Two powerful new bills will help control GMOs. Spread the word with our Action Alert!
Rep. Dennis Kucinich has introduced two bills that would mandate labeling and provide stricter safety protections for GE products. HR 3553, the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act, already has twelve co-sponsors (and bipartisan support). The bill requires labeling of all genetically engineered organisms—including fish, which is especially important since GM salmon approval seems imminent. For animals and animal products, the bill would also require disclosure if the animal has been fed GMO.
HR 3554, the Genetically Engineered Safety Act, has a number of excellent provisions. It:
- Prohibits open-air cultivation of genetically engineered pharmaceutical and industrial crops, to prevent cross-pollination and contamination;
- Prohibits the use of common human food or animal feed as the host plant for a genetically engineered pharmaceutical or industrial chemical; and
- Establishes a tracking system to regulate the growing, handling, transportation, and disposal of GE pharmaceutical and industrial crops and their by-products.
This second bill currently has two co-sponsors: Rep. Raul Grijalva and Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark. ANH-USA is working on Capitol Hill to garner greater support for both bills.
As we noted in November, the FDA is still reviewing the application for approving GE salmon. The House voted to stop funding the research on the fish but the Senate has not, and it seems a foregone conclusion that FDA will approve the salmon since USDA is funding it.
Rep. Kucinich’s bills will fix huge legal loopholes. Current laws require no oversight for GE products—and of course no labeling requirements. There is also a huge data gap regarding the safety of genetically engineered foods, as the few safety studies that have been done have all been sponsored by industry.
Dr. Joseph Mercola recently interviewed Dr. Don Huber, an agricultural scientist and expert in microbial ecology at Purdue University who has issued stern warnings about the devastating effects of GE food crops after discovering a brand new organism in GE animal feed—an organism that has since been clearly linked to infertility and miscarriage in cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and poultry. It’s an interview no one should miss.
Our colleagues at ANH-Europe reported last week that one of the world’s largest chocolate producers, Mars, became the primary backer for scientists to produce a genetically modified (GMO) cocoa tree hybrid. As Dr. Robert Verkerk noted, “The last thing subsistence farmers need is GM crops….The push for GM is actually all about control of agriculture and control of the food supply by a handful of very large corporations.”
As huge a health issue as genetically engineered foods are, it is also a major environmental issue. GM farming, because of the constant and uncontrollable threat of cross-contamination, has the potential to wreak havoc on crops the world over—and thus have a devastating effect on the future of the entire human race.
We are also greatly concerned that the closed-system production of GMOs could cause a major environmental disaster as well. Just because the GMOs are not blowing in the wind, as it were, doesn’t mean we’re safe! Green algae, for example, is cultured for the production of biofuels and essential fatty acids—the DHA and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) used in some baby foods are derived from this cultured algae, as we discuss elsewhere in this issue.
While the bioreactors that process the algae are theoretically closed, they are not foolproof. Genetically modified algae could escape into rivers and oceans, and could compete and genetically recombine with natural algae. Creating an oil-rich layer of genetically engineered algae on the surface of the oceans would have unthinkable environmental consequences.
We need your help to get through not only to our legislators, but to world leaders as well.
Please take a moment and write to your representative, your senators, and President Obama, and ask them to fight genetically modified organisms by supporting these bills from Rep. Kucinich. Please take action today!
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It’s to Bad & Sadly too LATE…..
GMO seeds have already contaminated most crops and animals as GMO GRAINS & GMO CORN is what they are fed.
I agree. As I see it, the only safe meat left are the wild horses. Thank goodness the plants can re-open!
ROFL …
The worst problem is that Roundup essentially causes ALL soils that it is used on to effectively become mineral depleted big time. This causes the EFFECTIVE nutrition to go south.
At the same time, superweeds are being created. Don’t know where they are all coming from. I guess they forgot that organism’s they use, (and some they don’t but nature does) also exist in the wild.
Monsanto’s techniques arent exactly a well kept secret so who is to say these did or did not occur naturally? Since most of them also seem to better use the increased CO2 (making them even more voracious than they already are) the greater likely-hood is natural. I don’t think Homeland Security can stop Mama Gaia when she gets annoyed.
The FDA should immediately ban all GM foods. @ Whole Foods Stores have already labeled all of the genetically modified products and has warning labels about the product. They should also ban the sale of roundup for weeds as a pesticide and stop its distribution to the consumer and farmers. The U.S. is a dangerous place to live because of the death producing food products.
Maybe they would be more motivated if they stopped and thought about the fact that their family & loved ones are being affected too, not to mention they,themselves unless they eat 100% organic!!!!!
“Super bugs” have been created that defy nearly all antibiotics still given too freely for every minor infection. Now “super weeds” that require more pesticides not less have been created. A super number of vaccines are given to children before their GI tract and neurological and immune systems connected to it are developed outside the womb and in many cases without the benefit and support of breast milk followed by a diet lacking true nourishment. In the bad mix has now come GMOs. The irresponsibility of our economic driven society is mindboggling! I’m not against capitalism but I desire honesty, integrity, accountability and a high regard for the health and well-being of our citizens at home and around the world based on commonsense and a REAL look at the possible consequences of our choices before we launch something “new”. We continue as we are we go the way of other lost species. It’s only a matter of time!
This bill is a good start but it does not go nearly far enough. This bill should outlaw open cultivation of *all* GM crops and require companies like Monsanto to pay restitution to farmers whose fields their GM crops have contaminated and clean up the contamination at their own expense. Further it should bar these corporations from suing such farmers for infringing their patents. It should also require phasing out of all “Roundup-Ready” crops as seed producers are able to ramp up production of natural, uncontaminated, non- GMO seed.
“Roundup Ready” has been a terrible failure. The Roundup-ready gene has cross bred with weeds to produce super-weeds resistant to nearly all herbicides. One farmer complained the only way he could get rid of these weeds was to physically pull them out of the ground. For this alone RR needs to be done away with, and ultimately outlawed..
If you watch this GMO video you will pray for our country, even if like me you do not pray often. We are in the grip of pure POWERFUL EVIL at the HIGHEST levels of “government”. This is a willful, KNOWING attempt to not only destroy our food supply but the very land itself. The millions and millions of acres poisoned with Round Up will take much time and money to recover such they can produce food fit for man or beast again.
“Dr. Don Huber, an agricultural scientist and expert in microbial ecology, has issued stern warnings about shockingly devastating effects of genetically engineered food crops after discovering a brand new organism in GE animal feed—an organism that has since been clearly linked to infertility and miscarriage in cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and poultry”
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/10/dr-don-huber-interview-part-1.aspx?e_cid=20111210_DNL_art_1
It has been said that the purpose of the Bt-crops is to depopulate the Earth according to the mandate of United Nations Agenda 21. But is the intent is to ‘save’ the environment by depopulation by poisoning it? A poisoned environment to me is not ‘saved’ from man’s pollution. This video between Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. Don Huber is very dark. When Dr. Huber stated the facts, Dr Mercola realized the dark evil in genetic engineering is worse then he imagined.
As one who was physically affected by GM food, and then recovered by avoiding it, I know that just as some people are affected by peanuts, I and my family are affected by the current crop of GM foods. My dad and I survived by avoiding it. But I believe that too much fast food, and the GM food that they contain, led to the death of my oldest son. So I warn others to avoid GM foods and the death and disease that they bring. And as the video shows, GM foods modified to produce the Bt-toxin and be deficient in metal nutrients are a plague on mankind.
LOL. Well … Whoever is pushing BT seems to have forgotten the law of unintended consequences.
The perveyors of BT have also shot themselves in the foot. The so called “suicide gene” in their corn doesn’t work. This means that crops cant be rotated. Kernels that escapes harvest will sprout in the soy and they are immune to Roundup. This happened to some friends of mine.
This could be disastrous to the human race by weakening our gene pool. We might just be slated for the endangered species list…….
This is not only an economic but health disaster waiting to happen. Our nation is full of people with undiagnosed food-related disorders that can be linked to eating these types of foods without even knowing it. Our food chain has been tampered with, our soils tainted and who knows what else will be the downside of big agri-business meddling in our foodstuffs. The general public has NO IDEA what is happening. Sad, but true.
When the mob with the torches and pitchforks forms to get the “creators of the monster” I think I will join them.
Oh Yeah… I’m already in it.
Certainly weather control, chemtrails and GMO’s are designed to give control of the worlds food by the agricultural dynasty’s of Cargill, Monsanto, ADM, and the like.
Financial control of the commoditiy grain markets is all but assured. Cargill is the largest privately held company in the US, maybe the world. Whats better than some competition, no competition!
And where are most of the chemtrails documented in the US… what is known as the WET side of the country (and other major argricultural areas, ie, CA, AZ).
This eastern half of the country is also where the highest density of NOAA/USAF radar sites are located. I believe they are part and parcel to the weather modification that has been so evident in recent years.
I believe that the unusual weather we have experienced in the NE are the result of testing of these systems. Tornadoes, flooding rains, hurricane Irene, just not normal.
Most of the grains in the world are controlled by four companies. Wouldnt it be in their interest to have COMPLETE control of the worlds food supply?
And if that means chemtrails and weather modification, which to most people inconceivable, for them its just a business plan.
These bills are long overdue and must be passed. There is overwhelming support for them from consumers who care about health and safety issues. If products being exported must be labeled due to requirements from other countries, why are they not labeled for use in this country? What is the biotech industry so afraid of? IF GM products are so safe, why don’t they stand behind them instead of trying to “hide” them in unlabeled packaging? They want to shove this crap down our throats, but yet refuse to be accountable for it…What does that tell you?!
I think that the industry is afraid that once GMOs have traceability to various health problems (especially allergies among children)…they’ll get hit with thousands of lawsuits (note the similarity to the tobacco industry debacle). GMOs do not belong in our food – period. At the very least they should be labeled. Individual consumers should be protected before corporate interests — corporations are NOT people!! I expect this Administration to do the RIGHT thing FOR PEOPLE… WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT WE’RE EATING!
The FDA and GMO foods are a worse threat to us than all the terrorist plots in the world.