Food Fight Is About to Get Uglier
As if it hasn’t been an uphill battle so far, trying to defeat Big Food
and the Gene Giants in order to pass GMO labeling laws.
It’s about to get worse.
Defying repeated threats of a
lawsuit from Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association
(GMA), on May 8, Peter Shumlin, Governor of Vermont, signed a historic
bill requiring food manufacturers to label genetically engineered (GE)
foods, and to drop the practice of labeling GE foods as “natural” or
“all natural.”
On May 9, true to its word, the GMA
confirmed that it will sue Vermont in
federal court to overturn
H. 112.
Vermont is
prepared to fight back. The state has already established a “food
fight” legal defense fund. Legal analysts
say Vermont will likely win.
But Vermont isn’t the only state up against the multi-billion dollar
lobbying group. The GMA, whose
300-plus members include Monsanto and Dow, Coca-Cola and General
Mills, is pushing a
bill in Congress that would preempt all states from passing GMO
labeling laws.
It’s time for consumers in every state to band together to defeat the
GMA’s full-on assault, not only on Vermont, not only on consumers’ right
to know what’s in our food, but on states’ rights and on our basic
freedoms to protect our health and our communities.
Read the essay
Organic Bytes is a publication of
Organic
Consumers Association
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Fax: 218-353-7652
http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob425.html
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