senate legislators at Alliance for Natural Health’s Take Action page.

From ANH-USA‘s website: ” Companies are trying to put what amounts to little more than rogue science experiments on our tables: no long-term safety studies have shown that GMOs are safe, yet there is a tremendous amount of evidence that GMOs are extremely dangerous. Such companies should be the ones alerting the public of their food’s contents. Under the DARK Act, Americans would need to play a guessing game about what’s in their food.

Unfortunately—but unsurprisingly—the mainstream media also seem to be compliant with biotech’s goals. When Chipotle announced they were going GMO-free, mainstream media outlets like Time magazine, NPR, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune skewered the company for its decision. Rather than critically presenting ALL of the evidence of the GMO debate, many news outlets chose to present the issue as if the science were completely settled and GMOs are safe. It is noteworthy that these same media outlets depend on industry advertising for their survival.

Incidentally, we’ve seen similar trends in the coverage of the vaccine issue: non-scientists in the media attempting to convince the public that the science on an issue is settled when the reverse is actually true, and anyone who disagrees is an unhinged conspiracy theorist. (Note: you can visit our GMO Fact Check page to see biotech’s pro-GMO arguments debunked point-by-point.)”

Also visit FoodMythBusters.org, a coalition of various food groups working together to reveal the true facts about food we all need.

FoodMythbusters suggests, tweet your views:

If you’re on twitter, spread the word:

URGENT ACTION: Help #StopTheDARKAct and help protect our right to know what’s in our food. More info here: http://bit.ly/1fRehvx
Stand up for food transparency! We have a right to know what’s in our food: Tell your Rep to vote No on HR 1599: http://bit.ly/DarkAct