People Don’t Want to Be a GMO Experiment

About 500 par­tic­i­pants attended the White House rally includ­ing numer­ous food experts, organic indus­try lead­ers and con­cerned cit­i­zens. Many spoke out about their frus­tra­tion with the recent approval of GMO Alfalfa by the Obama Administration. The deci­sion threat­ens the via­bil­ity of organic dairies across America due to prob­a­ble genetic con­t­a­m­i­na­tion result­ing in a loss of organic alfalfa for ani­mals to eat in a few years.

Keynote speaker and Indian Food Democracy activist Vandana Shiva high­lighted the dire sit­u­a­tion when she said from the rally stage, “The denial of food label­ing is linked directly to a food dic­ta­tor­ship by Monsanto Corporation.  I feel ter­ri­ble that the White House with President Obama is doing exactly the same thing as Bush Senior and Bush Junior. We are here to hold Obama to his promise to label GMOs.”

From October 1-16 about 50 peo­ple marched 313 miles from NYC to Washington, DC to demand label­ing GMOs. Every day, rain or shine, com­mit­ted marchers car­ry­ing bal­loons and signs ask­ing for GMO label­ing would walk 20 miles and some­times as much as 30 miles through busy cities and small towns, all the while hand­ing out leaflets edu­cat­ing the pub­lic on the dan­gers posed by GMOs.  The march brought together peo­ple of all ages and back­grounds includ­ing German organic food pio­neer Joseph Wilhelm who already marched over 800 miles for reg­u­la­tion of GMOs in Europe; Eric Nies from MTV’s the Real World and his dog Sugar Ray; David Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps; George Siemon, CEO of Organic Valley Coop; author Ashley Koff R.D.; Percy and Louise Schmeiser who famously fought Monsanto over genetic tres­pass of GMO canola; and many indi­vid­u­als rep­re­sent­ing moms, kids and seniors.

Speaking about next steps for the Right2Know Coalition, Katherine DiMatteo, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM) said today, “The Right2Know March intends to con­tinue to sup­port the Just Label it Campaign. Our goal is to get 1 mil­lion sig­na­tures for the legal peti­tion being con­sid­ered by the FDA.”

The Right2Know March encour­ages peo­ple to sign the peti­tion to the FDA at http://www.justlabelit.org/ .  Since the peti­tion effort was launched at the begin­ning of October it has gen­er­ated over 300,000 cit­i­zen sig­na­tures in sup­port of GMO labeling.

David Bronner said, “As we marched it became clear that every com­mu­nity from Jersey City, to Trenton, to West Philadelphia, to Amish coun­try, to rural Maryland is con­cerned about the poten­tial adverse health impacts of GMOs in their food. People we met on the street were uni­ver­sally out­raged not know­ing if our food is genet­i­cally engi­neered. This out­rage matches numer­ous polls that show 90+ per­cent of respon­dents strongly favor the label­ing of genet­i­cally mod­i­fied foods.”

The march hosted events at local food coops and on col­lege cam­puses includ­ing the University of Maryland College Park and Maryland Institute College of Art. These events included fun edu­ca­tional games, a non-GMO tea-hut, and music pro­vided by the Sustainable Living Roadshow (SLR) – a group of envi­ron­men­tal activists and artists on tour to spread the word about sus­tain­able liv­ing.   Along with SLR these events fea­tured a brightly painted fire truck which is part of the ALL-ONE Ark non-GMO organic shower and spa expe­ri­ence (AllOneArk.org).  The march was spon­sored by Rapunzel, Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps, Natures Path, Silk, Organic Valley, Nutiva, Stonyfield Farm, UNFI, Dr. Hauschka, Kamut International, and Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association and Weleda.

“As a brand that has always pro­duced our prod­ucts with­out GM ingre­di­ents, Silk fully sup­ports the manda­tory label­ing of GM foods so con­sumers can make edu­cated food choices,” said Craig Shiesley, gen­eral man­ager of Silk. “We are proud of the Right2Know ini­tia­tive and the impact it has on both con­sumers and the cur­rent administration.”

Marchers were met with sup­port from local peo­ple includ­ing farm­ers donat­ing veg­eta­bles and offer­ing marchers a place to sleep. Popular musi­cal group Beats Antique invited marchers and SLR musi­cians to open for their con­cert in Philadelphia, and in Washington D.C. the 50 com­mit­ted marchers were joined by hun­dreds more includ­ing mem­bers of Organic Valley Co-op dressed in veg­etable costumes.

Nature’s Path sup­plied the marchers with gra­nola bars, cereal, and bright green t-shirts with a third sleeve that said GMO T-shirts are easy to spot; GMO foods are not. “We are deter­mined to see GMO food label­ing. We are excited to see so many moth­ers on this march because it shows that par­ents want the abil­ity to choose if their chil­dren eat GMOs or not,” said Maria Emmer-Aanes of Natures Path.

Author and TV celebrity Ashley Koff, R.D. who spoke at the rally in Washington DC said, “The Right2Know March wants President Obama to keep his cam­paign promise made in 2007, which stated that foods that include ingre­di­ents from genet­i­cally mod­i­fied crops should be labeled. As pres­i­dent, he vowed, he would strive to ‘…let folks know when their food is genet­i­cally mod­i­fied, because Americans have a right to know what they’re buying.’”

Here is a video of President Obama’s cam­paign promise:

Speaking in New York at the kick-off of the march Michael Hansen, Chief Scientist of Consumers Union said, “Pesticide com­pa­nies develop Genetically Engineered food crops by com­bin­ing DNA from plants, ani­mals, bac­te­ria and viruses, to con­tain or resist pes­ti­cide, which results in more pes­ti­cides sold and sprayed. Genetically engi­neered foods can be detri­men­tal to our health, just as they are to the envi­ron­ment and farm­ers’ liveli­hoods.  American con­sumers deserve the choice whether they want to eat GMOs, just like their coun­ter­parts in Europe and Japan.”

Joseph Wilhelm speak­ing in front of White House, summed up the march, “No to GMO, yes we can President Obama, keep your promise, label GMOs!”