Sunday, November 23, 2008

EMERGENCY!!!!!


Urgent: Sign USDA Petition Demanding Stronger Regulations for Genetically Engineered Crops!

The petition is below. Click link above to sign petition! Monday, Nov 24, 2008 is the last day!

Why is this important???? Once again big brother is telling us what to do. You should have the right to choose NOT to feed your family and animals genetically modified foods. These crops that have been genetically modified could cause serious health problems. Do you want to do that to YOUR family? There needs to be full disclosure of products containing these genetically modified crops. I will not grow or eat or feed these crops to my family and animals. Without legislation, the big corporations will sneak this into our lives. WE MUST NOT LET THEM! Stand up and be heard now! Read the petition below and click the link above to sign the petition.

Docket No. APHIS-2008-0023
Regulatory Analysis and Development
PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8
4700 River Road Unit 118
Riverdale, MD 20737-1238.

Re: Docket No. APHIS-2008-0023, Importation, Interstate Movement, and Release into the Environment of Certain
Genetically Engineered Organisms.

I am very concerned about the risks genetically engineered crops--especially those engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals--pose to human health, family farmers, wildlife, and the environment. I urge USDA to close the gaping loopholes in its proposed rules, and put stronger--not weaker--regulations in place. In particular:

1)Please follow the advice of the National Academy of Sciences and make genetic engineering the trigger for USDA oversight so that ALL experimental GE crops are properly regulated. This approach is scientifically sound, administratively efficient, and more protective of public health, the environment, and the interests of farmers. Eliminate loopholes that exempt any GE crop that has not undergone a determination of non-regulated status from USDA regulatory oversight.

2)Please do NOT incorporate the "Low Level Presence"
policy in the final rule. Instead, make zero presence of
experimental GE crops in food and feed your management goal, and gear your implementing regulations to achieve it as fully as possible. In particular, make all field trials of experimental GE crops subject to strict gene containment standards at least as stringent as those now applied to pharmaceutical-producing GE crops.

3)Please reconsider your "business as usual" pharma crop policy, and instead adopt one of two alternatives you proposed in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement - a simple ban on outdoor cultivation of all pharmaceutical-producing crops, or at least pharmaceutical-producing food crops - to best protect public health and the environment.

4)Please regulate as necessary pesticide-promoting,
herbicide-tolerant GE crops in order to address the rise in pesticide use these crops have fostered, and to mitigate the growing threat posed by herbicide-resistant weeds to farmers and the interests of American agriculture.

5)Remove any preemption clause that bars state and local authorities from enacting laws or regulations to control GE crops as they best see fit.


20 comments:

  1. Oh Christina! I am so in agreeance with you! This has been going on, and I can't help but wonder how much has already reached our bellies! So very many people this summer had problems with their gardens growing and producing. I've been saying it has to be this playing with our food chain causing problems already! To be honest, my volunteer veggies in my compost and places where I'd spread my compost...all did MUCH better this year than the seeds I bought and planted! I over plant...so I feel lucky to have grown what I did...but it still wasn't huge amounts for the way I overplant...the volunteers, I just let grow where they chose..and was continuously amazed!
    This is a very scary thing to allow happen!!

    Hope you had a wonderful weekend my Wonderful Friend!
    Are you feeling better?
    {{Hugs}}
    Barb

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  2. It certainly is scary how much the government can get into our business isn't it?

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  3. Yikes! You never know what you might be eating now, do you?

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  4. Heather, you are right! That's pretty scary!

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  5. "These crops that have been genetically modified could cause serious health problems." .. So can crops that haven't been genetically modified. As long as research is unhampered and the correct testing is done, I'm perfectly happy to eat an apple that is redder and juicier than an "organic" one.

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  6. Completely agree! I dont think about what happens to our food before we eat it. I give only organic food to my son OR I make it my self. So I TRY to limit the processed / proservitives and chemicals as much as I can...There is only so much a girl can do :(

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  7. I'm not really against genetically modified crops and other such methods of farming, but I agree that 100% disclosure is needed so everyone can decide for themselves.

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  8. We probably won't be able to stop GMOs but disclosure is A MUST!

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  9. I am dead against GM foods in any form and thank you for raising awareness of this important issue. I grow my own vegetables organically and as well as keeping me fit,it is good for the Environment too! With GM food not being properly researched, who knows what might happen 10 years down the line!

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  10. i'm not against genetically modified crops either, but i think everyone should be able to decide for themselves.

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  11. I agree with the right to choose when the majority of the public wants it, as I believe they do on this issue. This is even though I have no concerns about GMO products in terms of consumer safety (although I have concerns about them in other areas such as their escape into natural ecosystems and effect on insect ecology).

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  12. That's another reason I've started this 'healthy' lifestyle. It's not just to lose weight. Not knowing where you're food comes from is really scary. Sometimes you just never know what they've done to it to make it look better, grow larger, or taste better.

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  13. Two words: buy locally!

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  14. Never mess with Mother Nature! Haven't we learned that lesson yet?!?!?!

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  15. Unless a food is labeled "organic" it's going to have GMO's. Even organic has "rules"...to be called organic on a package 70% of the ingredients must be organic. Ok...but what about the other 30%?
    Honestly, the ONLY way to ensure you are eating non-GMO foods is to eat fruits, vegetables (grown yourself or organic), and single whole foods like beans, rice and buy all organic. Not too many people can do this...but the GMO crops make ingredients that are in almost all packaged foods unfortanately- it certainly needs to change.

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  16. You go, girl!!! There's just too much misinformation out here about GM crops, and it goes far beyond things being "redder and juicier." I just don't want eye of newt and wing of bat in my regular food DNA, thank you!! :) Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, my friend!

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  17. Ewwww!!! That does not sound like something we want to eat!! Thanks for sharing this and we'll get to the petition and sign it! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! ((((hugs from our house to yours!!!)))) Hi Sugar we hope you are feeling emptier from all the feasting yesterday!! Hehehe!
    Your FL furiends,

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  18. There's so much to think about when it comes to food, what to eat, what not to eat, etc. I try so hard to do what's right for me and my family. I'll add this to the list to look into. It is necessary info for us all to know.

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  19. Gosh, unless we grow it there's really no tellin' what we're eatin'...thanks for the info.


    Jen
    http://thoughtsfromthefrontporch.blogspot.com

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  20. I signed!!!!

    Just back from Huntsville and finally posted another installment of my short story. Heavens I am running behind this year!

    Blessings!
    Lacy

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Grab a cup of coffee and let me know your views, thoughts, or ideas.... Glad to see you here. Have a great day!