No stopping GMO labeling

Read PDF | Subscribe & Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Donate    GMO LABELING LAWS UPDATE No Stoppin’ this Train While the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) continues its search for lawmakers willing to help launch the lobbying group’s Billto Kill state GMO labeling laws, states are charging ahead with laws and initiatives to label and ban GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The latest state to introduce a GMO Labeling bill is California. Undaunted by the narrow loss in 2012 of Proposition 37, a state ballot initiative that would have required mandatory labeling of GMOs, pro-labeling activists took their campaign to the state legislature. On February 21, California State Senator Noreen Evans (D - Santa Rosa) introduced SB 1381. The bill already has support from Californians for GE Food Labeling, a broad-based coalition of 17 environmental, consumer (including the OCA), food groups and small businesses representing over 500,000 Californians. Meanwhile in Maui, citizen-activists launched a petition on February 24, asking that voters be allowed to float a “temporary moratorium initiative” in the November 2014 election. The initiative calls for suspending production of GMO crops on the Hawaiian island until further environmental and public health studies have been completed. Their concerns? Groundwater contaminated by pesticides and the rising number of birth defects on the island. The group has until March 31 to submit 8,500 registered voters’ signatures More on California More on Hawaii More on state laws and initiatives