The fight to label food products that have GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) is on THIS WEEK. This Thursday and Friday the state capitol, down in Olympia, is holding hearings that discuss bills that have been introduced to the House and Senate. The more support that is shown, at these hearings specifically, the better chance the bills have of passing. If these bills pass, we can expect products in grocery stores to indicate that they contain GMOs, which is a big win for those of us trying to avoid those dangerous “food” substances. GMO labeling would provide us with a defense against the often sneaky inclusion of these “foods”.

1. Write your state reps to ask them to cosponsor the bills.
2. Write your state senators to ask them to cosponsor SB 6298.
3. Call your state reps to ask them to cosponsor HB 2637.
4. Call your state senators to ask them to cosponsor SB 6298.
5. Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund so we can reimburse the travel costs of supporters who couldn’t otherwise attend the hearings.
6. Learn more and get involved at GMOFreeWashington.com.

The Dangers of GMOs

In addition to our blog post from a while back, organicconsumers.org also has some great notes about GMOs and just how big of a scary impact they have on the food we eat.

10 scary reasons to label GMOs:

1. Monsanto’s Bt-toxin, in its Bt-producing GMO corn  and cotton (used in food in the form of cottonseed oil), was found by  Canadian doctors in the blood of 93% of pregnant women and 80% of the  umbilical blood of their babies.
2. The authors of the Canadian study conclude that  the women and their babies were exposed to Monsanto’s GMO Bt-toxin  through a “normal” non-organic Canadian diet, including non-organic  (so-called “natural” and “conventional”) meat, egg, and dairy products  from animals fed Bt corn.
3. Monsanto’s GMO “Bt” corn and cotton plants are  engineered to produce a insecticide in every cell of the plant that  kills insects by breaking open their stomachs.
4. Mice fed Monsanto’s Bt corn had elevated levels  of immune system substances that are also higher in humans who suffer  from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis,  multiple sclerosis, cancer, allergies, Lou Gehrig’s disease, autoimmune  disease, and colitis.
5. Young mice in the same study had elevated T-cells, which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with  food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases.
6. Monsanto’s GMO Bt-toxin has properties of known  allergens – it actually fails the World Health Organization’s allergen  screening tests.
7. Monsanto’s GMO Bt-toxin has been found to bind with the small intestines in mice and with intestinal tissue in rhesus monkeys.
8. In addition to its GMO “Bt” crops which are  engineered to produce insecticide, Monsanto also produces GMO “RoundUp  Ready” crops, engineered with a bacterial DNA that allows it to survive  otherwise deadly doses of its herbicide RoundUp.
9. In the only human feeding study ever published on GMOs, Monsanto’s GMO “RoundUp Ready” soybeans were found to transfer  Monsanto’s “RoundUp Ready” DNA to the bacteria living inside human  intestines.
10. According to Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for  Responsible Technology, the transfer of Monsanto’s GMO Bt DNA to human  digestive bacteria could create a “living pesticide factory” that could be responsible for the “increase in gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, and childhood learning disorders -  since 1996 when Bt crops came on the market.”

Show your support at the hearings in Olympia! Contact your state reps and senators! Join us in saying “no!” to GMOs.