Jan. 21, 2012

January 24: Join the OCA Protest at Monsanto's Annual Shareholders Meeting

 

What if Monsanto had to pay for its corporate crimes?

It is inevitable that one day Monsanto will be held responsible for the enormous human health and environmental damages arising from the so-called "responsible" use of its toxic pesticides, chemicals, and mutant genetically engineered seeds. If the Biotech Bully of St. Louis were to be held liable for its 100-year legacy of corporate criminality - carcinogenic chemical food sweeteners, Agent Orange, dioxin, Bovine Growth Hormone, poisonous herbicides, seed monopolization, and genetically engineered crops, the company's shareholders would no doubt see the value of their Monsanto stocks plummet to zero.

Following up on two protests at Monsanto's headquarters in 2011, OCA returns to St. Louis for the 2012 Monsanto shareholders' meeting on January 24!

Please join OCA, Pesticide Action Network, and Harrington Investments (a socially responsible investor's group) in St. Louis to support a shareholder resolution to examine the financial risks associated with genetically engineered crops. While an OCA representative is speaking inside the shareholders meeting, another group of us will be outside, peacefully picketing.

Come to St. Louis to Make Monsanto Pay! Contact Mike Durschmid (mikedvegan AT gmail.com) to join in, or RSVP on Facebook and share with your friends.

And this just in: Activists in Maui, Hawaii, in solidarity with our St. Louis action, will be peacefully protesting outside Monsanto's Hawaii HQ location on 3555 Mokulele Hwy on the same day. For more information or to RSVP, visit the Facebook event here.

Learn more

The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act

We are on the road to victory in California with coalition members, strategic allies, and key donors increasing their support all the time. We now have over 50 environmental, alternative health, and sustainable food organizations and businesses advocating for our cause. But, most importantly, we have over 1,500 dedicated CA volunteers trained and ready to hit the streets when signature gathering begins in February. You can go here to volunteer by gathering petition signatures in California.

This November 2012 California Ballot Initiative, which will require foods

sold in California retail outlets to be labeled as such, may be the most important GMO battle of all time. A win in California will mean radical changes to food labels everywhere. Producers will either have to change the way they market Frankenfoods or else stop using GMOs altogether. We think we can reverse the biotech strangle-hold on our food system in our lifetimes.

You don't have to live in California to donate to this historic ballot initiative.

Consumers everywhere have a right to know what's in the food we buy and eat and feed our children, just as we have the right to know how many calories are in the food we buy, or whether food comes from other countries like Mexico or China. In the past, we've successfully fought for labels telling us the country of origin of products, as well as whether foods have been irradiated. Now it's time to stand up for our right to know which foods are laced with GMOs.

Efforts to enact labeling laws in Congress and in other state legislatures have been blocked by big food and chemical company lobbyists. The California Ballot Initiative will take the issue directly to the people. For more information about the initiative visit California Right To Know and the Organic Consumers Fund.

Support the OCA and the OCF

The nationwide food fight for safe food, consumer freedom of choice, and sustainability is escalating.

In 2012, whether we're talking about getting antibiotics out of animal feed, labeling GMOs, or passing a climate and organic-friendly Farm Bill, OCA is fighting harder than ever. With the 2012 California ballot initiative, and GMO labeling legislation gaining momentum in Vermont, Washington, Connecticut and other states, we have a real chance to hit Monsanto with the skull and crossbones they fear so much - mandatory labels on genetically engineered food. We also plan to step up our efforts to strengthen organic standards and significantly expand the market for organic food and products, especially those produced locally and regionally.

Please be as generous as you can during our January and February fundraising drive.

Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible)

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our efforts in California)

Millions Against Monsanto Campaign Update

Sunday, October 16, 2011 was the biggest day of action for mandatory labels on genetically engineered food in U.S. history. Several hundred Millions Against Monsanto World Food Day events took place around the country.

In September 2012, building on the success of World Food Day 2011, OCA member activists are going to take even bigger action! This year, we are planning a nationwide Week of Action on September 17 - 20th to demonstrate against the Monsanto-sponsored 12th International Symposium on Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms also in St Louis, MO. We want to organize actions at the hundreds of Monsanto locations in the US and around the world in concert with a large demonstration in St. Louis.

OCA members have been diligently collecting signatures for our Truth-in-Labeling petition across the country for months now. New petitions are coming in almost daily and being added to our online system, but we need even more volunteers to help us gather signatures through 2012. In addition to the action in St. Louis, activists in each state will also hand deliver all of the petitions we've gathered to their state legislators, demanding mandatory labels for genetically engineered food and demonstrating that we truly are the Millions Against Monsanto.

What can you do to help this historic campaign? Download a PDF version of our petition. Take this petition to your workplace, your local co-op, house parties, farmers' markets and wherever you can find people who demand the right to know what's in our food.

More info on the September 2012 Week of Action will be forthcoming. Stay tuned for more details.

Baby Food Update

Many of you took action on our alert "Tell Organic Baby Food Brands to Stop Using GMOs!" and received a misleading letter from Happy Bellies in response, denying that HAPPYBELLIES' baby cereals contain GMOs and claiming that the DHA they use has been approved by the National Organic Standards Board.

While the NOSB did approve a generic form of DHA, this is not the DHA used in HAPPYBELLIES' baby foods. This leaves HAPPYBELLIES in conflict with the national organic standards. We have been assured that this issue is under investigation by the National Organic Program, but we must keep the pressure on!

Click here to learn why OCA believes HAPPYBELLIES' DHA is GMO

ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org