Fwd: [Biodemocracy]Action Alert: GE Free Zones Under Attack

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Tue, 6 Apr 2004 12:43:11 -0500

biodemocracy

[biodemocracy]Action Alert: GE Free Zones Under Attack

 

 

 

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Action Alert

Biodemocracy or Biotechnology:

Turn Back the Terminators

 

By Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association --- 04/06/2004

PLEASE FORWARD THIS ACTION ALERT TO INTERESTED FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

 

We have arrived at a crossroads in modern history: Biodemocracy or

Biotechnology. Although organic and sustainable farming is the fastest growing

component of world agriculture, 150 million acres of genetically engineered (GE)

crops are planted across the U.S., Canada, Argentina, and China. These

Frankencrops are damaging public health, polluting the environment,

contaminating organic crops, and steadily turning the world's 2.4 billion

farmers and rural villagers into bioserfs.

 

After a decade of steady growth, Monsanto and the Gene Giants have run into a

stubborn wall of resistance, even in the United States. On March 2, 2004

Mendocino County California became the first county in the U.S. to ban GE crops

and animals. Now activists in dozens of counties across the country are

organizing to implement similar bans.

 

To help defend the Mendocino ban and spread GE-Free zones throughout the

Americas, the Organic Consumers Association has launched a new campaign called

the Biodemocracy Alliance

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge-free.htm

 

 

 

But of course the biotechnology industry and corporate agribusiness are

determined to stamp out this Biodemocracy movement before it spreads any

further. Major grassroots victories over the past three weeks in Australia and

Britain--where public pressure has kept GE bans or moratoriums in place, despite

all-out lobbying by the White House--have put the Biotechnocrats on red alert.

An unholy alliance, whom we've dubbed the " Terminators, " have stepped forward to

terminate citizens' democratic rights to legislate their own laws on genetically

engineered foods and crops.

 

As Allan Noe, the Vice-President of Crop Life International, a front group for

Monsanto and corporate agribusiness, told the San Francisco Chronicle on March

30, " We're looking at a number of things to remedy the situation... a court

challenge to Mendocino's ban, an attempt to pass state legislation to prevent

counties passing such bans or persuade the federal government, which regulates

biotech products, to halt local bans. "

 

Underscoring the biotech industry's contempt for public opinion, the California

Rice Commission approved the nation's first commercial planting of a highly

controversial pharmaceutical drug-spliced genetically engineered rice on March

29, despite warnings from the Consumers Union, the OCA and other groups that

this Pharm rice, spliced with human genetic material, would endanger public

health and pollute the environment.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/riceletter040504.cfm

 

We need your volunteer energy to help us Turn Back the Terminators. And we need

your financial support to carry out this campaign. Since we asked you, and all

the 110,000 members in our email network, to help us reach our initial

fundraising goal of $50,000 on March 15, we have received $27,000. We thank each

and every one of you who have made a donation.

 

For those who haven't yet given, please take a moment now to make a secure

online donation here: https://www.securemysite.com/greenpeople/ocadonate.cfm

 

If you prefer to send a check, please mail to:

Organic Consumers Association

6101 Cliff Estate Road

Little Marais, MN 55614.

 

Make out checks to OCA/Biodemocracy Alliance. You can also call us at

218-226-4164. All donations are tax-deductible.

 

 

 

 

Besides your financial support, we need you, and all of your friends and family,

to click here and sign our Biodemocracy petition

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge-freefax.cfm

 

By signing this Biodemocracy petition, and forwarding this Action Alert email to

everyone one you know, you can help the OCA put pressure on three of the

ringleaders of the Terminators: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,

Monsanto, and the Farm Bureau.

 

OCA's online petition will serve as a powerful reminder that we are watching the

Terminators' every move, and will hold accountable those who move to suppress

democracy and force an evermore unpopular technology, genetic engineering, down

our throats.

 

Please join us at this turning point in history, and make Biodemocracy--not

Biotechnology--the foundation of a sustainable and just future.

 

We need your donations and we need your volunteer energy at the grassroots. Join

us, and please forward this email to your friends, family, and neighbors.

 

 

 

 

 

Organic Consumers Association

6101 Cliff Estate Rd, Little Marais, MN 55614

E-mail:Staff

· Activist or Media Inquiries: 218-226-4164 · Fax: 218-353-7652

Please support our work. Send a tax-deductible donation to the OCA

 

 

 

 

 

http://lists.organicconsumers.org/listinfo/biodemocracy

 

 

 

 

 

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