From the latest Organic Consumers Association newsletter

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob361.htm

Follow OCA: Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest   View PDF | Subscribe & Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Donate  ESSAY OF THE WEEK GMO Food Fight: Round Two 2013 "This gives us hope that you can, with a well-funded, well-organized, well-executed campaign, defeat a ballot initiative and go directly to the voters. We hope we don’t have too many of them, because you can’t keep doing that over and over again . . .". - Jennifer Hatcher, Food Marketing Institute, on Big Food and Big Biotech’s narrow defeat of Prop 37, the California Right to Know GMO ballot initiative. Big Food and Big Biotech can hope all they want. But consumers can – and will – propose state laws and state ballot initiatives as often as we need, in as many states as we must, until we have what 61 other countries have: truth and transparency in the form of mandatory GMO labeling laws. Today, activists in Washington State are delivering approximately 350,000 signatures to the state legislature to guarantee that a mandatory GMO labeling Initiative, I-522, will be on the ballot in November. Initial polling shows that Washington state voters will likely pass this Ballot Initiative, no matter how much money the biotech industry and large food corporations put into an anti-labeling campaign. Vermont legislatures will reintroduce a GMO labeling bill early this year and Connecticut plans to introduce one in May. And that’s just the beginning. Read Ronnie’s latest essay   GMO Salmon Would Be Approved as ‘New Animal Drug’ TAKE ACTION: Tell the FDA: No Frankenfish! Do you really want a mutant, likely allergenic salmon on your dinner plate that was approved by the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine as a "new animal drug"? Last week the FDA cleared the way for approval of the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption - a GMO salmon gene-spliced with an eel - despite mounting concerns that it's likely hazardous for humans and poses a threat to the wild salmon population. Scary enough. But get this. The FDA considers any genetically altered animal a “new animal drug” for approval purposes. That means the genetically modified animal – in this case a salmon intended as food for humans – is subjected to a less rigorous safety review than if it were classified as a food (for humans) additive. Shameless. And there are plenty of other reasons to stop this dangerous experiment. The FDA’s own testing revealed that “Frankenfish” causes increased allergy risk in humans. “Frankenfish” grows twice as large, twice as fast as the average wild salmon. If it escapes into the wild, it could threaten the entire wild salmon population. And, of course, there are no laws in the U.S. requiring “Frankenfish” to be labeled. TAKE ACTION: Tell the FDA: NO FRANKENFISH! Learn more here Read the FDA’s Environmental Assessment