Let’s Keep Our Food Free: Stop the DARK Act

Let’s keep our food free!

Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1599 or what we call the Deny Americans the Right to Know – or DARK – Act.  The DARK Act would deny Americans the right to know whether their food contains genetically modified food ingredients.

We need to stand up for American consumers rights!  This bill would make it effectively impossible for America to enact the same kind of mandatory GMO labeling that exists in 64 other nations, and it would overturn existing GMO labeling laws in states like Vermont, Connecticut and Maine.

Nine out of 10 Americans support mandatory GMO labeling, yet this act would block all states from labeling genetically engineered foods, and it would also make it much harder for the FDA to ever mandate national labeling.

According to a report from Open Secrets, a project of the Center for Responsive Politics, the 275 members of the U.S. House who voted in favor of H.R. 1599 received $29.9 million in contributions from the agribusiness and food industries in the 2014 cycle.

But despite the lobbyist’s best efforts, Congress has long recognized that Americans should be given basic information about their food and trusted to make the right choices for their families.

To ensure the freedom to know what’s in our food we need to let the Senate and President Obama know how serious the American public is about GMO labeling. 

JustLabel It has created a petition to let the Senate and President Obama know howserious we are about GMO labeling (and note we’re not trying to ban GMOs in America, only to label them for those who want the Choice!)

The petition is 86% away from its 200,000-signature goal.   My signature was 176,566; will yours be 175,567?

Here’s to life being delicious and full of choices! 

Trust Us!

A fun video for Prop 37. Please vote Yes on Tuesday for California's right to know if there's GMos in our food!

Making Informed Food Decisions at ModernMom.com

Have an article on Making Informed Food Decisions: The GMO Labeling Movement on the homepage of Modern Mom today.

Here's just a tidbit:

Making Informed Food Decisions: The GMO Labeling Movement

The demand to label GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) is picking up steam in the United States, both on the state and national front.

Genetically Modified Organisms are experimental plants and animals that have been genetically engineered in a laboratory with DNA from other plants, animals, bacteria, and viruses.

GMOs exist for two main reasons:
1. Seed producers modify their seed to make them resistant to their brand of herbicide.
2. Seed producers modify plants to contain built-in pesticides.

As of 2010, GMOs constituted 86% of the Corn, 90% of the Canola, 93% of the Soy, and 93% of the Cotton grown in the U.S.

Although GMO ingredients are found in 80% of packaged foods in the U.S., they have not been proven safe as the long term consequences of GMOs on our health and environment have not been adequately investigated. 40 countries, including Australia, Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico, and all of the European Union nations, either have significant restrictions or outright bans on the production of GMOs because they are not considered proven safe.

Check out the entire article at http://www.modernmom.com/blogs/kat-thomas/making-informed-food-decisions-the-gmo-labeling-movement

1 Million Voices (or Maybe Just 394)

Last week Just Label It announced they had hit a million comments with their online petition to the FDA demanding the need for GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) labeling. And how did the FDA respond? By saying there was actually only 394 comments.

Those million plus collective signatures, more than any other petition submitted to the FDA in its history, that were collected in less than 180 days by Just Label It's more than 500 organizations, will only be counted as 394 because of an FDA rule that states that if thousand and thousands of people sign a single petition or submit the same form letter they are only counted as one collective signature.
Now in the world of GMOs and GE (Genetically Engineered) food the player who has the most to lose by a label mandate is Monsanto, the agricultural multinational at the forefront of the GMO world.

And who is the senior adviser for the FDA?

Michael Taylor, former vice president and lobbyist for Monsanto. And as the online petition to oust Michael Taylor from the FDA notes: “Taylor is the same person who as a high-ranking official at the FDA in the 1990s promoted allowing genetically modified organisms into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is a travesty.” (Something that 40 countries, including Australia, Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico, and all of the European Union nations, either have significant restrictions or outright bans on the production of because they are not considered proven safe.)

So it's no wonder that one million equals 394.