Fwd: Report on trip to Washington, DC

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" News Update from The Campaign "

Report on trip to Washington, DC

Fri, 12 Sep 2003 22:27:08 -0500

 

News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

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Dear News Update Subscribers,

 

As I mentioned in the last News Update, I traveled to Washington, DC

last weekend for the Natural Products Expo. And I spent Monday and

Tuesday calling on the offices of members of the U.S. House of

Representatives who serve on the Health sub-committee.

 

This e-mail will update you on the results of my Washington, DC trip.

And it will also strategize on what we need to do to get the Genetically

Engineered Food Right to Know Act passed into law.

 

SEEDS OF DECEPTION

 

One of the wonderful highlights of the Natural Products Expo was the

lecture by Jeffrey Smith, author of the exceptional new book, Seeds of

Deception.

 

Seeds of Deception is the best book ever written about the dangers to

human health from eating genetically engineered foods. The sub-title of

the book is " Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of

the Genetically Engineered Food You're Eating. "

 

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods encourages everyone

to purchase a copy of Seeds of Deception. Until the end of September, we

are offering FREE shipping on orders of Seeds of Deception. To learn

more about the book and to place your order, visit our web site at:

http://www.thecampaign.org/seeds.php

 

Jeffrey Smith has agreed to join The Campaign's Board of Advisors. He

also donated 20 copies of Seeds of Deception to The Campaign so I could

distribute them to members of Congress on my visit to Capitol Hill on

Monday and Tuesday.

 

STRATEGY MEETING

 

Immediately after Jeffrey Smith's lecture, a group of natural products

industry executives met with me for an important strategy planning

meeting. We discussed the excellent opportunity we have to pass the

Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act into law. Jeffrey Smith

also joined the meeting after autographing books.

 

My sense from this meeting is that the timing is right for the natural

products industry to get fully engaged in the effort to pass the

Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act into law. We have over an

entire year to build support for this important legislation.

 

MY VISIT TO CAPITOL HILL

 

The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act, HR 2916, has been

assigned to two Congressional committees for possible hearings. One is

the House Agricultural Committee. The other is the Health sub-committee

of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

 

Armed with Jeffrey Smith's new book on the health effects of genetically

engineered foods, I decided to target the members of the Health

sub-committee. I had 15 appointments with legislative aides for various

House Representatives who serve on that committee.

 

I found the legislative aides to be quite interested in the information

I shared with them. Most of them were not aware of how weak the

regulations are governing the safety of genetically engineered foods.

After all, they had been told that genetically engineered foods are safe

and had no reason to believe otherwise. However, I explained that under

current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, the biotech

companies are not even required to notify the FDA that they are bringing

a new product to market. Essentially, the FDA has taken themselves out

of the loop by telling the biotech companies they are not required to

notify the agency that they are bringing out a new product.

 

I brought up the StarLink corn incident as a classic example of how the

regulatory system is not working. (StarLink corn was only approved for

animal feed by the EPA, yet ended up in over 300 human food products.) I

pointed out that if Larry Bohlen of Friends of the Earth had not decided

to send some corn products in for random testing (never expecting to

find StarLink corn), StarLink would still be in the food supply causing

allergic reactions in an undetermined number of people.

 

Many of the aides agreed that the current regulations seem inadequate

and thought that a Congressional hearing would be a good idea. Several

seemed quite eager to read Seeds of Deception.

 

I had meetings with legislative aides of the following House

Representatives who serve on the Health sub-committee:

 

Rep. John B. Shadegg, ® AZ-3

Rep. Ralph M. Hall, (D) TX-4

Rep. Gene Green, (D) TX-29

Rep. Sherrod Brown, (D) OH-13

Rep. Diana DeGette, (D) CO-1

Rep. Joe Barton, ® TX-6

Rep. Eliot L. Engel, (D) NY-17

Rep. Edolphus Towns, (D) NY-10

Rep. Henry A. Waxman, (D) CA-30

Rep. Bart Gordon, (D) TN-6

Rep. Mike Ferguson, ® NJ-7

Rep. Joseph R. Pitts, ® PA-16

Rep. Barbara Cubin, ® WY-At Large

Rep. Ernie Fletcher, ® KY-6

Rep. Ted Strickland, (D) OH-6

 

Further, I dropped in on the offices of the following U.S. Senators and

left copies of Seeds of Deception for their legislative aides:

 

Senator Orrin Hatch ® UT

Senator Tom Harkin (D) IA

Senator Maria Cantwell (D) WA

 

I also met with one of Senator Barbara Boxer's legislative aides.

Senator Boxer, a democrat from California, previously introduced similar

labeling legislation into the U.S. Senate. Once we gain enough

co-sponsors for the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act in the

House of Representatives, we expect Senator Boxer will be willing to

introduce the bill into the Senate.

 

CURRENT STATUS OF HR 2916

 

Here is a list of the current co-sponsors (all democrats) of HR 2916,

the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act, in the House of

Representatives:

 

Rep Acevedo-Vila, Anibal - PR

Rep Brown, Sherrod - OH-13

Rep Conyers, John, Jr. - MI-14

Rep DeFazio, Peter A. - OR-4

Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. - IL-4

Rep Honda, Michael M. - CA-15

Rep Inslee, Jay - WA-1

Rep Kleczka, Gerald D. - WI-4

Rep Lee, Barbara - CA-9

Rep McCollum, Betty - MN-4

Rep Miller, George - CA-7

Rep Nadler, Jerrold - NY-8

Rep Olver, John W. - MA-1

Rep Owens, Major R. - NY-11

Rep Sanders, Bernard - VT

Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. - NY-12

Rep Waters, Maxine - CA-35

Rep Watson, Diane E. - CA-33

Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. - CA-6

 

Is your House Representative on the list above? Mine is! And the reason

my Representative, Jay Inslee, is on the list is because he has received

a lot of letters from voters in his district.

 

THREE BASIC ACTION STEPS

 

If your House Representative is not on the list above as a co-sponsor of

HR 2916, the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act, your work is

clear. You will want to take on the responsibility of generating

hundreds of letters into his or her office in Washington, DC. But you do

not need to do all this work yourself. You can get others to duplicate

your efforts!

 

On The Campaign's home page we have now highlighted the Three Basic

Action Steps. If you follow the Three Basic Action Steps you will most

likely get your House Representative to co-sponsor the Genetically

Engineered Food Right to Know Act:

http://www.thecampaign.org

 

The key factor is the power of duplication. Simply get ten of your

friends, neighbors and/or co-workers to send in letters to your House

Representative. And then have each of them get ten others to send in

letters. Before long your Representative will have received hundreds of

letters. You will then have their attention and as the letters continue

to arrive, they will most likely co-sponsor HR 2916.

 

MY MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVE KUCINICH

 

On Tuesday, I also met briefly with Representative Dennis Kucinich,

primary sponsor of the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act,

and democratic candidate for president (www.kucinich.us)

 

Representative Kucinich looked me in the eye and said " Are we going to

be able to do this? " I enthusiastically told him " YES! " I explained to

him that the natural foods industry will be actively supporting the

legislation. And I told him that we expect many natural food stores to

set up letter-writing stations in their stores. Kucinich responded,

" Good, then let's do it! "

 

The reason Kucinich asked " Are we going to be able to do this? " is

because he has taken the all-important step of introducing the bill into

Congress. Now it is our turn to gather support for the legislation.

There is little Kucinich can do to move forward the Genetically

Engineered Food Right to Know Act unless we activate a significant

grassroots campaign to recruit other Congressional co-sponsors for the

bill.

 

WE HAVE DONE IT BEFORE, WE CAN DO IT AGAIN...

 

Some of you who do not know me may think I am being overly optimistic in

thinking we can pass the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act

into law. Please allow me to share a past successful experience with

you.

 

In 1990, Congress passed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act

(NLEA). This is the bill that put the " Nutrition Facts " boxes on all the

packaged foods you buy in the grocery stores. When the Proposed Rules

were issued to implement NLEA into law in late 1991, we discovered that

the FDA was going to use that opportunity to restrict the potency and

availability of dietary supplements.

 

In response, Dr. Alexander Schauss, Marlene Beadle and I formed a

non-profit organization called Citizens For Health. Our goal was to pass

legislation to protect dietary supplements called the Dietary Supplement

Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). Alex Schauss was the Executive of Citizens For Health, I was the President and Marlene Beadle

was Treasurer.

 

Citizens For Health lead the consumer effort to get the Dietary

Supplement Health and Education Act passed into law in 1994. More

letters were mailed into Congress during that effort than any other

since the Vietnam war.

 

After passage of DSHEA, Senator Orrin Hatch acknowledged our efforts

during a Senate speech. And the American Society of Association

Executives recognized our efforts by presenting Citizens For Health with

the " Award of Excellence in Government Relations. "

 

The same management team who formed Citizens For Health started The

Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods -- Dr. Alexander Schauss,

Marlene Beadle and I. We are confident that the desire of consumers for

labeling will prevail over the special interests of the biotech

companies. But it is only through consumer activism that we will be

successful. Wishful thinking will not get the job done.

 

NATURAL FOOD STORES - THE FRONT LINE

 

The Campaign has recently created our " Take Action Centers " designed to

be used in natural food stores and similar retail outlets. The Take

Action Centers are a convenient way to make literature and form letters

available to consumers. You can see a large photo of the Take Action

Center at the following web address:

http://www.thecampaign.org/images/display380.jpg

 

And you can learn more about the Take Action Centers at the " Our

Supporters " web page at:

http://www.thecampaign.org/supporters.php

 

Please let your local natural food store know about the availability of

the Take Action Centers and encourage them to order one for their store.

 

We also continue to have our 32-page Take Action Packets available and

have extended the 50% off sale on them through the end of September:

http://www.thecampaign.org/tap.php

 

PCC NATURAL MARKETS

 

In the Seattle area, there are seven PCC Natural Market stores. Starting

in mid-October, PCC will have a letter-writing campaign in all their

stores. Volunteers will ask shoppers to fill out letters to their House

Representative and two Senators asking them to support and co-sponsor

the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act. The goal will be to

collect at least 20,000 letters that will be sent to Congress.

 

PCC Natural Markets is setting a fine example for other stores in the

United States. We sincerely hope other natural food chains and

independent retailers will follow this example of what can be done with

a focused effort.

 

YOUR SUPPORT AND ACTIVISM IS NEEDED

 

I hope this report has energized you and helps to convince you that we

CAN get the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act passed into

law. It won't be easy. It will take a lot of work. But it is " fun " work

and the kind of work that can make a genuine difference.

 

If your House Representative has not yet co-sponsored the Genetically

Engineered Food Right to Know Act, I challenge you to set a goal to see

if you can get him or her to agree to do so by February 1, 2004. Between

now and the end of the year, you have the ability to generate hundreds,

if not thousands, of letters into their Washington, DC office.

 

If your House Representative has not co-sponsored the bill before they

go on their winter break, make an appointment to see him or her during that

break when they are back home. Or show up at one of their public

meetings that most members of Congress seem to hold when they are home

from Washington, DC on a vacation break. During the question and answer

period at the public meeting, ask your Representative why he or she has

not responded to the will of the public. Turn to the audience and say,

" How many of you in this room would like to have labeling on genetically

engineered foods? " and watch all the hands go up. Then turn back to your

House Representative and say " Would you please listen to the desire of

the people who vote for you? " You will be amazed at how such polite

public pressure can work wonders on getting your House Representative to

co-sponsor the legislation.

 

Finally, I encourage you to support The Campaign to Label Genetically

Engineered Foods with a donation. Very few donations came in during the

summer and our funds are at an all-time low. I have personally had to

put in thousands of dollars of my own money over the past few months

just to keep The Campaign in existence. I am very dedicated to this

cause, but your support is essential to our success.

 

To make a donation, please go to the following web page:

http://www.thecampaign.org/donate.php

 

Thanks for your support and activism!

 

Craig Winters

Executive Director

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

 

The Campaign

PO Box 55699

Seattle, WA 98155

Tel: 425-771-4049

Fax: 603-825-5841

E-mail: label

Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

 

Mission Statement: " To create a national grassroots consumer campaign

for the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass

legislation that will require the labeling of genetically engineered

foods in the United States. "

 

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