U.S. Consumers Organize Massive Boycott Against Food Companies Refusing To Label GMOs

Source: NaturalNews.com
Ethan A. Huff
August 4, 2016

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is organizing a nationwide boycott of all the companies that have been fighting against legitimate labeling laws for genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), and specifically those that favored the recently-passed S.764 legislation, a faux “labeling” scheme backed by Monsanto that further turns the lights out on labeling transparency.

The bill, which many are now referring to as the Monsanto “DARK” (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act 2.0, was signed into law by Barack Obama on July 29. It nullifies existing state-level labeling laws like those of Vermont that would have mandated printed labels for all food items containing GMOs, and replaces these laws with a nationwide QR barcode system that’s both confusing and discriminatory, not to mention completely ineffective.

Members of the powerful Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), which represents some 300 junk food and pesticide companies, helped ensure a victory for S.764, despite tens of thousands of calls and comments of opposition from members of the public. In response, OCA is now calling on all Americans to stand up and say no more, by promising not to buy products from the companies working overtime to keep people in the dark about what they’re eating.

What OCA is asking people to do specifically is to look for the new “Smart Label” QR codes – or what it has dubbed the “Mark of Monsanto” – on food products and, if present, to avoid purchasing those products, as well as any other products sold by that particular brand. Instead, consumers should look for products that bear a Certified Organic and/or Non-GMO Project Verified seal. Of course, the surest way to ensure that your food is truly GMO-free is to grow it yourself.

The only exception to this are healthy and organic “cheater” brands owned by parent companies that have contributed financially or politically to stopping mandatory GMO labeling. The traitor brands that consumers should avoid supporting, followed by their parent company names and financial contributions to fight GMO labeling, include:

• IZZE, Naked Juice, Simply Frito-Lay, Starbucks Frappuccino (PepsiCo: $8.8 million)
• Honest Tea, Odwalla, Keurig / Green Mountain Coffee (Coca-Cola: $5.5 million)
• Gerber Organic, Sweet Leaf Tea (Nestle: $3 million)
• Boca Burgers, Green and Black’s (Kraft / Mondelez: $3.9 million)
• Annie’s, Cascadian Farm, Larabar, Muir Glen (General Mills: $3.6 million)
• Alexia, Pam organic cooking sprays (ConAgra Foods: $2.6 million)
• Bear Naked, Gardenburger, Kashi, Morningstar Farms (Kellogg’s: $1.9 million)
• R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organics, Smuckers Organics (Smuckers: $1.5 million)
• Dagoba (Hershey’s: $1.6 million)
• Earthgrains bread (Bimbo Bakeries: $1 million)
• Simply Asia, Thai Kitchen (McCormick: $500,000)
• Applegate Farms (Hormel: $500,000)

OCA calls Obama out for betraying Americans by signing S.764 into law

Ronnie Cummins, international director of OCA, has also called Obama out for failing to deliver on his promise on the campaign trail to label GMOs. He wrote in a scathing indictment:

“Despite hundreds of thousands of signatures, phone calls and emails to the White House, President Obama on Friday, July 29, signed into law S.764, a bill that preempts Vermont’s GMO labeling law. The bill allows corporations to hide information about GMOs behind confusing QR electronic barcodes that more than a third of Americans can’t even read because they don’t have smart phones or reliable internet service.”

“It’s incomprehensible that Obama, who on the campaign trail promised to label GMOs, and who issued an executive order directing Congress not to preempt state laws, succumbed to industry pressure to betrayed [sic] the 90 percent of Americans who want GMOs labeled.”

OCA has also released a smartphone app that will help you identify which brands and products to avoid. It’s called “Buycott,” and it’s available both for the Apple iPhone and Google Android platforms.

Read More At: NaturalNews.com

Sources for this article include:

CommonDreams.org

Salsa3.SalsaLabs.com

OrganicConsumers.org

WARNING: Regulatory Loophole Allows Genetically Modified Food Products To Be Marketed As Non-Genetically Modified Foods

Source:NaturalNews.com
Julie Fidler
July 19, 2016

The government isn’t particularly interested in making sure Americans know what they’re eating. It seems like knowing what is in the food should be a basic right, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, last week Congress passed a federal requirement for labeling products containing genetically modified ingredients that signifies a big win for food companies.

The bill will require labels to be retooled or updated to show whether any ingredients had their natural DNA altered, but it will be years before the new labels are phased in, and food companies won’t be required to list specific information on their products.

GMO labeling proponents had hoped the bill would be more like a state law in Vermont, which requires food companies and grocers selling prepared foods to explicitly label foods that contain GMO ingredients by January.

The more vague bill passed by Congress will supersede these stricter state laws. [1]

The government is only willing to go so far in its definition of genetically modified foods. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says removing DNA from a crop is not the same as adding genes from another organism. This means that corn injected with outside DNA is technically considered a GMO, but canola that can tolerate herbicide because scientists removed a gene is not.

This also means that products created through gene-editing are already on store shelves in the U.S., but because of the USDA loophole, consumers don’t realize it. In fact, this regulatory gap allows American consumers to be duped into purchasing gene-edited products that are actually labeled non-GMO.

Monsanto, DuPont, and Dow Chemical have all struck licensing deals with smaller companies for gene-editing technology. Last year, 8,000 acres of gene-edited canola were harvested by U.S. farmers, and the crops were processed into cooking oil marketed as non-GMO.

Carl Jorgenson, director of wellness strategy at Daymon Worldwide, a retail marketing firm, said:

“There’s a feeling among consumers that they want their food as close as possible to what nature intended. There’s an overall distrust of Big Food and Big Science.”

GMO opponents are often portrayed in the media and many in the scientific community as conspiracy theorists and science-deniers. In light of the USDA’s unwillingness to acknowledge that food products with deleted DNA are just as genetically modified as products injected with genes, it’s not hard to see why that overall distrust exists.

Regardless, an increasing number of Americans are avoiding GMO foods. Some 52% of respondents to a Mintel survey said they deliberately purchase non-GMO products. Many food companies are responding to this push for all-natural products, and nearly 17% of new food products introduced in the U.S. last year carried a non-GMO label, up from less than 3% in 2011.  The issue of genetically modifying the food supply was named one of the top stories influencing behavior in Americans under 40 in 2015. [2]

But some of those labels are clearly deceptive, and even though last week Congress passed a fairly loose GMO-labeling bill, it won’t apply to gene-edited crops as regulations now stand.

It is also important to point out that under the bill passed last week by Congress, food companies that don’t want to reveal GMO ingredients on product labels can simply use a “QR code” that must be scanned using a smartphone or tablet. [3]

Read More At: NaturalSociety.com

Truth-in-labeling Proponents Bombard White House With 250k Petition Signatures Demanding Obama Veto Bill That Strips Away Americans’ Right To Know About Which Foods Are Unnatural & Have Been Genetically Modified

Source: NaturalNews.com
Ethan A.Huff
July 17, 2016

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the final stop for a controversial bill recently passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, that would scrap state laws like those of Vermont that mandate package labeling for foods that contain genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). And more than 250,000 advocates for truth-in-labeling are now petitioning Barack Obama to veto the legislation immediately, and honor the will of the people rather than corporations in this important matter.

S.764, also known as the “DARK” (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, is one of the latest efforts by the chemical food industry to keep Americans literally in the dark about what they’re purchasing and feeding to their families every time they go to the grocery store. It was also offered up as a federal solution to the problem of patchwork GMO labeling laws already enacted at the state level, but what it actually threatens to do is un-label GMOs, and make it more difficult for the average consumer to identify them.

On Friday, July 15, at 1 p.m., signatures collected at WhiteHouse.gov, ThePetitionSite.org, MoveOn.org and many other websites were hand-delivered to the White House demanding redress. Helping to spearhead the effort were the advocacy groups Organic Consumers Association, Center for Food Safety, Citizens for GMO Labeling, Consumers Union, Cornucopia Institute, Food Babe, Food Democracy Now, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, GMO Free USA, GMO Inside, Label GMOs, March Against Monsanto, Moms Across America, Occupy Monsanto, National Organic Coalition, Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association and Vermont Right to Know GMOs.

This coalition of 286 advocacy groups wrote a letter to Obama asking him to veto S.764 on the grounds that it won’t advance the cause of GMO labeling. S.764 is also overtly unconstitutional, as it overrides existing state laws that mandate GMO labeling on food packaging. Another major point of contention are the GMO exemptions in S.764, which account for as many as 99 percent of all GMOs currently used in food.

“The FDA argues that the bill may not lead to a single label, because of the inadequate definition adopted by the Senate,” the letter explains. “Even if the rules and regulations can be developed, S. 764 allows companies to conceal genetically engineered ingredient information behind QR Codes, websites or 800 numbers which would require consumers to have internet access and a smartphone to determine what’s in their food. This is confusing and discriminatory.”

Will Obama finally step up to the plate and support Americans’ right to know?

For a president who’s constantly nagging the country over issues of equality, it only seems reasonable that Obama would want to nullify S.764 and urge Congress to come up with a real GMO labeling bill that, I don’t know, involves actually labeling GMOs on food product packaging. S.764 is a Trojan Horse bill devised by the chemical lobby to further conceal GMOs in the American food supply, and it’s particularly offensive to poor people and minorities who lack the technological infrastructure necessary to identify GMOs under the mandates of S.764.

Remember, Obama promised on the campaign trail that his administration would “let folks know if their food has been genetically modified because Americans should know what they are buying.” All it would take for this to happen is a simple piece of legislation outlining what constitutes a bio-engineered ingredient, and how that ingredient is to be labeled. As is already the case in most other developed countries throughout the world, a simple package label stating “produced with genetic engineering” would suffice.

To learn more about how to grow your own GMO-free food at home, be sure to check out the amazing Vertical Garden Tower.

Read More At: NaturalNews.com

Senate Approves Mock GMO-Labeling Bill, Threatening Genuine Attempts To Label Food At The State Level

Source: NaturalNews.com
Daniel Barker
July 11, 2016

A watered-down GMO labeling bill, which critics say was largely constructed by the GMO industry itself, and is likely to undermine existing labeling legislation at the state level, has just passed the Senate and is also expected to pass in the House of Representatives.

The bill will require food manufacturers to use one of three types of labels to alert consumers to the presence of GMO ingredients in food products. The three label types include a written statement on the package, a link to a website or a phone number, or a quick response (QR) code that can be scanned by a smartphone.

The labeling options are one of the main aspects of the bill that opponents find unacceptable. The use of the QR code will limit access to ingredient information to those who own smartphones, and critics say that is exactly the reason for its inclusion in the bill.

Opponents to the bill argue that only clear text labels are appropriate, and that the other labeling options are only included to make it difficult for consumers to gain information.

The bill will effectively undermine GMO labeling laws that have been passed in states such as Vermont and many municipalities which require clear text labeling on products containing GMOs.

Another issue with the bill is the fact that it leaves loopholes for certain foods to escape being labeled as containing GMOs.

From The New York Times:

“Proponents of labeling insisted that nothing short of text on packages would do. Some, including Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont and erstwhile presidential candidate, also raised concerns over the definition in the bill for determining which foods would require labels, a sign that if the bill becomes law, legal challenges will almost certainly follow.”

Under the wording of the bill, many foods containing GMOs may be exempted from labeling. For instance, foods containing oils from GMO soybeans may not require labeling.

No one yet seems to be clear exactly what foods the labeling bill will cover, adding to the confusion and increasing the skepticism regarding its effectiveness.

A victory for the GMO food industry

One thing is clear: the passing of the bill in the Senate is a victory for the GMO foods industry, which spent approximately $100 million in 2015 alone in its efforts to oppose GMO labeling, but which also managed to have the labeling bill drafted in its favor.

The labeling bill is so watered-down and GMO industry favorable, that it has been dubbed an “anti-labeling” bill.

In fact, there will be no penalties or fines imposed for non-compliance, which essentially means that the legislation not only favors the GMO industry, but also has no teeth at all to begin with.

The bill is a “fraud,” according to Mike Adams, the Health Ranger. “It would not require any sort of GMO labeling that’s readable by human beings, and it would destroy the only existing labeling law that requires real, honest labeling (the Vermont law).”

Consumers cannot trust the government to protect them from GMO consumption

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the government and its regulatory agencies cannot be trusted to protect the public. The vast majority – more than 90 percent – of Americans say that they want GMO labeling, but the government has failed to acknowledge this fact and act effectively to meet their demands.

The best approach to protecting your family against GMO food consumption is to buy only local, organic products, and to grow as much of your own healthy, organic food as possible.

Growing organic food at home is easy and practical, even if you have limited space to work with. Raising your own food crops in a small area can be accomplished through incorporating vertical gardening techniques, for example.

The Garden Tower vertical gardening system is the perfect first step towards gaining food self-sufficiency. It’s easy to use, and it’s made in the U.S.A. Visit this link to find out more.

Read More At: NaturalNews.com

Obama Premiums Set To Spike Again In 2017

Source: NaturalSociety.com
Julie Fidler
June 20, 2016

Obamacare was instituted to make sure that every American had access to healthcare, especially low-income individuals and families. But Obamacare insurance premiums are set to go up yet again. For many, their families will be covered, but it could be a hardship.

In 2017, some of the most popular types of Obamacare health insurance plans want to jack up their prices by 10% or more in 14 major cities, an analysis published Wednesday reveals.

The Kaiser Family Foundation analysis shows there is a wide variation in the proposed prices of lower-cost so-called silver plans. The foundation found that about half of the markets it looked at would see a slight drop in the number of insurers selling plans.

The price hikes ranged from a high of an 18% premium increase proposed for the second-lowest-cost silver plan in Portland, Oregon, to a low of a 13% price cut for the same type of plan in Providence, Rhode Island.

In most of those areas, Kaiser’s report shows double-digit hikes would be common. [1]

Cynthia Cox, lead author of the analysis, said:

“Premiums are going up faster in 2017 than they have in past years.”

The impact on consumers will depend largely on whether they receive government subsidies for their premiums, as well as their own willingness to switch plans to keep increases more manageable.

Among the cities Kaiser looked at, the monthly premium for a 40-year-old nonsmoker in 2017 will range from $192 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to $482 in Burlington, Vermont.

Continue Reading At: NaturalSociety.com

Companies ‘Willfully Violating’ Vermont’s GMO Labeling Law Will Have to Pay

Source: NaturalSociety.com
Julie Fidler
April 13, 2016

Staring July 1, Vermont will require all foods containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients to be labeled under Act 120, making it the first state in the U.S. to enact such a law. The state’s attorney general said last week in no uncertain terms that his office will enforce the law by targeting “willful violations” by manufacturers and not products that were produced before July 1 that are still on store shelves.

Said Todd Daloz, an assistant attorney general:

“What we’re really going to go after is folks who are willfully noncompliant, who are just not putting labels on their products at all or otherwise trying to skirt the labeling law.”

Vermont will allow a 6-month grace period for shelf-stable food produced and distributed before July 1 to give those products time to move through the system. The attorney general’s office said it won’t take enforcement action against those products during that time, unless it’s obvious that a manufacturer is deliberately disobeying the law.

Daloz said:

“Those long shelf stable products are not our concern. Our concern is going to be manufacturers who are choosing not to label or are not labeling for whatever reason.”

Under Vermont’s law, manufacturers must label packaged foods that contain GM ingredients, and stores must post a label on or near unpackaged GM foods, such as produce and bulk food. Some foods, including meat, honey, plain milk, and eggs, are exempt from the state’s labeling law. It does not matter if the animals have been fed or injected with food or drugs produced with genetic engineering.

Foods that require USDA approval of their labels, like those containing meat or poultry, such as frozen dinners or canned spaghetti, are also exempt from the labeling law.

Violators face civil fines of up to $1,000 per day, per product, and not based on the number of individual packages of the product. Retailers who violate the law would receive a 30-day warning to correct the problem before facing fines.

The Grocery Manufacturer’s Association, predictably, is unhappy with Vermont’s law. The group wants has pushed for voluntary labeling, and not mandatory labeling. Though if mandatory, the group says GMO labeling laws to be nationwide, saying that individual legislation only creates a patchwork of confusing and expensive state laws.

Source: Hunt for Hope Wellness

The association also expressed concern over recent lawsuits filed on behalf of private citizens and organizations against food companies, and says a recent memo from Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell failed to specify how he would recognize a “willful” violation without bringing an action.

Continue Reading At: NaturalSociety.com

Frankenfood industry now in total panic over Vermont’s tough Genetically Modified Food labeling law; General Mills announces surrender

Source: NaturalNews.com
Jennifer Lea Reynolds
March 29, 2016

In order to comply with Vermont’s GMO food labeling law set to go into effect in July 2016, General Mills has announced that they’ll begin to label products of theirs which contain genetically modified ingredients. The company’s decision also comes in the wake of the recent Senate vote that struck down the DARK Act’s efforts which would have kept GMO labeling laws at bay and consumers unaware of what they’re feeding their children. That Senate vote took place on a Wednesday; by Friday that same week, General Mills announced their labeling plans.

Yes, indeed, it would appear that the Frankenfood industry is finally shaking in their boots, responding as they should have been all along. As more and more health-conscious Americans are demanding to know what goes in the foods they eat, questionable food practices and the mega industries that churn them out are finally taking action.

It’s taken quite a bit of arm twisting to do something that frankly shouldn’t even be given a second thought, but at least steps are being taken that demonstrate the power of the people when they remain persistent in their right-to-know efforts. Granted, there’s still a long way to go, but it’s refreshing to see companies coming out of the woodwork to keep the health of their customers in mind, rather than only latch on to whether or not it will make them mega bucks.

Details behind General Mills’ decision

On the General Mills website, Jeff Harmening, an executive vice president and chief operating officer for U.S. Retail at General Mills, penned a blog post announcing the company’s GMO-labeling decision.

“I have been eagerly awaiting a resolution of the GMO labeling debate in Washington and am disappointed that a national solution has still not been reached,” Harmening wrote. “As the discussions continue in Washington, one thing is very clear: Vermont state law requires us to start labeling certain grocery store food packages that contain GMO ingredients or face significant fines. We can’t label our products for only one state without significantly driving up costs for our consumers and we simply will not do that. The result: consumers all over the U.S. will soon begin seeing words legislated by the state of Vermont on the labels of many of their favorite General Mills products.”

The remainder of his blog reinforces the idea that a national standard is needed in order to resolve the GMO labeling issue, while also directing consumers to the company website, where they can learn more about “GMO ingredient information for hundreds of our U.S. products, along with reference information.”

Grocery Manufacturers Association not pleased with Vermont’s law or company’s GMO labeling effort, focuses on business expenses over consumer health

However, not everyone is thrilled with the company’s choice. The Grocery Manufacturers Association, for example, seems to have their minds strictly on dollar signs, seeing General Mills’ effort as financially devastating.

The Association, a trade group which includes General Mills and which previously drew negative attention over money laundering, maintains that Vermont’s labeling law has created “serious problems for business,” adding in a statement, “Food companies are being forced to make decisions on how to comply and having to spend millions of dollars. One small state’s law is setting labeling standards for consumers across the country.”

Meanwhile, it’s perfectly fine if it works the other way around, right? In other words, one company can continue providing unhealthy ingredients in their foods, making sure their standards are the norm for consumers across the country. It’s all right to spend millions of dollars to essentially poison Americans with GMO-laden foods but not all right to spend millions of dollars to take steps to undo the damage and help restore people’s health? We fail to see the logic in the Association’s statement.

“This shows that the United States has the capacity to join the 64 other countries that already require GMO labeling,” Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin said. “I urge other companies to follow the lead of General Mills and extend this right to their customers nationwide as well.”

Read More At: NaturalNews.com