(Cross-posting in Activism)
Do you support the rights of local communities (cities, counties, states) to regulate or prohibit the growing of genetically modified crops within their area? If so, please take action by telling Congress to repeal the provision in the 2007-2012 Farm Bill which would block any local, non-Federal jurisdiction from passing any law regulating or banning any product that the US Secretary of Agriculture has "1) inspected and passed; or 2) determined to be of non-regulated status", which would include any and all GMO foods, whether plant or animal. Several places, including some counties and cities in my state of CA, have passed local laws prohibiting the growing of GMO crops in their jurisdiction, because of the threat of contamination of non-GMO and/or organic crops with pollen or residue from the GMO crops (either in the field from wind drift, or during shipping and processing), and there's a grassroots movement to get more local laws like this passed across the nation. This movement gives Monsanto and their cronies apoplexy, and they have been trying to block it by getting states to pre-emptively pass laws making it illegal for any entity within the state to make other laws prohibiting GMOs or regulating seeds in any manner (they usually campaign with the slogan of "farmer's freedom of choice" or some such drivel), but that hasn't been as successful as they'd hoped. Now their bosom-buddies at the USDA have given them a huge leg up in this attempt to force GMOs down our throats by inserting a sneaky, last-minute provision in the new Farm Bill that effectively gives the USDA the only authority over this issue. If this provision is not repealed, Monsanto and the other GMO-pushing companies will have a free pass to grow any kind of GMO crop anywhere in the US they please, regardless of whether the local people or government want it there. CA recently denied permission of another GMO company to plant GM rice in this state, after a huge outcry from the local farmers (both conventional and organic), because some of our largest rice export markets vowed to no longer buy any CA rice because the danger of contamination from GM rice being grown in the open is so great. This new Farm Bill provision would make such actions illegal. This is about our freedom to choose pure, natural food and to assert that right through local governments.
Please go to this link to take action: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia...aign_KEY=11760
Do you support the rights of local communities (cities, counties, states) to regulate or prohibit the growing of genetically modified crops within their area? If so, please take action by telling Congress to repeal the provision in the 2007-2012 Farm Bill which would block any local, non-Federal jurisdiction from passing any law regulating or banning any product that the US Secretary of Agriculture has "1) inspected and passed; or 2) determined to be of non-regulated status", which would include any and all GMO foods, whether plant or animal. Several places, including some counties and cities in my state of CA, have passed local laws prohibiting the growing of GMO crops in their jurisdiction, because of the threat of contamination of non-GMO and/or organic crops with pollen or residue from the GMO crops (either in the field from wind drift, or during shipping and processing), and there's a grassroots movement to get more local laws like this passed across the nation. This movement gives Monsanto and their cronies apoplexy, and they have been trying to block it by getting states to pre-emptively pass laws making it illegal for any entity within the state to make other laws prohibiting GMOs or regulating seeds in any manner (they usually campaign with the slogan of "farmer's freedom of choice" or some such drivel), but that hasn't been as successful as they'd hoped. Now their bosom-buddies at the USDA have given them a huge leg up in this attempt to force GMOs down our throats by inserting a sneaky, last-minute provision in the new Farm Bill that effectively gives the USDA the only authority over this issue. If this provision is not repealed, Monsanto and the other GMO-pushing companies will have a free pass to grow any kind of GMO crop anywhere in the US they please, regardless of whether the local people or government want it there. CA recently denied permission of another GMO company to plant GM rice in this state, after a huge outcry from the local farmers (both conventional and organic), because some of our largest rice export markets vowed to no longer buy any CA rice because the danger of contamination from GM rice being grown in the open is so great. This new Farm Bill provision would make such actions illegal. This is about our freedom to choose pure, natural food and to assert that right through local governments.
Please go to this link to take action: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia...aign_KEY=11760
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