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Monsanto and its GMO food front group, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), are mounting a last ditch effort to get Congress and President Obama to block state GMO labeling laws.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has introduced a Senate version of the DARK Act. As proposed, Roberts’ bill would preempt Vermont’s GMO labeling law, and replace state mandatory labeling laws with a federal voluntary labeling plan.
But on Thursday this week, Senate Democrats will likely try to amend the bill with unacceptable compromises, in order to ram it through the Senate before Vermont’s law is set to take effect on July 1.
TAKE ACTION! Dial 888-897-0174 to call your Senators! Ask them to reject Sen. Roberts' DARK Act and also oppose any compromise that would block or delay Vermont’s GMO labeling law.
It’s critical that we flood Senators’ phone lines—it’s now or never for GMO labeling.
Roberts’ bill, as proposed, doesn’t have the support of a single Democrat; it can’t get the 60-vote majority necessary to prevent a filibuster and pass, unless it’s amended.
But Roberts’ bill is still a huge threat.
Here’s why. When the Senate Agriculture Committee meets to consider Robert’s DARK Act on Thursday, the Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), is likely to amend the bill with a “compromise” (capitulation), one the Obama Administration has been pushing. The compromise will likely involve delaying Vermont’s law from taking effect while the GMA rolls out its so-called SmartLabel, or QR code, technology.
One or both of those compromises could be enough to garner the votes necessary to push this bill through the Senate—and put an end to mandatory labeling laws.
SmartLabel: Monsanto’s ‘Absolute Favorite Idea’
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, would love nothing better than to see a voluntary QR code labeling scheme replace Vermont’s mandatory labeling law.
The SmartLabel scam has wide support across the food industry and biotech industries. Fox Business recently ran an article headlined, “Monsanto: We Support GMO Labeling.” The article quoted Monsanto’s chief technology officer, Dr. Robert Fraley, as supporting voluntary labeling. Fraley said, “We support these kind of choices. My absolute favorite idea on labeling is the SmartLabel, which the food industry is working on today. It uses a Quick Response Code so you can use your smart phone to find out every single thing you ever wanted to know about where that food came from.”
Stabenow Takes Monsanto’s Money, Dow Chemical’s and Kellogg’s, Too
Stabenow claims to support consumers’ right to know about GMOs, but says Vermont’s law must be stopped in order to prevent a “messy patchwork” of state laws. But if that were her only concern, why not just propose a uniform mandatory federal labeling system, that meets or exceeds the standards set by Vermont?
To answer that question, all we have to do is follow the money. Sen. Stabenow has taken from the biotech industry and Big Food.
One of Sen. Stabenow’s top funders is Dow Chemical, maker of the infamous Agent Orange GMOs, engineered to survive Dow’s Enlist Duo, a custom cocktail of two deadly herbicides: Monsanto’s Roundup (a probable carcinogen) and 2,4-d, which was half the formula of the Vietnam-War-era defoliant. The combination is so dangerous that the Environmental Protection Agency has been forced to reconsider its approval.
Michigan-based Kellogg’s, notorious for hiding GMOs in its so-called “natural” foods and contributing to anti-labeling campaigns, has also funded Stabenow’s campaigns, as has Monsanto.
Sen. Stabenow and the rest of Congress need to be reminded that they’re supposed to work for us, not the corporations.
TAKE ACTION! Dial 888-897-0174 to call your Senators! Ask them to reject Sen. Roberts' DARK Act and also oppose any compromise that would block or delay Vermont’s GMO labeling law.
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