THE LITTLE STATE THAT DID! PASSED LEGAL MANDATE FOR #GMO LABELS!

Friday, July 1st - TODAY is the VERY FIRST DAY that the state of Vermont Celebrates it's Historic GMO labeling Bill - And WE Could not Thank Them Enough! 

Dear K, 

Let freedom ring! From the green mountains of Vermont to the forests of Maine, to the rolling hills of Connecticut and the beaches of California, we have stood up these past years for one simple thing - the basic constitutional right that mothers and fathers know what’s in the food they're feeding their children and that we, as Americans, can walk into a grocery store and determine by personal, individual and sovereign choice the foods that we wish to eat.

No one! Not a single corporate executive, not a gaggle of incompetent Senators, nor an army of corrupt lobbyists have the right to deceive us and our fellow citizens about the food that we should eat. No matter what they say, no matter what lies they tell, We, as citizens, have this right, not the corporations and those who would deceive us for their own personal gain. And yet while we celebrate this truly historic victory in Vermont, we could be just a few days away from seeing this law reversed by a federal compromise bill brought to the table by these very same corporate interests - a bill masquerading as a federal GMO labeling bill, that fails to deliver what 98% of the American people have asked for.

And so in the wake of this victory, this past week has been the darkest chapter that our labeling and food movement has ever faced. We are in our darkest hour. It is a deep betrayal that our Senators could side with Monsanto and corrupt corporate interests within the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in a secretive backroom deal for 30 pieces of silver. 

But mark our words, justice will be served. As an organization, Food Democracy Now! is Iowa born and bred. One thing we know besides farming and growing corn is politics - and make no doubt that our state's motto "Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" is the central force that drives us now, and at all times.

Here in Iowa, where 94% of our corn and 97% of the soy is GMO, We want to raise a glass in celebration to our heroic friends and allies in Vermont who have bravely stood up to the most powerful corporate forces on the planet and won. 

Make no mistake about it, this fight is far from over. Please take a look at our good Vermont farmer friend who asks you to join us on this ride.

Please SHARE this Historic Moment far and wide with friends and family this 4th of July! 

Facebook link here - https://fdn.actionkit.com/go/1965?t=4&akid=1889.160877.KPLEeq

We hope that you enjoy this weekend with friends and loved ones and remember our rights that we celebrate this 240th year as Americans we're not won easy and without a fight!
They said we couldn't do this 5 years ago. That it would be impossible, when we went to California and fought them in Prop 37. But then we lost and lived to fight another day. We beat them the next year in Connecticut and Maine, but Monsanto got their clauses. We lost the ballot initiative Washington state in 2013, but won the very next spring in little state of Vermont.
Now their Whole world Quakes as we have landed in Washington DC, where what should be a garden of democracy for the people has become a snakepit of deceit. Just remember that our rights were won by farmers who left their fields to fight a tyrannical Parliament and monopolist Monarch. They thought they were mighty then, but our ancestors laid them low.
Have no doubt about this course, it is not easy, the forces that are lined up against us are powerful - and we have just begun to fight!
From Iowa to Vermont, we will stand with in good times and we will stand with you in bad! We raise a glass to our allies in Vermont tonight for standing up for our rights! And to those who write corrupt bargains, all you get is a pint of Roundup for the troubles you've caused.
They cannot beat us fairly, they have to bend the rules. This is not democracy, and they must pay the price! Don't worry, justice is coming! And Vermont's farmers ask that you join them on this historic ride.
Defend Vermont at any cost. As the sun sets on your first day, we will rally for this cause!
Thank YOU VERMONT, small in geography, but a Giant of a Heart!

Remember, democracy is like a muscle, either you use it or you lose it!

 

Thanks for participating in food democracy! WE GOT THIS!

 

Dave Murphy

Founder / Executive Director

Food Democracy Now! team

US SENATE TO USA: WHAT YOU EAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!

The US Senate voted to advance the bill to ban GMO labels Find out how your Senators voted and send a message – Food & Water Watch action alert A majority of Senators voted to move the DARK Act forward for a final vote onJuly 6. If ultimately passed, this bill would STOP state laws to label genetically engineered foods. It would take away GMO labels in stores that are already being provided in advance of Vermont's GMO labelling law. It would create an unenforced national "standard" for labels that includes 1-800 numbers, bar codes, and websites that create the illusion of labelling and nothing more. This bill is unjust and would limit access to labelling information to those with a smart phone, a good data plan, cell reception and the extra time to read a website about every package of food, instead of an on-package label that tells consumers what they need to know at a glance. See how each of your US Senators voted — then click the link below their photo to send a message to thank them for their vote or hold them accountable. Go to: http://act.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/VoteCenter?page=voteInfo&voteId=23792 Moving the DARK Act to a final vote Jun 29, 2016 Senate Roll call 117 114th Congress 2nd Session Accepted: 68-29 Source: Food & Water Watch http://act.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/VoteCenter?page=voteInfo&voteId=23792 __________________________________________________________Website: http://www.gmwatch.org Profiles: http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/GM_Watch:_Portal Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GMWatch/276951472985?ref=nf

NO TO "DARK ACT" -DEADLIEST BILL OF ALL - RONNIE CUMMINS

View This Email On the Web

The darkest DARK Act of them all . . .   Dear Kat, The long-awaited Senate bill to kill Vermont’s mandatory GMO labeling law was unveiled last week. It’s worse than we imagined, the darkest DARK Act of them all. The bill proposed by Sens. Pat Roberts and Debbie Stabenow is an anti-consumer, pro-Monsanto masterpiece, bought and paid for by some of the greediest, most deceptive corporations in America. It’s full of loopholes and exemptions.  It allows food companies to “disclose” GMO ingredients using barcode technology and websites, instead of clear words, in plain view, on the package. It won't kick in for another two years, even though many food companies are already labeling in order to comply with Vermont’s law. And here’s the best worst part: The Roberts-Stabenow bill gives food companies permission to flaunt the law by ensuring that there will be no penalites, no consequences, if they fail to comply.  That's not a law. That's a joke. I don’t know if we can stop this brazen attack on states’ and consumer rights. But I know we have to try. Natural health leader Mercola.com, your loyal ally in the GMO labeling battle, has stepped up to help us meet our summer fundraising goal by offering to match your donation. Please help us reach our goal bymidnight June 30, so we can wage the final leg of this fight. You can donate online, or by phone or U.S. mail, details here. Roberts and Stabenow didn’t act in time to keep Vermont’s long-awaited mandatory GMO labeling law from taking effect on July 1. But as soon as both the House and the Senate return after the July 4 holiday recess, Monsanto’s hired guns will move heaven and earth to ram this bill through Congress. This federal, so-called “mandatory” labeling law doesn’t require labels on some of the most common GMO ingredients.  It allows regulatory agencies to set thresholds so high that many, or most GE ingredients wouldn’t have to be labeled. It also provides for defining “genetic engineering” in such a way that GMO corn and soy, the main GMO crops grown in the U.S., could be exempt. The Roberts-Stabenow bill is so weak, it wouldn’t be worth the Senate’s time to vote on it, except for this one fact: If passed, the bill will achieve Monsanto’s two primary goals—overturn Vermont’s law, and give food companies a permanent free pass to deceive the public. We owe it to ourselves to see this battle through to the end. Please call your Senators, visit their offices, then call them again. If Congress fails us on this issue, we will use every resource we have to launch massive boycotts of the brands and companies behind this bill, including factory farm producers of meat, eggs and dairy. And with your help, we will do everything in our power to make sure that the Congress members who sold us down the river never serve in office again. Please help us take advantage of Mercola.com’s generous offer to match any donation made by midnight June 30. You can donate online, or by phone or U.S. mail, details here. In solidarity, Ronnie Cummins International Director P.S. We still need to raise about $50,000 to reach our goal bymidnight, June 30. Win or lose the labeling battle, we have our work cut out for us if we want a regenerative, not degenerative food and farming system. Please know that every donation, no matter how small, will be matched by Mercola and will help build a better food movement. Donate online here.

USPIRG: ROBERTS/STABENOW SELLOUT ON #GMO LABELS UNACCEPTABLE

NEWS RELEASE  

Contact

Bill Wenzel,

U.S. PIRG

STATEMENT ON STABENOW-ROBERTS COMPROMISE ON LABELING OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS

FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2016

STATEMENT OF U.S. PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP (U.S. PIRG)

STABENOW-ROBERTS COMPROMISE on LABELING OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS

Contact: Bill Wenzel, Agriculture Policy Program DirectorT: (202) 461-2451 | C: (608) 444-0292

Background: Legislation providing citizens with the basic right to know whether the food they are feeding to their families contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients has been introduced in more than 30 states with Vermont, Connecticut and Maine enacting GE labeling laws. These legislative proposals have been met with fierce opposition from the biotechnology, farm and grocery manufacturers lobbies that have spent millions to defeat legislation in the states. With the Vermont law set to become effective on July 1, 2016, those powerful special interests have turned to Congress for relief.

On March 16, 2016, the Senate refused to consider legislation introduced by Sen. Roberts (R-KS), Chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, to preempt state GE legislation and impose a voluntary GE labeling standard (S.2609). The strong bi-partisan vote to defeat the Roberts’ bill, labeled the DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know), was in response to the demand of millions of consumers nationwide. Subsequent to the vote, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo, General Mills, Mars, ConAgra and other large food companies joined Campbell’s Soups in announcing plans to label products containing GE ingredients.

Statement: “The message from consumers to Congress regarding the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) products and ingredients has been crystal clear from Day One – only a mandatory national standard requiring prominent, on-package labeling is acceptable in legislation preempting state GE labeling laws. QR codes, smart labels and other off-package labeling are unacceptable alternatives. Consumers who do not want GE products or ingredients should not need to have smart phones, download apps, or spend time searching the web for information that should be readily available on the product that’s in their hand when they are grocery shopping.

The compromise reached by Senators Stabenow and Roberts allows companies the option of using off-packaging labeling, which makes it harder, if not impossible, for all consumers to know whether products contain GE products and ingredients, and falls far short of our expectations for a national mandatory GE labeling standard. We oppose the Stabenow-Roberts GE labeling compromise, and urge all Senators to once again hear the voices of the 90 percent of Americans who demand nothing short of mandatory, on-package labeling of all GE products and ingredients, and vote “no” on the compromise.”

NO "DEAL", ROBERTS/STABENOW! MANDATORY #GMO LABELS ONLY!

Subject: MESSAGE I SENT TO SENATORS TODAY on the DARK ACT from Howard Vlieger

I writing to ask you to OPPOSE the Stabenow/Roberts compromise on GMO labeling. This is a TOTAL denial of our constitutional rights. What right could be more fundamental than knowing what is in our food?

GMOs have NEVER been proven safe and there is a growing body of independent scientific studies showing many reasons for concern for the health of those consuming GMOs.

Couple this with the fact that more than 80% of GMO crops are resistant to glyphosate based herbicides and glyphosate residues are showing up everywhere (grains, bread, breast milk, baby food, cereal, water systems and much more). Glyphosate is a potent antibiotic and broad spectrum chelator and is wreaking havoc in the health of animals and people around the world. Just this AM it was announced that glyphosate herbicides will NOT be registered in the EU.

We deserve to know if GMOs are in our food. More than 90% of the citizens in our country want "ON LABEL" wording if food contains ingredients of GMO crops. Do what is right for the consuming citizens of this country, NOT corporate contributors. PLEASE vote NO on the Stabenow/Roberts legislation.


Thank you!


HOWARD VLIEGER
4947 US 75 Avenue
MAURICE, IOWA 51036
712-567-4151 OFFICE
712-441-3911 CELL
studentofthesoil@gmail.com

CONSUMERS UNION TO SENS ROBERTS & STABENOW: NO, QR CODES ON #GMO FOOD IS NOT EVEN CLOSE!

Consumers Union Opposes New Senate GMO Labeling Proposal

Experts

Jean Halloran

Director, Food Policy Initiatives​

Michael Hansen

Senior Staff Scientist

For Immediate Release: Thursday, June 23, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) announced a deal on legislation related to genetically engineered ingredients, or GMOs. The new bill would nullify state laws requiring clear, on-package labeling of food with GMOs and replace them with an ineffective national standard to be set two years from now by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy division of Consumer Reports, issued this statement in response:

“This deal is unacceptable to the nine out of ten Americans who support mandatory GMO labeling. Consumers deserve to know what’s in their food and to be able to make informed decisions. They have been clear that they want straightforward GMO labels that they can read and understand at a quick glance when shopping. This law would instead allow GMO disclosure to be done through scannable codes, phone numbers, or websites – making it difficult, if not impossible for the average consumer to find out what they want to know as they try to decide which kind of cereal or snack to buy.

“While we appreciate efforts by Senator Stabenow and others to seek a better bill than the one passed by the House last summer, this deal does not meet consumer needs. QR codes, 1-800 numbers, or websites aren’t a solution. The new Senate bill is just another way to allow companies to keep consumers in the dark – especially the one-third of Americans who don’t own a smartphone and those in rural areas without reliable broadband service.

Michael Hansen, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Consumers Union, added: “The bill’s requirements, limited though they may be, do not even apply to many forms of genetically engineered food. The bill is designed to cover only food produced with traditional forms of genetic engineering, and leaves out emerging techniques like ‘gene editing,’ which was recently used to create a mushroom that doesn’t get brown. The bill also completely exempts any food where meat is the main ingredient, even if there are other ingredients that are genetically engineered.”

Halloran also said: “The Senate shouldn’t fall for food and biotech industry scare tactics. They claim that Vermont’s law will cause ‘chaos’ and lead to higher food prices. But the fact is that food companies have already started labeling – we’ve received photos of labeled GMO products from consumers across the country. The sky has not fallen, and in general, prices have not risen on GMO foods.

“If this bill is passed by the Senate, it would be a clear case of Congress acting on behalf of industry interests, rather than on those of their constituents. We urge all senators to stand up for consumers – and real disclosure – and oppose this bill.”

Consumers Union is urging consumers to call on their lawmakers to oppose congressional action that would undermine state GMO labeling laws, and to support meaningful, mandatory on-package labeling for GMO foods, including engineered animals like salmon and engineered produce and processed food. To learn more, visit ConsumersUnion.org.

***

Contact: David Butler, dbutler@consumer.org

William Wallace, william.wallace@consumer.org, 202-462-6262

COURT STANDS FOR PROTECTION OF ORGANIC FARMS FROM PESTICIDE TOXICITY

Federal Court Finds USDA Process for Allowing Pesticide-Contaminated Compost Improper and Stops Use

Washington, DC, June 21, 2016 – In a ruling that organic advocates say is critical to the integrity of the USDA organic label, a U.S. District Court judge found yesterday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) violated public process when it decreed that pesticide-contaminated compost is allowed in organic production. Three groups that bridge environmental, consumer, and farmer interests sued USDA for ruling that green waste compost, which comes from lawn clippings and plants, may contain levels of the insecticide bifenthrin and other pesticides that have not been approved for use in organic systems through proper public hearing and comment procedures.

The case focused principally on whether USDA, in failing to conduct a formal public review, was operating “at its whim.” The court found that is exactly what USDA did and ordered the agency to stop allowing the use of contaminated compost by August 22, 2016. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the Northern District of California found that USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) operated without the required notice and comment. She explained that “the reach of the Agency’s new rule stretches beyond bifenthrin and instead allows green waste or green waste compost used in organic production to contain any synthetic pesticide of which bifenthrin is just one example.” The plaintiffs in the case are Center for Environmental Health (CEH), Center for Food Safety (CFS), and Beyond Pesticides.

“The court decision upholds an organic industry that has been built on a foundation of consumer and farmer investment in ecologically sound practices, principles, and values to protect health and the environment,” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides. “USDA has violated a basic requirement of public accountability in the standard setting process, which is fundamental to public trust in the organic label and continued growth of the organic sector,” he added.

“The decision is a vital victory for organic integrity, on behalf of organic consumers, organic farmers, and the environment,” said senior CFS attorney George Kimbrell, counsel for the plaintiffs.

In 2009, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) found compost contaminated with the insecticide bifenthrin and stopped the use of three compost products.

Bifenthrin is a possible cancer causing agent, endocrine disruptor, and neurotoxic chemical. After the UDSA contamination allowance in 2010, the California prohibition was lifted.

The Organic Trade Association, California Certified Organic Farmers (a certifying agency), and Western Growers Association intervened in the case, claiming that a decision that vacates the contamination rule would cause “profound disruptions to the organic industry” and require an “astronomical. . .testing regime.” The judge responded with, “Amici’s testing argument makes no sense.” As the Judge points out, testing previous to the USDA allowance had been done “when there is reason to believe that the agricultural input or product has come into contact with a prohibited substance or has been produced using excluded methods.” Testing performed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (which tests for pesticide contamination to comply with Canadian organic certification) found that of the 13 tested composts, five had pesticide residues, according to court records. The Judge cited testimony that other compost was found during the prohibition of contaminated compost in California and the contamination is avoidable.

Advocates argue that when registering pesticides like bifenthrin, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must be required to protect against contamination of the green waste stream because of pesticides’ adverse environmental and public health effects, as well as the adverse economic impact that contamination may have on the now $40 billion organic industry.

"We applaud the court's decision to protect the integrity of the organic program," said Caroline Cox, Research Director of CEH. "We will continue to watchdog the USDA to insure that the program meets consumers' expectations for meaningful organic standards."


Ed Maltby
NODPA Executive Director
30 Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342

Petition against Organic Check-off: https://nofa.wufoo.com/forms/online-petition-organic-checkoff-program/

The other side to the organic check-off: www.noorganiccheckoff.com

Website: www.nodpa.com or www.organicmilk.org 

Please support NODPA's efforts! http://www.nodpa.com/donate.shtml

Find us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/pages/Organic-Dairy-Farmers/237021992104?ref=hl#