Say No To GMO
| ********Action Alerts For This Campaign******** | ||
 | Get the GMOs out of Organic Baby Food! The National Organics Standards Board (NOSB) recommended that DHA and ARA oils be added to the Certified Organic list. As things stand now, the DHA and ARA oils are produced through genetic engineering, processed with volatile synthetic solvents, and microencapsulated—three things that are expressly banned from USDA Organic! Please contact the National Organics Program immediately and ask them to reject the NOSB’s recommendation on DHA and ARA. GMO and synthetic chemical solvents have no place in organic food, much less baby food, and should be banned immediately, not allowed to remain while the rulemaking process lumbers on. Tell Congress We Have a Right to Know What’s In Our Food! Rep. Dennis Kucinich has introduced two bills that would that would mandate labeling and stricter safety protections for GE products. Legislation like Rep. Kucinich’s is desperately needed as GMO infiltrates more and more products—even some that are Certified Organic. Please tell Congress and President Obama that we don’t want genetically engineered products, and we demand to know when GMOs are in our food! Tell USDA to Stop Supporting Monsanto on GE Corn! The USDA has released an Environmental Assessment report for corn that Monsanto has genetically engineered to be drought-tolerant. The agency is considering either keeping the corn under regulation, or assigning it nonregulated status (banning it altogether is off the table). The comment period is open until July 11. Tell USDA to Stop Supporting Syngenta on GE Cotton! The USDA has released an Environmental Assessment report for cotton, which Syngenta Biotechnology has genetically engineered to be pest-resistant. USDA believes the cotton is “unlikely to pose a plant pest risk.” Tell the USDA that the cotton must not be deregulated—that without strict controls, GE crops will encroach on non-GE crops, contaminating them, including organic crops—which will, of course, render them non-organic. Ask APHIS to Shelve Its New Deregulation Program Currently, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) prepares an Environmental Assessment (EA) or an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to show what impact a GE food or organism might have on the environment, to help determine whether it should be regulated or not. But now, under APHIS’ new pilot program, the petitioner will submit the environmental documents and analysis themselves. And instead of APHIS taking the analysis and developing an EA or EIS, an outside contractor will prepare the EIS—but the petitioner will provide the funds for it. This is another outrageous conflict of interest: petitioners will be providing the funds to support their own studies to determine the outcome of their own case. Tell USDA that this new program is unconscionable, and ask them to shelve it immediately. The USDA has reviewed Monsanto’s brand of Roundup Ready alfalfa and sugarbeets—genetically engineered to withstand the harsh herbicide glyphosphate, a.k.a. Roundup—and decided that genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa did not need to be regulated at all, and that sugarbeets will be “partially deregulated”. We need to blanket Congress with protests, asking senators and representatives and oversight committees to review the deregulation decision. Tell the FDA’s Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee to bar the sale of AquAdvantage salmon because of both the documented and the unknown health risks associated with genetically modified organisms. To allow genetically modified (GM) salmon, which contains antifreeze genes from the ocean pout–an eel-like creature from an entirely different family of marine organisms–to be sold for food to American consumers is nothing short of outrageous. Because scientific studies on the salmon have not been released, no one can review them to see if any of these burdens have been met. How can AquaBounty Technologies possibly prove that this new gene-spliced salmon is completely safe for human consumption over the long term, if there haven’t been carefully constructed double-blind studies of these fish being consumed over many years? Demand that the FDA, if it approves the application for AquAdvantage salmon, ensure that all such fish are clearly labeled as genetically modified at the point of sale. We strongly urge your Agency to deny the approval of this salmon, and feel even more strongly that any genetically modified fish must be clearly labeled as such. Consumers should be allowed to make informed decisions, if you do not label a product as having been genetically modified, you are in effect preventing the public from choosing non-GMO foods. Tell Decision-makers: Keep Monsanto Away from Our Produce! You may have heard that the USDA awarded a hefty research grant to AquaBounty, the “Frankenfish” creator. But there is more to the story…. | |
| Read More About GMO: | ||
| Breaking News—California May Require Labeling of GE Food Products! | ||
 | October 4, 2011 An exciting new ballot initiative, if California voters approve, could turn the tide against genetically engineered foods in America. | |
| Whose Side Is the USDA Really On? | ||
 | September 20, 2011 It’s supposed to help organic farmers. But it’s more likely to be just another sneaky way to help Monsanto. New Action Alert! | |
| Organic Versus Genetically Engineered Crops: Some Rays of Light | ||
 | August 30, 2011 Recent court decisions may help. Plus, new research shows how dangerous Monsanto’s GMOs really are. | |
| The Wheels Come Off the Bus on Genetically Engineered Crops! | ||
 | July 26, 2011 Despite a lack of independent safety testing, the government has seen fit to declare there will be no oversight of a genetically engineered grass. Is this the beginning of a GE avalanche? | |
| Monsanto Gets a Smackdown, Orexigen Nixes Its Diet Pill—but Frankenfish Labeling Bill Flops in California | ||
 | June 7, 2011 We have updates on three big action items we’ve covered in these pages—two wins, one loss. | |
| Support Your States’ Bills on Genetically Engineered Foods | ||
 | March 23, 2011 With the federal government showing nothing but love for all things genetically engineered, some states have introduced legislation to inform and protect their citizens from GE products. | |
| Now USDA Has Deregulated Genetically Engineered Bio-Fuel Corn! | ||
 | February 15, 2011 This threat to edible corn comes on top of GE alfalfa (a major, major threat to organic agriculture) and GE sugarbeets. Please take action on this vital issue. | |
| USDA Says Yes to Genetically Engineered Sugarbeets—Kiss “Organic” Goodbye! | ||
 | February 8, 2011 The US Department of Agriculture last Friday gave farmers the go-ahead to resume planting Roundup Ready sugarbeets—claiming it’s the only way to avoid a nationwide shortage of sugar! | |
| USDA Completely Deregulates Genetically Engineered Alfalfa—It is Time to Demand Congressional Hearings! (Action Alert) | ||
 | February 1, 2011 Let’s really put the pressure on! Let the USDA and your senators and representative know there’s a steep political price for this decision, which if left unchanged, will have devastating consequences for organic agriculture. | |
| GE Alfalfa’s Devastating Environmental Impact Statement—and USDA Still Wants to Deregulate! | ||
 | January 11, 2011 The USDA is ready to deregulate GE alfalfa, even though the EIS raises grave concerns. There’s still time to stop it—if we act quickly! | |
| Comparing Apples and Oranges? It’s Easy When They’re Both Genetically Engineered | ||
 | December 14, 2010 Will we soon wake up to GMO orange juice? Plus more on apples, sugar beets, court decisions, and Hillary Clinton’s attempt to push GMO on Africa. | |
| Genetically Engineered Foods – New Action Alert! | ||
 | November 9, 2010 The FDA lied by omission about GE salmon, and Monsanto is attempting an end-run around USDA rules for GE beets. The stock market seems to be telling the true story. | |
| A Small Frankenfish Win | ||
 | September 28, 2010 The FDA seems to be on the wrong track—but last week’s hearings proved to be a small win for the anti-GMO side. | |
| Privacy and Federal Scofflaws | ||
 | September 14, 2010 This week we have a duo of news briefs that update previous Pulse of Natural Health stories: your private medical records may be at greater risk than ever—and a new GMO lawsuit against the USDA. | |
| Breaking News: Supreme Court Kicks Critical Genetically Modified Alfalfa Issue Down The Road | ||
 | June 22, 2010 A high-profile legal battle over genetically modified crops continues. The US Supreme Court in a 7-1 decision yesterday (June 21) did not accept a lower court’s total nationwide ban on GM alfalfa. But it did agree that the seeds could be dangerous and did not allow Monsanto to proceed with selling them. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) must now complete a study examining whether the seeds will harm the environment before approving them for restricted planting, a process that could go into next year, and which could lead to more litigation. | |
| Genetically Modified Foods: More Reason to Avoid Them; Why They Threaten Organic Agriculture | ||
 | May 11, 2010 Last week the New York Times wrote about an upcoming report from The President’s Cancer Panel. The paper was “astonish[ed] to learn that [the panel] is poised to join ranks with the organic food movement and declare: [these] chemicals threaten our bodies.” | |
| Just say “No” to GMOs! | ||
 | March 9, 2010 In recent articles, we’ve touched on the subject of genetically modified organisms (GMOs): their potential to contaminate organic crops, the hugecorncomplete failure to test their safety for your health or the environment, and the failure of labels to alert shoppers to the presence of GMOs in foods they’re considering buying. We now have some updates. Read More>> | |
| Why Genetically Engineered Crops Threaten Your Health | ||
| December 22, 2009 If you listen to political talk-radio, you may have been puzzled by recent ads about seeds. Why would anyone be concerned about access to seeds? Because approximately 82 percent of the global seed supply is patented and owned by a handful of big corporations. Just six companies — DuPont, Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, BASF and Dow — control about 75 percent of the global agro-chemical market . | ||
| GMO a Big NO on National Wildlife Refuge Land | ||
| October 30, 2009 Genetically modified organisms, or GMO foods, are on grocery store shelves already. They are present in nearly 80% of processed foods that contain crops such as corn and soy and their byproducts. The long-term effects on human health and the environment from these non-natural products are unknown. A federal survey has revealed that most Americans want these foods labeled in order to make an informed decision about what they and their families eat each day. | ||
| Genetically Altered Animals and Foods—AAHF Looks at the Issues | ||
| February 17, 2009 On February 6, the FDA made history by approving the first drug made with materials from genetically engineered (GE) goats. One of the most distressing concerns is that the FDA will not require all products from genetically engineered foods and animals to be so labeled. | ||
| Approving Foods from Genetically Engineered Animals, the FDA Promises a New, Open Process | ||
| January 27, 2009 Foods and drugs from genetically engineered animals are back in the news with the FDA’s announcement of a new, open process for their approval. However, the FDA does not require genetically engineered food to be so labeled, nor has there been any study of the potential environmental impact of genetically engineered animals. | ||
| The Non-GMO Project Product Verification Program is Up and Running | ||
| January 13, 2009 The governments of the US and Canada stand in sharp contrast to sixty other countries around the world, including the European Union, Russia, and China, by not requiring foods that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to be so labeled. They do so despite good evidence that GMOs could have negative health implications for humans and the environment, and despite the fact that 87% of American consumers want products that contain GMO ingredients to be labeled. | ||
| The FDA Considers Proposals to Sell Genetically Engineered Animals as Food | ||
| September 30, 2008 In a move that is expected to have a direct impact on your dinner table, the FDA has released proposed guidelines on how to regulate genetically engineered animals. With millions of cases of food-borne illness each year in the U.S., and troubling issues of food labeling and GMO (genetically modified organisms) animals in the food chain, food safety remains a huge concern for the public. | ||
