DEBUNKING THE "BIG-MONEY" LIES ABOUT LABELING GMO'S (GENETICALLY ENGINEERED - "FRANKENSTEIN" - FOOD) - PROP 37

     Your health - your very LIFE - are at risk from food you are currently buying and eating - which has had its gene structure altered in a laboratory. 

      70% of the food in major corporate supermarkets contains these Genetically Modified Organisms, " G.M.O.s ", and the really sinister thing is that - thanks to big money and political corruption - the knowledge that you are buying and eating GMO food has been kept from you,  making you an unwitting guinea pig in an untested and unstudied food experiment.

      Many studies around the world - including a recent well publicized study in france - have demonstrated conclusively that GMOs cause premature death, cancer and a host of other devastating health problems - including infertility within 3 generations - in laboratory test-animals.

     California Proposition 37 would require that GMO foods be labeled by those who sell them, and that GMOs not be allowed to be labeled as "natural food" - period. They could still be manufactured and marketed, and you could still buy them if you wanted to. The only thing that would change would be that food containing GMO ingredients would be labeled as such - just as all food labels are now required to list calorie count.

     By the way, 50 other countries around the World already have mandatory GMO labeling laws in place.

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     The main argument used by those opposing labeling of GMOs is a scare tactic saying that the consumer will pay hugh amounts of extra money for this process. This is an absolute lie. Despite a deceptive ad campaign being funded by tens of millions of special-interest big-corporation dollars, the simple and provable fact is that there would be little or no increase in cost to either the consumer or the manufacturer.

 Let's take a quick look at the lies of the "No On 37" 35 Million Dollar propaganda campaign : 

LIE #1  - INCREASED COSTS TO CONSUMERS

      A recent Emory University School of Law study (Joanna shepherd Bailey Ph.D.) 

concluded that “Consumers will likely see no increases in prices as a result of the relabeling required.” 

      Think about it. Putting a little ink on a label is not going to change the price of food. Food prices did not go up when new law required all labels to be changed  to include calorie counts. They won't go up because they include GMO information either.

      In Europe food costs didn't rise as a result of laws passed in several countries requiring mandatory GMO labeling. According to European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Parliament, “… the current labeling regime  introduced in 1997 did not result in increased costs, despite the horrifying (double-digit) prediction of some interests. Similarly, when Norway introduced its current labelling regime (similar to the one now proposed), it did not provoke any price increase or disruption in trade.”

      Food manufacturers are continually updating packaging information. It is a regular cost of doing business, and a small one at that. It is ALREADY built into the price.

 LIE #2 - GMO FOODS ARE SAFE.

      Prop. 37 is airing ads produced by the same companies that told us DDT and Agent Orange were safe - Monsanto Corp ( $4.2 million to No-On-37 ), Dow Chemical ( $1.2 million to No-On-37 ), DuPont ( $4 million to No-On-37) and the list goes on. (watch this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Szq2GFYktG8). 

      Now they are telling us GMOs are safe. They say "The World Health Organization, American Medical Association, National Academy of Sciences and other respected medical and health organizations all conclude that genetically engineered foods are safe.”

 This is an absolute lie.

     The American Medical Association and World Health Orbanization/United Nations have said mandatory safety studies should be required -- a standard that the U.S. fails to meet. Despite scientific warnings, the U.S. federal government requires no safety studies for genetically engineered foods, and no long-term human health studies have been conducted. 

      A National Academy of Sciences report concludes that products of genetic engineering technology “carry the potential for introducing unintended compositional changes that may have adverse effects on human health.”

LIE #3 - PROP 37 WILL LEAD TO MASSIVE LAWSUITS WHICH CONSUMERS AND FARMERS WILL WIND UP PAYING FOR.

    NO-ON-37 forces want you to believe that : 

            A-It is written by lawyers in order to set up lucretive law suits.

      The truth is that Under Proposition 37, there are no incentives for lawyers to sue. Why would trial lawyers write a measure they can’t make money on? The real history is that Prop 37 was written by a group of food industry, farm, science and health experts, including from Lundberg Family Farms, the Organic Consumers Association, Food Democracy Now!, Nature’s Path and the Center for Food Safety.

            B-Proposition 37 will provide “countless new opportunities for shakedown lawsuits.”

      The truth is that Consumers can't file a class action without first giving notice and if the defendant fixes the labels, then no class action is permitted.  And any penalties from a violation go only to the state, not the plaintiff or lawyer. Food companies are required by law to label for ingredients, calories, etc., and there have been few violations. Companies are also likely to label genetically engineered foods accurately. 

         C-It will lead to rampant lawsuits against farmers and retailers.     

     The truth is that legal liability falls on the person manufacturing the product, not the farmer and not  the grocer. The retailer would only be responsible for labeling a raw agricultural commodity that is genetically engineered.

     No-On-37 forces are lying about farmers and retailers because they want to take the spotlight off the junk food manufacturers who are responsible for putting the labels on the food.

      (NOTE -  if you want to find out about about some REAL "shakedown lawsuits", check out what Monsanto is up to: suing farmers across the country for growing their own seeds. As the Washington Post reported Oct. 5, “Monsanto has a policy that prohibits farmers from saving or reusing the seeds once the crop is grown, ensuring that farmers have to buy new seeds every year… The company has filed lawsuits around the country to enforce its policy against saving the seeds for the future.”

Yet Monsanto and the pesticide companies want us to believe that a simple labeling law is too threatening. Remember, they’ll say anything to try to convince us we don’t have a right to know what’s in our food.)

LIE #4 - PROP. 37 IS "A NIGHTMARE SCENARIO FOR GROCERS AND RETAILERS BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO OBTAIN AND KEEP REAMS OF PAPERWORK"

      This is completely false. 

      Retailers would only have to label the few raw commodities (sweet corn, papaya, squash) that are genetically engineered.  They can either stick a simple label on the bin or, if they wish, they can ask their supplier for a sworn statement that the crop is not genetically engineered.  

     Furthermore, retailers are protected under the law in two ways. First, class action lawsuits are expressly forbidden unless the retailer is given a chance to put the labels on -- if they do, no lawsuit.  Second, the law protects anyone for whom a claimed violation was not intentional or resulted from an error; since retailers have no reason to know what's inside the packages of food on their shelves, they aren't liable at all. It couldn't be clearer.

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 Prop 37 Means Simple, Clear Labels That Won't Cost You a Dime

     Look, the bottom line is that the public has the right to know what their food contains so that they can make informed choices about whether or not they want to eat it.

      Prop 37 gives us the right to know if our food has been genetically engineered. It helps us make the right food choices for our families by putting a simple label on the groceries we buy and telling us if our food has been genetically engineered.

      Simple and clear labels. 

      No cost to consumers. 

      No loopholes. 

      That's why a broad and diverse Coalition from the Sierra Club, to farmers, nurses, doctors and the Consumer Federation of America say YES to 37.

      Opponents are spending nearly a million dollars per day trying to make it complicated. But really it's simple - we have the right to know what's in our food. 

      No-On-37 forces are outspending Yes-On-37 forces SEVEN TO ONE. The only way the public wins this one is if YOU tell EVERYONE you know about the dangers of GMO foods and the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY to pass Proposition 37.

      OUR LIVES ARE ON THE LINE ON THIS ONE. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BE COMPLACENT.

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