Moms take on the GMA

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob398.html

Subscribe & Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Donate    Moms Fight Back against GMA Money Laundering You know what they say. You can’t fool mom. When a group of pro-labeling moms in Washington D.C. figured out that the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) was breaking the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws, they did something about it. They formed a grassroots group, Moms for Labeling, and they sued the GMA. Their complaint? The GMA is concealing the identities of out-of-state corporations, namely Big Food companies, which are funneling donations to the NO on I-522 campaign through the multi-billion dollar Washington D.C.-based lobbying group. The Moms had a whistleblower lined up to testify. But then the judge dismissed their case, on a technicality. You’d think that would have been enough to make the GMA happy, but no. The lobbying giant went after the Moms with a countersuit, prompting a judge to slapthe Moms with a $10,000 fine, under a law that is supposed to protect citizens from frivolous suits by big companies. End of story? Not yet. In dismissing the suit, the judge ruled that under the circumstances, only the state attorney general now has the authority to sue the GMA for violating Washington’s Public Disclosure Act. The NO on I-522 campaign has so far raised $17.1 million to blanket the airwaves with lies, as it tries to scare voters into voting against the I-522 GMO labeling initiative. The GMA, which represents over 300 corporations including Kraft, Kellogg’s, Monsanto, Dupont, Starbucks, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, ConAgra and General Mills, has kicked in $7.2 million so far – $5 million more than the lobbying group spent last year in California, to defeat a similar GMO labeling initiative. Who’s missing from the NO on I-522 donor roster this year? The junk food giants whospent millions last year, but this year, are hiding their donations from public view. Let’s pick up where the Moms for Labeling left off, by insisting that Washington’s attorney general force the GMA to comply with the state’s campaign disclosure laws. TAKE ACTION: Tell Washington State’s Attorney General: Investigate the GMA’s Money Laundering Scheme, Don’t Punish Moms! OCA IN ACTION OCA Presents Monsanto Minions Awards, Stages Anti-Lobbying Protest Today’s the day. The OCA, with our friends at Occupy Monsanto, will deliver the first annual Monsanto Minions Awards. But that’s only half the story. Remember Abbie Hoffman’s famous 1967 New York Stock Exchange theatrical protest? Where Hoffman and the Yippies threw cash out on the trading floor, prompting a Wall Street-style dash for cash? Today, (October 10, 2013), our pro-GMO labeling, anti-Monsanto activists, posing as biotech and big food industry lobbyists, will stage a similar protest. They’ll dump briefcases of cash onto the X-ray machines at the entrances to the Congressional office buildings, where lobbyists are waiting to go through the metal detectors. We’re hoping the real corporate lobbyists will lunge for the fluttering bills, causing enough of a ruckus to shut down the entrance. Lobbyists scurrying to grab dollar bills? It’s the perfect metaphor for what’s happening right now on Capitol Hill. Despite the government shutdown, lobbyists are meeting with the Congresspersons they supported financially during the elections in the hopes of convincing them - with cold hard cash, no doubt -  to create or protect federal laws designed to feather their own nests. As for the Monsanto Minions Awards, according to your votes, we’re crowning Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) as your favorite Monsanto Minion.  You can see the rest of the results here. Thanks for voting, and let’s keep up the pressure on our favorite minions! Read the press release More on the Monsanto Minions Award