Fwd: The Campaign Reporter - August 2003

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The Campaign Reporter - August 2003

Fri, 22 Aug 2003 07:00:07 -0500

 

 

 

August 2003

 

Super Sale!

Take Action Packets

 

 

 

50%

off!

thru

August 31st

 

In celebration of the introduction of the Genetically Engineered Food Right to

Know Act in the U.S. House of Representatives, we are offering for a limited

time only an incredible 50% off discount on our popular 32-page Take Action

Packets.

 

Order today!

 

 

 

 

 

The Campaign Reporter

 

Now Available in a 2-page printable PDF format

 

 

 

Each month we will now be issuing The Campaign Reporter in three formats:

 

1) As a HTML e-mail that is sent out to people who sign up to receive The

Campaign Reporter.

 

2) As an online HTML web page readable at:

www.thecampaign.org/

reporter.php

 

3) As a 2-page Adobe Acrobat PDF that can be printed out and photocopied to

share with friends at:

www.thecampaign.org/

reporter.pdf

 

We will often need to edit the PDF version to fill the 2-page format. So the

e-mail and online versions are best for getting the most comprehensive coverage

of the news.

 

The new PDF format is ideal for retail stores to use to keep their customers

informed on the latest news about genetically engineered foods and the efforts

to get them labeled. The PDF version is in color, but can be printed out and

photocopied in black and white to keep the cost down.

 

Click here (or on the image above) to go to the PDF version.

 

 

 

Now Available!

 

 

 

An exceptional new book written by Jeffrey Smith is now available. Seeds of

Deception is the best book ever written on the potential dangers to human health

from eating genetically engineered foods. This 290-page book is just off the

press and is one you will definately want in your library. Order today while

supplies last and receive free shipping!

 

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Copyright 2003

The Campaign

PO Box 55699

Seattle, WA 98155

425-771-4049

label

www.thecampaign.org

 

 

Featured articles

this month

 

It's time to send those letters to Congress!

 

Six new bills on genetically engineered foods introduced to Congress

 

ABC News poll: 92 percent of Americans want labeling

 

USDA misses boat on industrial biocrops

 

Sierra Club campaigning against genetically engineered trees

 

Sign the Save Organic Wheat petition

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's time to send those letters to Congress!

 

With the introduction of new Congressional legislation to label genetically

engineered foods, it’s time to get your pens handy and send letters to Congress!

 

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods is kicking off a new

letter-writing campaign to convince Congress to pass this crucial consumer

rights legislation, which was introduced late last month by Congressman Dennis

Kucinich (D-Ohio).

 

We make it very easy for you to send letters -- in fact, we’ve already written

them for you! Just visit our web site at www.thecampaign.org, and click on the

“National” link. There, you’ll find all the details about HR 2916, The

Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act, along with five other important

new bills dealing with genetically engineered foods. You’ll also find

pre-written letters to all 435 members of Congress, which you can print out,

sign and stick in the mail. Even better, write your own personal letter to your

Representative -- personally written mail has an even greater impact than form

letters.

 

We also ask you to encourage your family, friends and associates to send in

letters. Congress members need to hear from us that almost all Americans want

genetically engineered foods to be labeled (see story below).

 

We also encourage you to make a financial contribution to The Campaign.

Donations will help us build our grassroots movement and encourage more people

to send in letters. You can make a donation by visiting our web site and

clicking on the " Donate " link.

 

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods endorses all six bills, but

our primary goal is to get the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act, HR

2916, passed into law. This 108th Congress runs through October 2004 and we are

entering into an election year. So the climate has never been better for us to

get Congressional action on labeling genetically engineered foods.

 

Letters are one of the most important tools in the activist’s arsenal. If you

don’t think letters to Washington, D.C. are powerful, consider this: in 1997,

the U.S. Department of Agriculture tried to revise the definition of “organic”

to include genetically engineered foods, irradiated foods and foods grown with

toxic sludge-laced fertilizers. The country was outraged, and several hundred

thousand people sent letters to the USDA protesting the proposal. The USDA

backed down, and removed the offending foods from the organic definition.

 

 

 

Six new bills on genetically engineered foods introduced to Congress

 

Press release from Congressman Kucinich's office, July 25th, 2003

 

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive

Caucus, introduced six bills today that will provide a comprehensive regulatory

framework for all genetically engineered plants, animals, bacteria, and other

organisms.

 

The six bills include the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act of 2003,

which requires food companies to label all foods that contain or are produced

with genetically engineered materials and instructs the Food and Drug

Administration to conduct periodic tests to ensure compliance. Also introduced

today were the Genetically Engineered Food Safety Act of 2003, the Genetically

Engineered Crop and Animal Framer Protection Act of 2003, the Genetically

Engineered Organism Liability Act of 2003, the Real Solutions to World Hunger

Act of 2003 and the Genetically Engineered Pharmaceutical and Industrial Crop

Safety Act of 2003.

 

" This is a basic consumer safety issue, " stated Kucinich. " People have a right

to know what is in the food they are eating, and that the food is safe. That is

the goal of these bills. It is well past time that Congress change current food

safety and environmental laws because the laws were not written with this

technology in mind. "

 

Combined Kucinich's bills would ensure that consumers are protected, increase

food safety, protect farmers rights, make biotech companies liable for their

products, and help developing nations resolve hunger concerns.

 

Learn more about the new legislation

 

 

 

 

 

ABC News poll: 92 percent of Americans want labeling

 

It’s about time for Washington to get the message: Americans, by a huge margin,

want genetically engineered foods to be labeled. According to a July 2003 ABC

News telephone poll of 1,024 adults, a whopping 92 percent of Americans support

labeling.

 

If genetically engineered foods were labeled, 55 percent of Americans say they

would avoid such food, including 62 percent of women, according to ABC. Even

without labeling today, one-third of Americans try to avoid buying genetically

mutated foods. Fifty-one percent of Americans say they are attracted to foods

saying they’re not genetically modified.

 

They new survey confirms results from a similar ABC News poll of 1,024 Americans

in 1991. That survey found that 93 percent of Americans wanted genetically

engineered foods to be labeled, prompting the news organization to claim that

“such near unanimity in public opinion is rare.”

 

Many more polls over the years have supported the ABC News findings. In Nov.

2001, for example, Rutgers University Food Policy Institute found that 90

percent of Americans said genetically engineered foods should have special

labels on them.

 

 

 

USDA misses boat on industrial biocrops

 

Biotech companies that engineer plants for industrial purposes (such as making

paper or detergent) will have to obtain a permit, according to new rules adopted

by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) earlier this month.

 

Before the USDA decision, companies were not required to seek government

approval to grow industrial biocrops; they simply had to notify the government

before planting them.

 

The Campaign believes the new USDA rules are grossly inadequate. We believe the

USDA should not permit biotech crops containing industrial chemicals to be grown

in the open -- permit or no permit.

 

Under current USDA rules, crops containing industrial chemicals and

pharmaceutical drugs can be grown as close as one mile away from from food

crops. The primary crop being used is corn.

Since corn pollen has been shown to travel much further than one mile, it seems

apparent that the USDA’s rules will inevitably lead to industrial chemicals and

pharmaceutical drugs contaminating the food supply.

 

The Biotechnology Industry Organization supports the new rules. The National

Food Processors Association and the Grocery Manufacturers of America have

expressed concerns that simply requiring a permit is not adequate to protect the

food supply.

 

A spokesman for the National Food Processors Association told reporters: “We

have to have 100 percent assurance. We don’t think they’re there yet in terms of

full oversight and controls and containment.”

 

Frankly, The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods is a bit perplexed

as to why the biotech industry wants to take advantage of the lack of oversight

the USDA is showing on this matter. We predict that sooner or later

cross-pollination from corn will cause industrial chemicals and pharmaceutical

drugs to show up in food crops. At that point, the biotech industry is going to

have a public relations nightmare on its hands. “Shooting themselves in the

foot” is an adage that would seem to apply here.

 

 

 

Sierra Club campaigning against genetically engineered trees

 

As if genetic engineers haven’t wreaked enough environmental havoc with

Roundup-Ready soybeans, pesticidal potatoes and Monarch butterfly-threatening

biotech corn, now they’re looking to create forests full of genetically

engineered trees.

 

The Sierra Club is calling for a moratorium on the planting of genetically

engineered trees until the science is better understood, according to an

Associated Press story carried around the country this month.

 

“ It won’t be as widespread as agricultural biotechnology, but it could be much

more destructive,” said Jim Diamond, chairman of the Sierra Club’s genetic

engineering committee. “Trees are what’s left of our natural environment and

home to endangered species.”

 

The Sierra Club web site has a section devoted to genetically mutated trees at

www.sierraclub.org/biotech/trees.asp. The Campaign also has information at

www.thecampaign.org/trees.php.

 

Already, more than 100 genetically engineered tree test plots have been planted

in the United States and 16 other countries. Two dozen tree species are being

tested, including eucalyptus, poplar, pine and sweetgum trees, as well as a

variety of fruit trees. Timber companies hope to plant genetically engineered

trees commercially, and on a large scale, within five years. Engineers already

have added the genes of humans, chickens and bacteria to trees.

 

Engineers are also developing trees that would contain pesticides in every cell.

These trees would kill pest insects on contact. The impact this would have on

large ecosystems is unknown.

 

 

 

 

 

Sign the Save Organic Wheat petition

 

 

 

Just a reminder that The Campaign has launched the Save Organic Wheat coalition

(www.saveorganicwheat.org), and has created a petition calling for a moratorium

on genetically mutated wheat. Please consider signing the petition, and joining

the coalition. Joining is free, and helps send a powerful message that U.S. and

Canadian citizens do not want genetically mutated wheat.

 

Save Organic Wheat mission & principles

 

Mission Statement:

" To build a coalition of organizations, businesses, farmers and consumers in

support of a moratorium on the introduction of genetically engineered wheat in

the United States and Canada. "

 

Unifying Principles:

1. We support a moratorium because genetically engineered wheat will contaminate

organic and conventional wheat and jeopardize the consumers' right to choose.

 

2. We support a moratorium because genetically engineered wheat may create an

economic hardship on wheat growers due to contamination and loss of export

markets.

 

3. We support a moratorium because genetically engineered wheat is likely to

create superweeds and be toxic to insects, birds, bees, soil bacteria and have

other negative environmental impacts.

 

4. We support a moratorium because genetically engineered wheat has not been

safety tested on humans and should be subject to the same type of review process

required for new drugs and food additives.

 

If you agree with the Mission Statement and Unifying Principles, we invite you

to join the Save Organic Wheat coalition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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