A new bill could overturn this egregious law right away. Action Alert!
In April, we reported that the secret provision known as the Monsanto Protection Act, a rider anonymously attached to a spending bill that sailed through Congress in March, had ignited a firestorm of outrage from the public. This new law strips federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and planting of illegal, potentially hazardous genetically engineered crops even while USDA is performing an environmental impact statement.
ANH-USA has spoken with the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and we have confirmed that the senator is planning to introduce an amendment to the upcoming Senate Farm Bill which would repeal the provision. The Monsanto Protection Act is set to expire at the end of September, with the temporary spending measure, but might be rolled in to the next one if we don’t act. If we can we get rid of it now, it would be a signal from the American people that nothing like this sneak provision, stuck without warning into must-pass, unrelated legislation, should never again be attempted.
Sen. Merkely needs to build support for the amendment to improve its chances of being voted on when the Farm Bill goes to the Senate floor next week.
This year’s Farm Bill is nearly identical to the 2012 version that passed the Senate but not the House. The most significant change in this year’s Farm Bill is the end of direct payments to farmers, who have traditionally been paid whether they grow crops or not. The program costs American taxpayers about $5 billion a year. The new bill would instead increase financing to farmers for crop insurance, a federally subsidized program that pays insurance premiums for farmers and covers decreases in crop revenue.
In addition, the funding levels of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the 2013 Farm Bill are extremely controversial. The program, which serves 47 million Americans, gives $70 billion a year in food stamp assistance, which amounts to about 70 percent of Farm Bill spending and eclipses the crop insurance program. The House Agriculture Committee wants to cut $20.5 billion in food assistance over the next ten years to rein in SNAP’s growth. Republicans say the cuts to SNAP should be bigger while Democrats argue they’re already too big.
The Farm Bill will be moving quickly, so we need to take immediate action. Please send a message to your senators today and ask them to support Sen. Merkely’s amendment to repeal the Monsanto Protection Act!
Repeal the Monsanto protection act. The monsanto protection act is a terroist act against the people of America and must be Repealed. Also the Senator that drew up the Monsanto Protection Act must be arrested arrested as a Terrioist. If not all forgien Terriost have to do is invest in Monsanto and push more posion on the American people.
Please support Sen. Merkely’s amendment to repeal the Monsanto Protection Act! Protect the people! Not Monsanto!
As responsible ethical scientific research has shown the body is not a chemical dumping ground for toxic GMO food. Monsanto is in violation of this fact and should criminally investigated and shut down!
Is there a way that your organization could filter the announcements and action alerts, some for US residents and others for residents of other regions. We all are affected by the things that are done in the US, but being asked to contact one’s Senator is a useless waste of time for those of us who have no representation within the US governmental system. Thank you.
I do not want to eat food that has is made from genetically engineered crops. When I buy organic foods that is exactly what I am paying for and what I want to consume.
Support Sen. Merkely’s amendment to repeal the Monsanto Protection Act!
Stop the Monsanto protection Act
shame that this got through at all. Monsanto does not need to be protected.
It’s is truly upsetting that Monsanto is allowed to poison our plant with chemicals and GMO plants without any accounting for the damage to people, the protection of them that was attached to the spending bill needs to be stopped now!
Lots of respect for senator Merkley. Nice ethics.
Corporate profiteers must not be above the law, especially when it has to do with the food supply. Anything that threatens the food supply is a threat to national security.
Really? Must you mess with our food?
I grew up in the country. Most people I knew grew or raised their own food. Nobody ever heard of all the health problems that people are having today. Think of food as your bodies natural healing medicine. People! FOOD IS MEDICINE! It has been what has helped us be healthy enough to survive though the ages, when we had it in sufficient quantities and variety, but without all the modifications and built in pesticides. Numerous studies have been done, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt, that genetically modified foods cause all kinds of problems, including tumours and sterility, just to name a few. and still unbelievably in USA we still allow these frankenfoods to be grown, even though governments in other countries have banned all these things because they actually acknowledge that these issues are real! PLEASE! SLEEPING MASSES – “WAKE UP!!!” THEY ARE TRYING TO POISON YOU…
Why do we stand by and let our elected officials get away with murder?Why do we continually vote for the same crazies and put them back in office. What a shame. Shame on them for trying to deceive us and shame on us for voting them right back in office!
MONSANTO seems to have become a truly “evil empire:” not only as regards US farmers (harrassing them with specious lawsuits for “stealing” its patented seeds until the farmers are driven into unsustainable debt and lose their farm), but it sells their sterile seeds to subsistence farmers in India, where, in the past 10 years, a quarter million Indian farmers have committed suicide after becoming trapped in a vicious cycle of debt begun by borrowing money to buy the sterile seeds and chemical fertilizer needed to grow them. For millennia, Indian farmers have used natural seeds and cow dung as fertilizer, obviating the need for chemical fertilizers. Once they start using the non-reproducible seeds of Monsanto, they are forced to use the chemical fertilizer, which requires precise crop watering — not possible for Indian farmers, who also don’t have irrigation systems. Lack of crops and increasing debts have destroyed the subsistence farming that once was the major means of production and support of their families. The Monsanto system has destroyed families, as well, since the now-impoverished Indian farmer cannot afford to marry his daughters, a great social shame in that society. When the farmers have tried to return to natural seeds they’ve been told there’s no demand for them and therefore no supply available. When and how will we be able to stop these corporate monsters, produced and enabled by our country, from destroying farmers here and abroad?? Most of our problems in the US stem directly from the corporate funds buying legislators. How to get the legislators to stop this, when they themselves need the money to campaign, and even the US Supreme Court upholds the likes of Monsanto both to patent seeds and to pour unlimited money into our government?? I ask this not rhetorically — am desperate to know what can be effective in this political and economic environment.
Monsanto has had its hands dirty for years, reaping millions from aspartame, and big business, like coke, pepsi, etc. He is a dirty piece of filth. If Americans want to take control of the issues at hand, it starts by standing up for yourself.
ATTENTION MONSANTO:You reap what you sow. Welcome to the Karma Cafe:You’re
served what you deserve.
Monsanto has now been exposed, and is standing bare naked; hiding behind the
government for protection.
we need help with finding out WHO is supporting monsanto an start a campaygne against thim for- relection , or just fire them all an start over.
kenny