NO DARK ACT!

This week the Senate is scheduled to vote on the DARK Act!

Call them NOW! And tell them to vote NO on the DARK Act!

March Against Monsanto, May 23, 2015

Occupy Monsanto supports the March Against Monsanto!

Below is the News Advisory for the Washington, DC March Against Monsanto.
Click here to the read the Global March Against Monsanto News Advisory.

WASHINGTON, DC – On May 23, 2015, for the third year in a row, hundreds of thousands of concerned individuals will gather across 38 countries and 428 cities to join in peaceful protest against the Monsanto Company as a part of the March Against Monsanto grassroots campaign. This movement seeks to raise awareness to the dangers surrounding Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds and cancer-linked herbicide Roundup.

The campaign comes as the demand for GMO labeling and non-GMO food alternatives continues its exponential climb, with states like Vermont enacting mandatory GM labeling legislation that will require food corporations to let consumers know if their products contain GM ingredients.

In polls conducted by the New York Times, Washington Post, Consumer Reports, and many others, over 90% of respondents were in support of national GMO labeling – an initiative that has been defeated time and time again at the state level thanks to heavy spending by Monsanto-backed lobbying groups.

Highlighting the concern over Monsanto’s products is the latest report from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, which listed the primary chemical in Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide Roundup, glyphosate, as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” This finding has drawn many researchers and health experts to stand behind the goals of March Against Monsanto.

WHO: Concerned consumers, students, and gardeners, members of DC March Against Monsanto, GMO Free DC, Occupy Monsanto, and the Organic Consumers Association.
WHAT: The Washington, DC March Against Monsanto
WHERE: Lafayette Park, north of the White House to Monsanto’s Washington, DC offices.
WHEN: Saturday, May 23. Marchers will gather at noon and march at 1pm

The complete list of this weekend’s Marches Against Monsanto taking place around the world can be viewed at http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/events/

“We are marching because we’re tired of being ignored by the White House, FDA, and the USDA,“ says Gene Etic, an organizer with Occupy Monsanto. The White House has failed to respond to multiple GMO labeling petitions and has gone so far as appointing former Monsanto employees to positions of power in the FDA. Officially, the FDA does not believe there is any material difference between patented GMO plants and their non-GMO counterparts, but marchers believe that patented plants deserve a label in order to fully inform consumers of the novel technology.

“We already label foods that are irradiated, a process that everyone agrees is safe, so if GMO ingredients are also safe, why not label them as well?” asks Natalie Freeds, an organizer with DC March Against Monsanto. “I want this basic information so I can choose which foods to feed my children.” In fact, over 64 countries around the world either ban GE foods or require them to be properly labeled, including Russia, China, and the European Union.

Marchers will also be taking a stand against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement that will prevent GMO labeling in America and force Monsanto’s patented products on to countries that wish to be GMO-free.

There are two GMO labeling federal bills currently in Congress called the “Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act,” which would require the mandatory labeling of GMOs sold in America. The House version, H.R. 913, is sponsored by Rep. Defazio (D-OR), and the Senate version, S.511, is sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA).

Aside from marching against Monsanto and the TPP, organizers are marching against Rep. Pompeo’s H.R. 1599, colloquially known as the D.A.R.K. Act (Denying Americans’ Right to Know). This legislation promoted by Monsanto and other industrial agricultural proponents would pre-empt state labeling laws and would undo the GMO labeling laws that have been passed in Connecticut, Maine and Vermont.

Americans Demand GMO Labeling

In 2011 and 2012 over a million Americans signed the “Just Label It” FDA petition for GMO labeling, but the FDA has responded with silence. “The Food and Drug Administration is not listening to the overwhelming majority of Americans who want meaningful food labels,” says Jessica Payne, founder of Loudoun Against GMOs. “We have signed numerous petitions but we’ve received no response. We only want the same food labels citizens of over 64 countries enjoy.”

The deafening silence on GMO labeling reaches to President Obama’s White House as well. Activists have chosen to gather outside the White House because in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 President Obama’s White House failed to respond to three “We The People” online petitions on the White House website that have reached the required signature threshold for a response.

On September 23, 2011, on the second day after the “We The People” online petition website was launched, the first GMO labeling petition was created. This petition is the oldest unanswered petition on the “We The People” website. It has received over 66,000 signatures and has not received a response, while a petition on raw milk, which was also created on the very same day, was responded to after only 6,000 signatures. In April of 2012 another GMO labeling petition was created and 37 months & over 115,000 signatures later, there is still no response from the White House. Most recently, in October, 2014, another petition concerning the EPA’s approval of GE crops resistant to the highly toxic chemical 2,4-D reached the required threshold of over 100,000 signatures but has gone unanswered. In the meantime, the White House has answered three petitions on cannabis legalization and responded to insignificant petitions on issues like building the Death Star and the White House beer recipe. “What is the point of petitioning our government when our petitions fall upon deaf ears?” asks Gene Etic. “We are taking to the streets because our concerns can’t be ignored any longer.”

The listing above was updated on May 22, 2015 with only Marches that have Facebook Event links. Please click here for the most up-to-date listing!

SEE YOU IN THE STREETS!

March Against Monsanto, May 24, 2014

On Saturday, May 24, 2014, March Against Monsanto in your community! Below is a spreadsheet export made on May 21, 2014 that lists all of the upcoming marches with Facebook Event invites. For the latest spreadsheet of planned marches, check out the official listing on the March Against Monsanto website.

SOURCE: March Against Monsanto — May 21, 2014

Delivery of Monsanto’s Minions Awards and Money Drop

Anti-GMO Activists Block Entrance to Congressional Offices to Stop Corporate Lobbying During the Shutdown

Action Follows Delivery of Monsanto’s Minions Awards

WASHINGTON, DC – Activists posing as biotechnology industry lobbyists and processed food industry insiders are on Capitol Hill today delivering “Monsanto’s Minions Awards” to the members of Congress who have worked the hardest to keep their constituents in the dark about the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in America’s food supply.

The activists are representing the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) http://organicconsumers.org and Occupy Monsanto http://occupy-monsanto.com

Following the awards deliveries to Congressional offices, the anti-GMO activists, posing as the Biotechnology Industry Awards Committee (BIAC), will attempt to shut down entrances to the Congressional office buildings to stop corporate lobbying during the shutdown.

Today’s action, modeled on the one Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies did at the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1967, involves dumping out briefcases of cash on the X-ray machines at the entrances where lobbyists are waiting in line to go through the metal detectors and enter the Congressional office buildings. The corporate lobbyists are expected to lunge for the fluttering bills just as the stock traders did, creating a melee that will shut down the entrance.

Lobbyists scurrying to grab dollar bills is an apt metaphor for what’s happening during the shutdown. They are here meeting with the Congresspersons they supported financially during the elections to create or protect federal laws that boost their profits.

“The legislative pressure-cooker created by self-inflicted deadlines and crises like the fiscal cliff, the shutdown and the debt limit are the worst way to write legislation. Corporate lobbyists are here to take advantage of the situation. That’s how we got the Monsanto Protection Act in March. We’re here to try to stop that kind of thing from happening again,” said Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association, dressed for the day as Jennetta Kontamy-Nashun, Biotechnology Industry Awards Committee lobbyist.

Monsanto, the target of the anti-GMO activists’ ire, is a company that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on campaign donations in each election cycle and millions of dollars every year lobbying. In exchange, Congress subsidizes its genetically engineered food and makes sure it isn’t labeled or safety-tested. Monsanto’s minions in Congress are also available to do special favors for the company when the opportunity arises. This is what happened in March when, in order to avert a government shutdown, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) allowed Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to attach a rider to the continuing resolution that took away the power of the judiciary to halt the planting of potentially dangerous new genetically engineered crops.

“Now, it’s the King Amendment. If the Farm Bill gets wrapped up in a budget deal to end the shutdown and raise the debt limit, the House and Senate won’t go to through the normal conference committee process and that will make it harder to keep the King Amendment out. Everything will be dealt with through backroom deals negotiated by the parties’ leadership and the President. It’s so undemocratic! The voters get shut out, while Monsanto and the rest of the big-money agribusiness lobbyists maintain their access,” said Adam Eidinger of Occupy Monsanto, posing as Haywood U. LaBallette, BIAC lobbyist.

The King Amendment to the House version of the Farm Bill was offered by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) in an attempt to block the implementation of a law passed by overwhelmingly by California voters that says farm animals need to be given enough space to spread their limbs and turn around. The King Amendment is so broadly written that it could take away states’ rights to regulate food and farming. The anti-GMO activists are concerned that the King Amendment, or future modifications to it, could be used to take away states’ rights to label genetically engineered food, a proposal that has the support of 93% of the public.

“Congress needs to go back to business as usual and do its work of appropriations and reauthorizations through the normal process. As long as Congress continues to legislate from crisis to crisis, democracy is on hold and corporations have the upper hand. We’re anti-GMO activists, but we’re forced to be pro-democracy activists,” said Gene Crimes of Occupy Monsanto, stepping out of character, as BIAC’s Ralph Alover.

The activists support Rep. David Cicilline’s (D-R.I.) proposal to ban all lobbyists from Capitol Hill during the government shutdown. They want to see Citizens United overturned and the American Anti-Corruption Act passed. They fear that if we don’t get money out of politics, we’ll never be able to pass the laws that the majority of Americans support.

“The only way we can potentially win what Americans already want is by taking our cause directly to the voters at the state level, but Congress could take that away from us, too. We’re really worried that if Initiative 522 passes in Washington State, Monsanto will use one of these crises as an opportunity to slip language into some thousand-page bill to overturn it,” said Ariel Vegosen of Occupy Monsanto, taking a break from her role as BIAC’s Olive Lotta Pestasydes.

Initiative 522 is a Washington State voter initiative on the ballot on November 5 that would label genetically engineered food. The biotech and processed food industries led by Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) are spending more than $17 million to trick voters into defeating the initiative. If they don’t succeed, they’ll turn to Congress. They have many allies, including progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) who have championed Monsanto and the GMA’s proposal for voluntary rather than mandatory labels.

Monsanto’s Minions Awards Vote Results

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March Against Monsanto – Worldwide, October 12, 2013

Occupy Monsanto proudly supports the March Against Monsanto.

Below is the most recent listing of the 404 confirmed events:

This list was last updated on October 11, 2013 and will not be updated again until after the March. If you would like to add an event to the list, please find MAM on facebook or email mam.newmexico(at)gmail.com