Why California Will Rescue Us All From GMOs

California Is Our Ticket Out of The GMO Mess

The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act needs 830,ooo signatures of registered voters by April 22nd to get on their the ballot in November. If they can pass this it will get rid of GMOs for all of us. California's economy is huge. (The 8th largest in the world.) If food companies have to change their labeling to include data that the packages they are selling contains GMOs it will end their ability to sell those brands in California. They know Californians will no longer buy them. This is why theses companies fight these bills and initiatives so hard.  It will be the beginning of the end of GMOs in the United States.

The Federal Government Can Not Be Depended On

 California is our best hope. The federal government has been bought and sold to Monsanto, Dow and the other big Ag companies.

Last week the USDA announced plans to speed up the approval process for more genetically modified crops - cutting in half the time it will take for Monsanto, Dow, and others to get their genetically modified crops to market. -This was despite the growing public outcry against GMOs -

Last year the public sent more than 250,000 comments asking the government to stop the commercialization of genetically modified alfalfa. The agency approved it anyway.

More recently, 850,000 US citizens had written to the FDA demanding the right to know if GMOs are in their food. Don't hold your breath for the FDA to listen to the overwhelming majority of Americans who want to know whether the food they are eating contains GMOs. They receive too much money from the big Ag companies to listen to us.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, in 2010 alone, Monsanto spent $8 million lobbying and more than $400,000 in political contributions. It also spent $120 million in advertising in the mass media, including National Public Radio, to convince consumers that GMO-tainted foods are safe – despite the overwhelming scientific evidence otherwise.

Now Monsanto and Big Food Inc. are cranking up their PR campaign again in California. Same old arguments, same old lies – this time, backed by even bigger bank accounts.

We will never be able to outspend monopolistic corporations with billions in profits at stake. (However, we can out-educate them. Send this blog post to everyone you know. Tell them to send it to everyone they know also.  Let's get this going viral!  I have attached additional GMO educational blog data below for them to learn more.)

The Good News

The good news is that we have Organic Consumers Association on our side. We will be able to raise enough money to collect 830,000 signatures, to get this Initiative on the ballot, and to run a strong counter-campaign. They (we) can win in California. Here's why OCA says they can get this passed.

● This time, we have far more scientific information and greater public awareness on our side. GE (genetically engineered) contamination is now a mainstream media issue. Monsanto has become the most hated corporation in the world.

● This time, we have overwhelming public support. Polls show that more than 8 out of 10 voters in California want mandatory GMO labeling.

● This time, we have built the strongest coalition of alternative food and health consumers in history, for the exclusive purpose of passing this law.

OCA has been campaigning on this issue for years. They are closer than ever to a win. But OCA needs all the help they can get to pull this off for all of us.  OCA needs to raise $150,000 more, as soon as possible. This money will be used to pay the signature gatherers, media consultants, attorneys and others whose expertise is necessary in order to win. 

Please go to this LINK to help win the fight against GMOs by making any size donation you can! 

Get your friends and family in California to help with the petition.

Educational Data on GMOs - Please take a look at the educational material below and make sure all your friends, family, co-workers, etc see these. Send these to everyone on your email list. Genetically engineered food is one of the most pressing problems of our generation.

• Why GMOs are a problem

• Great video by Jeffrey Smith available here on GMOs

• Websites to Get the Latest GMO Info

• GMOs, RoundUp and the creation of a new pathogen

• A fantastic video interview by Dr. Mercol of Dr. Huber discussing GMO's and RoundUp

• Monsanto Being Sued By Organic Farmers

• 19 Studies Link GMOs to Organ disruption

• A Fun GMO Rap Song

• Why GMO Alfalfa is a problem

Genetically Modified Food is dangerous. Let's get it off the market and out of our diet!

If you eat food that is not organic you are eating GMOs. It may be food you purchase, food a well meaning friend cooked or food from a restaurant. Why be concerned about GMOs (genetically modified organisms)? Well let’s look at the warning sent out by the American academy of environmental medicine last year to its physicians. 

They told their constituents to advise their patients to eat only non-GM (genetically modified) food.

They warned that the GMO animal feeding studies show reproductive problems, organ damage, gastrointestinal problems, immune system problems, and accelerated aging. You can see their position on GMO’s here at  http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html

Studies with animals have shown a 5-fold increase in infant mortality, smaller babies, sterile babies, and inability to have babies by third generation.

There is only one human feeding study currently published. GMO soy was used in this experiment. GMO soy is designed to not die when sprayed with round up spray. It is called round up ready soy. When the people in this study digested food made from GMO soy, the genes inserted in the soybeans they ate transferred into the DNA of the bacteria inside the human subjects. These human subjects now had round up ready gut bacteria. We don’t know if the round up ready soy DNA that transfers to our gut bacteria will they stay there forever or if it may even splice into our own DNA. We don’t know since the research has not been required to be done by the FDA.

GMO corn is designed to create a gene that produces an insecticide. What if the gene in the GMO corn also transfers to our gut bacteria like the soy DNA. It could splice into our gut bacteria and make insecticide in our gut. Worse, it may splice into our own DNA and cause us to make insecticide in other areas of our bodies. We don’t know, as it has never been studied in humans. However in animal studies they have found traces of GMO food DNA in tissues and blood.

The Obama administration said it would require labeling for GMO’s like other countries. However, that has still not happened. It does not help to ask the govt to do anything, as the food safety czar Obama put into place is Monsanto’s former attorney and vice president. (Monsanto leads in GMO patents and has publicly said they want to dominate the food market. They also flood the planet with toxic chemicals sold to farmers and are implicated in the massive farmer suicides in India.) They know if they label GMO foods that most people will not eat them. So Monsanto and the FDA simply don't label them and they ignore the fact that the public wants GMO food labeled as such.

We can stop GMO’s. There is currently a campaign under way to get rid of GMO’s in the United States. All we need is about 5% of shoppers to refuse to purchase GMO’s and they will get removed off the market. Grocers, suppliers and producers will see this 5% as a growing trend and they will realize GMOs are becoming a marketing liability. This happened when people learned of the cancer risk of dairy products that had growth hormone in them. Once 5% of the shoppers refused to purchase the products with growth hormone the sellers removed them from their shelves. We can do this with GMOs by refusing to purchase them also. Tell your grocer you want only non GMO corn, soy, canola oil, cotton oil etc in your food products. Tell them you are not purchasing anything with these items in them unless it states on the package it is organic or at least non GMO. Then follow through. We will see these items removed from our shelves if we get only 5% of us to do this. Be part of the 5%.

What we have to do is find out what is and is not GMO. One place to go is http://nongmoshoppingguide.com/

You can get this in an iPhone application and a pocket guide to help you avoid eating GMO’s when you are shopping.

Here is some quick information to help you:

Here is a list of the GMO foods you commonly find in supermarkets and when you go out to eat in a restaurant. I have listed the percent of each foods chance of being GMO when you purchase it.

Soy 91%, corn 85%, cotton 88% and canola 80-85% (Canada) are all genetically modified if not organic (they are considered the big 4- if it says one of these on the label and does not say organic, assume it is GMO. Of course this includes high fructose corn syrup, corn sweeteners. Maltodextrin, dextrose, soy lecithin, soy protein isolate etc.

As of 2008 sugar in USA is made from GMO sugar beets.

Some zucchini and crook neck squash are modified, most papayas from Hawaii, potatoes, tomatoes

Others: A cigarette called quest, milk from treated cows, aspartame, chymasin in hard cheeses (used in 80% of hard cheese in US).

All organic food is not allowed to contain GMO's.

One last scary thought for meat eaters that are not eating only organic meat. The animal you ate was raised on GM grains if it was fed grain. What happens when we eat that GM fed chicken or beef? 

It is worth noting that GMOs are bad for the planet but those details would make this blog into a book. Briefly I will say that they use hundreds of millions of pounds more herbicide, damage soil ecology, harm beneficial insects, pollute waterways and the water supply, and cross pollinate with wild relatives. Sadly, their self-propagating genetic pollution can persist in the environment permanently.

Where to get more info on GMOS

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/

I strongly suggest you check out this website of Jeffrey Smith. He is the author of "Seeds of Deception" and Genetic Roulette. Watch some of his video interviews. They are well worth the time. 

Another organization that is following and working to stop GMOs is
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm

Please forward this blog to others who wish to eat healthy food!