A letter from Center for Food Safety:
Instead of listening to American consumers, the U.S. House of Representatives just passed the DARK Act, a bill that would overturn state genetically engineered (GE) food labeling laws, block FDA from ever implementing mandatory GE food labeling, and allow food companies to continue to make misleading “natural” claims for foods that contain GE ingredients.
I'm not going to mince words: this is a DISASTER for our movement and anyone who believes in the right to know what's in their food.
Center for Food Safety staff have worked tirelessly on Capitol Hill for months to defeat this legislation, and because of that hard work, we were able to sway many votes to our side at the last minute. Sadly, those votes were not enough to kill this dangerous bill.
But make no mistake – we will stop this bill in the Senate. And we need your help to do it.
Big food and chemical corporations such as Monsanto have hired high-priced lobbyists who pressured Congress into passing a law that will rescind GE food labeling laws passed in Vermont, Connecticut and Maine and nullify over 135 state and local regulations that restrict the use of GE crops or pesticides.
You can bet big food and chemical are only going to increase their big money tactics in the Senate, where the fight promises to be a tougher one for proponents of this anti-GMO labeling bill.
But we’re preparing to double down on opposing the DARK Act in the Senate. Can we count on you to double down, too?
Here are just a few ways your donation helps win campaigns against dangerous bills like this one:
Full page ads: We’re going to place full-page ads to expose the lies that support the DARK Act in publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Roll Call and the Hill, where your Senators are sure to see them.
Face to face meetings: We’ve met in person with over 300 Members of Congress and their staff to walk them through the dangers of GMOs and pesticides. And we’ll meet with Senators and their staff as this bill moves to the Senate to secure the votes we need to kill this bill.
Grassroots pressure: We’ve channeled over half a million of your emails and calls to your representatives to defeat legislative attempts to ban GE food labeling and to support mandatory, nationwide labeling. We’ll ramp up even more grassroots pressure in the Senate so they can’t ignore your voices.
We need to raise $150,000 to take your message to the Capitol, and the public at large. Thanks to a generous donor’s matching grant, every dollar you give towards our first $50,000 will be doubled! Will you donate right now to support our work and our ad campaign?
If this bill becomes law it would FOREVER take away our right to choose what we feed our children, farmer’s rights to grow their crop of choice, and our right to protect ourselves and our communities from dangerous chemicals.
If this bill passes in the Senate, imagine the hundreds of millions of pounds of additional pesticides, including Roundup and 2,4-D—an element of “Agent Orange”—in your food, water and air. And the Dark Act will have the greatest impact on the health of farm workers who will be in direct contact with these toxic pesticides. This bill would also be economically devastating to organic and non-GE farmers who could lose billions of dollars as their crops are contaminated by unregulated GE varieties.
Center for Food Safety relies on grassroots supporters like you to be able to do our work. Together, we’ve achieved tremendous victories in recent years. But all of that might be tossed out if the DARK Act passes in the Senate!
Help Center for Food Safety kill the bill in the Senate »
There's no doubt about it: this is a make or break moment for our movement. Big food and chemical, their lobbyists and the DARK Act can be defeated, but only if we each do our part. Please do yours today by pitching in.
Thanks for everything you do,
Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director
Center for Food Safety Action Fund
Paid for by Center for Food Safety Action Fund
660 Pennsylvania Ave SE, #803 | Washington, D.C. | 20003
[email protected] | (202) 547-9359
Center for Food Safety Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that is a separate
sister organization of Center for Food Safety.
