We encourage you to take action. In the state of Indiana, our farmland will be used to grow these crops. It will hurt our farmland, farmers, our farmers markets and our inherent right to eat foods we can trust. This alfalfa will contaminate our grassfed animals, this biotech corn will take over more valuable acres in our state while cross-pollinating and thus contaminating non GMO corn, and these sugar beets will be in your food – unlabeled as GMO. You will not be able to control or even know whether or not you are eating GMO contaminated foods, and the chances will be better than not that you will be eating them all the time if these three crops are allowed into our fields.
Re-posted From Food Democracy Now:
Unbelievably, in the past 3 weeks, the Obama administration has approved 3 GMO crops. First it was Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa, then Monsanto’s GMO sugar beets and just last Friday, as Egypt celebrated it’s freedom, the Obama U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the go ahead to a GMO variety of industrial corn to be used to produce ethanol.1
That’s right, 3 GMO crops got the Obama Rubber Stamp in the past 3 weeks.
At a time when the Obama administration should be forging ahead to make agriculture more sustainable, encouraging more farmers to convert to organic farming practices, they’ve decided to double down on an unproven and untested technology over the objections of millions of Americans and a growing chorus of food manufacturers, both organic and conventional, who find these lab engineered food products to be worrisome for a variety of reasons.
Already more than 75,000 American citizens and two dozen farm, food and agricultural organizations have signed a letter to President Obama asking him to retract his recent decisions on GMO alfalfa and sugar beets.
Clearly the President and his staff have not gotten the message!
If you’ve already signed this letter, thank you, but ask that you forward this message to 3 of your friends so that they can have the opportunity to sign it as well. If everyone who has signed it had 1 friend sign as well, more than 150,000 people will have signed this letter.
If you haven’t signed, please click on the link below and then forward this to 3 friends you know who care about this critical issue — Help us get more than 100,000 signatures — we need to keep the pressure on!
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/347?akid=298.65136.XqXv6Q&t=7
Here’s a brief recap of the Obama administration’s appalling cave to Monsanto and the biotech industry in just the last 3 weeks.
1. Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO alfalfa – Jan. 27th, 2011 – Over the objections of hundreds of thousands of American citizens, the White House approved this unnecessary crop – despite the fact that 93% of alfalfa hay grown in the U.S. does not use herbicides and that genetic contamination with conventional, non-GMO and organic alfalfa threatens the livelihoods of tens of thousands of family farmers and the food choices of more than 50 million organic consumers.2
2. Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO sugar beets – Feb. 4, 2011 – Defying a court order to complete a proper Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) the USDA announced that it is granting a “partial” approval of Monsanto’s GMO sugar beets, giving farmers and seed dealers the clear signal that final approval is right around the corner. By the time the EIS is expected to be complete, sometime in May, farmers will have already started planting their crop for the next year since the USDA says it gave the green light to avert a “sugar shortage” in the U.S. Sugar beets comprise some 54% of U.S. sugar found in everything from soda, other beverages, candy bars3
3. Syngenta’s Enogen Alpha-Amylase Corn for Ethanol – Feb 11, 2011 – This new GMO amylase corn product contains an enzyme that allegedly allows an increase in ethanol production with a reduction of natural gas and water usage, thus saving ethanol plants money. While caving to the biotech and ethanol industries, the Obama administration basically ignored the concerns of leading food manufacturers who fear that if this new industrial corn cross-pollinates with or is accidentally mixed with corn used to make food products, it could lead to crumbly corn chips, soggy cereal and a host of other food processing disasters.4
Despite being comprised of more than 43 powerful companies such as General Mills, ConAgra Mills, ADM Milling and Quaker Oats, the Obama administration completely dismissed the concerns of the North American Miller’s Association, comprised of some of the largest food manufacturers in U.S. in order to favor the biotech and ethanol corporate agenda, both industries with checkered pasts and products of dubious benefit.
Please take a moment to tell President Obama that you’re outraged over his decision to approve a crop technology that has not lived up to its marketing promises, increasingly harms farmer profitability and has potential negative human health and environmental consequences.
Click on the link below to tell President Obama that you’re outraged by these recent decisions and care about how your food is produced and what it’s in it and that it’s time to put the health and safety of farmers and America’s 50 million organic consumers over corporate profits.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/347?akid=298.65136.XqXv6Q&t=9
Thanks for taking action — your support is greatly appreciated! We need your help to keep the pressure on! If you can, please consider chipping in as little as $10 to help us continue this fight.
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/donate/133?akid=298.65136.XqXv6Q&t=12
We rely on folks like you to keep us going. Thanks again for your support.
Thank you for participating in food democracy — your action today may help save the organic industry.
Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! Team
Sources:
1. “Vilsack Clears Industrial Biotech Corn”, Des Moines Register, February 11, 2011.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/343?akid=298.65136.XqXv6Q&t=14
2. “U.S. Approves Gene-Altered Alfalfa, Fails to Protect Organic Farms”, Rodale News, January 27, 2011.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/344?akid=298.65136.XqXv6Q&t=16
3. “USDA Approves Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets Without Ample Review”, Rodale News, February 4, 2011
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/345?akid=298.65136.XqXv6Q&t=18
4. “How Ethanol Production Could Make for Crumbly Corn Chips”, The Christian Science Monitor, February 15, 2011.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/346?akid=298.65136.XqXv6Q&t=20