By radyananda
May 3, 2012
Stroller-pushing mothers delivered nearly a million signatures
in Sacramento on Wednesday, for an initiative to put to populist vote The California Right to Know
Genetically Engineered Food Act.
The ten-week signature drive collected nearly double the amount
needed to put the R2K Act on the November 6, 2012 ballot.
The state will take between five and seven weeks to validate the
signatures, and then certify the results. Of the 555,236 needed, thousands of
volunteers collected 971,126, just shy of the hoped-for million.
“In ten weeks, nearly a million registered voters signed the
ballot initiative,” said Pamm Larry, who single-handedly started the drive on
January 20, 2011. “Even biotech engineers gathered signatures for us.” Having
founded LabelGMOs.org, Larry then coordinated with
other pro-labeling civic groups across the state and nation.
Victory celebrations were held in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los
Angeles and San Diego today, reported CA Right to Know in a press
conference.
If voters approve the measure this fall, beginning July 1, 2014,
food makers will be required to label those products that contain genetically
modified ingredients.
Significantly,
the “natural” term can no longer be used if the product contains GMOs.
There are several exemptions, including GMO-fed and GMO-drugged
animals, as well as any raw ag product that was unintentionally contaminated
with GMOs. Suppliers and producers may be asked to provide a sworn statement that
as far as they know, the food is GE-free.
According to the Act, anyone relying on those sworn statements
is off the hook legally if the product turns out to have GMOs.
There is a requirement in the Act that grocery store bins or
shelves must also be GE-labeled if any unlabeled raw agricultural GE products
(like GE corn) are sold. But there’s no liability to the store owner if the
supplier provides a sworn statement that the food is GE-free when it’s not.
Given the biotech industry’s penchant for hyperbole (relating to
yield, cost and pesticide use), it’s no surprise to hear them declare the Act
will cause food prices to spike.
But, as one of the organizers says, “They have 18 months after
the election to change their labels, something that is frequently done in the
food industry.” Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Stonyfield which has
been organic-certified for 20 years, added, “All they have to do is add some
ink.”
Several large organizations opposing the measure have organized
behind Stop Costly Food Labeling
(SCFL),
including the Grocery Manufacturers Assn., the Council for Biotechnology
Information, the CA Farm Bureau Federation, and, you guessed it, the Chamber of
Commerce.
Another lie right out of their lying mouths is that the R2K Act
will require, “prohibiting processed foods from being labeled as natural, even
if they contain no GE ingredients.”
Not only that, but there’s still a whole lot of wiggle room for
GE-contaminated foods. See pages 4-6 for the list of exemptions, like this one:
“Until July 1, 2019, any
processed food that would be subject to section 110809 solely because it
includes one or more genetically engineered ingredients, provided that: (i) no
single such ingredient accounts for more than one-half of one percent of the
total weight of such processed food; and (ii) the processed food does not
contain more than ten such ingredients.” §110809.2(e)
This means that food can have up to 5% genetically modified
organisms by weight (and up to ten of the little buggers) and remain free of
the GE label. Looks like biotech scored big on that exemption. GE-free should
be GE-free.
FUNDRAISING TO COUNTER BIOTECH LIES
Both sides will engage in a media spectacle aimed at swaying
voters, using TV and print to promote their positions. If their April 26 press
release is any indication, the biotech sector of Big Ag and its supply chain
plans to drive a wedge between small operators and consumers who want to know
what’s in their food. “It’ll put you out of business!” screams the upcoming
headline.
Heaven forbid. Requiring food labels is akin to truth in advertising.
Big Pharma certainly hasn’t disappeared because they can’t keep nasty side
effects a secret.
Grocery stores have nothing to fear, despite the SCFL’s spin
that “right to know” means “right to sue.” Whining they’ll have to follow
what’s done in 40 other countries, adding a little ink to food labels in the
biggest agriculture state in the US won’t put anyone out of business.
We’re gonna be inundated with a barrage of lies to the point
we’ll stand in muted awe at the audacity. Kinda like the informed’s reaction
when Condi Rice objected to her “integrity” being impugned after she promoted
the wild WMDs lie.
But now is not the time for muted silence. And the media
campaign to support California’s initiative must be funded, nationally, says Dr. Mercola, who runs
the biggest natural, homeopathic website in the world.
He’s teamed up with several groups including Organic Consumers Assn. and Food
Democracy Now! to launch a major fundraising campaign for the
upcoming battle of words, explained OCA spokesperson, Katherine Paul, in an
email to Food Freedom. “But all
of the funds will be turned over to the CARighttoKnow campaign to use for media
consultants, advertising, and legal help,” she advised.
Mercola reports:
“Between May 1 and May 26, a broad coalition of food, farming, health groups, and organic food manufacturers, will attempt to raise one million dollars to defeat Monsanto propaganda and get the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act on the ballot for November 6, and passed into law. Money raised in this Million Dollar Money Bomb on Monsanto campaign will support the California Ballot Initiative and other state GE-labeling campaigns. If donations totaling $1 million is reached by May 26, a coalition of benefactors will MATCH it, bringing the Money Bomb to $2 million!”
According to the opposition, Mercola has already put up $800,000
of his own money. The busy man didn’t get back to me as to whether this is
actually true, but it smells right that he’d want to back his own horse.
“We can’t leave California to battle the biotech giants on their
own,” he says. “They need your help!
Donating funds to this campaign may be the
best money you’ll spend all year to safeguard your health, and the health of
your children.”
This is all great news… and no one doubts California’s R2K GE
Food Act will be on the ballot on November 6, 2012.
Which brings us to the ballot… cast on electronic voting systems
that studies funded by Secretary of State Debra Bowen proved are not secure
from hack. (See, e.g., here and here.) Other
studies by different states and universities and privately-hired tech firms
agreed, but Bowen and her Sec-State peers across the nation all bought those
expensive, hackable machines anyway.
Even so, since over 90% of US eaters want their food labeled,
the vote result is a foregone conclusion. And, what’s done in the biggest Ag
state in the union is sure to be followed in at least some of the 20-some states that allow an initiative process – a tool
used by citizens to adopt laws and constitutional amendments without the
support of the Governor or the Legislature.
Vermont, another state now undergoing an agricultural
renaissance, does not have this freedom, so the GMO-food label bill passed by
the legislature will not be enacted, as Governor Shumlin has advised he will
veto it. We reported on this in the last half of this news video on Monday.
“My youngest daughter’s face began to swell shut at breakfast one day ~ and I had no idea why. We were only eating waffles, scrambled eggs, and tubes of blue yogurt…so what was happening to her? Before my daughter had a violent allergic reaction that morning, I honestly hadn’t given a lot of thought to what I fed my kids. I mean, if it was on grocery store shelves, it was all the same, right? But since then, like so many moms, I learned that there are all kinds of new ingredients in our foods that weren’t in what we ate as kids. That’s why we need labels.”
Just Label It is working on the FDA
for a national directive requiring GMO-food labels, and sent their congrats to
California. They’re still collecting petition signatures
until May 13, and have produced this quick little video
by Robert Kenner, director of Food, Inc.
But California may beat FDA to the punch, and its Right to Know
Act will impact food labeling across the nation. This is the big one from which
the biotech-feds’ House of Secrecy begins to crumble. All those who
support GMO-food labeling are going to have to drop a bomb of money on them to
counter the war chest of the biotech industry.
"According to the Act, anyone relying on those sworn statements is off the hook legally if the product turns out to have GMOs."
ReplyDeleteHmmm much better if the bill imposes to organic and GMO products. They must label organic and GMO so people know which one to buy.