Bad news.
The Senate Agriculture Committee just voted 14-6 to pass the DARK Act and send it to the Senate floor.
The corporate lobbyists are trying to ram the DARK Act through Congress as quickly as possible. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) introduced this atrocious bill that would overturn state genetically engineered (GE) food labeling laws and much more - and it’s moving fast.
The result would be disastrous for consumers -- blocking state governments from labeling GE foods and making it impossible to implement mandatory GE labeling at the federal level. This corporate “blank check” bill could overturn hard-fought state laws to label GE seafood, and could even prevent communities from passing regulations to set up safeguards around the growing of GE crops.
We remember what happened at the end of last year. Lobbyists tried to sneak the DARK Act into the must-pass year end government spending bill. Thanks to CFS supporters like you, we fought back and were successful in stopping it. But the corporations that value profit over all else haven't given up, and they are pushing their agenda to deny consumers the right to know even harder this year.
Your support today can stop the DARK Act. A gift of $3 fuels our rapid response team that takes on the corporate lobbyists from Monsanto and big food corporations.
The DARK Act wouldn’t just prevent mandatory state GE food labeling; it goes even further by preventing mandatory labeling at the federal level too, leaving consumers with nothing but “voluntary” labeling. That means companies get to choose whether or not to disclose their GE food products the public. For 15 years companies have had this same ability to label their products, and guess what? Not a single company has labeled their products.
So let’s be very clear: “voluntary labeling” means “no labeling” and the corporations pushing this bill know it.
All our hard-fought state labeling bills are on the line. The urgency really can’t be overstated: your right to know could be permanently lost if this bill passes.
Here at Center for Food Safety, we are working non-stop to protect your choice and your voice. That’s why we have filed lawsuits to support community-led initiatives to label GE foods and ban GE crops. We’ve won the toughest battles from Oregon to Vermont.
Despite fierce opposition, Vermont is set to become the first state to actually require GE foods to be labeled. The same corporate interests that are trying to silence your voices at the national level went to court in Vermont to stop its labeling law. But CFS is standing with Vermont, defending this democratically passed GE labeling law with everything we’ve got.
And in Jackson County, Oregon, citizens and activists united to pass a ban on the cultivation of GE crops. When they needed an ally in court, CFS was there. We successfully defended the law in court, sending a powerful message to the corporations and their lobbyists: they can't bully us into silence.
We won the tough fights in 2015. Now we need your support for the first major fight of 2016. Please contribute now.
Thank you for your support. Together, we can continue to protect our food supply.
Sincerely,
Andrew Kimbrell
Executive Director
Center for Food Safety
Contact Us
CFS welcomes your questions and comments. Please contact us at office@centerforfoodsafety.org, or at one of our offices.
National Headquarters
660 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, #302
Washington, DC 20003
phone (202) 547-9359 | fax(202) 547-9429
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