Vote With Your Wallet
Who was responsible when California’s Prop 37, calling for clear labeling on GMO and radiated food products, was killed? The answer lies in the donors who funded the campaign to confuse voters with misstatements and distortions. Some surprising companies paid for the anti-Prop 37 ads, including some long time favorites of mine.
What do we do? Well, as far as I am concerned, we stop buying from those companies. Like which?
PepsiCo (Donated $2.5M): Naked Juice, Tostito’s Organic, Tropicana Organic
Kraft (Donated $2M): Boca Burgers and Back to Nature
Safeway (Member of Grocery Manufacturers Association, which donated $2M):“O” Organics
Coca-Cola (Donated $1.7M): Honest Tea, Odwalla
General Mills (Donated $1.2M): Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Larabar
Con-Agra (Donated $1.2M): Orville Redenbacher’s Organic, Hunt’s Organic, Lightlife, Alexia
Kellogg’s (Donated $791k): Kashi, Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms, Gardenburger
Smucker’s (Donated $555k ): R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organic
Unilever (Donated $467k): Ben & Jerry’s
Dean Foods (Donated $254k): Horizon, Silk, White Wave
What Will We Eat?
As always, we can buy local food, support local farms, eat organic food from farms you know are well run. What else? We can work to create local laws that protect farms, farmers, and food. Here’s a link for more information and ideas: http://www.naturalnews.com/035671_farm_freedom_right_to_laws.html
We can also speak out. It feels more important than ever to let family, friends, and local grocery stores know why we won’t be buying from these companies. Why now? Because the currently proposed version of the US farm bill has specially designed loopholes allowing Monsanto and other companies devoted to genetic engineering to grow experimental crops without any form of testing or safeguards whatsoever. Really.
Follow The Farm Bill
All this freedom is provided through a modest amendment in the proposed new farm bill, which Congress was to vote on in December of 2012. Instead, the House of Representatives delayed the vote on H.R. 5973: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act until 2013. If it is voted through, this act will inform all US agricultural and food policy. Farm bills have been enacted every 5-7 years since the Great Depression. They were initially designed to assist farmers and ranchers and direct America’s farm and food policy.
This version, H.R. 5973, includes a rider in section 733 that is now being called “The Monsanto Protection Act.” This amendment offers genetic engineering and biotech companies the ability to plant any and all experimental crops without significant oversight. Really. If you would like to discuss your feelings and thoughts about this with your legislators, please do! Here’s the link: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members
More Ideas
Here are a few juicy links if you want to find out more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/038779_farm_bill_Monsanto_public_outcry.html#ixzz2KR6aZPUf
“Language from the FY 2013 House Ag Appropriations Bill Detailing the The “Farmer Assurance Provision” AKA the Monsanto Protection Act” Food Democracy Now! July 29, 2012. Retrieved on December 20, 2012 from: http://fooddemocracynow.org
“Prospects for the New Farm Bill” Kent Thiesse, Corn & Soybean Digest, December 11, 2012. Retrieved on December 20, 2012 from: http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/blog/prospects-new-farm-bill
“Monsanto rider: New bill could make biotech companies immune to courts” RT Question More, July 11, 2012. Retrieved on December 20, 2012 from: http://rt.com/usa/news/monsanto-bill-immunity-court-862/
“H.R. 5973: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013 112th Congress, 2011-2012. Text as of Jun 20, 2012 (Reported by House Committee).” Govtrack. Retrieved on December 20, 2012 from: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr5973/text
“2012 Farm Bill Update (as of Jan 2, 2013)” KWOA. Retrieved on January 2, 2012 from: http://kwoa.com/farm/2012/12/31/2012-farm-bill-update-jan-2-2013
“About the Farm Bill” American Farmland Trust. Retrieved on January 2, 2012 from: http://www.farmbillfacts.org/2012-farm-bill
Onward!