This Is the Eleventh Hour for GMO Labeling!

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You know it’s bad when . . . Dear Friends, You know things are bad when even the FDA, which so often fails the public when it comes to food safety, sides with consumers. Yesterday, the FDA pointed out what DARK Act opponents have been saying all along—the Roberts-Stabenow GMO “non-labeling” bill would exclude a host of products from ever having to be labeled, including some of the most common GMO ingredients, like soybean oil and GMO sugar beets. According to the FDA, the bill also sets a very high bar for even the bill’s “make believe” labels (QR codes and toll-free phone numbers), because it would apply only to those GMO crops “for which the modification could not otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or found in nature.” Yet the FDA’s critique has done nothing to slow down the anti-labeling train. And we have only a few days left to keep that train from taking us over the cliff. The U.S. Senate yesterday held a “test vote” on whether or not to push forward by limiting debate on the Stabenow-Roberts DARK Act. The motion passed—68-29. Our job is to work relentlessly over the next few days so that when the Senate holds an official vote early next week, this outrageous anti-consumer, pro-Monsanto bill fails. For good. Despite the lies, this bill gives Monsanto and Big Food everything they want—and gives consumers nothing. The Roberts-Stabenow DARK Act calls for a convoluted, costly, discriminatory scheme of barcodes and phone numbers—but no labels. This bill is not a mandatory labeling law—because there’s no enforcement mechanism, and no penalties or consequences of any kind for defying the “law.” This bill, as even the FDA confirmed yesterday, is so full of loopholes and exemptions that only the barest minimum of products would meet the standard. With your help, we are working 24/7 to prevent this attack on consumer rights, states’ rights and democracy from passing. Meanwhile, I urge you to call your Senators and remind them that even the FDA doesn’t believe this bill provides consumers with the right to know if their food is GMO. And finally, because our opposition is so well-funded and our work is not only urgent, but requires funding, I ask that you please help us raise another $30,000 by midnight tonight, in order to take advantage of a generous matching funds offer by our ally in this fight, Mercola.com. If you can pitch in, please click here for details on how to donate online, or by phone or mail. Thank you! In solidarity, Ronnie Cummins International Director P.S. We still need to raise about $30,000 to reach our goal by midnight, June 30. Win or lose the labeling battle, we have our work cut out for us if we want a regenerative, not degenerative food and farming system. Please know that every donation, no matter how small, will be matched by Mercola and will help build a better food movement. Donate online here.

We Are Affected By All That Happens

After reading online about the massacre in Orlando, I have struggled with so many feelings…I found this response helpful:

Greg Snyder of Brooklyn Zen Center:

This morning I got really irritated about something not that important and realized I was resisting letting my heart break for Orlando. Then it just did. I have no idea what to say here, other than Charleston, Orlando, on and on – enough with the hatred, all of us. I am speaking from grief, so forgive my insistent tone; but we have just got to stop as a nation, as a people of many peoples, communities, and take stock, slap ourselves in the collective face and wake up to the ways we are creating the conditions for this. People are being executed… executed in nightclubs and churches, on streets for nothing. Nothing. Nothing. They are worshipping and dancing and walking. I pray every person with a shred of sanity – especially those of privilege and power – train her or his heart on love and, from that place, work to expose and heal hatred wherever we see it. I would encourage us all to take up the practice of watching our every word and silence, every action and inaction, every thought and distraction, every vote and political shrug of the shoulders, and ask ourselves – Am I right now cultivating a world of love or hate? Is the language I’m getting behind a language of love or hate? I know I fail at this intention everyday of my life, but all I feel right now is that we must work tirelessly to cultivate a society deeply rooted in love. Most of us will fear this because love is both personally and societally revolutionary. Love will shake us to our core as people and as nations. But it’s so long past time. It has been said so many times that it’s boring, but business as usual really has to stop being business as usual. I can already see the story unfolding in the news and soon it will be all too easy just to blame this on ISIS and take no stock of who we are. We too easily use this or that terrorist or sociopath as a free ticket for moving on. This too has to stop. We have to bring the world into our hearts and make love our first thought, our first intention for ourselves and every person we meet. That means we have to critically engage the mental and societal habits that resist love. Despite all we can do to each other, I choose to have faith in humanity. Yes, we can be a wind of fire that leaves scars and burning, but we are also dear and precious and deserving of our birthright of peace and happiness, every one of us. I vow to focus my heart on the latter, knowing that we must learn to clearly see and end the conditions for the former. May the mystery forever cradle those murdered in Orlando and may we all learn to care for each other while here. Love to the families and communities of those lost. Love to all of you, my sacred sisters and brothers.