[Sustain] Fwd: Alert: Petition Obama for MEANINGFUL GMO labeling

[Eric Brooks]

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Action Alert - Petition to Obama for MEANINGFUL GMO labeling*

    President Obama promised that genetically modified foods will
    require labels. Please sign the petition
    <http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=gmfree,5277>
    demanding comprehensive and meaningful GMO labeling; and thank him
    for giving us what we want, /and deserve/.

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President Obama is finally going to get genetically modified (GM) foods 
labeled—something 270 million Americans have wanted for a long time. The 
Bush, Clinton, and Bush I administrations denied it to us, ignoring 9 
out of 10 citizens in order to support the economic interests of the 5 
Ag biotech companies that make GMOs.

Former FDA man Henry Miller admitted, “In this area, the US government 
agencies have done exactly what big agribusiness has asked them to do 
and told them to do.”

Why don’t the biotech companies want us to know that their products are 
in our food? Because we wouldn’t eat them. According to a /CBS/New York 
Times/ poll, most of us (53%) would avoid brands with genetically 
modified organisms (GMOs).

*Close labeling loopholes*

Outside the US and Canada, nearly all industrialized countries require 
GMOs to be labeled. But clear, comprehensive, and consumer-friendly 
criteria remain elusive.

Japan’s laws allow food with a whopping 5% GMO contamination to go 
unlabeled. In Australia and New Zealand, loopholes exempt about 90% of 
their GM foods from labeling. Their law says that GM ingredients must be 
detectable in the final processed food in order to require labels. Thus, 
oil made from 100% GM soybeans, corn, cottonseed or canola (the four 
major GM crops) is unlabeled.

These loose labeling regimes have consistently angered citizens and 
there is momentum for tightening standards. In the EU, for example, they 
used to exempt undetectable GMOs but now insist on labels if any 
ingredient is /DERIVED BY/ GMOs. Thus, they require traceability of 
ingredients to their GMO or Non-GMO origins.

The EU has another loophole that upsets citizens there (which we must 
avoid here in the US). Milk, meat, and eggs from animals /fed/ GMOs 
don’t have to be labeled. Many groups are working hard to change this EU 
law. In the meantime several European food companies publicly committed 
not to use GMO animal feed.

In the US, corporations have traditionally had the upper hand when it 
comes to negotiating details of regulations. We don’t want that to 
happen with labeling.

President Obama is going to give us labeling—he promised us that. But 
will it be the citizens’ labeling plan or Monsanto’s?

Sign the petition 
<http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=gmfree,5277> 
today demanding comprehensive and meaningful GMO labeling, and thank 
President Obama for giving us what we want, /and deserve/.

But don’t wait for labeling to avoid GMOs. Download our Non-GMO Shopping 
Guide 
<http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showDocumentFile?objectID=144>, 
which gives tips and brands to help you choose healthier non-GMO food.

Healthy Eating!

Jeffrey M.Smith
Executive Director
www.responsibletechnology.org <http://www.responsibletechnology.org/>
Author, /Genetic Roulette/ and /Seeds of Deception/

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-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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