On July 14, the House of Representatives voted 306-117 to kill Vermont’s popular mandatory GMO food labeling law, which had already begun to force major junk food and beverage giants (Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Campbell’s, Dannon, Smuckers, Starbucks) to label their GMO-tainted products nationwide. 

As soon as President Obama signs the DARK Act, (or lets it take effect by not vetoing it) states will no longer have the right to mandate labeling of genetically engineered foods. That means that the 90 percent of consumers who want to know what they’re eating can now look forward, on a permanent basis, to what amounts to no labeling.                   What we will get, if anything, in a few years will be bogus Grocery Manufacturers Association trade-marked QR smart codes, or 1-800 numbers on processed food packages that will serve to keep consumers in the dark about Frankenfoods and their omnipresent toxins, while pretending to provide so-called “disclosure.”

But today, while the bill is still just a bill (and not a law), we need your signature.

If you haven’t already, please sign this White House petition today, asking Obama to veto the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act.

Call the White House 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414 to leave your comment!  The comment line is open from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.

The House of Representatives will be voting (again) on GMO Labeling.  This letter, (see below) from an island resident, was sent to Congressman Rick Larsen, who represents us here in the San Juans.  His stance on GMOs, essentially, is that they are considered reasonably safe, with no proven harming effects; labeling is not necessary.  He needs to hear from us either with a phone call or an email/letter.  Use this letter or send your own.  Let him know that he needs to educate himself on the harm that GMO food is causing our environment, our food security, and our well being.  Tell him we want to know what is in the food we are buying – whether it contains GMO or not.                                His contact info:  larsen.house.gov

–Congressman Larsen,

Here in the San Juan Islands many of your constituents have had the opportunity to educate ourselves about the impact of GMO’s on farming, the environment, and our health. Your recent response to me about this issue was pure Monsanto and Big Food rhetoric. As a life long democrat I am dismayed at your position.

Today I am contacting you about GMO’s again because last night the Senate passed the Roberts-Stabenow bill. The bill is intended to hide information (behind electronic codes) from consumers, not provide it—in plain English, on a label. The bill is intended to exempt the vast majority of GMOs from even having to be hidden behind codes, much less labeled in plain sight. The bill is voluntary—it contains no enforcement mechanism, no penalties for non-compliance. The 63 Senators supporting the Roberts-Stabenow DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act misrepresent this industry-written bill as a “uniform federal mandatory labeling solution.” The bill is a fraud!

The bill passed last night is an attack on democracy, an attack on states’ rights. It not only overturns Vermont’s carefully considered and fairly debated mandatory GMO labeling law, but as Sen. Bernie Sanders noted in his speech on the Senate floor, this bill overturns nearly 100 other state laws. This bill is not about what is best for our food security, environment, or our health. This bill is about millions of dollars spent by Monsanto and Big Food to buy our democracy!

The Roberts-Stabenow bill will now go back to the U.S. House where you represent me. I urge you to educate yourself on the full range of real impacts of GMO’s by looking further than the information supplied by lobbyists. I hope you will see the other side of this issue, the side nine out of 10 Americans and citizens in 64 countries are on.

Sincerely,

Please note that Senators Murray and Cantwell supported consumers by voting “NO” on this bill.  Take a moment and send them a thank you.  Remember—this bill still has to make its way through the House, survive a full vote in Congress and be signed into law by President Obama. Let’s keep the Senators who voted with us by showing our thanks!  Senator Murray 202-224-2621, Senator Cantwell 202-224-3441

A few days ago the U.S. Senate passed what is being called the DARK Act that would nullify Vermont’s GE food labeling law – and any future attempts in other states for mandatory, on-package GE labeling legislation. This is a serious setback in transparency for informed food choices but we’re not giving up yet.

If this bill passes the House, it could go straight to President Obama for his signature. The President is our best hope to stop this bill. While campaigning for president, he said he stood with Americans in saying we have the right to know whether the food we’re eating has been genetically engineered. Please help us make sure he remembers the promise he made that helped get him elected.

Please call Congressman Rick Larsen and urge him to vote “no!”                             His phone in WA DC is 202.224.3121

Call the White House at 202-456-1111 (6-2 Pacific time).

Key points to make when you call:

• The Food and Drug Administration says it would be difficult for any GE food to get labeled under the bill’s narrow definition of “bioengineering.”
• Allowing QR codes or websites instead of on-package labeling discriminates against people without smart phones and is meant to avoid transparency.
• Soy, corn and canola oil; sugar from GE sugar beets; glyphosate-ready crops; most Bt crops, and GE salmon could be exempt.
• This bill tramples on states’ rights by revoking four state laws that were established democratically.
• No penalties for non-compliance.

This watered down proposal would preempt four state labeling laws while not requiring any meaningful labeling at all.

Please call Rep. Rick Larsen and the President. Thank you!

This could be our last chance to save GMO labeling. Even if you’ve already called and written your Senators, PLEASE DO IT AGAIN. A vote could happen this week or next.

Senators Roberts (R-KS) and Stabenow (D-MI) have released their “compromise” GMO labeling bill and it’s bad. It creates a labeling scheme to immediately override democratically established GMO labeling laws in Vermont, Connecticut and Maine, but would not require any labeling for 2 years, while USDA comes up with some vague labeling standard using discriminatory QR codes, websites or 800 numbers.

Call Sen. Patty Murray’s office at:
202-224-2621
(6 a.m. to 4 p.m. M-Th, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday)

Call Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office at:
202-224-3441
(5:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. M-F)

Thank them for their previous support for GE transparency.

Urge them to stand firm and vote NO on this proposal designed to bypass any real transparency.

Big Ag supports this compromise because it knows consumers don’t use QR codes and that “labeling” via QR codes really is no labeling at all.

Only 64 percent of Americans own a smartphone able to access QR codes. That means more than a third of all Americans would not be able to access GMO information under the Roberts-Stabenow “compromise.”

This bill has huge loopholes, exempting most GE foods from any labeling.

• defines GE so narrowly that soy and canola oil, sugar from GE sugar beets, glyphosate-ready crops, and most Bt crops would be exempt
• the definition of “bioengineering” is much weaker than FDA’s definition and global definitions
• labeling would be exempt from rules on false and misleading claims
• no penalties for non-compliance
• it appears untrue that 25,000 more food products would be labeled

This watered down proposal is a world away from what nine of 10 Americans demand. It is designed to preempt four state labeling laws while not requiring any meaningful labeling at all.

Please call our senators.
Thank you,

GMO Free San Juans with copy from PCC Markets, Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network

This just in from “Oregon Right To Know Team”

Last week, the Senate Agriculture Committee voted 14-6 to pass the DARK Act (S. 2609), and now we’re hearing that this devastating legislation could reach the Senate floor between now and early April.
Monsanto’s dream bill already passed the House, so this Senate floor vote is critical if we want to stop the DARK Act from becoming law.

We need EVERY food activist to pick up the phone right away and dial 1-877-796-1949 to urge your Senators to VOTE NO on S. 2609.

We all know what’s at stake here: Under the DARK Act, it would be illegal for states to require GMO labeling, even though polls show that 93% of Americans support labeling efforts.
This law would not only prevent future GMO labeling requirements, but would actually kill laws previously passed by voters, including the first-of-its-kind Vermont law set to take effect in July, which would require labels on GMO food.  AS written Initiative 2012-4 that was passed in San Juan County prohibiting the growing of GM crops could be overturned.
This is our chance to protect our right to know what’s in our food and stop the DARK Act from becoming law. Please call 1-877-796-1949 to tell your Senators to OPPOSE S. 2609.

Below is a message GMO-Free SJC received from the Just Label It campaign…Gary Hirschberg, Chairman, Stonyfield Farm and Chairman, Just Label It:

Hi Colleagues, once again forgive the anonymous email, but I am sending this with urgency to my personal list of pro-labeling CEO’s and Business Leaders.

The moment for all of us to communicate to key Senators about your strong opposition to the Roberts Bill, to Donnelly’s QR code labeling “alternative” and your support for Senator Merkley’s mandatory labeling bill has now arrived.  Please call a select group of key senators, it could make a huge difference in the outcome of this fight.

UPDATE: Here is where things stand. As you know, earlier last week, it appeared that Senator Roberts had at least 52 votes in favor of the DARK Act, so we have been focused on preventing 8 additional Democrats from backing it, as well as to potentially convince a few of those 52 to reconsider their support before the likely floor vote in April.   As of Friday, it appeared that Senator Roberts now does not have the 60 votes necessary to end debate and pass his bill, as is.  This is of course very good news.  However, because a number of the farm state Democrats are under huge pressure from mainstream Ag and Food interests in their states to support some kind of effort that delays or blocks the VT law (VT 120) from taking effect on July 1st, Senator Donnelly has put forward a compromise amendment to Roberts’ bill that might enable enough Dems to join the bill to get it passed.  His proposal is essentially to give companies the choice to either adopt an on-pack label or to choose instead to use a very explicitly designed QR code that would make it easy for consumers to know whether GMOs are in their foods.  JLI remains adamantly opposed to the substitution of a QR code because we feel that it is still an attempt by big food companies to keep consumers in the dark, and so it is critical that we communicate to a specific list of Senators who we fear could support Donnelly’s compromise.

Also last week, Senator Merkley introduced a separate bill  that would in fact seek to replace VT 120 with a stronger mandatory national labeling bill.  While our first priority remains stopping the Roberts bill and allowing VT 120 to take effect, it is important that you understand that there are some real flaws in the VT 120 law which the Merkley bill addresses. VT 120 contains a safe harbor such that no enforcement will happen until January 1, 2017, which functionally gives food companies an extra 6 months to become compliant.  Moreover, VT 120 also exempts 42% of the food consumed by consumers (including foods served in restaurants, fast food chains, take-out sections in grocery stores, schools, nursing homes, jails and other institutions), and exempts dairy products from rBGH-treated cows.  While VT 120 is still a step in the right direction, it is important for you to know that the Merkley bill does not contain either the safe harbor nor the exemptions, so it is in fact stronger legislation when it comes to protecting our right to know.  So while we all try to stop the Roberts bill, we also are supporting the Merkley bill as it would get us nationwide mandatory labeling.

SUMMARY:  It is essential that the key Senators listed below hear from people like you that we are opposed to the Roberts Bill, even with the Donnelly amendment, and that we support Merkley’s bill.

KEY SENATE TARGETS (along with their office phone numbers):
Casey (D-PA) – 202-224-6324
Bennet (D-CO) – 202-224-5852
Durbin (D-IL) – 202-224-2152
Carper (D-DE) – 202-2242441
Warner (D-VA) – 202-224-2023
Franken (D-MN) – 202-2245641
Klobuchar (D-MN) – 202-224-3244
Kaine (D-VA) – 202-224-4024
Koons (D-DE) – 202-224-5042
Collins (R-ME) – 202-224-2523
King (I-ME) – 202-224-5344
Heitkamp (D-ND) – 202-224 2043
Ayotte (R-NH)– 202-224-3324
Donnelly (D-IN) – 202-224-4814
Brown (D-OH) – 202-224-2315
Menendez (D-NJ) – 202-224-4744
Hirono (D-HI) – 202-224-6361
Nelson (D-FL) – 202-224-5274

There are also three Republican Senators who may object on states’ rights grounds:
Lee (R-UT) – 202-224-5444
Paul (R-KY) – 202-224-4343
Gardner (R-CO)

The FDA declared that GE-salmon is as safe to eat as non-GE salmon and has given its approval for it to be sold to consumers.

Despite the fact that:

– Over 400,000 comments were submitted demanding that genetically-engineered salmon be rejected.

– More than 300 environmental, consumer, health and animal welfare organizations, salmon and fishing groups and associations, food companies, chefs, and restaurants filed joint statements with the FDA opposing approval.

– More than 40 members of the U.S. Congress have repeatedly urged the FDA to conduct more rigorous reviews of environmental and health safety, and halt any approval process until concerns over risks, transparency and oversight have been fully satisfied.

……….the FDA refused to listen to consumer opinion and environmental concerns, and it completely placated the well-funded biotech industry.

Not only is this the first GE-fish approved, but it is the first GE-animal approved for human consumption. (This “FrankenFish” is injected with a gene from the Pacific Chinook salmon and can reach adult size in 16 to 18 months instead of 30 months for normal Atlantic salmon.)

Read the entire article:

https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/fda-approves-ge-salmon-billionaire-owner-gets-big-win

WE DID IT!!!!! GMO-FREE SAN JUAN COUNTY IS NOW A REALITY!!!!

I would like to thank all of the people who helped make this a reality; financial contributors, signature gatherers, event sponsors, our calling team, our Facebook and website teams, GMO Actions in San Juan County, each and everyone of you who voted and all of the people willing to start the dialog with your friends and neighbors about what this initiative is really about.

This is about protecting our futures, protecting our farmers and protecting our environment. This is about standing up to corporate bullying. This is about preserving the integrity of our food and the freedom to grow it, but most important this is about our community getting together, educating ourselves and standing up for our rights as farmers and citizens. One small step against GMO domination, but a very important one.

Now for the next step. Label it Washington ( http://www.labelitwa.org/ ) needs our help. They are still gathering signatures in an effort to require mandatory GMO labeling in Washington State. We need to keep at it, not just for the political victories, but for the dialog and to help our country reach the tipping point in GMO awareness and rejection.

Ken Akopiantz
Chair GMO-Free San Juans