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(NaturalNews) "If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and
crossbones on it." -- Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto,
quoted in the Kansas City Star, March 7, 1994
"Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling
as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job." -- Phil Angell, Monsanto's director
of corporate communications, quoted in the New York Times, October 25, 1998
For nearly two decades, Monsanto and corporate agribusiness have exercised near-dictatorial
control over American agriculture, aided and abetted by indentured politicians and regulatory
agencies, supermarket chains, giant food processors, and the so-called "natural" products industry.
Finally, public opinion around the biotech industry's contamination of our food supply and
destruction of our environment has reached the tipping point. We're fighting back.
This November, in a food fight that will largely determine the future of what we eat and what we
grow, Monsanto will face its greatest challenge to date: a statewide citizens' ballot initiative that
will give Californians the opportunity to vote for their right to know whether the food they buy is
contaminated with GMOs.
A growing corps of food, health, and environmental activists - supported by the Millions against
Monsanto and Occupy Monsanto Movements, and consumers and farmers across the nation
- are boldly moving to implement mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods in California
through a grassroots-powered citizens ballot initiative process that will bypass the
agribusiness-dominated state legislature. If passed, the California Right to Know Genetically
Engineered Food Act will require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods and food
ingredients, and outlaw the routine industry practice of labeling GMO-tainted foods as "natural."
Passage of this initiative on November 6 will radically alter the balance of power in the marketplace,
enabling millions of consumers to identify - and boycott - genetically engineered foods for the first
time since 1994, when Monsanto's first unlabeled, genetically-engineered dairy drug, recombinant
Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), was forced on the market,
As Alexis Baden-Mayer, Political Director for the Organic Consumers Association, pointed out at
an Occupy Wall Street teach-in in Washington DC in early April: "The California Right to Know
Genetically Engineered Food Act ballot initiative is a perfect example of how the grassroots
99% can mobilize to take back American democracy from the corporate bullies, the 1%.
By aggressively utilizing one of the last remaining tools of direct democracy, the initiative process
(available to voters not only in California and 23 other states, but in thousands of cities and counties
across the nation), we can bypass corrupt politicians, make our own laws,
and force corporations like Monsanto to bend to the will of the people, in this case granting us
our fundamental right to know what's in our food."
Moving the BattlegroundThis is not the first time Monsanto has been challenged by citizens' initiatives or state and local
legislative efforts. But this time, the momentum is in our favor.
In the past, GMO "right-to-know" activists have been outmaneuvered and outgunned by Monsanto
and its minions in every state, except Vermont and Connecticut, where passing a labeling bill is
still, at least theoretically, a long-shot. (Monsanto recently threatened to sue the state of Vermont
if legislators there pass a GMO labeling bill).
Efforts to pass GMO labeling laws at the federal level have gone nowhere, despite the fact that
more than one million consumers have emailed "Just Label It" petitions to the FDA, demanding
mandatory labeling. (The FDA counted only 394 of the signatures, claiming that the main petition
was submitted as a single document, or docket, and therefore counted as only one signature.)
Dennis Kucinich of Ohio has introduced his perennial GMO labeling bill in the U.S. House of
Representatives, though everyone knows it will never make it out of committee and come to a
full House vote on the floor. Similar symbolic bills have been introduced in 18 state legislatures.
The battle has been raging for decades. But this time, it's different. Behind this historic California initiative is a broad, growing and powerful health, environmental, and
consumer coalition, which includes the Organic Consumers Association, Organic Consumers
Fund, Food Democracy Now!, Mercola.com, Nature's Path, Lundberg Family Farms, LabelGMOs.
org, Eden Foods, Alliance for Natural Health, Dr. Bronner's, United Farm Workers Union,
American Public Health Association, Cornucopia Institute, Institute for Responsible Technology,
Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, California Certified Organic Farmers, and scores of others.
This time, the industry faces informed - and alarmed - consumers who understand the danger
of allowing out-of-control chemical and biotech companies like Monsanto, Dow, or Dupont - the
very same corporations that have assaulted us with toxic pesticides and industrial chemicals,
Agent Orange, carcinogenic food additives, PCBs, and now global warming - to dictate their food
choices.
Keeping Consumers in the Dark, Keeping Farmers and Scientists Intimidated Why has it taken so long to get this far? How have Monsanto and its cohorts been able to grow
and maintain market supremacy while force-feeding unlabeled "Frankenfoods" to the public for
decades?
By buying off politicians, bullying farmers and scientists, and keeping consumers in the dark. Monsanto has sued more than 150 farmers across the US and Canada, and threatened thousands
of others, for refusing to pay for "intellectual property theft" after their fields were contaminated
by Monsanto's patented genetically engineered crops.
The company has harassed and used the media to bully scientists who have exposed the public
health and environmental hazards of genetically engineered foods and crops in the United States,
Canada, Latin America, and Europe. The renowned scientist Dr. Arpad Pusztai from the UK, was
pressured and discredited for reporting on the dangers of genetic engineering until he was
eventually fired from his job. The same thing happened to the UK's Environmental Minister,
Michael Meacher.
In a number of other cases, scientists such as Ignacio Chapela, have received death threats.
Chapela also said he received death threats to his children from "a high government official" in
Mexico after he showed contamination of native corn with Monsanto's GMOs. Other scientists,
most notably Andres Carrasco from Argentina, have been assaulted by thugs. Monsanto has
even hired the notorious mercenary gang, Blackwater, to spy on its opponents worldwide.
Why has Monsanto gone to such great lengths to thwart GMO labeling laws and initiatives?
Because it understands the threat that truth-in-labeling poses for GMOs - and biotech industry
profits. As soon as genetically engineered foods are labeled in the U.S., millions of consumers
will read these labels and react. They'll complain to grocery store managers and companies, they'll
talk to their family and friends. They'll switch to foods that are organic or at least GMO-free.
Once enough consumers complain about GE foods and food ingredients, stores will eventually stop
selling them. Farmers will stop planting them.
Europe Shows Labels Can Drive GMOs off the MarketIn Europe, there almost no genetically engineered crops, while here in the US, nearly 75% of all
supermarket foods - including many so-called "natural" foods - are GE-tainted. Why?
Because Europe requires labeling of genetically engineered foods - and the US does not.
This is exactly why activists have launched the California Ballot Initiative. Passing mandatory GMO
food labeling in just one large state, California, the eighth largest economy in the world, where there
is tremendous opposition to GE foods as well as a multi-billion dollar organic food industry, will
ultimately have the same impact as a national labeling law.
If California voters pass the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act, the biotech
and food industry will face an intractable dilemma. Will they dare put labels on their branded food
products in just one state, California, admitting these products contain genetically engineered
ingredients, while withholding this ingredient label information in the other states? Will they allow
their organic and non-GMO competitors to drive down their GMO-tainted brand market share?
The answer to both of these questions is likely no. What most of them will do is start to shift to
organic and non-GMO ingredients, so as to avoid what the Monsanto executive 16 years ago aptly
described as the "skull and crossbones" label.
Can you imagine Kellogg's selling its Corn Flakes breakfast cereal in California with a label that
admits it contains or may contain genetically engineered corn? This would be the kiss of death
for their iconic brand. How about Kraft Boca Burgers admitting that their soybean ingredients are
genetically modified? How about the entire non-organic food industry (including many so-called
"natural" brands sold in Whole Foods or Trader Joe's) admitting that a large proportion of their
products are GE-tainted?
Once food manufacturers and supermarkets are forced to come clean and label genetically
engineered products, they will likely remove all GE ingredients, to avoid the "skull and
crossbones" effect, just like the food industry in the EU has done. In the wake of this development
American farmers will convert millions of acres of GE crops to non-GMO or organic varieties.
What Now? The Campaign Needs Volunteers and MoneyMonsanto, the Farm Bureau, and the Grocery Manufacturers Association - under the guise of its
front group, the so-called Coalition Against the Costly Food Law - are building up a massive war
chest up to defeat the California Ballot Initiative. They will literally spend millions to spread lies
and disinformation that GMO foods and crops are perfectly safe - and that we need more, not less
GMO food and biofuel crops in this era of climate change and growing population.
They will lie and say that GMO labels will be costly to the food industry and raise food prices.
They will say that it is the job of the FDA to decide whether GMOs are labeled, not the states.
Yet we already know that this battle will never be won in Washington DC, where Monsanto and
Food Inc. lobbyists have politicians in their back pockets. It will only be won in places like California
(or Vermont), vital centers of organic food and farming and anti-GMO sentiment, where 90% of the
body politic, according to recent polls, support mandatory labeling.
This citizens initiative in California is a battle all of us. Please contact the campaign if you are
willing to volunteer to join a national phone bank to contact California voters this fall or provide other
support.
It's time to take back control over our food and farming system. It's time to stand up to Monsanto
and the Biotech Bullies.
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