GRASSROOTS ACTION: DARK ACT Updates

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Posted by Laura Hagen, HWFC Member-Owner.

GRASSROOTS ACTION IS POWERFUL! is a blog dedicated to American independently-owned, Member-Owned & operated, community food co-ops, their Member-Owners and families.

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UPDATE: Friday, July 8, 2016 6:00pm

The DARK Act passed in  the U S Congress late last night to a vote of 63 – 30 (with 7 abstentions). Both NYS Senators – Gillibrand and Schumer – voted “nay.”See here for the official Senate Roll Call vote.The Organic Consumers Association website states the following:

…The bill passed last night is intended to hide information (behind electronic codes) from consumers, not provide it—in plain English, on a label.

The bill passed last night is intended to exempt the vast majority of GMOs from even having to be hidden behind codes, much less labeled in plain sight.

The bill passed last night is voluntary—it contains no enforcement mechanism, no penalties for non-compliance.

The bill passed last night is an attack on democracy, an attack on states’ rights. It not only overturns Vermont’s carefully considered and fairly debated mandatory GMO labeling law, but as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) noted in his speech on the Senate floor, this bill overturns nearly 100 other state laws. (Sanders pushed hard to stop this bill).

The bill passed last night is a fraud, an affront to the nine out of 10 Americans who want what citizens in 64 countries already have—the basic right to know what’s in our food.

The 63 Senators who sided with (and took hundreds of millions of dollars from) Monsanto and Big Food, stole your right to know, and whatever shred of belief you might still have had in the democratic process.

But they did not steal your power to boycott any brand or company that refuses to label GMOs. They did not steal your determination to take back an unhealthy, toxic, corrupt corporate food and farming system…

…The Roberts-Stabenow bill will now go back to the U.S. House, which in July 2015 passed its own version of the DARK Act. If the House and Senate reach an agreement, Congress will vote on a bill to keep you in the dark. That bill will then land on President Obama’s desk…

Here is the text of the bill set for a vote in the US House of Representatives next week.

The Organic Trade Association (OTA), a lobbying organization of so-called “organic” companies and corporations, lobbied for this bill, in the best interests of Monsanto. The OTA has acted against the best interests of consumer who buy organic, families, American organic farmers, small family farms and organic producers, and community-owned American food co-ops. The companies which are members of the Organic Trade Association need to be held accountable by American consumers who value organic and who want GMO food accurately and clearly  labelled.

The Organic Trade Association includes many of the organic companies, brand names, and wholesalers with whom you are very familiar. Here is the list of members of the Organic Trade Association. You decide if you want your family food dollars to support any of these “organic” corporations.

Call some of these companies – whose food rests in your pantry and ‘fridge – before the US House vote next week, and hold them accountable. A boycott of some of these companies is one option consumers have to voice their outrage at this betrayal.

 

UPDATE: THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2016 9:10 am

CALL SENATORS GILLIBRAND AND SCHUMER TODAY, RIGHT NOW! IT IS NOT TOO LATE! TELL THEM WHY YOU ARE AGAINST THIS ACT. TELL THEM TO VOTE NO. ALSO, ASK HOW THEY PLAN TO VOTE.

BOTH VERMONT SENATORS CAME OUT PUBLICLY AGAINST THIS BILL AND SAID THEY WILL VOTE “NO.” NEW YORK SENATORS SHOULD DO THE SAME. RIGHT NOW THEY WILL NOT COMMIT TO STATING HOW THEY WILL VOTE.

NYS Senator Gillibrand’s office in D.C. told me this morning that the Senator voted “NO” against the cloture vote yesterday. (This is, she voted against cutting off debate and forcing a vote.)

NYS Senator’s Schumer’s office in D.C. told me this morning that the Senator voted “NO” (That is, he voted against cutting off debate and forcing a vote.)

UPDATE: WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2016 10:30PM

DARK ACT PASSES US SENATE WEDNESDAY WITH CLOTURE* VOTE

A Center for Food Safety Press Release dated today, states:

WASHINGTON— Today the Senate voted to deny one-third of Americans the right to know what is in in the food products they purchase. In a cloture vote of 65-32 the discriminatory, highly-flawed “compromise” GMO labeling bill offered by Senators Stabenow and Roberts, also known as the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act, passed through the Senate. This “compromise” bill allows producers to use QR codes and “smart labels” instead of clear, on-package labeling of food products that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The poorly drafted bill exempts major portions of current and future GMO foods from labeling and is discriminatory against low-income, rural, minorities and elderly populations. The bill as written is also a gross violation of the sovereignty of numerous states, as it preempts the genetically engineered food labeling laws in Vermont, Connecticut, Maine and Alaska…

The High Plains /Midwest AG Journal article Senate Passes GMO Cloture Vote, dated Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 5:38 pm stated: “Senate will vote on final passage as early as July 7.“

Both NYS Senators’ – Schumer and Gillibrand – websites are silent as to how they voted on the Dark Act cloture vote. Please post below, if you have an update.

See the Senate Democrat and Republican Conference websites for information about the Cloture vote and the final vote, possibly tomorrow, Thursday, July 7, 2016.

*What’s a “cloture vote?” “Cloture is a procedure used occasionally in the U.S. Senate to break a filibuster. Cloture, or Rule 22, is the only formal procedure in Senate parliamentary rules, in fact, that can force an end to the stalling tactic. It allows the Senate to limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours of debate.” See http://uspolitics.about.com/od/glossary/a/Cloture-Definition.htm .

 

UPDATE: Wednesday, July 6, 2016 9:00PM: No results as to the US Senate Vote yet. PLEASE CALL NY SENATOR SCHUMER’S AND SENATOR GILLIBRAND’S OFFICES TOMORROW AND TELL THEM TO VOTE “NO” AND TELL THEM WHY YOUR FAMILY DOES NOT WANT NOR SUPPORT THE ‘DARK ACT.’

Senator Schumer (202) 224-6542

Senator Gillibrand (202) 224-4451

In the meantime, read this June 29, 2016 article at HuffPo by Carey Gillam, Research Director for U.S. Right to Know, a non-profit consumer education group, At ‘Crucial Moment’ For GMO Labeling, Organic Industry Finds Itself Divided.

Read Carey Gillam’s June 27, 2016 article at U.S. Right to Know, For GMO Labeling Advocates, It Doesn’t Get Much Darker Than This.

And see this Wednesday, July 6, 2016 NY Times editorial, A Flawed Approach to Labeling Genetically Modified Food.

Finally, we were all let to believe that GMO foods were necessary because they would increase food yields. A national report has put that myth to bed.

U.S. Right To Know informs us: “A May 2016 report by the National Academy of Sciences found no evidence that GMO crops had changed the rate of increase in yields, and no clear benefits for small, impoverished farms in developing countries.”

 

UPDATE: Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 6:00PM: An advocate (thanks JS) from HWFC just let our list know she has spoken with the Environmental Working Group. “THEY SAY SCHUMER IS POSSIBLY GOING TO VOTE FOR THE BILL… (the DARK Act)…”

Please call Senator Schumer’s Office and tell him to vote “no.” Tell him why. Tell him the Organic Trade Association, which is supporting this bill, does NOT speak for you and your family.

Flood Senator Schumer’s Office with calls. We need large numbers from the Albany area calling his D.C. office.

Does anyone have a newer update from Senator Gillibrand’s office?

I was told it is more effective to call their D.C. offices. Here are the numbers:

Senator Schumer (202) 224-6542 (9-6PM and you CANNOT leave a message)

Senator Gillibrand (202) 224-4451

Please post any updates, below.

Here is the text of the bill (thanks MR, another HWFC advocate). It just made it out of committee (Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry) and doesn’t have an S number yet. History of bill: (S. 2609 via amendment #3450 to S. 764)

http://www.agriculture.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Ag%20biotech%20compromise%20proposal.pdf

Folks, please read the text of this bill …and make your Senate phone calls today and tomorrow morning. Call friends & family around the US and have THEM call THEIR Senators today and tomorrow morning to vote “no” to the Dark Act.

GRASSROOTS ACTION: US Senate Vote Tomorrow on DARK Act: Call Senators today!

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Posted by Laura Hagen, HWFC Member-Owner.

GRASSROOTS ACTION IS POWERFUL! is a blog dedicated to American independently-owned, Member-Owned & operated, community food co-ops, their Member-Owners and families.

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UPDATE: THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2016 9:10 am

NYS Senator Gillibrand’s office in D.C. told me this morning that the Senator voted “NO” against the cloture vote yesterday. (This is, she voted against cutting off debate and forcing a vote.)

NYS Senator’s Schumer’s office in D.C. told me this morning that the Senator voted “NO” (That is, he voted against cutting off debate and forcing a vote.)

UPDATE: WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2016 10:30PM

DARK ACT PASSES US SENATE WEDNESDAY WITH CLOTURE* VOTE

A Center for Food Safety Press Release dated today, states:

WASHINGTON— Today the Senate voted to deny one-third of Americans the right to know what is in in the food products they purchase. In a cloture vote of 65-32 the discriminatory, highly-flawed “compromise” GMO labeling bill offered by Senators Stabenow and Roberts, also known as the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act, passed through the Senate. This “compromise” bill allows producers to use QR codes and “smart labels” instead of clear, on-package labeling of food products that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The poorly drafted bill exempts major portions of current and future GMO foods from labeling and is discriminatory against low-income, rural, minorities and elderly populations. The bill as written is also a gross violation of the sovereignty of numerous states, as it preempts the genetically engineered food labeling laws in Vermont, Connecticut, Maine and Alaska…

The High Plains /Midwest AG Journal article Senate Passes GMO Cloture Vote, dated Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 5:38 pm stated: “Senate will vote on final passage as early as July 7.“

Both NYS Senators’ – Schumer and Gillibrand – websites are silent as to how they voted on the Dark Act cloture vote. Please post below, if you have an update.

See the Senate Democrat and Republican Conference websites for information about the Cloture vote and the final vote, possibly tomorrow, Thursday, July 7, 2016.

*What’s a “cloture vote?” “Cloture is a procedure used occasionally in the U.S. Senate to break a filibuster. Cloture, or Rule 22, is the only formal procedure in Senate parliamentary rules, in fact, that can force an end to the stalling tactic. It allows the Senate to limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours of debate.” See http://uspolitics.about.com/od/glossary/a/Cloture-Definition.htm .

 

UPDATE: Wednesday, July 6, 2016 9:00PM: No results as to the US Senate Vote yet. PLEASE CALL NY SENATOR SCHUMER’S AND SENATOR GILLIBRAND’S OFFICES TOMORROW AND TELL THEM TO VOTE “NO” AND TELL THEM WHY YOUR FAMILY DOES NOT WANT NOR SUPPORT THE ‘DARK ACT.’

Senator Schumer (202) 224-6542

Senator Gillibrand (202) 224-4451

In the meantime, read this June 29, 2016 article at HuffPo by Carey Gillam, Research Director for U.S. Right to Know, a non-profit consumer education group, At ‘Crucial Moment’ For GMO Labeling, Organic Industry Finds Itself Divided.

Read Carey Gillam’s June 27, 2016 article at U.S. Right to Know, For GMO Labeling Advocates, It Doesn’t Get Much Darker Than This.

And see this Wednesday, July 6, 2016 NY Times editorial, A Flawed Approach to Labeling Genetically Modified Food.

Finally, we were all let to believe that GMO foods were necessary because they would increase food yields. A national report has put that myth to bed.

U.S. Right To Know informs us: “A May 2016 report by the National Academy of Sciences found no evidence that GMO crops had changed the rate of increase in yields, and no clear benefits for small, impoverished farms in developing countries.”

 

UPDATE: Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 6:00PM: An advocate (thanks JS) from HWFC just let our list know she has spoken with the Environmental Working Group. “THEY SAY SCHUMER IS POSSIBLY GOING TO VOTE FOR THE BILL… (the DARK Act)…”

Please call Senator Schumer’s Office and tell him to vote “no.” Tell him why. Tell him the Organic Trade Association, which is supporting this bill, does NOT speak for you and your family.

Flood Senator Schumer’s Office with calls. We need large numbers from the Albany area calling his D.C. office.

Does anyone have a newer update from Senator Gillibrand’s office?

I was told it is more effective to call their D.C. offices. Here are the numbers:

Senator Schumer (202) 224-6542 (9-6PM and you CANNOT leave a message)

Senator Gillibrand (202) 224-4451

Please post any updates, below.

Here is the text of the bill (thanks MR, another HWFC advocate). It just made it out of committee (Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry) and doesn’t have an S number yet. History of bill: (S. 2609 via amendment #3450 to S. 764)

http://www.agriculture.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Ag%20biotech%20compromise%20proposal.pdf

Folks, please read the text of this bill …and make your Senate phone calls today and tomorrow morning. Call friends & family around the US and have THEM call THEIR Senators today and tomorrow morning to vote “no” to the Dark Act.

~~~

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and its International Director, Ronnie Cummins, issued this statement in an email sent out July 3rd:

On Wednesday, July 6, the U.S. Senate will hold a vote on a bill that could undermine everything that’s been accomplished so far on the GMO labeling front.

If the Roberts-Stabenow DARK Act passes next week, Vermont’s GMO labeling bill, enacted yesterday, will be overturned. Consumers will never get clear labels on GMO foods. The right of states to pass their own food safety and labeling laws will be severely undermined.

In fact, even Vermont’s seed labeling law, in existence for the past 12 years, will be wiped out of existence by this grossly offensive piece of legislation.

So much for states being the “laboratories of democracy.” What rights will corporations convince our federal lawmakers to take away next?

The bill proposed by Sens. Pat Roberts and Debbie Stabenow is an anti-consumer, pro-Monsanto masterpiece, bought and paid for by some of the greediest, most deceptive corporations in America…

YOUR ACTION STEPS:

1. Please read my July 2nd post to get updated, here.
2. It is URGENT that you contact your US Senators TODAY at 888-897-0174  (or Senator Schumer (202) 224-6542; Senator Gillibrand (202) 224-4451), and let them know you do not support the Roberts-Stabenow Senate Bill, aka the DARK ACT. In the past, NY Senators Gillibrand and Schumer both voted “no.” Call them anyway because I did not get a firm answer today from either Senator’s office that they would be voting “no” tomorrow.
   1. See how the rest of the US Senate voted on a “test run” of the vote, here;
3. Go to your pantry & ‘fridge. Cross-check the brand names of the organic food you buy with this list of members of the Organic Trade Association (OTA);
   1. Email and/or FB some of these “organic” companies today (OTA list of members here);
   2. Tell them to publicly drop support of this bill; you want this in writing;
   3. Tell them you expect to see an announcement on their website and FB page, showing they have removed support for this bill.

I called Senators Schumer and Gillibrand’s offices today. Senator Gillibrand’s D.C. office told me they cannot confirm that she will vote “no” against the DARK Act, but that she did vote against it in the past.

Senator Schumer’s D.C. office line was busy; I am still trying to get through.(UPDATE 7/5/16, 3:30PM: the Senator’s D.C. office stated the Senator does oppose the DARK ACT and has voted against it in the past; however, the staffer does not know how the Senator will vote tomorrow until after he votes.) I spoke to the regional office in Albany and was told the Senator did vote against the DARK Act in the past; the staffer could not tell me the “Senator’s thinking as of this moment.” He urged me to call the D.C. office to be sure my voice is heard and that I am included in the tally of phone calls against the DARK Act.

Let me state this very loudly and very clearly: the Organic Trade Association (OTA) and all of its association members have joined with Monsanto in support of this bill.

This “Organic Industry” trade & lobbying organization, the Organic Trade Association, is claiming to speak for millions of American who buy their members’ “organic” food products. That includes you.

This bill is being voted on in the US Senate tomorrow, July 6th.

Do not allow this organic, corporate “front group,” the OTA, to speak for you. Call your US Senators today on behalf of your family and ask that they vote “no.” Tell them why.

Tell members of the Organic Trade Association – in writing – that your family will stop buying their “organic” foods if they do not immediately drop support for this bill – in writing – which supports GMOs and Monsanto.

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Here is the letter which I emailed today to Melissa Hughes, Chair of the Organic Trade Association and Organic Valley representative:

Urgent Response Needed: OV and OTA Support of the Roberts-Stabenow Bill

July 5, 2016

Dear Ms. Hughes, Chair, Organic Trade Association and Representative of Organic Valley:

I have been a loyal customer of Organic Valley Co-operative milk products for years. Each month I purchase at least 1 gallon of OV whole, grassfed milk to make yogurt and we purchase OV butter, as well.

I am shocked that Organic Valley, represented by you as the Chair of the Organic Trade Association (OTA,) is supporting the Roberts-Stabenow Senate bill – renamed “The DARK Act” (Deny Americans the Right to Know about GMOs).

This bill goes against the very things we consumers want: transparency in labeling of GMOs; full disclosure by food corporations of the presence of GMOs; the right to protect our families from the harm of GMOs; and protection of the term “organic” in food labeling.

Please tell me:

1. Why is Organic Valley supporting this bill?
2. Why are you, as chair of the OTA, guiding the hundreds of OTA member corporations into supporting this bill?
3. What will it take for you to realize that 90% of American consumers DO NOT WANT GMOs in their food and WANT IT CLEARLY LABELED, that a food corporation is using GMOs? Would a national boycott of Organic Valley products be a loud and clear message?
4. Will you, as both Chair of the OTA and as a representative of Organic Valley, publicly and in writing on your websites and Facebook pages, withdraw your support of the Roberts-Stabenow bill (“the DARK Act”) immediately?
5. Please provide me with a list (name, address, phone, website, email) of ALL the farmers who provide milk/dairy to the Organic Valley Co-operative, whose farms are located in New York State & Vermont. I plan to contact each NYS & VT Organic Valley farm family and let them know there is strong consumer action AGAINST the “organic” corporations which support the Roberts-Stabenow Senate bill and that consumers, nation-wide, are poised to boycott any “organic” corporations which, by virtue of being a member of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), support the Roberts-Stabenow bill.

Depending upon your reply, my family will either continue to buy Organic Valley milk and butter. …or we will end our support of your corporation and buy our organic milk and butter elsewhere. We will go out of our way to NOT purchase Organic Valley products.

In addition – depending upon your written answer to me – our family will begin a campaign of contacting every member of the OTA whose food has a place in our ‘fridge and pantry, and inform them that we will no longer be purchasing their “organic” food products.

Please do not ask me to call you back; I would much prefer your answer in writing. There are many other Organic Valley customers who will want to know your answers, as well.

Sincerely,

Laura Hagen

GRASSROOTS ACTION ALERT: Organic Trade Assoc. SUPPORTS Anti-GMO Labeling & Monsanto!?

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Posted by Laura Hagen, HWFC Member-Owner.

GRASSROOTS ACTION IS POWERFUL! is a blog dedicated to American independently-owned, Member-Owned & operated, community food co-ops, their Member-Owners and families.

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July 2, 2016
11:00 am

GRASSROOTS ACTION ALERT! Organic Trade Association (OTA) Supports Anti-GMO Labeling Bill in US Senate.

Brand New Vermont GMO Labeling Law Under Attack.

We food co-op people need to act!

Please call your US Senators NOW to voice your outrage and disapproval of this bill.

Please call the Organic Trade Association (OTA) food company members – whose organic food your family buys – and voice your outrage. Hit this lobby organization’s members where it hurts, in their pockets.

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“There can be no such thing as “coexistence” with a reckless GMO-driven food and farming system that undermines public health, destroys biodiversity, damages the environment, tortures and poisons animals, destabilizes the climate, and economically devastates the world’s two billion seed-saving small farmers.”

Ronnie Cummins,
Organic Consumers Association

Food Democracy Now! and the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) have just issued a nation-wide, grassroots alert about threats to GMO labeling in both Vermont and the entire United States.

As you know the GMO labeling bill went into effect yesterday, in our neighboring state of Vermont. We all have been cheering Vermont for the stand this state took (the only one in the US) to require the labeling of GMO foods.

Consider, for a minute, how many food products in our our co-op, the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany, NY, are grown and produced in Vermont – 45″ away – and sold in our storefront! This Vermont bill intimately affects us …as does the national attack upon this new Vermont law.

There is a move at the national level to not only nullify this new Vermont GMO labeling law, that went into effect yesterday, but to undermine the ability of any state to label GMOs. This bill, the Roberts-Stabenow Senate bill – renamed “The DARK Act” (Deny Americans the Right to Know about GMOs) by consumer advocates – has additional provisions which are even much, much worse than this threat.

The Organic Consumers Association states:

…On June 29, Monsanto scored a preliminary victory, winning a Senate “test vote” on a bill known as the DARK Act that Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced to Deny Americans the Right to Know about GMOs…

Here is the worst part for those of us who eat organic and who buy organic: this bill is supported by the Organic Trade Association (OTA) a national trade & lobby association, which includes many of the organic companies, brand names, and wholesalers with whom you are very familiar. (Go ahead, plug in your favorite organic, or should I say “organic,” company name, test it out…)

(Don’t know who owns your favorite organic food product: BIG FOOD or not? No excuse. Go here to Dr. Phil Howard’s infographic “Who Owns Organic”, at the Cornucopia Institute’s website, or go to Dr. Howard’s website for the version updated June 2016. Drill down, get the corporate name and plug it into the list of members of the Organic Trade Association (OTA). Voilà!)

Let me state this very loudly and very clearly: the Organic Trade Association (OTA) and all of its association members have joined with Monsanto in support of this bill.

This “Organic Industry” lobbying organization is claiming to speak for millions of American who buy their members’ “organic” food products. That includes you.

On June 29th, the Organic Consumers Association stated:

…Organic brands owned by large corporations who are members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the Organic Trade Association (OTA), Whole Foods Market (WFM), UNFI, and a cabal of sell-out non-profit organizations have surrendered to Monsanto and corporate agribusiness by embracing the latest version of the DARK Act (the Robert-Stabenow Senate Bill) that if passed, will nullify the Vermont law requiring mandatory GMO labeling…

…The growing list of Organic Traitors includes the head of Whole Foods Market, Walter Robb; Gary Hirschberg, the CEO of Stonyfield Farm and the pseudo-pro GMO labeling group Just Label It; the Environmental Working Group, represented by Scott Faber, former head lobbyist for the pro-biotech Grocery Manufacturers Association; UNFI, the largest wholesaler of natural and organic foods; and the OTA, led by “natural” brands such as Smuckers and White Wave, and represented by their Board Chair Melissa Hughes from Organic Valley.

These self-selected “Good Food” and “Organic” leaders have been telling Congress behind closed doors—and now publicly—that they and the organic community will accept an industry-crafted DARK Act “compromise”—the Stabenow/Roberts bill— that eliminates mandatory GMO labeling and preempts the Vermont law with a convoluted and deceptive federal regime for QR codes and 1-800 numbers that is completely voluntary, with no firm guidelines for implementation, and no provisions whatsoever for enforcement. Perhaps even more outrageous, the legal definition of “bioengineered” foods under the new DARK Act means that 95 percent of the current GMO-tainted foods on the market, including foods made from Roundup-resistant and BT-spliced corn and soy, would never have to be identified…

Food Democracy Now! states:

…Thanks to Monsanto and this corrupt cabal of organic executives all the provisions of the new bill are optional and would exempt 85% of GMOs planted today, including those from all of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO seeds. This bill is essentially a “Non-labeling” bill, but provides Monsanto and America’s most corrupt food companies the chance to continue to avoid GMO labels, while keeping the doors open for a flood of campaign cash from the likes of Monsanto, DuPont, Pepsi, Smucker’s and General Mills…

Here is an example of the PR American farmers are being fed about “how wonderful” the Roberts-Stabenow Senate bill (the “DARK ACT”) is, posted on June 26th, at Successful Farming at AGRICULTURE.com:

…Both the definition and the option for digital codes rather than on-package labeling represent major victories for farm interests, biotech developers, and food companies that have long resisted mandatory GMO labeling out of fear that it would stigmatize the technology.

The legislation, which will need 60 votes to pass the Senate, would nullify Vermont’s first-in-the-nation GMO labeling law, which takes effect July 1 and would bar any other state from enacting labeling requirements that differ from the federal standards…

And here is what the July 1, 2016 issue of Washington D.C.’s The Hill has to say about this, as echoed on the Cornucopia Institute’s website, FDA Concerned With GMO Labeling ‘Compromise’:

…’The FDA critique makes it very clear that this is really a non-labeling bill disguised as a labeling bill,’ Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, said in a statement. ‘Its very definition excludes vast numbers of, and potentially all, GMO products from labeling.’

The legislation excludes food derived from an animal from being considered a bioengineered food solely because the animal ate feed from, containing, or consisting of a bioengineered substance…

WHAT TO DO

        Congress returns to session after the July 4th recess, on July 5th. There needs to be consumer pressure placed upon both Members of the US Senate and the individual, corporate “organic” business members of the “Organic” Trade Association (OTA), the lobby organization which is selling organic down the road …and benefiting large “organic” corporations which are its members …not American families & small, family organic farmers.

HWFC MEMBER-OWNERS, SHAREHOLDERS AND SHOPPERS, HERE ARE YOUR ACTION STEPS RE. THE ROBERTS-STABENOW SENATE BILL – AKA “The DARK Act:”

1. Become informed with facts: read the Action Alerts at the Organic Consumers Association and Food Democracy Now!, here and here;
2. Call your Senators at 888-897-0174. Calls are the fastest, and most effective way to get your message through to Congress. NY Senators Gillibrand and Schumer both voted “no.” Call them anyway. See the rest of the US Senate votes here;
3. Email your friends and family in other states and have them call their Senators;
4. Go to your pantry & ‘fridge. Cross-check the brand names of the organic food you buy with this list of members of the Organic Trade Association (OTA);
5. Call or email each and every “organic” company which is both represented in your pantry/’fridge and represented on the “Organic” Trade Association’s (OTA) list of members.
   1. Tell them to publicly drop support of this bill.
   2. Ask them what they plan to do.
   3. Tell them you expect a written email response informing your family that they have removed support for this bill.
   4. Tell them you expect to see an announcement on their website showing they have removed support for this bill.
   5. Tell them to put pressure on the Organic Trade Association to drop support of this bill and to state so publicly on the OTA website.
   6. They won’t comply? Tell them, in writing, that your family will park its organic food money elsewhere.
   7. Visit the Facebook pages of these Organic Trade Association “organic” corporations and give them a piece of your mind …every single one of them.
6. Make sure your local organic farmers get the true story. Go visit their farms & your local farmers’ markets with the information from Food Democracy Now and the Organic Consumers Association. Tell them your family wants to buy “real” organic foods. GMO foods will not be on your food table; you will put your family’s food money with real organic farmers like them. However, you want your organic farming neighbors to know they are also under attack with this bill.
   1. This bill will negatively affect all US “real” organic farmers and their businesses, by ruining the use of the term “organic.” The “real” organic farm families, small family farms and small organic producers will have the use of the term “organic” rendered useless.
   2. How will you, the consumer, be able to tell which is “real, non-GMO organic” from the fake, poisonous, pesticide-ridden stuff, which would be marketed as “organic?”

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Do you want to allow these “organic” companies, which are members of the “Organic” Trade Association to get away with this? Allow them to speak to Congress – allegedly – on your behalf?

If this bill passes – if it becomes law – kiss your right to know what’s in your – organic and non-organic – food good-bye.

Kiss the label/term “organic” good-bye as having any meaning left, at all: it’ll be rendered useless.

Take action today and in the coming week. Congress comes back after recess, on July 5th. Each and every phone call to Congress counts. Each and every email / phone call you make to one of these “organic” companies makes a difference, but only if you ask them to make a written, public statement and send your family a written email confirming their position.Please feel free to post the replies you get from any of these “organic” companies, below.

I think once you start cross-checking the brand names of the food you buy with this list of members of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), you will despair. It is not happy news.

WELCOME TO “BIG ORGANIC”

        HWFC’ers, you’ve heard the term “BIG Food.” Well, welcome to the term “BIG Organic.”

Remember the PR term “astroturf,”we bumped into a while ago here at HWFC?  Something that looks and seems like grassroots, citizen, community action, when it’s actually “synthetic-grassroots” or an “astroturf lobbying” or “stealth marketing” operation?

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) defines fake grassroots or, astroturf:

Astroturf refers to apparently grassroots-based citizen groups or coalitions that are primarily conceived, created and/or funded by corporations, industry trade associations, political interests or public relations firms.

CMD defines another term which may sound familiar, a “front group”:

A front group is an organization that purports to represent one agenda while in reality it serves some other party or interest whose sponsorship is hidden or rarely mentioned…

…The shadowy way front groups operate makes it difficult to know whether a seemingly independent grassroots is actually representing some other entity. 

A Front Group is a PR term for big corporations out for themselves, acting in stealth, and trying to fake us (or Congress) out into believing they’re acting in our best interests as part of our grassroots …or are speaking for our grassroots …when, in fact, they are using the cover of our grassroots to move their own agendas. Usually you will find a Strategic PR firm in the mix, expertly moving the pieces behind the scenes.

It seems like the Organic Trade Association fits these bills to a “T:” big, well-funded corporations, with hidden agendas, trying to masquerade as our friends, our organic, grassroots buddies; and, at the very same time they are selling our families down the pike.

This was an introduction I planned to make gradually, in my newest blog series called My Food Comes From WHERE?! Oh, there! and its sister topic-in-arms, They Added WHAT To My Food?! No, dude!

“BIG Organic” has reared its ugly head a tad earlier here than I had hoped.

The Organic Consumers Association June 29 alert slams the actions of the OTA and their PR firm:

As the Center for Food Safety pointed out earlier today:

… by our calculation the OTA has brought along a minimum of 7-10 Senators against us that were with us before. That is their margin of victory. There is no way to sugar coat this. Should we be defeated a major force that changed from our March victory to this uphill battle is the OTA backroom deal.

In lobbying for the DARK Act, the OTA has employed the notorious Podesta Group (the same PR firm hired by Hilary Clinton and the Biotechnology Industry Association) to convince Senators to stab consumers in the back.

 Full of despair? This news is as bad as you think it is. Go join NOFA-NY, right now; and find out what they are saying about this, while you’re at it.

Despair passes. Action moves you to the positive.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: GIVE THANKS TO “REAL” ORGANIC FARMERS

        To the positive: Go thank a local, “real” organic farmer whom you buy from at Honest Weight Food Co-op or a local farmer’s market. Or, email them thanks! Thank God there are local families who are true pioneers, living among us here, locally & regionally, dedicating their lives to producing true, locally-produced, organic foods for our families’ tables.

This morning, my husband and I went to the Delmar Farmers’ Market (thank you to longtime HWFC Member-Owner Paul Tick for getting it off the ground in 2009, I think! Paul has an article in the latest HWFC Coop Scoop (Save Water in Your Gardens) and thanked Dany & Joanne Tilley from Tilldale Farms in Hoosick, NY (yes, THAT Hoosick Falls; they have filtered water on the entire farm and have maintained their Certified Organic status. D’you see what organic farmers are up against???) We also bought a chicken and a hog belly, so my husband can make his second batch of bacon (which he learned how to do at Honest Weight Food Co-op as a Member-Owner worker! Thank you HWFC and its very knowledgeable meat department staff!)

Send Tilldale Farms a note of thanks here …or park your organic food money with this organic farm family!

Tilldale Farms
Certified Organic Meat: Pasture-raised Pork & Grassfed Beef
(they also have pastured chickens, eggs, & organic beef suet)
Dany & Joanne Tilley
22 Tilley Lane
Hoosick, NY 12090

or

PO Box 77
Hoosick, NY 12089

Dan 518-338-6516
Joanne 518-222-6336

Email: tilldalefarm@gmail.com
Website: http://www.tilldalefarm.com/index.htm

MY LITTLE BIT: HOMEMADE YOGURT FROM “ORGANIC VALLEY” MILK …THAT ERA IS OVER FOR THIS FAMILY.

        Every week or so (we’re a fermenting family!), I make 1/2 gallon of organic, grass-fed, whole milk 24-hour yogurt and 1/2 gallon of organic, 100% cream 24-hour yogurt. The milk is from Organic Valley. The cream is from Evan’s Farmhouse Creamery, 5037 State Highway 23, Norwich, NY 13815, (607) 334-5339.

As of next week, I will no longer be purchasing Organic Valley grassfed milk, given that the Organic Trade Association’s (OTA)  Board Chair is Melissa Hughes from Organic Valley.

I will still purchase my gallon or so of organic cream from Evan’s Farmhouse Certified Organic Creamery in Norwich, NY, which I buy at the Honest Weight Food Co-op. Evan’s Farmhouse Creamery got a five-cow rating, the top rating! over at the Cornucopia Institute’s “Organic Dairy Report/Ratings Arranged by Cow Star Ratings,” updated June 9, 2016.

This is only one consumer’s voice and its only one-two gallons of milk per month. But, it is my voice …and my family’s food money will not go to support Organic Valley anymore. That era is over.

So, I’m off to search for a local, organic dairy where I can buy raw milk. Might as well make the change to raw milk, if I’m gonna change. Joanne Tilley at Tilldale Farms in Hoosick Falls has given me a lead. Need to take a road trip …and go visit a local organic milk farmer!

~~~

PS To the young adults who are being home-schooled and who read this blog and are learning about democracy, up close & personal through HWFC: have at it! Call your Senators’ offices on Tuesday, July 5th, and start calling those “organic” food corporations who have a space in your family’s pantry and ‘fridge and demand email statements from them (with your parents’ permission, of course!) (Hey, I’m a (music) teacher at heart; thank you for allowing me to teach you!)