Organic Consumers Association

Campaigns

• President Obama: Pledge to Veto the DARK Act!

  The Senate has passed an anti-consumer bill designed to keep consumers in the dark about the GMOs in their food, and the House has indicated it will support the bill, even though Senate Ag Chair Mike Conaway admits the bill is "riddled with ambiguity." This bill would also preempt more than 100 other state food safety and labeling laws! It would delay labeling for at least another 2 years. It would exempt most of the common GMO ingredients. It allows companies to hide information about GMOs behind confusing electronic codes that discriminate against anyone without a smartphone or internet access. And contrary to claims by its supporters, this bill is not mandatory--it contains no mechanism for enforcement and comes with no penalties for non-compliance. If Congress passes this bill, opposed by nine out of 10 Americans, our last resort will be a veto by President Obama. In a campaign speech Obama gave in 2007, in Iowa, he said, “Here’s what I’ll do as President . . . . We’ll let folks know whether their food has been genetically modified, because Americans should know what they’re buying.” On May 20, 2009, Obama issued an Executive Order to heads of executive departments and agencies stating that “preemption of State law by executive departments and agencies should be undertaken only with full consideration of the legitimate prerogatives of the States and with a sufficient legal basis for preemption.” A court has already ruled that Vermont's law is constitutional. Vermont’s law is working. Corporations are already printing the words “produced with genetic engineering” on labels. If Congress is concerned about creating a uniform mandatory labeling standard, Congress should support a federal bill that is as strong or stronger than Vermont's law--not one that is unenforceable, full of loopholes, and allows companies to hide information behind confusing symbols. GMOs are required to be labeled in 64 other countries. But despite the fact that nine out of 10 Americans say they want this information, thanks to nearly $400 million in lobbying by the biotech and food industries, Congress wants to keep this information hidden from Americans. Please ask President Obama to veto this anti-consumer, discriminatory, deeply flawed DARK Act.

  121,012 of 200,000 Signatures

  Created by Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Association
• Home Depot and Lowe's: Stop Selling Bee-Killing Garden Plants!

  A new study co-authored by the Friends of the Earth and Pesticide Research Institute found that seven out of 13 samples of garden plants purchased at top retailers in Washington D.C., the San Francisco Bay Area and Minneapolis contain neurotoxic pesticides known as neonicotinoids. Neonics, made by Bayer CropScience and Syngenta, are the fastest-growing class of synthetic pesticides. They’re also linked to the mass die-off of honeybees. How do we get bee-killing plants out of garden centers? We start by asking the CEOs of two of the largest national chains – Home Depot and Lowe’s – to stop selling them. Help us, and our partner organizations, gather 300,000 signatures. When we reach that goal, we will meet with the CEOs of Home Depot (Frank Blake) and Lowe’s (Robert Niblock) and ask them to do what garden centers in the U.K. have done – commit to getting bee-killing garden plants out of their stores. About 100 crop species provide 90 percent of food globally. Of those species, 71 are pollinated by bees. In the U.S. alone, a full one-third of the food supply depends on pollination from bees. Can we afford not to pressure Home Depot and Lowe’s into getting neonics out of our gardens?

  103,846 of 200,000 Signatures

  Created by Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Association
• Senator Sanders: Protect Our Right to Know. Stop the DARK Act!

  On July 23 (2015), the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1599, a bill written by the biotech and processed food industries that preempts states’ rights to pass laws requiring the mandatory labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The bill also would prevent passage of a federal mandatory GMO labeling law. We call H.R. 1599 the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, because that is its sole intent--to deprive consumers of ever having the right to this basic information. Senator Sanders is in a unique position to attract mass media attention to this bill, and to persuade his fellow U.S. Senators to oppose a Senate version of the bill, when it is introduced. After all, Vermont's mandatory GMO labeling law, set to take effect July 1, 2016, would be repealed under the DARK Act. And the Boxer-DeFazio Bill, a federal bill intended to require mandatory labeling of GMOs--a bill that Sen. Sanders has agreed to co-sponsor--would be preempted under H.R. 1599. We need Sen. Sanders to speak out now, before a Senate version of this bill is introduced and gains traction. If we don't stop this bill, Monsanto will permanently take away our right to know about GMOs.

  53,166 of 75,000 Signatures

  Created by Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Association
• Tell Senators Warren and Udall: FDA’s Voluntary GMO Labels Are Good for Monsanto, Bad for Consumers!

  Last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) asked the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to finalize its 2001 guidance on voluntary labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The senators advertised their request as a move intended to benefit consumers. But in fact, a federal voluntary labeling plan plays right into the hands of Monsanto and big food. Sometimes it's appropriate to contact a senator who doesn't directly represent you, because his or her actions could result in a federal law that could affect all Americans, not just the citizens in one state. This is one of those times. Please tell Senators Warren and Udall that FDA guidance on voluntary GMO labeling would be great for Monsanto and big food, but bad for consumers. How would finalizing the FDA's 2001 guidance hurt consumers? Worst-case scenario, the biotech and food industries could use the FDA guidance to preempt state laws requiring mandatory labeling of GMOs. Currently, states have the right to enact GMO labeling laws precisely because the FDA has not formally ruled on GMO labeling. Second, the FDA’s guidance on voluntary GMO labeling could be used to put an end to existing, legitimate voluntary non-GMO labeling efforts. By allowing the FDA, which has previously (and controversially) ruled that GMO and non-GMO foods are “substantially equivalent,” the FDA could rule against non-GMO or GMO-free labels on the basis that they mislead consumers by implying that there’s a difference between GMO and non-GMO foods. Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association, two of the biggest funders of campaigns to defeat state GMO labeling laws, support the FDA’s guidance on voluntary labeling of GMOs. Consumers don't because we know who will benefit from the FDA's rule - big corporations, not us. We need to get Senators Warren and Udall back on our side.

  43,126 of 45,000 Signatures

  Created by Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Association
• Tell Congress: Don't Pass a Farm Bill that Lets Monsanto Wipe Out State GMO Labeling Laws!

  Monsanto has been poisoning our food and environment for nearly 20 years. Consumers are finally fighting back, by demanding labels on GMO foods. Will Monsanto try to take away our right to pass state GMO labeling laws? Monsanto already slipped a rider into the emergency Continuing Resolution, giving the biotech giant immunity from federal law. Now, there is talk of an amendment or rider to the 2013 Farm Bill that could take away states' rights to pass GMO labeling laws.

  175,872 of 200,000 Signatures

  Created by Katherine Paul
• Tell the National School Boards Association: No More Monsanto Roundup Weedkiller!

  “If you know you’re dying, it gives you that extra push. You can’t just die for nothing.” Those words were spoken by Dewayne “Lee” Johnson in a recent TV interview with CBS News. Johnson was interviewed after a jury in San Francisco found that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller caused his cancer. Until he became too sick to work, Johnson was a school groundskeeper. His job required him to spray Roundup on school properties, including on playgrounds. Please tell the National School Boards Association: Monsanto’s Roundup and other toxic agro-chemicals must be banned on school grounds, and school lunch programs should stop serving foods contaminated with glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. The jury in Dewayne Johnson v. Monsanto Co. awarded Johnson $289.2 million. Monsanto has vowed to appeal the verdict. Johnson knows that by the time his case finally makes it through a protracted appeals process, he may not be alive to collect the money Monsanto owes him. Johnson’s family could use that money to pay off medical expenses. But what’s more important to this terminally ill father of two, is that something good, something bigger than a monetary award, result from his David v. Goliath battle. We all owe Dewayne Johnson a huge debt of gratitude for standing up to Monsanto. What better way to thank him, and to honor his sacrifice, than by joining the movement to rid schools of Roundup and other toxic chemicals.

  50,845 of 75,000 Signatures

  Created by Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Association
• Tell Your Senators: Vote NO on Sonny Perdue! #NoPerdue! Block Trump's #SwampCabinet!

  Chemical-intensive industrial agriculture is killing off pollinators, polluting our drinking water and causing soil to disappear so fast it could be gone in decades. The USDA must confront climate change and help farmers adopt the regenerative organic farming and grazing practices that create resilience in the face of droughts and floods. Trump’s Monsanto-funded, climate-denying USDA pick, Sonny Perdue, is the wrong choice. Learn more at OrganicConsumers.org and RegenerationInternational.org.

  39,916 of 40,000 Signatures

  Created by Alexis Baden-Mayer, Organic Consumers Association
• Don't frack our food and farms!

  You may not live in California, but chances are a lot of the food you buy, including organic produce, is grown there. California is the largest producer of food in the U.S. In 2011, the state's 81,500 farms and ranches had sales of $43.5 billion. What happens to our food if we frack and poison the groundwater that irrigates California’s farms? In a move that a federal judge says violated environmental law, the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has already auctioned off 1,750 square miles of California’s public lands to oil companies intent on extracting oil, using a controversial technology called hydraulic fracturing – or fracking. In May, the BLM plans to auction off even more of California’s Monterey Shale, a geological formation that extends from northern California to Los Angeles, and is home to cattle ranches, dairy farms, vineyards and organic farms. Fracking and farms cannot co-exist, as we’ve heard over and over from farmers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Dakota, West Virginia and Colorado. Farmers whose lives and farms have been ruined by fracking’s methane emissions and toxic chemicals. As one farmer explained, “We depend on good water for our cows, our crops and our own health. Once you mess up your groundwater, you can’t fix it.” The oil and gas industry argues that it’s fine to pump huge amounts of cancer-causing chemicals deep into the earth, because we’ll never use that water. U.S. environmental regulators agree – which is why fracking is exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, and why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued more than 1,500 permits for companies to pollute aquifers in some of the country’s driest regions. But as our population grows, and temperatures rise, we may find ourselves doing what Mexico City has already been forced to do: drawing water from mile-deep aquifers that until now would not have been tapped for drinking water. We all depend on California for our food. California’s unique Mediterranean climate allows the state to grow over 450 different crops. Some of these crops are exclusive to California: almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, kiwifruit, olives, persimmons, pomegranates, pistachios, prunes, raisins, clovers, and walnuts. Fracking is bad for our water, bad for our air, bad for our health, bad for the climate. Without clean air and clean water, there are no farms. Without farms, there is no food. Please sign this petition to the Bureau of Land Management asking officials there to stop auctioning off California’s public lands for fracking.

  62,293 of 75,000 Signatures

  Created by Katherine Paul
• Hillary Clinton: Support GMO labeling and public health, not Monsanto!

  [Note: The petition to Hillary was started before she officially declared her candidacy, before she became a grandmother, and before she had a serious challenger - Sen. Bernie Sanders - for the Democratic nomination. The petition language cannot be altered or edited once it has been made public, but the ask remains the same]. Hillary Clinton could be the next Democratic presidential nominee. Do we really want someone in the White House who protects Monsanto's profits at the expense of public health? Scientists, medical professionals and climate experts warn us that a food and agriculture system built around poisons like Monsanto's Roundup and Dow's 2,4-D, a system that promotes soy and corn monocultures instead of crop diversity, is unhealthy for humans and the environment. In fact, the World Health Organization in March (2015) declared Roundup a probable human carcinogen. Genetically engineered agriculture has failed. It has created superweeds that require increasingly toxic poisons, and those poisons are showing up in the blood, urine and breast milk of humans. The United Nations last year issued a report entitled "Before It's Too Late," stating that not only will genetically engineered crops not feed the world, as the biotech industry claims, but they are a huge contributor to global warming. Polls show that 93% of Americans want GMO labeling laws. It's time for Hillary, whose ties to the biotech industry run deep, to support public health, not Monsanto. The next leader of the U.S. needs to take a stand against huge corporations that are devastating the environment and human health. If Hillary Clinton is not that leader, consumers will look to candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has a proven track record of supporting states' rights to label GMOs, and the transition to organic, sustainable, regenerative agriculture.

  132,876 of 200,000 Signatures

  Created by Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Association
• Safeway, Starbucks and Target: Stop Bankrolling Anti-GMO Food Labeling Efforts!

  Safeway, Starbucks and Target have something in common: They’re all dues-paying members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), a group that is determined to deny you the right to know if your food contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Last year, the GMA spent $2 million to help defeat California’s Prop 37, a citizens’ initiative that would have required mandatory labeling of GMOs in food products in California. (In all, GMA and its members contributed about half of the $46 million spent to defeat Prop 37). Now the GMA is at it again, pouring money into the campaign to defeat a similar initiative, I-522, in Washington State. By supporting the GMA, Safeway, Starbucks and Target are working to defeat your right to know. The battle in Washington State will have a huge impact on consumer rights. If I-522 passes, food manufacturers will likely reformulate their products, rather than label them. And if they reformulate their products in Washington State, they’ll likely reformulate them for all states – just as they’ve reformulated them in Europe and other countries that have GMO labeling laws. If we want the same right that consumers in 64 other countries have, we must demand that right. We must win in Washington State in November. We can start by making it clear to Safeway, Starbucks and Target that we won’t support their companies or their products, until they support our right to know and pressure the GMA to do the same.

  82,597 of 100,000 Signatures

  Created by Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Association