July, 08 2014, 11:34am EDT
Organic Consumers Association Calls on Hillary Clinton to Support Public and Environmental Health, Not Monsanto
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today launched a MoveOn.org petition asking Hillary Clinton to reverse her position on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and become a supporter of the transition to sustainable, organic, regenerative agriculture.
FINLAND, Minn.
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today launched a MoveOn.org petition asking Hillary Clinton to reverse her position on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and become a supporter of the transition to sustainable, organic, regenerative agriculture.
"As a mother, grandmother-to-be and future presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton has an opportunity to lead on the issue of sustainable agriculture and public health," said OCA national director, Ronnie Cummins. "Instead, she continues to pander to Monsanto, with whom she has deep ties and the rest of the pesticide and junk food manufacturers whose products and technologies are poisoning the environment and public health, and contributing to global warming.
"Recent polls show that 93 percent of Americans are concerned enough about GMOs that they want mandatory GMO labeling laws. If Mrs. Clinton continues to promote GMOs, voters will seek out candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who support mandatory GMO labeling laws and the transition to organic, sustainable, regenerative agriculture," Cummins said.
In her June 25 speech to the BIO International Convention in San Diego, Calif., Clinton suggested that public opposition to GMOs is based on misinformation, and that the biotech industry just needs to do a better job at public relations. She also spoke out about climate change, saying that global warming is a real problem, no longer open to debate. However, she failed to acknowledge what scientists, including those at the United Nations, say about the clear link between today's industrial, GMO agriculture model and global warming.
New evidence surfaces nearly every month about the link between glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, and a host of chronic, debilitating diseases. Additionally, scientists warn that the GMO agriculture model is failing to live up to its promises, and instead leading to disaster for farmers who are faced with herbicide- and pesticide-resistant superweeds, with no recourse except to resort to increasing amounts of increasingly toxic chemicals.
The OCA hopes to collect and deliver to Clinton a half a million signatures.
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots 501(c)3 nonprofit public interest organization, and the only organization in the U.S. focused exclusively on promoting the views and interests of the nation's estimated 50 million consumers of organically and socially responsibly produced food and other products. OCA educates and advocates on behalf of organic consumers, engages consumers in marketplace pressure campaigns, and works to advance sound food and farming policy through grassroots lobbying. We address crucial issues around food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability, including pesticide use, and other food- and agriculture-related topics.
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