10 scary reasons to label GMOs:

Would you run the risk of eating toxins if it caused cancer, I doubt it! These 10 reasons will make you put your fork down. How are we to know what is in our food if its not labelled?

#1 Monsanto's Bt-toxin, in its Bt-producing GMO corn and cotton (used in food in the form of cottonseed oil), was found by Canadian doctors in the blood of 93% of pregnant women and 80% of the umbilical blood of their babies.

#2 The authors of the Canadian study conclude that the women and their babies were exposed to Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin through a "normal" non-organic Canadian diet, including non-organic (so-called "natural" and "conventional") meat, egg, and dairy products from animals fed Bt corn.

#3 Monsanto's GMO "Bt" corn and cotton plants are engineered to produce a insecticide in every cell of the plant that kills insects by breaking open their stomachs.

#4 Mice fed Monsanto's Bt corn had elevated levels of immune system substances that are also higher in humans who suffer  from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, allergies, Lou Gehrig's disease, autoimmune  disease, and colitis.

#5 Young mice in the same study had elevated T-cells, which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases.

#6 Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin has properties of known  allergens - it actually fails the World Health Organization's allergen screening tests.

#7 Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin has been found to bind with the small intestines in mice and with intestinal tissue in rhesus monkeys.

#8 In addition to its GMO "Bt" crops which are  engineered to produce insecticide, Monsanto also produces GMO "RoundUp  Ready" crops, engineered with a bacterial DNA that allows it to survive  otherwise deadly doses of its herbicide RoundUp.

#9 In the only human feeding study ever published on GMOs, Monsanto's GMO "RoundUp Ready" soybeans were found to transfer Monsanto's "RoundUp Ready" DNA to the bacteria living inside human intestines.

#10 According to Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for  Responsible Technology, the transfer of Monsanto's GMO Bt DNA to human digestive bacteria could create a "living pesticide factory" that could be responsible for the "increase in gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, and childhood learning disorders -  since 1996 when Bt crops came on the market."

Making a difference with one voice...

An email I recieved today from the Organic Consumers group. A wonderful organization that I support through advocacy and making some noise!! Sure this probably went out to hundreds of people on their list, but still I did my part and its making a difference! Bring labeling to GMO foods...I want to know what I'm eating!
You can help too...please make your own noise!
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Hi Julia!

Thank you for responding to my urgent alert asking for your help to win our right to know about genetically engineered food in Washington State! (Want to learn why we need GMO labels? Scroll down to read ten scary reasons.)

I was thrilled to read in the AP article, "Some Wash. wheat farmers throw support behind required labeling of genetically modified foods,"(published here in D.C. in the Washington Post and across the country in 152 different news outlets!) that the hearings were "packed!"

You all made national news! Not only in the AP, but also:

Food Safety News: Calls for GMO Labeling Keep Cropping Up

There are also lots of great stories that ran locally around Washington State:

Seattle, WA (KOMO 4 TV): Lawmakers take up issue of genetically-altered foods

Seattle, WA (PubliCola): Bill Would Require Labeling of GMOs

Sequim, WA: Sequim woman to testify in favor of genetically engineered food labeling

Spokane, WA: Bill Proposed To Label Genetically Modified Food

The Senate bill to label GMOs, SB 6298, had a public hearing in the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Water & Rural Economic Development at 10:00 AM on Thursday, January 26, 2012. Click here to watch the hearing.

The House bill, HB 2637, had a public hearing in the House Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources at 8:00 AM on Friday, January 27, 2012. Click here to watch the hearing.

So far, of the 12,000 Organic Consumers Fund supporters in WA, 936 of you have written your state representatives, 555 have written your senators, 42 have called your reps, and 23 have called your senators.

There have been no votes yet! We need your help to get these bills passed! Plese take action:

    1.    Write your state reps to ask them to support the bills.
    2.    Write your state senators to ask them to support SB 6298.
    3.    Call your state reps to ask them to support HB 2637.
    4.    Call your state senators to ask them to support SB 6298.
    5.    Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund so we can reimburse the travel costs of supporters who couldn't otherwise have attended the hearings.
    6.    Learn more and get involved at GMOFreeWashington.com.

Getting tough questions from your reps about SB 6298/ HB 2637? Click here for the FAQ.

Learn More About the Health Dangers of GMOs

Thanks!

Alexis

Alexis Baden-Mayer

Organic Consumers Fund

alexis@organicconsumers.org