6634 Votes from a Win in Oregon!
Ronnie Cummins- Organic Consumers Assoc.
6634 Votes from a Win in Oregon!
Don’t believe everything you read in the papers. We have not yet lost Measure 92, Oregon’s initiative to label GMOs.
According to the YES on 92 campaign, we are only 6634 votes (as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 12) from a win. If we get to within a margin of 49.80 percent (we're currently at 49.78!), we’ll trigger an automatic recount, paid for by the state.
But here’s the thing. The only way we can win in Oregon is to contact every voter whose vote hasn’t been counted, because it was “challenged” due to a technical problem. There are enough of these “challenge” ballots—about 13,000—yet uncounted, to swing the election in our favor.
We need hundreds of organizers on the ground beginning today, to reach out to voters to resolve problems with their ballots, and make sure their votes are counted.
And the only way we can make that happen is to hire professional organizers, and pay travel expenses for volunteers.
We are so close. There is no guarantee we will win, but a win is definitely still within reach. If we can get all of the votes counted by the deadline, 5 p.m. November 18.
We know you’ve already dug deep into your pockets to help this movement. But today, we are asking again. Through our 501(c) 4 lobbying arm, we have promised to rush another $25,000 to the YES on 92 campaign to make sure we don’t lose this critical GMO labeling battle.
If you can help, click here for details on how to vote online now, or by phone or mail. Thank you!
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ESSAY OF THE WEEK
Giving Thanks, Organically
In two weeks, families, friends and communities will gather around dinner tables to celebrate Thanksgiving. Leaving aside for now the nuanced political, historical and cultural complications that underlie the holiday, and taking into consideration the different meanings individuals assign to Thanksgiving, there will be one universal thread running through everyone’s celebration on Thursday, November 27: Food.
For millions of Americans, unfortunately, the food on their tables will take the form of a turkey raised in filthy, crowded conditions on a diet of antibiotics and genetically engineered corn and soy, with side dishes made from potatoes and beans and other produce heavily contaminated with pesticides, accompanied by highly processed white-bread dinner rolls slathered with butter made from milk produced by cows pumped full of growth hormones and raised in conditions no animal should be forced to endure.
Thankfully, as the market for organic food grows, consumers have greater access to organic alternatives, whether they plan a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, or opt for something other than turkey, potatoes and pumpkin pie.
They also have plenty of motivation: better health and nutrition; a cleaner environment; more humane treatment of animals; and a cooler planet.
According to reports by the Rodale Institute, the United Nations and the Soil Association, modern, chemical-intensive industrial farming has stripped the soil’s natural ability to take carbon back out of the atmosphere, through photosynthesis, and store it where nature intended—in the soil. By returning to small-scale organic farming, say researchers at the Rodale Institute, more than 40 percent of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be captured in the soil. And if the world’s pasture and rangelands were managed using regenerative techniques, an additional 71 percent of GHG emissions could be sequestered.
This Thanksgiving, we ask you to pledge to Cook Organic, not the Planet not just on Thanksgiving, but every day. Because as consumers, we have the power to shift the market—and save the planet.
Read this week’s article on why organic is the only way to go for turkey, potatoes, green beans, pumpkin, bread, dairy and wine.
Where to buy organic ingredients
TAKE ACTION: Take the Cook Organic, not the Planet Pledge!
Post photos and recipes from your organic Thanksgiving
ACTION ALERT
Innately Wrong
About 15 years ago, consumers successfully pressured McDonald’s Corp. to stop buying New Leaf potatoes, a potato variety genetically engineered (by Monsanto) to produce its own insecticide.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a new GMO potato. The “Innate” brand is made by the J. R. Simplot Company—the largest supplier of potatoes to McDonald’s restaurants. (The USDA also approved a new genetically engineered alfalfa last week).
Simplot wants consumers to believe that its new GMO potato is not only harmless, it provides consumers with several benefits. Among those benefits are the fact that the potato is bruise-resistant (which is really a benefit to commercial buyers and growers, not consumers), and that when heated to a temperature required for frying, the potato produces less asparagine, a naturally occurring amino acid that at high temperatures reacts with some sugars to oxidize into acrylamide. Acrylamide is recognized as a potential carcinogen.
In other words, the maker of the Innate GMO potato says it’s not only safe (the same claim Monsanto and Dow make about their GMO corn and soy products), it’s actually better for you than a non-GMO potato.
What Simplot doesn’t tell you is that the technology used to create the Innate potato—RNA interference, or RNAi—is considered by some scientists to be even more dangerous than the DNA manipulation technology used to create Roundup Ready and Bt crops.
Photo Credit: arbyreed via Compfight cc
MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTO
Monsanto, You’re Breakin’ our Hearts
Monsanto has been breaking Mother Earth’s heart for decades now, with its poisons and reckless disregard for the health of our entire ecosystem. So it’s only fitting that world headquarters for the world’s most evil corporation are in a suburb of St. Louis, Mo., named Creve Coeur—which translated from French, means “broken heart.”
In a show of support for an organic alternative to Monsanto’s heart-breaking GMO-tainted foods, the folks from the Reverend Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping have organized an Organic Thanksgiving potluck dinner on Monsanto’s front lawn.
You’re invited. All you need to bring is an organic dish to pass.
The child-friendly dinner starts at 1.p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 27, at Monsanto’s World Headquarters. Tables will be provided, as will entertainment by a group of 30 singers from the Church of Stop Shopping.
For more information, including how to organize a group from your area to attend, contact marnie@revbilly.com.
TAKE ACTION: Take the Cook Organic not the Planet Pledge!
GLOBAL GMO NEWS
The End of Monsanto’s Roundup?
For decades, Monsanto has claimed that Roundup and its key ingredient, glyphosate, are “safe.” The biotech industry has backed up those claims with industry-funded “studies.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is supposed to protect us, has been protecting Monsanto’s profits instead. In July the EPA, despite new studies linking glyphosate to everything from infertility to cancer, actually raised the allowed limits of glyphosate on fruits and vegetables for human consumption.
The world has had enough.
On Tuesday, November 11, a $25-million international study was launched that will put an end, once and for all, to the question of whether or not Monsanto’s Roundup is “safe.”
The study, the first of its kind, will be based on a variety of herbicide-resistant corn. Three independent scientists, from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow; University of California, Irvine, Calif.; and Maltoni Cancer Research Center, Bentivoglio, Italy, will investigate the answers to these questions:
- Is the GM food (or its associated pesticide) toxic to organ systems over the long-term?
- Does the GM food (or its associated pesticide) cause cancer?
- Does the GM food (or its associated pesticide) reduce fertility or cause birth defects?
- Is the mixture of chemicals present in Roundup herbicide more or less toxic than its active ingredient glyphosate?
The Global GMO Free Coalition, of which OCA is a member, supports the study. We believe it will provide the irrefutable, bullet-proof evidence needed to ban Monsanto’s Roundup.
Read the Factor GMO press release
ACTION ALERT
A Little Help from their (57 Million) Friends
“Through our experience we have come to understand that the genetic engineering of food has never really been about public good, or feeding the hungry, or supporting our farmers. Nor is it about consumer choice. Instead it is about private, corporate control of the food system.” Letter from America
While here in the U.S. we’re making progress toward GMO labelling laws (and bans), our friends across the pond face an imminent-risk of invasion by U.S. biotech companies.
The U.S. Gene Giants, with help from U.S. government officials and proposed international trade deals, are pressuring the UK and other European countries to loosen restrictions on GMO crops.
And they may well succeed. Unless consumers, organic farmers, responsible retailers and clear-headed legislators—with a little help from their friends in the U.S.—stop them.
Here’s why. The EU coalition that for years has successfully blocked the planting of GM crops has broken up. As a result, in January 2015, the European Parliament likely will vote to allow Member States to make their own decisions on the planting of GM crops. If that happens, it’s could well mean that the UK government will hang out the “Open for Business” sign for Roundup Ready crops.
A new group, Beyond GM, is leading the efforts in the UK to reignite the anti-GMO movement and pressure the government to hold the line against Monsanto. As part of their campaign, they’ve written a “Letter from America” detailing the many ways GMO crops have failed.
Groups (including OCA) and individuals, representing more than 57 million people, have already signed on. Please add your name to the millions of Americans who want people in the UK to know the truth about GMOs.
TAKE ACTION: Sign the Letter from America
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Vaccines, Big Pharma, Your Food
"Your health is now brought to you by Wall Street. If you thought they hurt us with the banks, wait 'til you see what they are doing to our health care." – Jeff Hays, producer of the documentary, "Bought."
November 8 through November 14 is Vaccine Awareness Week. Show your support by renting or purchasing a copy of “Bought,” and sharing it with friends and family. Proceeds will be donated (until November 21) to National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a nonprofit organization advocating for vaccine safety and informed consent protection in the public health system.
Learn more, watch the trailer, rent or purchase
LITTLE BYTES
Essential Reading for the Week
Number of Children with Vitamin D Deficiency Soars
Opponents of Genetically Modified Crops Alarmed at State
Maui Just Banned GMO Farming. Will It Hold up in Court?
Kale or Fracking? Farmers and Corporations Fight It out for Water
Pesticide Levels on Food Unknown Due to Poor Government Testing
Protecting Seeds and Their Stories: The Sacred in Everyday
ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org