Political : Easy Action Step on Urgent GMO concern

[Guest guest]

Subject: Easy Action Step on Urgent GMO concern

From: Susel M. Fagan

Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010

Subject: WE NEED YOUR HELP ON THIS ONE-Quickly

Dear Friends,

We try not to disturb you often, but the USDA and Secretary Vilsack, in

collaboration with Monsanto, are about to lift a court-ordered ban on Monsanto's

genetically modified (GM) " Roundup Ready " alfalfa.

This GMO would have disastrous effects on US and global agriculture. If you have

not done so already, we ask you to submit comments (it will only take 2

minutes!) before the Wednesday, March 3rd deadline.

Genetically engineered alfalfa would be the first perennial GM crop, and would

result in a huge increase of toxic RoundUp in the environment. It would expose

livestock widely to both genetically engineered genes and pesticide residues. It

would especially affect cows and horses--their health, their reproduction, and

their byproducts, particularly milk.

Alfalfa pollen is carried far and wide by the wind and bees, so the presence of

GM alfalfa in the environment would contaminate organic alfalfa, rendering

organic dairy impossible. Consumers who eat alfalfa sprouts would be exposed

directly, as well as those who eat meat.

Despite positive trends, this is the most serious GMO threat yet, as it creates

the legal precedent at the Supreme Court level, for GMO contamination to be

acceptable for any crop, with the support of the USDA (see Background below).

Sorry to alarm you, but it would be extremely helpful if each of you could take

action before March 3 by doing one or more of the following:

1. Follow the directions in the True Food Network page pasted below to

conveniently call your Senators and Representatives on Monday and Tuesday, and

tell them that they should not support the commercialization of GM-alfalfa. This

will have a strong impact, as there have not been enough comments to date.

2. Follow this link:

http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=14469696 to the

Organic Consumers Association(OCA) where you can send the OCA email letter by

clicking �take action now.� This will take you 2 minutes and can be done on

the weekend.

3. Submit comments directly to the USDA at:

http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480a6b7a\

1 . You can write your own comments from the points below and above, or copy and

paste the letter found at the OCA link:

http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=14469696 , in the

" Take Action Now " section. This will take you 4-5 minutes and can be done on the

weekend, and will have a strong impact.

Thank you for taking action on this important issue to help protect yourself,

your family, your country and the world.

Warm regards,

Susel and Fagan

<http://truefoodnow.org/> http://truefoodnow.org/

Dear Susel,

Call your Senators and Representative today and say

�USDA must not approve GE alfalfa!�

Monsanto wants to sell its genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa and wants the

USDA to approve its permit application, but consumers, farmers, dairies, and

food companies don�t want GE alfalfa plants and seeds released into the

environment.

USDA�s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) admits that if GE alfalfa

is approved:

* GE Contamination of non-GE and organic alfalfa crops will occur

* GE contamination will economically impact small and family farmers

* Foreign export markets will be at risk due to rejection of GE contaminated

products

* Farmers will be forced to use more toxic herbicides to remove old stands of

alfalfa

Yet, unbelievably, USDA has decided that these impacts are insignificant! And,

USDA intends to approve Monsanto�s Roundup Ready� GE alfalfa anyway.

Call your Congressional Representatives today and ask them to hold USDA

accountable by contacting Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack and urging him to

deny approval of Monsanto's GE alfalfa! Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard:

(202)224-3121 and ask for your Senator/Representative�s office. If you do not

know who they are <http://ga3.org/cfs/leg-lookup/search.html> click here to

look them up. Speak with the agriculture staff person or leave a message. Tell

them that you DO NOT support the deregulation of GE alfalfa, for the following

reasons:

* GE contamination of non-GE and organic crops would be inevitable

* You won�t buy products that are GE-contaminated

* Alfalfa is a major food source for livestock and GE alfalfa would destroy the

integrity of organic dairy products

* You support the rights of farmers to grow the crops of their choice, and GE

contamination makes that impossible

* GE crops increase pesticide use, harming human health and the environment

* Ask your Representative and Senators to contact Secretary Vilsack and urge him

to deny USDA approval of Monsanto's GE alfalfa

Then email us at info@... and tell us who you called and let us know

what kind of response you got!

_____

Background

In 2006, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) sued the Department of Agriculture

(USDA) for its illegal approval of Monsanto�s genetically engineered (GE)

Roundup Ready alfalfa. USDA failed to conduct an environmental impact statement

(EIS) before deregulating the crop, as required by law. An EIS is a rigorous

analysis of the potential significant environmental, health, and economic

impacts of a federal decision, mandated under the National Environmental Policy

Act (NEPA). The federal courts sided with CFS and banned GE alfalfa until the

USDA fully analyzed the impacts of the GE plant on the environment, farmers, and

the public in an EIS.

USDA released its draft EIS on December 14, 2009. A 75-day comment period is

now open until 3 March, 2010. CFS has begun analyzing the EIS and it is clear

that the USDA has not taken the concerns of non-GE alfalfa farmers, dairies,

exporters, retailers or consumers into consideration in its recommendation to

approve the commercial sale (deregulation) of GE alfalfa. In fact, the EIS

states that consumers don't care if their organic food is GE contaminated and

neither do organic farmers, as long as farmers employ the organic practices

required under the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA). Obviously, this is not

true and we need to push our Congressional representatives to call upon USDA to

deny the approval of GE alfalfa.

For more talking points and links to review the EIS and other documents,

<http://ga3.org/cfs/EIScongress.html> click here, or copy and paste this URL

into your browser's address bar: <http://ga3.org/cfs/EIScongress.html>

http://ga3.org/cfs/EIScongress.html