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MAJOR NEWS: Legal Petition Filed with the FDA to Require GMOs be Labeled – PLEASE TAKE ACTION

This past Saturday, I found out about an incredibly important piece of news regarding the organic food industry when I attended the Right2Know March in Brooklyn.

Andrew Kimbrell, the Executive Director of The Center for Food Safety, got on stage and announced that a petition was filed (PDF) with the FDA on behalf of hundreds of organic food groups and companies that would require genetically-modified foods be labeled.

This petition is huge, huge news. Why?

For the last ten years, there has been a lot of clamoring by citizens that GMOs be labeled. Needless to say, the outcry has been completely ignored by politicians and bureaucrats.

In order to be taken seriously, the organic industry had to take a different, more strategic approach – file a petition with the FDA.

Since this is a legal document, the FDA that cannot ignore it (Andrew Kimbrell goes into detail about this in the video below).

THE FACTS

Here is what people need to realize and be aware of.

1) Genetic-engineering is the insertion of bacteria or viruses into a seed in order to change that seed’s’ DNA structure. The goal is to make the seed resistant to certain pesticides (Monsanto’s RoundUp, being one of them) when those pesticides get sprayed on the crops.

2) Genetically-modified food comprises 70-80% of supermarket shelves but the FDA does no safety testing of its own on this genetically-modified food.

Instead, the FDA relies only on voluntary consultation with industry and confidential industry data to assure safety.

3) Internal FDA documents discovered in prior Center for Food Safety litigation actually indicated that genetically-modified foods could pose serious risks but those views were overruled.

4) Currently, up to 85% of U.S. corn is genetically-engineered, as are 91% of soybeans and 88% of cotton (cottonseed oil is often used in food products).

5) Genetically-engineered food is required to be labeled in the 15 European Union nations, Russia, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries around the world.

The United States is one of the only countries in the world that doesn’t require labeling of GE-food!

6) In America, we pride ourselves on having certain rights, freedoms and choices.

Under current FDA regulations, however, we don’t have the right to know what is in our food and whether it contains GE-ingredients.

7) A recent poll released by ABC News found that 93% of the American public wants the federal government to require mandatory labeling of genetically-engineered food. As ABC News stated, “Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare.”

 

ACTION STEPS

We cannot allow this valuable opportunity pass us by and as Andrew Kimbrell mentioned in the video above, we need 1 to 4 million people to electronically demand that GMOs be labeled.

1) Please click HERE to vote/comment.

2) Please forward this post around to as many people as you can. It is essential that people are educated about GMOs and can help support this very, very important cause.

A message from Tradin Organic

Why Tradin Organic is Prioritizing Regenerative Organic Farming

At Tradin Organic, we believe that regenerative organic farming is key to growing healthy and nutritious food ingredients — for now and for future generations.

And in Sierra Leone, we have grown the world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified cacao.

Learn more.

livingmaxwell: a guide to organic food & drink