GMO OMG Film Released Today

“GMO OMG could be the film that bridges the knowledge gap for hundreds of thousands of Americans and allows us to reach that tipping point..” — Yahoo! Voices

GMO OMG director and concerned father Jeremy Seifert is in search of answers. How do GMOs affect our children, the health of our planet, and our freedom of choice? And perhaps the ultimate question, which Seifert tests himself: is it even possible to reject the food system currently in place, or have we lost something we can’t gain back? These and other questions take Seifert on a journey from his family’s table to Haiti, Paris, Norway, and the lobby of agra-giant Monsanto, from which he is unceremoniously ejected. Along the way we gain insight into a question that is of growing concern to citizens the world over: what’s on your plate?

Denying Americans the right to know—let the boycott begin

Defying repeated threats of a lawsuit from Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), on May 8, Peter Shumlin, Governor of Vermont, signed a historic bill requiring food manufacturers to label genetically engineered (GE) foods, and to drop the practice of labeling GE foods as “natural” or “all natural.” 

On May 9, true to its word, the GMA confirmed that it will sue Vermont in federal court to overturn H. 112

Vermont is prepared to fight back. The state has already established a “food fight” legal defense fund. Legal analysts say Vermont will likely win. 

Vermont isn’t the only state up against the multi-billion dollar lobbying group. The GMA, whose 300-plus members include Monsanto and Dow, Coca-Cola and General Mills, is pushing a bill in Congress that would preempt all states from passing GMO labeling laws. 

GMA members and corporate agribusiness hate labeling, because it forces them to reveal all of the hazardous GMOs, chemicals and drug residues lurking in the billions of dollars of foods, beverages, seeds, grains and pesticides they sell. It’s no wonder that Monsanto and GMA’s bill in Congress–a bill they’ve named the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014—has been renamed the “DARK” (Denying Americans the right to know) Act.

It’s time for consumers in every state to band together to defeat the GMA’s full-on assault, not only on Vermont, not only on consumers’ right to know what’s in our food, but on states’ rights and on our basic freedoms to protect our health and our communities.  

Download the Buycott app for your smartphone and join OCA’s new campaign, “Buy Organic Brands that Support Your Right to Know” so you can scan products before you buy them.

Let the boycott begin..

After a tip off by a member of the GMO Free USA community, we called Lodge Cast Iron today and they confirmed that they are using Roundup Ready GMO soybean oil to pre-season their cookware at the factory. “Seasoning” is when oil is baked on to give cast iron cookware a non stick finish. The customer service rep was very helpful and she explained that the GMO soybean oil can be removed in a two step process. First, put the pan in the oven and run the oven’s self clean cycle; let cool. Second, give the pan a good scrub. Then you will need to start over and re-season your cast iron cookware with shortening or the oil of your choice.

Watch this short video to learn how to re-season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg6S6vWyPH8&list=PLF41A72C04A6AE443&index=2

 

G.M.O.’s: Let’s Label ’Em

We have a fundamental right to know

what’s in the food we eat

NEW YORK TIMES, Sept. 15, By MARK BITTMAN

IT’S not an exaggeration to say that almost everyone wants to see the labeling of genetically engineered materials contained in their food products. And on Nov. 6, in what’s unquestionably among the most important non-national votes this year, Californians will have the opportunity to make that happen — at least in theory — by weighing in on Proposition 37.

Prop 37’s language is clear on two points: it would require “labeling on raw or processed food offered for sale to consumers if made from plants or animals with genetic material changed in specified ways.” And it would prohibit marketing “such food, or other processed food, as ‘natural.’ ” (For now, let’s ignore the vast implications of the phrase “or other processed food,” lest we become overexcited, except to say that the literal interpretation of that sentence has the processed food manufacturers’ collective hair on fire.)

Polls show Prop 37 to be overwhelmingly popular: roughly 65 percent for to 20 percent against, with 15 percent undecided. Nationally, on the broader issue of labeling, in answer to the question of whether the Food and Drug Administration should require that “foods which have been genetically engineered or containing genetically engineered ingredients be labeled to indicate that,” a whopping 91 percent of voters say yes and 5 percent say no. This is as nonpartisan as an issue gets, and the polls haven’t changed much in the last couple of years.

Unsurprisingly, Big Food in general — and particularly companies like Monsanto that produce genetically engineered seeds and the ultraprofitable herbicides, pesticides and other materials that in theory make those seeds especially productive — have already thrown  tens of millions of dollars into defeating Prop 37. On the other side is a relatively underfunded coalition led by California Right to Know, which collected the necessary million-plus (yes!) signatures to get the proposition on the ballot. Although television advertising has just begun and its advocates would never say so, at the moment the bill seems assured of passage. Excellent.

Read the rest..

Yes on 37!

Organic Brands Backing the Campaign to Defeat GMO Labeling

Original article by Katherine Paul
Re-posted from Organic Consumers Association, Aug 9, 2012

The next time you take a swig of Odwalla’s Organic Carrot Juice, or munch on a bowl of Orville Redenbacher’s Organic popcorn, take note: A lot of popular organic and all-natural brands are made by companies that are spending thousands of dollars to defeat Proposition 37, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act. 

Donations are pouring into the campaign to defeat Prop 37. Among the big donors are companies like J.M. Smucker, Hormel Foods, Kellogg Co., Coca-Cola North America and PepsiCo. – companies that make a fortune marketing ‘natural’ and organic brands with slogans like “We’re good to the earth.”

All of these companies are members of the powerful Washington, DC-based Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA), a multi-billion-dollar trade association which represents America’s $1.2 trillion “Big Food” industry. The GMA itself has already pitched in $375,000 to the anti-labeling campaign. And it’s still early in the game.

The GMA has more than 300 dues-paying members,  many of whom are purveyors of popular ‘natural’ and organic brands. These companies have either developed or acquired those brands in order to tap into the growing market for organic and “natural” foods: Annual sales of “natural” food products are estimated at $50 billion, organic at $30 billion.

We assume all GMA members oppose Prop 37, or they wouldn’t approve GMA’s hefty donations to the anti-labeling campaign. Those members include Starbucks, which sells a number of organic coffee brands, and Kraft, maker of Boca Burgers. Safeway, Inc. is also a member of GMA. The supermarket chain pockets annual sales of $400 million from its store-owned  O-Organics brand. You would think a company that markets “Ingredients for Life”   might stand up in favor of no GMO ingredients?

Safeway is an assumption, but when it comes to a long list of other GMA members, no assumptions are necessary. Here’s a list of food companies, all GMA members, and all marketers of “natural” and organic brands, who have directly donated to the campaign against GMO labeling – over and above the $375,000 the GMA has contributed on behalf of all its members.

COMPANY DONATION ORGANIC/NATURAL BRANDS
Pepsi-Co $90,220.06 Tostito’s Organic
Tropicana Organic
Naked Juice
Coca-Cola $61,208.60 Odwalla
Honest Tea
ConAgra $56,598.50 Orville Redenbacher’s Organic
Hunt’s Organic
Alexia Foods
Lightlife
Kellogg’s $33,248.40 Keebler Organic
Kellogg’s Organic
Bear Naked
Kashi
Morningstar Farms
Wholesome & Hearty
J.M Smucker $20, 395.80 Santa Cruz Organics
Smucker’s Organic Peanut Butter
R.W. Knudsen
Natural Brew
Tenderleaf Tea
Hormel Foods $19,657.70 Natural Choice
General Mills $19,400.28 Cascadian Farm
Muir Glen
Gold Medal Organic
Bimbo Bakeries* $17,783.30 Earth Grains
DelMonte $14,400.28 DelMonte brand organic pickles
DelMonte brand organic canned tomato products
Fruit Naturals
Hershey $8,440.28 Dagoba
Cargill $5424.94 White Wave/Silk
Horizon
Organic Cow of Vermont
Campbell Soup Co. $5,340.56 V8 Organic
Prego Organic
Swanson’s Organic
Pace Organic
Campbell’s Organic
Bolthouse Farms
McCormick $5,302.10 McCormick Organic Spices

*Bimbo Bakeries also donated an additional $7,340.06 through its Sara Lee subsidiary.