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Important GMO News – Dr. Oz, Kathleen Merrigan & Coalition of States

I’ve got some important GMO news I want to share with you…

#1 – The Dr. Oz Show

I haven’t seen a single mainstream TV media network talk about GMOs or Prop 37 as in depth as Dr. Oz did yesterday and now I know why.

In response to his show – A GMO and AG Biotech advocate Bruce Chassy sent a scathing letter to the producers and lawyers of the Dr. Oz show – screaming foul play. He said the show had been orchestrated by Jeffery Smith and the Proposition 37 campaign.

The letter is recognizant of the same type of threat tactics deployed by the beef industry who sued Oprah, on European countries as they were considering labeling GMOs and the same ones being used to attack and question the longest term study ever conducted on the safety of GMOs by Séralini.

You can find the full letter here. I encourage you to read it, comment and see how low the biotech industry is willing to go to prevent us from knowing what’s in our food. In this letter, Mr. Chassy even goes as far to say that biotech crops are safer than organic food. Wow. I can’t believe anyone in their right mind could say that considering the millions of pounds of herbicides that are being sprayed on GMO crops.

Dr. Oz had two scientists from UC Davis on his show –  Martina Newell-McGloughlin and Alison L. Van Eenennaam, Ph.D. At one point in the show, I found it funny that Martina argued that she would rather feed her children GMOs because they had been tested more than conventional crops. Alison argued with Gary Hirshberg about the costs of labeling. Alison is an animal scientist – why in the world would an animal scientist be arguing about the economic impact of labeling? Because UC Davis is funded by biotech companies like Monsanto who want to stop labeling and our right to know. These biotech companies are spending one million dollars a day on ad campaigns aganist Prop 37 right now.

Here’s the campus gift acceptance report showing Monsanto’s donation to UC Davis courtesy of the Sacramento Bee.

#2 – What Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan thinks about GMOs  (Listen to audio)

A Food Babe reader named Megan, attended a special event at Michigan State University last week and asked the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Kathleen Merrigan if she supported labeling of GMOs. Lucky for us – Megan (smart lady!) tape recorded her answer and it is available below.

In the audio recording, Deputy Secretary Merrigan concludes that she is “bullish” about increasing GMO bio-technology and never tells us what she actually thinks about labeling. Instead she asks the question, “What does society want to bear in terms of the cost?” This was actually answered recently by Emory University, who found that consumers would likely only pay less than a dollar more per year once labels are mandated.

What’s alarming here is that Deputy Secretary Merrigan’s response further indicates that the USDA and the federal government are not going to label GMOs in this country. She is a huge proponent of organic foods, so to hear her say that she wants to aggressively move forward with biotechnology is not consistent with her previous messages of being an organic food advocate. This is more evidence that the federal government doesn’t have labeling on their agenda and that they have no plan whatsoever to enact it on their own accord.

It is very appalling to hear the USDA is intentionally keeping us from knowing what is in our food while promoting a questionable technology that likely has safety issues and risks for the entire human population.

#3 – Coalition of States

Seeing the absolute disregard of the GMO labeling issue at the DNC, now hearing Kathleen Merrigan’s response, and knowing the FDA has dismissed over a million signatures it received to label GMOs from the Just Label It campaign earlier this year – it is more clear than ever, the only way we are going to get GMOs labeled for the entire country is through state legislation.

Lucky for us a grassroots coalition of 23 states have now been formed to address GMO labeling. After California passes Proposition 37 in Nov, this coalition will have all the momentum it needs to take off and snowball mandatory GMO labeling across the country.

The coalition of states includes: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. To find out more information – please contact Tara Cook Littman.

As you can see, passing Proposition 37 is more important than ever. Please urge all your friends and family who live in CA to vote Yes on 37! We have the right to know.

Food Babe

P.S. If you have more GMO news to share, share it here in the comments, Facebook, or Twitter and I will spread the word!

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30 responses to “Important GMO News – Dr. Oz, Kathleen Merrigan & Coalition of States

  1. Food babe one of nh very close friends mother is a senator in gastonia sc. I am going to be talking with her soon about this issue and would like to invite you to come to the meeting. Her name is Kathy Harrington. We have a right to know!

  2. These people are just nasty. I seriously think it may be easier to just move to Europe where they care about people and their citizens much more. I bet as we are fighting and winning the GMO battle… these NASTY PEOPLE (yes sorry but there is no other way to describe them) are thinking of some new way to poison people. More junk in water? More nasty stuff in cosmetics? Who knows? These people are literally sick.

  3. Great article…So happy I found your blog! Tell everyone to support Prop 37…we need all the help we can get. Lying is no problem for the “no” crowd and with millions to buy ad space, they are legion. As a democracy, don’t we have a simple “right to know” what we’re eating?

  4. Food Babe I was not sure if you saw the episode of Dr. Oz yesterday. I stumbled across it and thought about you. Before reading your blog earlier this year I knew nothing about organic or GMO’s. I have learned so much from you and how crazy is it that word can spread so fast. I have read and seen so much about GMO’s in the past two months. I am so glad you posted on Dr. Oz’s episode because I wanted to know what you thought. We are so close to getting GMO’s labeled I can taste it (no pun intended). I hope that everyone saw through Martina, the whole kid thing was just a tactic to get people to trust what she was saying. Anyway Dr. Oz did an excellent job and I believe he opened up a can of worms!!!! Lets just hope he doesn’t crack under the peer pressure of legalities.

  5. Sad to say they delete any comments they don’t like so commenting on the article unfortunately does no good. I tried earlier today, and my comments have been deleted. Only comments agreeing with their side are allowed to stay.

    1. Everyone should watch this film!!!!! Thank you to companies like Nutiva that are sponsoring it for free 🙂

  6. while it is our right to know, and we should definitely label it. the information is out there now, and anyone can access it. until they label it, TODAY we can change our habits so monsanto and GMOs get less funding. take corn, soy, and animals raised on such OUT OF YOUR DIET. we vote with our dollar every day. by taking money away from those people, we are taking their money out of our government. everytime we get popcorn at the movies, we’re funding the NO on PROP 37 campaign. everytime we go to publix, whole foods, trader joe’s and buy corn-fed animals, we’re funding NO on PROP 37. even when the labeling laws take effect, whiskey won’t be labeled, and neither will animals, and neither will restaurants. Change starts today, voting starts today. Polls are open folks.

    1. I can’t agree more… and this is why I’ve boycotted all the companies that have donated to No on Prop 37, as well as try to live a GMO free life. They are everywhere, however – so it’s tough!

  7. Washington state is currently in the signature gathering phase of our own initiative, I-522 ” The People’s Right To Know Genetically Engineered Food Act ” For those that would like to know more about our efforts up here in the PNW visit our site http://www.labelitwa.org
    There you can read our language and see who is supporting the effort here as well.

      1. BEWARE

        Send your support for labelling or to rest ignorant personally to the people concerned.

        One petition signed by 7 billion of us in the world is counted as one submission only.

        GMO politics to peoples wishes knows no boundaries for deceit.

        I believe this tactic has been used for the California issue on labelling so half a million protests was polled out as 274 or some such number.

        BEWARE

  8. Are you sure the folks from USDA and FDA are humans, I mean really bio-tech food is better for you than organic, maybe that’s what they eat on their home planet cause it’s sure not working for real humans. . .wow talk about arrogant, I’m floored by the mentality.

  9. If you’d like to learn more about Bruce Chassy who sent the scathing letter to producers and lawyers of the Dr. Oz show, please visit his “biographical sketch” at http://fshn.illinois.edu/directory/bruce-chassy. It also has his contact information per chance anyone would like to email and inquire as to why he is against labeling GMO’s.

  10. Thank you so much for all the work you are doing in this area! I live in Tennessee and along with many others would love the chance to get this issue through legislation in our state but how do you even go about doing this? I envy California right now for getting a chance to vote!

  11. This may or may not be news to some of you, but I wrote a post in September about the study from Stanford where organics were found to be “no different” than conventional foods, and exposed the problems with this flawed study, and in particular how the findings of this study (and likely others trying to show that organics are no better nutritionally than conventional) were most certainly slanted toward biotech and big agriculture corporations who don’t want people supporting sustainable, organic, and non-GMO agriculture due to heavy funding from these sources.

    Monsanto has maintained a statement of “substantial equivalence” in regard to how their seeds are basically “the same” as their non-GMO counterparts, and this is just another tactic to try to get consumers to think labeling is unnecessary and that what watchdog groups are doing to expose their poisonous product is just “hype”.

    http://agriculturesociety.com/politics-and-food/stanford-study-on-organics-manipulating-consumers-into-buying-gmo-products/

  12. How can I get involved in NC? I am so appalled by everything our government does, the fact that they’re killing us with food is really no surprise. Going to add my 2¢ to the letter and wait for them to delete it!

  13. I think I’m in a “negative” mood at the moment, just recently getting home from working a long 12 hour shift…and I’m frustrated by all of this. You would hope that the government “by the people, for the people” would take more concern of said “people” and label the garbage that they pass to us as food. We are the fortunate ones that understand the importance of eating for our health and the dangers of GMO food…but everyone deserves the right to know. Playing it all off…saying it’s better than organic…GARBAGE! I’ve watched GMO Roulette…it hits me hard, as I see so many sick kids where I work. The incidence of g-tubes and feeding disorders. I met one patient who was maybe 5 and had developed a food intolerance to almost everything since birth. The GI doctors could no longer help his mom determine how to keep him nourished as he had developed allergies to all of the formulas they would try. His mom finally got him onto a raw vegan diet and slowly he was able to overcome most of his food allergies and is now thriving.

  14. Secretary of Agriculture, Kathleen Merrigan is bullish on moving forward on GMO food and cannot give her voice to simple food knowledge on food packets but also is a keen advocate of organic food.

    Can we take this to mean GMO for the poor and organic food for her?

    Seralini has spent years to prove harm to our kidneys, liver with a bonus of breast cancer for women too.

    So how has breast cancer rates changed with this GMO food?

    How many want liver, kidney harm from their food even if it is cheap?

    And that pesticide that kills everything but the GMO food which is GMOd to resist it. Does that mean we now have lots more pesticide in our GMO food? Seralini research gives the clear YES to that extra additive. And does this mean bad effects for us too or are we now all the green hulks just like doctors tell us vaccine have turned us into?

  15. Katy G gives what is anecdotal information about a 5 year old who has benefited from GMO food.

    But this is only anecdote and even though repeated tens of millions of times over is still ANECDOTE.

    She must realise that this child is LUCKY to have GMO food and still enjoy its benefits.

    More than a million children are dead because of eating GMO food but a diagnosis of we dont know what killed them means we cannot be sure Seralini and his finding of damaged livers and kidneys will have much affect on us.

    And remember at the end of the day we have to thank farmers for growing this GMO food and here again more than a million we cant thank today because they are dead too.

    But those scientists who know SV40 virus (retrovirus) and E coli used for GMO work uses these as they knew when they made GMO they were harmless to humans.

    So the millions dead from AIDS retrovirus and fatal E Coli cannot be the fault of GMO makers can it?

    I mean they make NK603 corn and cant be blamed if their work also turns into AIDS and E coli deaths. Its all about risks and benefits and while Mansanto gets benefits its right that some of us take the risks.

  16. Kathleen Merrigan’s boss, Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack also fielded a question on one of California’s most watched ballot measures—Proposition 37—which would require the labeling of food products that contain genetically modified ingredients.
    “Obviously we’re watching it,” he said. “I haven’t talked to the President on a position on it. But we’re watching anything that impacts interstate commerce to have free flow.”
    He said that current labeling laws address nutrition and safety, but said that he wasn’t convinced that there is proof of hazards of health in regards to genetically modified ingredients.
    “We’ll see what happens in California. If it passes, it will prompt a lawsuit the next day and it will be years before it goes into effect,” he said, adding, “maybe it’s time to think about it from a national perspective.”

    http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/10/19/vilsack-addresses-ag-law-conference

  17. I see Louisiana isn’t on the list of states with any GMO labeling in the works. If you hear of any grass roots activity planned for Louisiana, please let me know. I would love to get involved. When I talk about this to friends, family, and colleagues they seem dumbfounded. Some can’t believe what they are eating and others think I am a nut. Thanks for your effort!

  18. What an amazingly …. {insert word of choice}… letter.
    This coming from the folks who failed to mention that chemically separating sugars (HFCS anyone?) causes a number of health issues, toxicities included. Did they forget the world was made to sustain us with natural foods? Asking someone to be honest about what they put in their food shouldn’t even be an issue. I saw a commercial last night touting overwhelming costs to folks if the industry had to label their food. All I could think was “HOGWASH!” They already label food. What’s one more line of text? It doesn’t cost anymore on the printing side of things. So you have to add a line to your label. Do it. Move on. A number of people will continue to eat it out of habit. But those of us searching for healthier foods will be appreciative…and most likely didn’t buy most of those items to begin with anyway.
    As always, I appreciate your efforts to keep us informed. I’m appalled, but not surprised, that the administration that’s supposed to keep our food “safe and healthy” can be bought. Welcome to the New World. =(

    -E

  19. With your access to Pres Obama, why haven’t you asked him why he has appointed, at least 2 that I know of, former Monsanto employees and attorneys to his administration?

  20. I was wondering if you ever thought of changing
    the layout of your blog? Its very well written;
    I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way
    of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an
    awful lot of text for only having one or 2 pictures.
    Maybe you could space it out better?

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