Prop 37 ELECTION NEWS: Moms and Dads Send Up Biplanes Over California
“YES” on Prop 37 has moms and dads across the entire country pooling their hard earned money to rent biplanes that will carry the message: “MOMS & DADS SAY… VOTE ‘YES’ ON PROP 37.”
“As folks find out t
hat their food has been genetically altered so that it has insecticide inside the food they’re eating, which means it cannot be washed off, they become outraged and want to do all they can to get GMO foods labeled,” says Diana Reeves, founder of GmoFreeUSA.org.
It may be hard to believe but these foods are not regulated, controlled or tested for safety by the FDA. Safety is determined only by the manufacturer, and the main producer of GMO crops and food is Monsanto, who’s misled the public in the past by marketing DDT, Agent Orange and PCBs as safe when they knew they were deadly.
“After years of failing to get politicians to take action, it became clear that the only way to get genetically altered foods labeled in the US was to do it through a grassroots movement, with everyday people. Moms, dads, nurses, doctors, farmers, even the scientists who have warned of GMO dangers for nearly 2 decades are getting behind Prop 37,” adds Reeves. “We’re doing all we can to get the message out that we are THE PEOPLE looking out for THE PEOPLE.”
“It’s important that folks know Monsanto twists the truth; they’re lying about the safety of these foods just like they did with DDT, Agent Orange and PCBs,” adds Yannick Phillips, California State Grange’s Legislative Outreach Advocate for Farmers and Consumers.
Independent scientific research has linked genetically altered foods to infertility, autism, ADHD, digestive disorders, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, nearly fatal allergic reactions, liver and kidney damage, massive tumors and cancer. That’s why 61 countries label or outright ban GMO foods.
“It’s shocking that countries like China, India, France, Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Russia, along with the other 61 countries, recognize the dangers of GMO foods but the US has not even been able to get them labeled,” adds Mike Mittenburg, one of the most active members at GmoFreeUSA.org.
Of all the developed countries, the US and Canada are the only countries that don’t label or ban GM foods. It’s estimated that 70-80% of the average American’s diet contains GMOs.
Interestingly, Americans fall behind most developed countries when it comes to health.
America’s sharp decline in health since the mid 1990s matches up perfectly with the introduction of GMO foods in 1996. GMO foods were silently slipped into the US food supply nearly 2 decades ago.
Those blocking GMO food labeling in the US are the big chemical and pharmaceutical companies.
“It’s not hard to see their ‘not-so-hidden’ agenda. In fact, these mega corporations have thrown over $45 million dollars into a misleading TV ad campaign to try to confuse Californian voters, while those that are behind Prop 37 and labeling are real people – smart people, many are doctors and scientists,” says Phillips.
On a positive note, GMO food labeling did not raise taxes or food costs in any of the other 61 countries that label GM foods, and an independent analysis revealed that at most GMO food labeling will cost Californians about a penny per person.
“We hope we’ve been able to get the word out to all the people of California. The biplanes are there to let anyone who hasn’t heard from us yet know that Prop 37 is for the people and those behind it are everyday moms and dads deeply concerned about the health and well being of themselves and their loved ones,” says Reeves.
Kate Bernhardt
AboutGMO.com
I’d like to object to two thnigs:=========== In Europe, it is mandatory to label anything that is genetically modified as such. There are intense restrictions on imports that are genetically modified. Result: no one eats genetically modified foods. They simply don’t exist because there is no market for them. All foods in Europe are “real” (excluding processing and I’m sure chemicals, but to a lesser extent than here in the US). ===========1. I live in a European _developing_ country which kind of has GMO regulations, but, as of summer 2010 when I researched the topic,a) the imported products weren’t checked for GMO (the government had no money for this), so for the thnigs which are frequently imported in wholesale (like, rice from India and you might know that a lot of rice there is GMO), there was a chance that we actually were getting GMO-containing products which were just marked as no GMO.b) the organization which had to do random test checks of the products hadn’t been getting any money for this from the government for several years, and then finally got some last year, but SOME.You might say come on, people are mostly honest, but the trick is that test checks for other thnigs (sausages on how much soy they actually contain, milk products on bad bacterias and % of vegetable oils, blueberry-containing vitamins, etc.,) always give surprising results regarding at least some of the manufacturers in our local market.2. We have quite a lot of local farmers markets. There are 3 types of sellers:* those that just sell the products (they buy them wholesale from the farmers)* farmers or their employees* old ladies with low pensions who keep a near-city for-rent garden or live in a small farm house which always have gardens (it’s happened that pensions in my country are low for most old people, so the way these people are able to support themselves is either by taking money from their well-adjusted grownup kids, or by keeping a garden. Or having a job, if they have the opportunity to.)The products are sold* on official food markets (in theory, the product there are tested by the local laboratory, but bribing is still quite popular in the country, so there is no 100% guarantee in this case)* in vegetable/fruit kiosks* in high-trafficked places, on ad-hoc basis (old ladies, some farmers growing/selling short-seasoned products) obviously their product isn’t tested by laboratories.=== But the trick is:* the farmers (amateur and professional) aren’t educated about safe farming and also don’t test the soil before renting/buying the garden/farm.Example on substance misuse: the local news mentioned a farmer whose produce was rejected (several tons of melons containing 10 times more nitrates than allowed) from the official food market. But our legislation doesn’t force the laboratory to destroy the produce in such cases, so obviously the farmer, to avoid going bankrupt, sold his produce on more friendly’ markets after this.* some territories in the city and near-city have above-the-norm radioactive soil contamination because of the specifics of our local manufacturing company (which actually feeds a big part of the city, so nobody will go against this company ever), and the people aren’t educated on where these spots are.* near-city for-rent gardens are just several big fields divided in patches, so if one of the farmers is using something bad, their neighbouring gardens get contaminated too (via the soil+water cycle or via the air).What I’m saying is each country and maybe even city has its specific local issues Naturally, this doesn’t mean they don’t have to be managed.============ I just bought these two peaches from a supermarket. The small one is organic, while the large one is a conventional peach. I wonder…. how do they make it so large? Chemical pesticides and fertilizers? Probably. ============I don’t really want to object here, I’ll just elaborate on the Probably part, just in case:First, there are different sorts of peaches and because of this and also different climate+soil richness conditions, their sizes can vary. Very basic example: look at the open-air cactuses in Mexico and at the cactus which is a houseplant.Second, there is an artifical selection/selective breeding thing, which is a non-GMO way to get better (bigger, stronger, etc.) animals and vegetables/fruits.Which means that big peaches don’t necessarily contain bad thnigs.
January 16, 2013 at 3:44 am
No, big peaches don’t neilesarcsy mean bad . Selective breeding can certainly be accomplished without the use of pesticides, etc. From my experience with researching agricultural practices here in the US which are on a corporate farming level, lots of chemicals are typically used. Chain supermarkets like ShopRite buy from these corporate suppliers, so most likely, my giganto peach needs to be thoroughly washed. And then there’s the issue of selectively breeding for appearance, not nutritional value (as mentioned in a previous reply). I don’t know all that much about the nutrition aspect of it, but if peach growers are anything like humans, we like to pick and choose based on looks, not always quality Thanks for the info about the farming/GMO situation in your country. Which country is it? The information I got regarding the very tight regulations on GMO imports was only regarding the EU. There’s so many factors that come into play when talking about agriculture!
January 16, 2013 at 3:45 am
D
November 5, 2012 at 11:13 am
Well said!
November 5, 2012 at 11:14 am
Yeah, gmo foods are bad. Even on the smallest chncae that GMOs are safe for consuming (which i do not think they are at all for anything), they are terrible for the environment and the future. The herbcides sprayed on the crops decrease bug populations because they get killed, and they go into water and kill fish, and tons of other harm. Also, buying GMOs supports Monsanto. Monsanto puts little family farmers out of business by suing them for stealing their genes and planting them? or something like that. Basically the GMO crops contaminate small farmers crops, and they then can’t reproduce because GMO crops have to have a gene inserted into every seed, every reproduction. They didn’t talk about the environment in the video much.
January 18, 2013 at 8:14 am
When raising ceonovtinnal food, one uses pecticieds as compared to natural pesticides with organic (organic less expensive). Chemical fertilizers compared to organic fertilizers (organic natural and less expenisive ie manures etc)How can this justify the higher cost of organic food as compared to commercially grown (less expensive) and having to purchase chemicals etc. Doing artifical pollination as oposed to natural pollination. The list goes on and onl. This boggles my mind. I know from my own garden by not having to spend money on poisons and artificial fertilizers it costs me less to grow vegatables than if I used chemicals and other artificial means.Then why are we being charged more for a vegatable or a piece of meat that has no chemicals that are costly to produce, distribute, and apply as compared to natural herbicides, fertilizers, etc. that are plentiful and less expensive to use?
January 15, 2013 at 9:54 pm