August, 25 2014, 11:15am EDT
Organic Consumers Pledges $50,000 to Colorado GMO Labeling Initiative
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today announced that it has pledged $50,000, through its 501(c) 4 lobbying arm (Organic Consumers Fund), to support Colorado's Proposition 105, an initiative to require mandatory labeling of foods modified or treated with genetically modified materials.
FINLAND, MINN
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today announced that it has pledged $50,000, through its 501(c) 4 lobbying arm (Organic Consumers Fund), to support Colorado's Proposition 105, an initiative to require mandatory labeling of foods modified or treated with genetically modified materials.
"The hard-working activists at Colorado Right to Know have succeeded in getting this critical initiative on the ballot in November," said Ronnie Cummins,international director of the Organic Consumers Association and its Mexico affiliate Via Organica. "This is great news for the GMO labeling movement--and bad news for Monsanto and Big Food, which will now have to battle consumers in two states in November--Colorado and Oregon."
Oregon Right to Know succeeded earlier this summer in getting Ballot Measure 92 on the November ballot, prompting an influx of money from the biotech and processed food industries which have vowed to oppose GMO labeling laws in all states, and at the federal level.
Earlier this year, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) introduced a bill in Congress that would not only preempt state GMO labeling laws, but also legalize the use of the word "natural" on genetically engineered food products.
In May, Vermont passed a mandatory GMO labeling law. Industry, backed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the International Dairy Foods Association, has filed suit to overturn Vermont's law. Maine and Connecticut passed similar laws in 2013, but those laws contain "trigger" clauses which prevent the laws from being enacted unless neighboring states also pass mandatory labeling laws.
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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