No to the Dark Act
I admit, when I took a look into H.R. 4432 it looked pretty good.
Labeling of bio-engineered organisms (plants or derivatives)? Notification to the Secretary of Health 210 days before its introduction?
Sounds right, right?
I would check yes to that.
Let’s look closer.
Why do I care about GMO ingredients? I’ve had several discussions where I’ve had to correct someone in that genetically modified organisms are not the same thing as a plant or animal selected by hybridization, including grafting of root stock.
Getting two tomatoes to cross-pollinate is not the same as putting Round-Up in corn (which is gross, and when I worked at a plant nursery we didn’t even really carry Round-Up).
I get sad when I hear about more and more pesticides going on IN crops, the genetic mutations (a non-browning apple? How lazy are you? ) that the pollen could spread and contaminate other crops from people who CHOOSE not to have it in their food, who choose to have organic ingredients.
Also, the control of supply and the farmers who grow the food. And if this passes, states that require labeling would have all of their hard work taken away from it.
If we don’t fight back now, it will be too late for my children to give their children anything that has not gone through a lab at some point.
Listen, I have a tight budget for food. I don’t always research GMO ingredients, but I care. And I want people to find non-GMO food is they so choose.
Sometimes change is a sacrifice. CA just changed the rules for egg-laying chickens, and they all went up a dollar. Eggs are a cheap protein, but that decision is a step toward better food for my kids.
This isn’t a battle just for us, we are doing it for future generations. I don’t want my boys to grow up fighting this battle to change what is being presented. I want food to be protected, not bottom lines of companies. We need big changes now.
And with a culture that is Starbucks and ‘heath food’ obsessed, make sure your bucks are spent in the right place.
Understand that labeling is a nominal switch, and that argument is to scare people with tight budgets who are trying to make good choices. That $500 a year argument is ridiculous and unfounded – labeling would cost less than $3 a person, and if enough states make the switch, companies will realize that labeling ALL products is a good bottom-line decision for them.
But leaving these decisions to the FDA would mean that the companies would be heard more than the people.
WHAT YOU CAN DO!
Tell your friends. Talk about it on Facebook.
Watch this TED talk about a fish farm in a bio-diverse environment, and imagine if the US started to aim this way instead of squeezing every last dollar out of corn and the ‘Soylent Green’- esque using animal products in vegetarian livestock feed.
And consider the future if things keep going as they are. Organic is not a fad. Non-GMO is not a fad – 64 countries label it, and the USA is one of the only developed countries that does not require labeling.
But this is not the way to get it.
No to the #DARKAct. No to #HR4432.
