Just Label It!
More than HALF the foods at U.S. grocery stores are likely to contain genetically engineered ingredients, but you wouldn’t know it because the industry-run FDA doesn’t require labels for foods with genetically engineered (GE) ingredients (also called genetically modified organisms or GMOs).
In America, we pride ourselves on having choices and making informed decisions. Under current FDA regulations, we don’t have that choice when it comes to GE ingredients in the foods we purchase and feed our families. Labeling is essential for us to choose whether or not we want to consume or feed our families genetically engineered foods.
Focusing on transparency, trust, and truth, Gary Hirshberg (Stonyfield Farm President and Just Label It partner) pointed to the $30 million public relations campaign underway by the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance to fight the negative impression of big agribusiness, including the companies that produce GE seeds. He emphasized that there should be a $30 million effort for transparency to build more truth and trust for consumers. He noted Americans are looking for it everywhere, which is evidenced by the growth in organic food, farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture, and the amount of coverage in major publications, like the New York Times, about our food system.
Related articles
- USDA Approves Monsanto’s GE Corn – The Latest in a String of GE Approvals (friendseat.com)
- Label It Today! GMO Salmon Up for FDA Approval, Public Scrutiny (organicauthority.com)
- Obama Wholesale Approves Genetically Engineered Foods; Agent Orange herbicide use to expand (foodfreedom.wordpress.com)
Monsanto and the Merchants of Death
From the Organic Consumers Association
January 6, 2010
“In the 1990s, Monsanto found an ingenious way to sell large quantities of its broad-spectrum toxic herbicide RoundUp to farmers. The company’s scientists gene-spliced corn, soy, cotton, and canola with foreign DNA, enabling these “Frankencrops” to survive massive doses of RoundUp. Farmers could now repeatedly spray their fields with RoundUp, killing weeds but not the crop. Unfortunately, the collateral damage of heavy RoundUp spraying includes groundwater pollution, toxic residues in crops, and destruction of essential soil micro-organisms. The Genetically Modified (GM) crops themselves create herbicide-resistant Superweeds and spread genetic pollution to organic and non-GMO crops as well as plant relatives. Last but certainly not least, Monsanto’s GM foods have been linked to serious health damage – not only for animals, but humans as well.
Today, a major portion of crop-land in the US is sown with Monsanto’s “RoundUp Ready” corn, soy, cotton, canola, and sugar beets. Eighty percent of these GM crops are then sold as animal feed to the nation’s 125,000 factory farms or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) that produce most of the non-organic meat, dairy, or eggs sold in grocery stores or served in restaurants, schools, and hospitals. The other 20% of Monsanto’s Genetically Modified Organisms are laced into non-organic processed foods (soy lecithin, corn or sugar beet sweeteners, cooking oils, etc..) that are found in every grocery store aisle.
There is a direct correlation between our genetically engineered food supply and the $2 trillion the US spends annually on medical care, namely an epidemic of diet-related chronic diseases. Instead of healthy fruits, vegetables, grains, and grass-fed animal products, US factory farms and food processors produce a glut of genetically engineered junk foods that generate heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. Low fruit and vegetable consumption is directly costing the United States $56 billion a year in diet-related chronic diseases.
Monsanto’s GM crops are highly profitable for the food industry, turning cheap, federally subsidised, genetically engineered crops and GE-fed animals into cheap, ubiquitous, junky foods. But from the standpoint of public health and environmental sustainability, Monsanto and their factory farm collaborators are nothing less than merchants of disease and death.
A critical mass of consumers would turn away from GMOs and Factory Farmed meat, dairy, and eggs – IF they knew what they were eating..”
“Over the next few years, the Organic Consumers Association will focus on strategic grass-roots campaigns to promote health, justice, and sustainability, with a special emphasis on local-based practical solutions to the energy and climate crisis. Organic soil and land management can and must be scaled up now in order to buy us the time we need to make the long-term transition to radical energy efficiency and solar, wind, and geothermal power..”
Organic Consumers Association
6771 South Silver Hill Drive
Finland MN 55603
Inquiries: 218-226-4164
Related Articles
- USDA Recommends “Coexistence” with Monsanto: We Say Hell No! – Huffington Post (blog) (news.google.com)
- WikiLeaks Cables Reveal U.S. Sought to Retaliate Against Europe over Refusing to Allow Monsanto GM Crops (alternet.org)
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Secretary Vilsack: Support Organics, Not Genetic Engineering
While the Obama Administration has certainly made several positive inroads during the first 100 days of office, from appointing organic champion Kathleen Merrigan to Undersecretary of Agriculture and planting organic gardens at both the White House and USDA headquarters, the Administration has chosen to champion genetically engineered crops at home and abroad.
Upon returning from his recent visit to the G8 summit in Italy, Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack pledged to promote Big Biotech abroad as part of President Obama’s foreign policy. Vilsack’s comments came on the heals of President Obama’s announcement that United States would “double support for agricultural development to over $1 billion so that we are giving people the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty. … This is not just charity though. These are future markets for all countries, and future drivers of growth.” “Agriculture development,” from the Administration’s perspective means exporting the US’ toxic industrial agriculture model, with genetically engineered crops at the center. President Obama’s announcement coincided with the passage in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of S. 384, the Global Food Security Act, which forces genetic engineering upon the world’s 1 billion subsistence farmers.
Take Action! Send Secretary Vilsack a letter and urge him to:
-Require mandatory labeling of all genetically engineered plants and animals,
-Promote truly sustainable and organic agriculture abroad, and
-Protect non-GE and organic farmers by assigning liability for injury caused by genetically engineered organisms.
Go further: Call Secretary Vilsack’s office 202-720-3631 and let them know how you feel about YOUR Department of Agriculture supporting Big Biotech!
