Monsanto’s Dream Bill to Keep Americans in the DARK
Tell U.S. Senate to Vote NO on H.R. 1599
H.R. 1599 would prohibit state efforts to require labeling of genetically engineered foods (also referred to as GMOs or made with genetically modified organisms or “bioengineered organisms”). Sign the FAX petition and CALL your U.S. Senators.
Update 10/14/15: View Latest Action Alert
See the House Roll Call on the vote in July
GE (genetically engineered) or GM (genetically modified) seeds, feeds, foods, etc. contain, or were created using, genetically modified organisms (GMO). Currently, neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nor the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) require labeling of GMOs; so, whether derived from GMOs or containing ingredients derived from GMOs, the public is left uninformed about many products currently on the market. Sign the FAX petition and CALL your U.S. legislators.
Food Justice Rally for GMO Labeling Events in Washington DC
It’s time to come to D.C. to take our country back!
Can you join Food Democracy Now! and our allies Organic Consumers Association, March Against Monsanto and the Truth in Labeling Coalition in D.C. on Friday October 16th and Saturday October 17th for a #FoodJustice Rally planned in coordination with March Against Monsanto and other groups?
Friday, Oct. 16 – 3 p.m. to Dusk: Join the narrated march that will begin and end at Lafayette Park on the Pennsylvania Ave. side of the White House. Stops along the way will include the White House to deliver a petition asking President Obama to pledge to veto the DARK Act, H.R. 1599, the bill that would take away states’ rights to label GMOs. Bring flashlights to shine a light on the DARK Act.
Saturday, Oct. 17 – noon to 1:30 p.m.: Stop the DARK Act rally and potluck picnic on the West Lawn of the Capitol. Speakers will include OCA international director Ronnie Cummins, author Steven Druker who wrote Altered Genes, Twisted Truth, Dr. Edward Group of the Global Healing Center, and Anthony Gucciardi of the Natural Society.
LATEST ACTION ALERT – 10/15/2015
ACTION ALERT
Tell Congress to Reject H.R. 1599Senate Committee to hear bill to ban GMO labels
The U.S. Senate has scheduled a hearing next week on Monsanto’s and Big Food’s dream bill to crush the right of states to require labeling of foods containing GMO ingredients.
The House has already passed this dangerous bill, so we must stop it in the Senate! H.R. 1599, the so-called “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015,” has been dubbed the “Deny American the Right to Know” or DARK Act by grassroots organizations, because it would:
• Overturn state laws that require the labeling of genetically engineered or GMO foods, such as Vermont’s law that is supposed to go into effect next year;
• Enshrine FDA’s failed policy of voluntary labeling – under which not a single company has labeled GMO foods in the last 14 years;
• Allow food companies to continue to make misleading “natural” claims for foods that contain GMO ingredients;
• Create a federal government bureaucracy for non-GMO labeling, usurping the private system that’s already working well (the non-GMO Project); and
• Pre-empt state and local regulation of the planting of GMO crops (although the exact scope of the pre-emption is unclear).
H.R. 1599 will allow big corporations that make and use GMOs to continue to hide them from consumers, keeping Americans in the dark about what is in their food. It also means an end to all local or state efforts to protect non-GMO farmers from contamination, damaging family farmers and posing a serious threat to a valuable segment of our agriculture.
Will you help us stop this industry attack on states’ and individuals’ rights?
Please pass this alert on and ask others to do the same.
Share link www.bit.ly/FTC-GMO
Use the online fax petition to urge both of your U.S. Senators to oppose H.R. 1599 or any bill that pre-empts state laws for labeling GMOs.
Even if you already used this petition to contact your legislators, you may use it again. Please be courteous as this helps to build good relations with Congress; see the sample email below.
Once you’ve submitted your message, you’ll be shown the names of your U.S. Senators so you can follow up with phone calls and emails.
ACTION #2 – CALL YOUR U.S. SENATORS
Call or email both of your U.S. Senators to urge them to oppose H.R. 1599 or any bill that pre-empts state laws for labeling GMOs.
To find your Senators’ contact information:
• Online: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
• Phone: Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
You can find more talking points in our sample letter below.
Download the H.R. 1599 fact sheet [2-page PDF]to send as an attachment to your email, or as a follow up to your call.
Remember to be polite as that helps to build good relationships with Congress.
A phone call is more effective than an email. If you do send an email, please be sure to add a couple of personal sentences in the beginning so that it’s not just a form message. Here’s a sample script for a call:
- My name is ___, I am a constituent, and I am calling to urge Senator ____ to vote NO on H.R. 1599 or any other bill that blocks mandatory GMO labels by the states. It is very important to my family and me to know whether our food is genetically engineered. Based on the last 14 years of inaction, it’s clear that the large food manufacturers will not do so voluntarily. I also object to the bill’s pre-emption of local regulation of GMOs, and the creation of a new federal bureaucracy for non-GMO labeling.
I urge my Senator to vote no on H.R. 1599 and any bill like it.
You may also use this sample message to craft your comments to add to the FAX petition message.
- Subject: Oppose HR 1599 and protect states’ and individuals’ rights
As a constituent, I urge you to reject H.R. 1599, the so-called “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act,” which would prohibit states from requiring the labeling of genetically engineered foods, or GMOs.
We have a right to know what is in our food so that we can make educated decisions about the food we eat. This bill does not meet the concerns of Americans about what’s in their food. What it really does is deny states the right to pass meaningful mandatory GMO food labeling bills.
The free market can only work when consumers have the information they need to make informed choices among different products. It is absurd to claim that voluntary labeling addresses the issue. In the 14 years that FDA has allowed companies to voluntarily label genetically engineered foods, not one single company has done so. Without mandatory labeling, consumers are effectively being defrauded.
The bill goes even further by forbidding state and local governments from any sort of oversight of GMO crops, even when the federal government has declined or failed to regulate them. Yet these local controls have been adopted in areas based on overwhelming public support, and in order to protect very valuable non-GMO agricultural industries. It is undemocratic and bad for our economy to overturn these local laws.
Please stand up for states’ and consumers’ rights and vote NO on H.R. 1599 or any bill that would pre-empt state laws on GMO labeling.
Sincerely,
[Name]
[City, State]
Last Updated – 10/15/15
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