Your rights or GMOs?
May 27, 2012 Exactly 20 years ago today, Vice President Dan Quayle announced a new policy by the first Bush administration that declared genetically engineered foods to be “substantially equivalent” to foods that farmers had traditionally planted and bred for thousands of years.
With this single policy, the U.S. government radically altered the food supply, introducing novel genes into our food that have been genetically altered in laboratories and never before consumed by humans. While the technology of genetic engineering was brand new, corporate executives at Monsanto colluded with elected officials to make sure that their new “products” were place onto the market as quickly as possible.
The Bush/Quayle 1992 policy, crafted by former Monsanto attorney Michael Taylor, who had been hired by the Bush FDA to fill a new position of deputy commissioner of policy, was designed to fast track approvals of GMOs and guarantee the new seed technology avoid rigorous safety testing and labeling, or as stated, “burdensome regulation”.
Two decades later, Americans are still denied the basic right to know what’s in their food because of this infamous policy, despite the fact that polls regularly show that 90% of Americans believe in labeling GMOs.
But this fall, all that can change! With your help, you can make GMO labeling history by chipping in to make sure that the California Right to Know 2012 ballot initiative succeeds in November!
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/596?t=7&akid=559.419237.x4Gk_i
As we reported yesterday, the biotech industry and Big Food retailers are already pledging millions of dollars to attempt to defeat us this fall. Earlier this month in a secret meeting, industry lobbyists promised to raise between $40 to $50 million to kill the GMO labeling initiative in California and deny us our right to know what’s in our food.
But we’re not going to allow that to happen!
The movement to label GMOs in the U.S. has grown exponentially in the past year and now California is on the front lines for this important battle for our basic rights. In order to match Monsanto and the biotech industry’s millions of dollars, we need to run an effective campaign to counter the lies and propaganda that will soon hit the California airwaves.
This will take all of us chipping in what we can and working together for victory in November!
We can do this – with your help. With just two days left, we need about $50,000. We’re counting on small donations of $5, $10, $20 to get us there. Your donation could be the one that puts us over the top!
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/596?t=10&akid=559.419237.x4Gk_i
To make this a memorable experience, we’re giving the first 100 people that donate more than $100 a free limited-edition Label GMOs t-shirt with the quote from President Obama’s famous promise to label GMOs on the back.
"Here’s what I’ll do as President. I’ll immediately implement Country of Origin Labeling because Americans should know where their food comes from. And we’ll let folks know whether their food has been genetically modified because Americans should know what they’re buying."
Thank you for contributing what you can today - Together we can win!
Now's the time. Let’s drop the money bomb on Monsanto and take back our food supply!
Thanks for participating in food democracy,
David Murphy
President, Food Democracy Action!
P.S. All money raised for this campaign will go through Food Democracy Action!, a 501(c)4 allied organization of Food Democracy Now!, focused on grassroots lobbying and legislative action. Donations are not tax-deductible. Thank you for your support!