ESSAY OF THE WEEK
'Sneak Attack'?
Something is going to happen. If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.
So we were told recently by a Senate staffer, during one of the many meetings we’ve held with Senators to urge them to reject H.R. 1599, or what we refer to as the DARK—Deny Americans the Right to Know—Act.
Could that comment mean Monsanto is cooking up another “sneak attack,” similar to the one it conducted in 2013, that led to passage of the Monsanto Protection Act? Only this time, the sneak attack would be aimed at stomping out the GMO labeling movement?
It wouldn’t surprise us. A quick look at the lay of the land reveals that Monsanto and Big Food have several opportunities to rush the DARK Act into law, without a hearing or a full vote in the Senate.
How likely is that to happen? The jury is still out. But this much we know: Monsanto and Big Food are nothing if not opportunists.
ACTION ALERT
Monsanto's Fave Five?
Could Monsanto and Big Food do an end run around the Senate on GMO labeling?
Yes, if history is any lesson. They could do it by launching a “sneak attack.”
There are several “sneak attack” scenarios Monsanto could use to ram theDARK Act through Congress, without a hearing or a stand-alone vote in the Senate. But not without a little help from some of its friends—including a few who have taken in big money from Big Ag.
We’ve identified five Senators who we think are most likely to lend Monsanto a helping hand. They are: Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), author of the 2013 Monsanto Protection Act; Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who blocked repeal of the 2013 Monsanto Protection Act and could stick the DARK Act into a must-pass spending bill; Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Agriculture Committee member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), DARK Act supporters who could attach H.R. 1599 to the Child Nutrition Act; and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has the power to allow the DARK Act to get a Senate vote as an amendment to another piece of legislation.
CAMPAIGN UPDATE
It's Not Just the Bees
On August 27 (2015), we published anaction alert asking consumers to ask Burt’s Bees to cut ties with the corporations that make neonicotinoid pesticides. Neonics are a class of pesticides implicated in the mass die-off of honeybees.
We also asked that instead of supporting research (through the Pollinator Partnership) on other causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), or research on alternative pesticides, Burt’s Bees use its corporate clout to demand that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ban the use of neonics.
Our action alert prompted an angry phone call from the executive director of the Pollinator Partnership. Burt’s Bees also responded, by setting up an auto-reply email (which many of you received) defending the brand’s participation in the Pollinator Partnership, and insisting that the Burt’s Bees brand is dedicated to protecting pollinators.
We stand by the alert, which as of September 7, had generated almost 18,000 emails to Burt’s Bees. Here’s why.
SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF
Keep It Up!
The New York Times published an article this past week revealing the extent, or at least the partial extent, to which Monsanto and the rest of the biotech industry have colluded with academics to promote the “health and safety of their products.”
And by colluded, of course, we mean spent millions of dollars to get academics to shill for them.
The article included emails from the likes of Kevin Folta, the chairman of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida, who received money from the industry for his “biotechnology outreach.” (The university itself has received tens of millions of dollars, from Syngenta, Monsanto, Pioneer and BASF, according to a follow-up article in Independent Science News).
According to the New York Times:
Folta’s networks are filled with economists, molecular biologists, plant pathologists, development specialists, and agronomists, many of them much more celebrated than Kevin Folta, but all of them in a knowing loop with industry and the PR firms. Their job was acknowledged openly in emails (“We are all bad-ass shills for the truth. It’s a pleasure shilling with you.” to help with “biotechnology outreach” and to travel around the country to defend genetically modified foods).
The Times also printed an email from Bill Mashek, president of Ketchum, a PR agency hired by the biotech industry, to Folta:
Professors/researchers/scientists have a big white hat in this debate and support in their states, from politicians to producers. Keep it up!
Yet despite all the collusion, and all the money, the Times reporter writes, “So far, the anti-G.M.O. community has been winning the public relations war.”
That’s because we’ve got some pretty bad-ass shills for the truth on our side—you. Keep it up!
Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)
Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our GMO labeling legislative efforts)
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Safe? Says Who?
Neonicotinoids, the pesticides linked to the mass die-off of bees, are now found instream and well samples across the U.S..
These widely used pesticides aren’t just killing the bees and butterflies. They’re also killing insects, which are critical to the food chain.
But what are they doing to us?
U.S. regulatory agencies have set what they say are “safe” limits for neonic residues on our food, including baby foods. But as Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of The Xerces Society, points out, no one is studying the long-term, potentially carcinogenic effect, neonics have on humans.
TRAVEL PROMO
Cuba, Up Close & Personal
Looking for a way to celebrate the end of the growing season? Or a new way to celebrate Thanksgiving?
Mark your calendars for November 20-29, 2015, for the fifth trip to Cuba organized in partnership with Vía Orgánica, the Center for Global Justice and the Organic Consumers Association.
The relationship between Cuba and the U.S. has changed significantly since President Obama first announced big policy changes in December 2014. Times are also changing for Cuba’s agroecological farmers. (Check out this article about Fernando Funes, a friend of the OCA, who is doing amazing work in organic production.)
Sign up for our November trip, and you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at what the food production and cooperative scene really looks like in Cuba. The trip will include visits to a variety of food-related groups and enterprises and cooperatives, as well as other experiences that puts Cuba in context. You’ll discover that Cuba doesn’t have it “all figured out.” At the same time, you’ll be inspired by new reflections that will transform your vision on sustainable food chains and cooperatives.
This trip is ideal for folks who are passionate explorers and researchers (formal and informal) in quest of the answer to “how do we transform our world?” Your experience will be enriched your amazing fellow travelers—all professionally related to food production, policy and cooperatives.
Learn more and reserve your spot now!
LITTLE BYTES
Essential Reading for the Week
Food Industry Enlisted Academics in G.M.O. Lobbying War, Emails Show
Monsanto Favorite Glyphosate Soon to Join California's Cancer List
Germany to Ban Neonic Treated Cereal Seeds
Regenerative Agriculture and the Dawn of Planetary Engineering
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