TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK
‘Scaring’ Up the Votes
As we reported on Tuesday (March 1, 2016), 14 of the 20 members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture confirmed that they work for Monsanto, not you, when they passed a bill (S. 2609) intended to will wipe out Vermont’s hard-won and rightfully passed GMO labeling law and permanently preserve Monsanto’s “right” to deceive consumers.
You can count on us to continue to oppose any federal law that doesn’t meet or exceed the standards set by Vermont’s mandatory labeling law, set to take effect July 1. Period.
But as has been the case for years now, Monsanto and friends, including the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) representing the worst of the worst junk food companies—Coca-Cola, Pepsi, General Mills, Nestle, Unilever, to name a few—are continuing their all-out assault on not only Vermont’s law, states’ rights and consumer rights—but on the truth.
While you’ve been calling your Senators asking them to vote with the 90 percent of Americans who want mandatory labeling laws, Monsanto and the GMA have been making robocalls all over the country, trying to scare up—literally—votes for Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) new DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act.
Monsanto robocallers are spreading old and new lies, including the one that requiring labels will add an extra $1,000 a year to your food bill. Not true, either theoretically or practically speaking, as Campbell’s Soup Co. has confirmed.
But the biggest lie of all, as we all know, is the lie that millions of acres of monoculture crops, sprayed in toxic Roundup or worse, pose no harm to your health or safety. This week, Roberts told Food Navigator: “It’s clear that what we’re facing today is not a safety or health issue. It is a market issue.”
We know otherwise. The list of threats posed by Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops and “commodity” foods is long, and growing every day. As we go to press today, a critical debate about the “safety” of glyphosate is taking place in Brussels. Some of the world’s leading scientists are outlining, point by point, why Monsanto’s glyphosate is making people sick.
And yet, your elected officials continue to side with Monsanto, not you.
In July, 275 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sold you down the river. This week, 14 Senators on the Senate Ag Committee said screw you, we’re voting for Monsanto. (You can find the list of Senate Ag Committee members here. All of the Republicans on this list voted against you, as did three Democrats: Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). Others, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) continue to look for a “compromise,” one that will delay or preempt Vermont’s law, and possibly call for QR codes, not labels.
Roberts’ bill could move to the Senate floor any day now. Senators looking to get enough votes to pass the bill, while still cow towing to Monsanto, will likely introduce amendments—all aimed at preempting Vermont’s law.
Text ‘Senator’ to 97779 to join OCA’s mobile network and take action!
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