For Immediate Release: June 13, 2013
Contact: Paul Towers, 916-216-1082, ptowers@panna.org
Two Down: Momentum for GE Labeling Grows
Yesterday, Maine passed the country’s second bill to label food containing genetically engineered (GE) ingredients, adding to growing momentum. Connecticut was the first state to pass a GE labeling bill, with Maine following just two weeks later. Governors in both states are expected to sign the bills in the near future.
In response to the vote, Paul Towers, spokesperson for Pesticide Action Network released the following statement:
“People across the country are increasingly demanding the right to know what’s in their food and how it’s grown. With the passage of Maine’s law, the momentum continues to grow, and many other states are close behind. As a result, pesticide corporations will be less able to keep the public in the dark about our food system.
These successes are rooted in science that continues to point to the failures of genetically engineered crops that end up in the food on our shelves. U.S. Department of Agriculture data and independent research demonstrate that genetically engineered seeds drive up pesticide use in agricultural communities, and keep farmers tethered to a pesticide treadmill. And as we know from the rogue GE wheat recently discovered in Oregon, these crops are very difficult to contain once they’re planted.
Progress has been temporarily hindered in some states, including California’s narrow defeat of Prop 37 last Fall, by extensive pressure from the pesticide corporations that dominate the world’s seed and pesticide markets — Monsanto, BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont and Syngenta, collectively known as the ‘Big 6.’ In Maine, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a front group for the Big 6, actively opposed the GE labeling initiative.”
Pesticide Action Network works to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives.
