Organic Bytes: Get Your Natural Food Store into the Campaign to Label GMOs!

 

SUBSCRIBE & Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Get Your Natural Food Store into the Campaign to Label GMOs! #295, September 22, 2011 In this issue: Quote of the Week: The FDA Knew GMOs Cause Unexpected Toxins, Carcinogens & Allergens Alerts of the Week: Get Your Local Market into the Campaign for GMO Labels! New Events on the Millions Against Monsanto World Food Day Map! New Millions Against Monsanto Organizing Hub on Facebook! Right2Know March Events During 313 Mile Walk to White House Via Organica Joins Moving Planet September 24! Planting Peace! Create Local and Sustainable Food Systems! Film of the Week: Boulder Residents Mobilize Against GM Crops Little Bytes Quote of the Week FDA Knew: Genetically Modified Foods Produce Unexpected Toxins, Carcinogens & Allergens "...in 1992 the Food and Drug Administration released its policy on genetically modified organisms, claiming that "the agency is not aware of any information showing that [GMO] foods...differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way. "The government's green light fueled the rapid spread of GMOs and monopolies - so now most US corn and soybeans are GMO, with genes patented largely by one company: Monsanto. The FDA position helped make GMOs' spread so invisible that most Americans still don't believe they've ever eaten them - even though the grocery industry says they could be in 75 percent of processed food. "Even fewer Americans are aware that in 1999 attorney Steven Druker reported that in 40,000 pages of FDA files secured via a lawsuit, he found 'memorandum after memorandum contain[ing] warnings about the unique hazards of genetically engineered food,' including the possibility that they could contain 'unexpected toxins, carcinogens or allergens.' "Yet at the same time, public education campaigns have succeeded in confining almost 80 percent of GMO planting to just three countries: the United States, Brazil and Argentina. In more than two dozen countries and in the European Union they've helped pass mandatory GMO labeling. Even China requires it." - "The Food Movement: Its Power and Possibilities," by Frances Moore Lappé, The Nation, September 14, 2011 Support the OCA Stop Monsanto and Move the Organic Revolution Forward For 13 years, OCA has been "growing the revolution" - fighting against genetically engineered foods, preserving strict organic standards, expanding the organic market, and spreading the good news that organic agriculture can sustainably feed the world while reversing global warming. The time is right to step up our efforts and move the Organic Revolution forward, but OCA needs your financial support to do so. Please donate Alerts of the Week Involve Your Food Market in the Campaign for GMO Labels! Do you have plans yet for World Food Day? How about helping the national campaign for GMO labels reach 1,000,000 signatures on the Millions Against Monsanto petition by taking a clipboard to the market where you buy organic and non-GMO food? Organic farms, farmers markets, natural food stores, coops and restaurants that sell organic food are natural allies. Ask the manager if you can set up a folding table and collect Truth-in-Labeling petition signatures. See if they will take petitions and make them available to all of their customers. Here's a flyer you can take to your local market to ask for their permission to collect petition signatures on October 16, 2011 (PDF) OCA's GMO labeling petition (PDF) ALERTS OF THE WEEK New Events on the Millions Against Monsanto World Food Day Map! This World Food Day, October 16, 2011, is going to be the biggest single day of action for labels on genetically engineered food in U.S. history. New events are being posted to the Millions Against Monsanto map on a daily basis. Zoom in to see what's happening in your town Many of the Millions Against Monsanto events are of national importance. In Pleasanton, CA, activists are rallying at Safeway headquarters. Like most supermarkets, most of the food sold in Safeway contains unlabeled genetically engineered ingredients. Act in solidarity with the Pleasanton rally by sending a letter to Safeway, letting them know that 9-out-of-10 shoppers want genetically engineered foods labeled. Another way to participate no matter where you are by posting a photo of yourself with your wittiest anti-GMO slogan in the Virtual Rally for the Right to Know About GMOs on Flickr. ALERTS OF THE WEEK New Millions Against Monsanto World Food Day Organizing Hub on Facebook Checked the map and couldn't find an event where you live? Start one up! Trish Wright, organizer of the March 2011 Rallies for the Right to Know, has created a new Millions Against Monsanto World Food Day organizing hub on Facebook. Trish is there to help you get started, answer your questions, connect you with fellow Millions Against Monsanto activists locally and spread the word about your event. If you don't use Facebook, contact trish [at] millionsagainst@gmail.com. ALERTS OF THE WEEK Right2Know March Events During 313 Mile Walk to White House In two weeks, a diverse coalition of organizations, businesses and individuals will begin to march from the Historic Flatbush Food Co-op in Brooklyn, NY to the gates of the White House to ask the Obama Administration to support labeling of genetically engineered foods. The GMO Right2Know March will feature daily events between New York and Washington, DC October 1-16 as hundreds of marchers are expected to walk part or all of the 313 miles to the White House. The route and details on daily events can be viewed here. ALERTS OF THE WEEK Via Organica Joins Moving Planet September 24! OCA and Vía Orgánica Join with Moving Planet and 350.org for a Global Day of Action on Climate Change On September 24th , the international organization 350.org, with the support of Moving Planet, has called for a Global Action Day to demand solutions to Climate Change (go here for more information). 350 parts per million refers to the amount of atmospheric CO2 that scientists identify as the goal for stabilizing climate change. The current number is over 375ppm. OCA's sister organization in Mexico, Vía Orgánica, joined by Greenpeace and climate action groups across Mexico, is organizing a walk and bike excursion in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, to highlight our demand for green transportation and food production. Via Organica and activists will bike to the organic farmers market and then visit an organic farm, underlining the fact that our food, farming, and transportation systems have huge impact on our health, the planet, and climate change. Transportation based on fossil fuels impels climate change; food production based on petroleum-based chemicals aggravates the situation with water pollution, soil salinization, and biodiversity lost through mono-cropping. And of course organic food and farming, along with sustainable transportation are two key ways we can drastically reduce fossil fuel use, while naturally sequestering excess CO2 in the living soil. For more information: www.350.org and look for the event in San Miguel de Allende, Facebook page PLANETA EN MOVIMIENTO/MOVING PLANET event. Or write to: info (at) viaorganica.org ALERTS OF THE WEEK Planting Peace! Create Local and Sustainable Food Systems! Thousands are taking the pledge to stop the machine and create a new world: "I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day or the days immediately following, for as long as I can, with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine by occupying Freedom Plaza to demand that America's resources be invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning." One of the 15 core goals of the October 2011 Movement is to create systems that protect the land and water, including local and sustainable food networks and practices. Our allies in the peace movement recognize that food justice and sustainable agriculture are key to creating peace. If you agree that war and corporate power are obstacles to just and sustainable food systems, lend your support to the October 2011 Movement. Film of the Week Boulder Residents Mobilize Against GM Crops Need some inspiration for Millions Against Monsanto events in your town? Check out what Boulder, CO, did on September 6. They rallied to oppose a proposal that would allow genetically modified (GM) sugar beets to be grown on public land. Residents, farmers, retailers and manufacturers gathered in protest against a proposition before county commissioners to allow the planting of GM sugar beets on public land. While GM corn and soybeans are already being planted on this land, demonstrators hope a ban on sugar beets would eventually lead to a ban on all GM crops. The county commission will vote on the proposition this November. Watch the full video coverage. Little Bytes The New Agtivist: Lisa Gross is Covering the City with Trees Read Resisting the Corporate Theft of Seeds by Vandana Shiva Read Maria Rodale: Why We Should Label Genetically Engineered Food Read Monsanto and the Mortal Danger to Traditional Agriculture Read The President and Seed: Obama Needs to Stand Up to Corporate Power Read Sponsored Message Join the OCA-Endorsed National Buying Club for Organic and Non-GMO Foods: The Green Polka Dot Box OCA is happy to announce the formation of a new national distribution service for home delivery of organic and non-GMO foods, at 30-50% below the cost of retail, with free shipping on orders of $150 or more. The new national distribution club is called the Green Polka Dot Box (GPDB). Click here Connect With OCA! Facebook Pages: organicconsumers millionsagainst comingclean Twitter Feeds: @organicconsumer @againstmonsanto @OCA_comingclean More: rss feed youtube channel Please forward this publication to family and friends, place it on web sites, print it, duplicate it and post it freely. Knowledge is power! Organic Bytes is a publication of Organic Consumers Association 6771 South Silver Hill Drive - Finland, MN 55603 - Phone: 218-226-4164 - Fax: 218-353-7652   Subscribe & Read past issues and print- friendly PDF versions of Organic Bytes