"Labelers" To Protest FDA Inaction on GMO Food January 10

Safe Food Activists to Project GMO Food Labels and More on FDA Building

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Jan. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Fed up with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) outdated and pro-biotechnology industry policies concerning the labeling & safety of GMO foods sold in America, safe food activists are organizing a nighttime demonstration outside the FDA to demand immediate policy changes. Beginning at sundown on Friday, January 10, activists will project GMO labels, photos, and videos on to the façade of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition located at 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD 20740.  Occupy Monsanto activists have solicited multimedia content from activists around the world to be be displayed over a six hour period Friday night.

WHO: GMO food activists, students, and concerned citizens, members of the Organic Consumers Association, GMO Inside, and representatives from Right to Know GMO, a grassroots Coalition of States for GMO Labeling, including GMO Free DC, GMO Free VA, GMO Free MD.

WHAT: "Label the FDA," a nighttime multimedia demonstration for GMO Food Labeling and Food Democracy. Fishy Food Cars from AreWeEatingFishyfood.com

WHERE: Sidewalk outside of the Food And Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway College Park, MD 20740 – Across the street from the College Park Metro Station (Green Line)

WHEN: Beginning at 5pm (sundown) on Friday, January 10, 2014 until approximately 1am, January 11, 2014

"How much longer are we going to have to wait for the same information that the people of 64 other countries around the world already receive on their food labels," asks Rica Madrid who recently traveled 7,000 miles in a "Fishy Food" car to educate people in 30 states about GMO food labeling.  "We're tired of business interests being put ahead of people's health and its time the government act on our reasonable demand for GMO labeling."

It is well known that the chemicals used on crops genetically engineered to be herbicide resistant are toxic to humans.  Trace amounts of these chemicals make their way into packaged foods and are eaten by children.  Worse, the FDA has not conducted any of its own research on the safety of genetically engineered ingredients and relies entirely on the cherry-picked data provided by companies like Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Syngenta, and BASF before approving genetically engineered foods.

Numerous nationwide polls have consistently shown that Americans want to know if their food has genetically modified ingredients. "The FDA says that GMOs are not materially different than their non-GMO counterpart, but if the seeds are patented there must be a material difference, otherwise there would be no need for a patent."  says Adam Eidinger. "They can't have it both ways."

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 honest food labels," says Emilianne Slaydon, founder of GMO Free DC. "We have signed numerous petitions but we've received no response. We only want the same food labels citizens of over 64 countries enjoy, so we are going to enjoy some 'Stone Soup' to demand this simple democratic right."

The deafening silence on GMO labeling reaches to President Obama's White House as well.  In 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 President Obama's White House failed to respond to two "We The People" online petitions on the White House website that 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 now the oldest unanswered petition on the "We The People" website.  It has received over 51,000 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 20 months & over 94,000 signatures later, there is still no response from the White House.  In the meantime, the White House has answered three petitions on cannabis legalization, responded to insignificant petitions on issues like building the Death Star and the White House beer recipe, and most recently raised the response threshold to 100,000 signatures to quell interest in the website.

In the last two years over $65 million dollars has been spent by agrichemical businesses and the processed food industry to defeat two citizen-led ballot initiatives in California and Washington state.  While both the ballot initiatives lost by less than 2% points, in 2013 over two dozen state legislatures across America introduced GMO labeling legislation to bypass the FDA's inaction.  Last June the states of Connecticut and Maine passed GMO labeling legislation and it is anticipated that more states will follow in 2014.  There are currently two bills in the 113^th Congress that would force the FDA to require the labeling GMO foods that may be included in the Farm Bill and last month Senator Barbara Boxer wrote President Obama to say that he can force the FDA to act without the need of Congressional approval.

More information at http://Occupy-Monsanto.com

SOURCE Occupy-Monsanto.com