In just over a week, Californians will go to the polls on an issue that will affect every American — the right to know what’s in our food. Wherever you live, we need YOUR help to get genetically engineered foods labeled!
For too many years, millions of Americans have been unknowingly eating genetically engineered foods, even though these foods are labeled in dozens of other countries. But Proposition 37 will require genetically engineered foods to be labeled when sold in California. Because of the centralized distribution methods of many food manufacturers, the effects will be felt throughout the country.
This is a watershed moment in the fight against GMOs. But we need your help!
Monsanto, DuPont, and other Biotech and Agribusiness giants are spending over $1 million per day on TV and radio ads that are turning Californians against Prop 37 based on lies and half-truths. It’s vital that we counter with the power of the grassroots!
* If you live in California, vote YES on Proposition 37 and encourage all your family, friends, and neighbors to do so also.
* If you know people who are undecided, share the information below with them. With all the evidence that GMOs can harm people’s health, isn’t it time for people to be able to choose to avoid them?
* Consider donating to the California Right to Know Campaign to help counter the misleading ads of the Biotech and Agribusiness giants. You can donate at https://prop37.nationbuilder.com/donate_to_know
* Can you take a few hours to call California voters? If you have an internet connection, you can do it from the comfort of your own home with no long-distance charges! Go to http://www.carighttoknow.org/phone_bank to volunteer.
Time is running short, and the Biotech industry’s ads are taking their toll. There are so many ways you can help — by spreading the word through your social networks, donating money, or volunteering your time. Every person’s contribution, in whatever form, counts in this fight. Please help pass Proposition 37 in California!
MORE INFORMATION on Proposition 37
The Biotech companies’ main argument against Proposition 37 is that it will cost consumers money by increasing the costs for food processors and requiring vast new armies of government inspectors. Neither is true!
Food processors change their labels all the time. Think about how much information is already required on labels, as well as all the statements companies include to try to entice consumers to buy their products. Prop 37 gives them 18 months to make the necessary change to label GMOs, which is plenty of time to change the label without undue costs.
As for enforcement, Proposition 37 will provide that food is “misbranded”, and therefore subject to enforcement action, if it contains GMO ingredients without disclosing that on the label. But the law will not create any new permitting requirements nor will it require inspectors other than those the State already has.
The real cost to food processors is the business they will lose if consumers choose to avoid foods containing GMOs. Isn’t that how the market is supposed to work? Sellers lose money if they produce goods that buyers don’t want.
And there are many reasons that consumers may wish to avoid foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. Consider some of the research:
Scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences reported between 2005 and 2006 that female rats fed Roundup Ready GM soy produced excessive numbers of severely stunted pups with more than half of the litter dying within three weeks, and the surviving pups completely sterile.(1)
In 2005, scientists at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Canberra, Australia reported that a harmless protein in beans (alpha-amylase inhibitor 1) transferred to peas caused inflammation in the lungs of mice and provoked sensitivities to other proteins in the diet. (2)
From 2002 to 2005, scientists at the Universities of Urbino, Perugia and Pavia in Italy published reports indicating that GM soy affected cells in the pancreas, liver and testes of young mice. (3)
In 2004, Monsanto’s secret research dossier showed that rats fed MON863 GM corn developed serious kidney and blood abnormalities. (4)
In 1998, Dr. Arpad Pusztai and colleagues formerly of the Rowett Institute in Scotland reported damage in every organ system of young rats fed GM potatoes containing snowdrop lectin, including a stomach lining twice as thick as controls. (5)
Also in 1998, scientists in Egypt found similar effects in the guts of mice fed Bt potato. (6)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had data dating back to early 1990s showing that rats fed GM tomatoes with antisense gene to delay ripening had developed small holes in their stomachs. (5)
In 2002, Aventis company (later Bayer Cropscience) submitted data to UK regulators showing that chickens fed glufosinate-tolerant GM corn Chardon LL were twice as likely to die compared with controls. (7)
In 2012, researchers found that female rats fed Roundup Ready GM corn developed large tumors and dysfunction of the pituitary gland; males also developed tumors and exhibited pathologies of the liver and kidney. (8)
REFERENCES:
(1) http://www.bioeticanet.info/omg/transgeREC.pdf, Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, Committee Paper for Discussion, Effect of GM Soya on Newborn Rats (Nov. 2005)
(2) http://www.bioeticanet.info/omg/transgeREC.pdf2. Ho MW. Transgenic pea that made mice ill. Science in Society 29, 28-29, 2006.
(3) Ho MW. GM ban long overdue. Dozens ill & five deaths in the Philippines. Science in Society 29, 26-27, 2006.
(4) “French experts very disturbed by health effects of Monsanto GM corn” GMWatch, 23 April 2004. www.gmwatch.org
(5) Pusztai A, Bardocz S and Ewen SWB. Genetically modified foods: Potential human health effects. In Food Safety: Contaminants and Toxins, (J P F D’Mello ed.), Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh, CAB International, 2003.
(6) Fares NH and El-Sayed AK. Fine structural changes in the ileum of mice fed on dendotoxin-treated potatotes and transgenic potatoes. Natural Toxins, 1998, 6, 219-33; also “Bt is toxic” by Joe Cummins and Mae-Wan Ho, ISIS News 7/8, February 2001, ISSN: 1474-1547 (print), ISSN: 1474-1814 (online) http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews.php Agricultural Biotechnology 2006, www.ISAAA.org
(7) Novotny E. Animals avoid GM food, for good reasons. Science in Society 21, 9-11, 2004.
(8) Séralini, GE and others. Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maiz. Food and Chemical Toxicology 2012. . .
