April, 27 2015, 01:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Katherine Paul, katherine@organicconsumers.org, 207.653.3090
Betsy Garrold, hgarrold@yahoo.com, 207.568.3302
Heather Retberg, phabc@localnet.com, 207.326.9082
Rally, Press Conference and Public Hearing on Right to Food and Right to Know GMO Labeling Bills
MAINE
What: Rally, press conference and public hearing on Right to Food and Right to Know GMO Labeling bills
When: Thursday, April 30, 2015.Rally begins at noon; public hearings begin at 1 p.m.
Where: Rally: State House Courtyard; Public hearing: Cross Office Building, Room 214, Augusta, Maine
Hundreds of people have RSVP'd to attend a press conference and rally, sponsored jointly by the Organic Consumers Association and Food for Maine's Future, at noon on Thursday, April 30, in the courtyard between the Maine Statehouse and the Cross building in Augusta, Maine.
At 1 p.m., the Maine State legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry will hear public testimony on LD 991, "An Act To Amend Maine's Genetically Modified Food Products Labeling Law" which would remove from Maine's existing GMO labeling law the stipulation that four contiguous states must also pass GMO labeling laws before Maine's law can take effect; and LD 783, "Resolution: Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine To Establish a Right to Food" will have its public hearing.
Speakers and testifiers will include:
- Michelle Dunphy, lead sponsor of LD 991
- Joel Salatin, author, Virginia farmer, and leading voice for small, ecologically-minded farmers
- Jonathan Emord, a Washington D.C.-based attorney and expert on states' rights to pass GMO labeling laws
- Michael Hansen, senior scientist with the Consumers Union
- Katherine Paul, associate director of the Organic Consumers Association
***
Food for Maine's Future is part of a growing international movement for food sovereignty. Our work is informed and strengthened through relationships with our allies in La Via Campesina. FMF is working to build solidarity and alliances between rural people in Maine and around the world. We are pushing the local foods movement to incorporate issues like land reform, ending patents, and the need for political organizing to push back against the well-funded agribusiness lobby.
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.
LATEST NEWS
'Seismic Victory': Mamdani-Backed Progressives Trounce Establishment Dems, AIPAC Cash
"Today we make it clear: The politics of the past end today," said Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat.
Jun 24, 2026
Three progressive candidates emerged victorious from US congressional primaries in New York on Tuesday, overcoming millions of dollars in spending by corporate interests and AIPAC with grassroots campaigns that centered the working class.
Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller, defeated Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman in New York's 10th Congressional District, nearly doubling the incumbent's vote count with over 90% of ballots tallied. In New York's 13th, Darializa Avila Chevalier—who was recruited by Justice Democrats—defeated five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat. Claire Valdez, a New York state assemblymember and democratic socialist recruited by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, defeated Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso in the race for the 7th District seat left open by retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez.
The wins marked a clean sweep for Mamdani-backed candidates, each of whom campaigned on Medicare for All, affordable housing, stronger union protections, and an end to US military support for Israel's genocidal assault on Palestinians. The primary wins for Lander, Valdez, and Avila Chevalier essentially guarantee them seats in the US House in the heavily Democratic districts.
"Today we make it clear: The politics of the past end today," Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old community organizer, said after winning the primary in New York's 13th District, which Espaillat has represented for nearly a decade. The incumbent lost despite millions of dollars in spending by at least seven super PACs—including AIPAC's United Democracy Project.
"What we have delivered here today is a clear mandate that the era of taking a check and cashing a check and calling it representation is over," said Avila Chevalier in her victory speech.
Justice Democrats called Avila Chevalier's win a "seismic victory" and "the biggest primary upset against a Democratic incumbent this cycle."
"Darializa Avila Chevalier is exactly what Democratic voters nationwide are demanding—progressive champions who fight for their communities, not just when it's politically convenient but when it's morally necessary," said Alexandra Rojas, the group's executive director. "While a party machine led by Espaillat has spent decades failing to meet the needs of its voters, Darializa has taken on corporate interests and right-wing extremists to protect working families her whole career."
Mamdani, speaking at Valdez's victory party in Brooklyn, said New York City's mayoral race last year "was not the end of a political movement, it was the beginning."
"Let’s hear it for a politics that will never forget working people," the mayor said to cheers. "For a politics that is ready to write a new chapter in our party’s history. And for a politics that realizes the old politics that got us to this crisis is not gonna get us out of this crisis. It's time for working people to be back at the heart of our politics."
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s full speech at Claire Valdez’s victory party: pic.twitter.com/OdqFX7Daac
— Michael Lange (@MichaelLangeNYC) June 24, 2026
National progressives celebrated the wins in New York, with the advocacy group RootsAction declaring that "voters overwhelmingly rejected corporatist Democrats in favor of candidates who had the moral fiber to use the word 'genocide' and the backbone to stand up to the donor class."
"Now, Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Brad Lander will join the next Congress as three of the most progressive members in that body," the group added. "With these three in Congress, we’re on track to have one of the most progressive Democratic caucuses ever in the House. That means more pressure on the corporatist Democrats, and leaders who are willing to truly stand up to the fascistic Republican Party."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who endorsed Lander and Valdez, applauded their "landslide victories" in a social media post late Tuesday.
"Together," the senator wrote, "we are creating a grassroots progressive movement that will defeat the oligarchs."
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'New Red Scare': ICE Protester Gets 30 Years for Leftist Zines Under Trump Antifa Decree
"The Prairieland model is in motion: inflate anti-ICE protest into a terrorism narrative, then use the courts to punish people for being part of a movement," said one observer.
Jun 23, 2026
Civil liberties defenders sounded the alarm Tuesday over the draconian prison sentences imposed on a group of activists falsely accused by the Trump administration of being members of a non-existent "North Texas Antifa Cell"—including a 30-year term for a man convicted of moving a box containing leftist literature.
In what the US Department of Justice (DOJ) called "the first sentencing of defendants affiliated with Antifa following President Donald J. Trump’s executive order designating the group as a Domestic Terrorist Organization in September 2025," the defendants were sentenced in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth to between 30-100 years imprisonment for actions in connection with a July 4, 2025 protest at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, an ICE lockup run by prison profiteer LaSalle Corrections.
Despite DOJ documents showing that none of the defendants identified as Antifa—which does not exist as an organization, but is rather mostly an anti-fascist ideology and, to a lesser extent, a decentralized international movement—the targeted individuals were called "members of a North Texas Antifa Cell."
Prosecutors speciously called them "part of a larger militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to an ideology that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law."
The group Support the Prairieland Defendants said that relatives and supporters of the defendants "sat stunned as US District Judges Mark Pittman and Reed O’Connor delivered sentences ranging from 30-100 years in prison." They called the punishment "cruel, callous, and starkly disproportionate to the defendants’ actions."
On the night of the Prairieland protest, the group of convicted activists gathered outside what critics have called a concentration camp for what was meant to be a noise demonstration in solidarity with detainees. The group set off fireworks, and some participants vandalized property by spray-painting slogans, damaging a guard station, and damaging vehicles.
When law enforcement responded, a gunman fired from a wooded area and wounded Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross in the neck. Prosecutors characterized the event as a coordinated attack, while defense attorneys argued that most participants intended only to protest and did not plan or expect violence.
Former US Marine Corps reservist Benjamin Song, who was convicted of shooting Gross, was sentenced to 100 years, officially for attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and lesser offenses including discharging a firearm during a violent crime, conspiracy to use and using an explosive, and rioting.
Song said he acted in defense of his comrades.
"When I saw... Gross stop pursuing and point his gun at the back of a running, unarmed protester, like he testified, I was terrified," he said on Tuesday. "As a firearms instructor and a United States Marine Corps veteran, I understood what I was seeing. I knew what it meant for someone to lean forward into a gun, like he testified, to prepare for recoil."
Maricela Rueda was sentenced to 70 years, officially for rioting, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and using an explosive, and conspiracy to conceal documents. Critics said her "crime" was protesting ICE oppression and asking her husband to move a box.
Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Bradford Morris, and Elizabeth Soto got 50 years each, officially for rioting, providing material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to use and using an explosive. Critics said their "crime" was attending a protest.
Seven others—Seth Sikes, Nathan Baumann, Joy Gibson, Susan Kent, Rebecca Morgan, Lynette Sharp, and John Thomas—have already pleaded guilty to one count each of providing material support to terrorists and are set to be sentenced on July 1. Ines Soto, who is married to Elizabeth Soto, was convicted of the same offenses as her spouse and was granted a continuance. She is also set to be sentenced on July 1.
Most disturbingly, say free speech defenders, is the 30-year prison sentence imposed on Daniel "Des" Rolando Sanchez Estrada for conspiracy to conceal documents.
Under the auspices of National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7)—signed by Trump following last year's assassination of racist influencer Charlie Kirk in an effort to target leftists—Sanchez was accused of “corruptly concealing a document or record” after he moved a box containing leftist literature, including zines titled "Another Critique of Insurrectionalism," "It's Vacant, Take It!," and "War In the Streets: Tactical Lessons From the Global Civil War Vol. I."
Prosecutors alleged that Sanchez moved the box in a bid to avoid incriminating Rueda, who is his wife.
Prior to his sentencing, Sanchez—who is a green card holder—told the court that "I worked really hard every day in this country, and I believe in human rights and helping others in need. I donate money and art to help animals and other people."
"I’m a father, a husband, and a teacher," he added. "But I’m not a terrorist.”
Judge O'Connor was not moved, telling the court that the lengthy sentences are meant to "send a message to anyone who shares a similar ideology" with the defendants, according to one observer of Tuesday's proceedings.
"These sentences are a travesty and totally unjustified, but that's the point," Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said on social media. "Americans hate the fascist Trump regime, so the only way they can try to cling to power is brute force. NSPM-7 is a grave threat to all of us, and more bullshit 'terrorism' charges like these are coming."
The Freedom of the Press Foundation said in response to Tuesday's sentencing, "The zines at issue may have discussed controversial political views, but they said nothing about the shooting or the Prairieland protest, and prosecutors did not allege that Sanchez’s wife... fired any shots or had anything to do with the shooting."
Seth Stern, Freedom of the Press Foundation's advocacy chief, said in a statement that "if prosecutors are correct that Sanchez moved zines because he feared they’d try to use them against his wife, that’s a commentary on prosecutors’ lawlessness, not Sanchez’s."
"Under the First Amendment, possessing literature cannot be criminal, so what legitimate evidence could he possibly have been concealing?" he continued. "Political zines like those Sanchez possessed are no different from the pro-Revolution pamphlets this country’s founders had in mind when they drafted the First Amendment’s press clause."
“Sanchez’s case is the latest example of the Trump administration grasping at any legal straws it can to criminalize disfavored ideologies and writings, from conflating dissent with terrorism to deporting immigrants who report on protests or criticize wars the US bankrolls," Stern said.
"Americans should not make the mistake of believing Sanchez’s sentence only threatens immigrants, leftists, or so-called Antifa members—they’re just the low-hanging fruit, not the endgame," he added.
The prison terms for the Prairieland defendants were more severe than the longest sentences for the average US murderer or rapist, as well as for the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrectionists—all of whom were later pardoned by Trump.
Arjun Sethi, a professor at Georgetown Law and Vanderbilt Law School, said on social media that "if you care about free speech and protest one iota, you should be aghast at the sentences just handed down in the Prairieland case."
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Fort Worth secretary Moishe Dovgolevsky called the sentences "the face of the new Red Scare."
Ana Marie Thorne, chair of the Social Justice Committee at All People’s Church Unitarian Universalist in Fort Worth, said that “as a congregation, we decided that this case was a fundamental test of our right to dissent against authoritarian regimes."
“These defendants are not militant monsters out to kill,” she added. “They are everyday people who saw our country literally interning people in concentration camps and decided to show up at Prairieland Detention Center to let those incarcerated there know that they mattered. We leave here today knowing that the outcome of this trial is not the end. It is the beginning.”
Moira Meltzer-Cohen, an attorney representing defendants in the case, said following Tuesday's sentencing that "this entire prosecution has been calculated to test the state's ability to quell dissent."
"But the way forward is not silence, it is courageous solidarity with those who are being punished on the basis of their protected beliefs, associations, and activities," she added. "And as devastating as this has been for those affected, I do believe their rights will be vindicated in the post-conviction process."
"This entire prosecution has been calculated to test the state's ability to quell dissent."
Song warned the American people Tuesday that while "strangers" may be targeted today, "it will be you tomorrow."
"There is no group called Antifa. Everyone knows that, but this government is so blinded by hate... they want to bury me with an idea," he said. "This idea that they hate is the very idea of being against fascism."
"What kind of people are not against fascism?" he continued. "What kind of people are not against the hate and war and genocide and concentration camps that the Nazis brought upon the world?"
"The hate has migrated into the government," Song warned. "Now that hate is taking power over me. It is taking power over you, over your words and your ideas. When will you be called a domestic terrorist, too?"
In Minneapolis, US Attorney Daniel Rosen—who was appointed by Trump last year—last week invoked NSPM-7 in the prosecution of 15 organizers with the groups Direct Action Minnesota and Black Cat Workers Collective who Rosen claims are linked to Antifa and who are accused of impeding the Department of Homeland Security's deadly anti-immigrant crackdown.
"When they killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, they went on TV, and they called them domestic terrorists, the same day, within the hour," Song said, referring to two US citizens shot dead by Trump administration immigration enforcers in Minneapolis. "When will that happen to you?"
"I don’t fear for myself," he added. "I fear for all of you."
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'End It Now': Senate Passes War Powers Resolution Rebuking Trump's Iran War
"The House and the Senate have both stood up," Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal said. "It’s time to stop this deadly and costly conflict."
Jun 23, 2026
In a "major bipartisan rebuke" of President Donald Trump's illegal war on Iran, the US Senate on Tuesday passed a war powers resolution instructing Trump to withdraw US forces from Iran.
The vote was 50 to 48, with four Republicans joining the vast majority of Democrats to approve the resolution that was passed by the US House of Representatives earlier this month.
"The House and the Senate have both stood up," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote in celebration of the vote on social media. "It’s time to stop this deadly and costly conflict."
Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Bill Cassidy (La.) voted in favor of the resolution while Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) voted against it.
"Congress finally passed a war powers resolution to stop Trump's illegal war in Iran. It has been a disaster from the start."
"The vote was 50-48, with four Republicans joining Democrats to say Trump should not be able to keep dragging America deeper into military conflict," attorney Aaron Parnas wrote on social media. "This is a major bipartisan rebuke of Trump’s foreign policy chaos."
Anti-war group CodePink wrote, "The will of the people is undeniable: It's time to permanently end this war of aggression."
BREAKING: US Senate passes Iran War Powers Resolution by a vote of 50-48.
The resolution demands the removal of US forces from all hostilities against Iran. It's already passed the House.
The will of the people is undeniable: it's time to permanently end this war of aggression. pic.twitter.com/27rxceRu81
— CODEPINK (@codepink) June 23, 2026
The vote was a long time coming, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer noted it was Democrats' 10th attempt to limit Trump's ability to wage undeclared war since he unilaterally embroiled the US in a joint attack on Iran with Israel, beginning on February 28.
Schumer criticized the majority of Republicans for repeatedly failing to vote against the war, which he said would "go down in the history books as one of the worst foreign policy forays America has ever made," according to The Associated Press.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) wrote on social media: "Congress finally passed a war powers resolution to stop Trump's illegal war in Iran. It has been a disaster from the start. End it now."
The vote made history by being the first time both the House and Senate have passed a concurrent resolution calling for an end to a conflict since the War Powers Resolution of 1973, as The New York Times reported.
Concurrent resolutions do not require a presidential signature and therefore do not typically have the force of law. However, Democratic lawmakers and foreign policy experts argue that because Congress has the ability to declare war under the Constitution, the resolution should still restrict the president's actions.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), who sponsored the House resolution, wrote: "With the Senate passage of my Iran War Powers Resolution, both chambers have now made clear that the president cannot continue this war of choice and must cease all hostilities against Iran. Regardless of what President Trump says, this measure is binding under the War Powers Resolution, and I will explore all legal avenues to ensure the executive complies with the will of Congress. Congress never authorized this failed war, and the president certainly has no authority to continue it indefinitely without our consent as the Constitution demands."
The vote comes about a week after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to move toward ending the war that has killed at least 3,400 in Iran and thousands more across the region. However, the subsequent ceasefire and negotiations have been rocky and uncertain due to continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon and threats from Trump.
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