Over 300 people participated in a rally and march on Sunday, May 24 at the State Capitol in Sacramento from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The protest was part of more than 420 "Anti-Monsanto/Anti-GMO" demonstrations worldwide in 47 states and 52 countries on six continents. (http://www.march-against-monsanto.com)
The colorful signs displayed at the protest included a number of slogans, such as, "Monsanto Does Not Have My Consent to Use My Body As A Science Experiment,"
"Humans Aren't Roundup Ready," "Shut Down Monsanto," "Save the Bees - Stop Spraying Pesticides," "Ban Glyphophosphate."
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the Monsanto Company from the U.S. to Europe, Africa and other countries. March Against Monsanto featured different prominent speakers, including former presidential candidates and health icons.
Aren Oliveira, the son of Red Sun (Mauro Oliveira), said, "I stand here for the children of the world to stop GMOs once and for all."
Red Sun then pointed out, after offering a prayer to the Creator, "We are in the sixth great extinction. This is the most important topic that humanity has to deal with now. There are more extinctions of species taking place now than in any other extinction."
He gave examples of species quickly moving towards extinction, including giraffes, elephants and river dolphins. "There are now less than 100 Vaquita dolphins left in the upper Sea of Cortez," he noted.
"Now is not the time to give any leeway in our fight to save the planet and its species from GMOs," he concluded.
Tiny Marie of the Brown Berets de SacrAtzlan emphasized how Monsanto has greatly harmed Indigenous Peoples around the globe, including the workers from Oaxaca and Southern Mexico who harvest Monsanto GMO crops in Mexico and the U.S. In the march, she carried a sign saying, "Monsanto Facilitates the Poisoning of Farmworkers."
The Sunday rally followed a half day shutdown of Monsanto in Woodland last Thursday when about 100 activists closed down Monsanto's front gates.
March Against Monsanto 2015 has generated mass awareness and interest as world regulatory organizations openly declare Monsanto’s glyphosate-containing Roundup herbicide to be a serious threat to health, according to Bob Saunders, an organizer of the Sacramento event.
The leading authority on human wellness protocols, The World Health Organization, has already determined Monsanto’s Roundup to be a ‘probable carcinogen’ within the food supply.
The announcements have led to initiatives like The Women’s and Children’s Bill of Rights to Ban Glyphosate to protect highly susceptible groups from toxic glyphosate exposure if signed into law. Glyphosate has been detected in groundwater supplies and 60-100% of rainwater collection samples in various parts of the world, inciting concerns of mass pollution on a global scale.
"The Woodland Monsanto plant is the world’s largest Biotech seed facility in the world," said Saunders. "Monsanto controls 92% of the world’s seed market and conducts genetic engineering (GE) that produces genetically modified foods (GMOs)....genetically mutated products that reach food markets and food tables, which has been linked to an array of health and safety issues, and more. The actions also protested the predatory business practices of the corporate giant Monsanto."
Then today May 28, anti-Monsanto environmental activists Thursday targeted Rep. Doris Matsui's district office in an effort to obtain the congresswoman's opposition to HR 1599, commonly known as the DARK Act, that seeks to prevent consumers from knowing what is in their food.
The demonstrators gathered at 4:30 p.m. outside the Federal Courthouse (5th & I) before going up to Rep. Matsui's office. The protest was part of a day of action across the state where activists are contacting the five California U.S. Representatives and telling them to vote NO! on HR 1599.
Critics of the bill have dubbed it the DARK Act, aka "Deny Americans the Right-to-Know" Act, because that’s exactly what it does, it keeps you, the consumer, in the dark, intentionally.
In March 2015, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), reintroduced his federal bill to preempt states’ rights to enact Genetically Modified Organism (GMOs) labeling laws, and create a voluntary non-GMO labeling scheme. Pompeo calls his bill "The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act."
Pompeo’s bill is wholly inaccurate regarding its claim of labeling foods—in truth this bill prevents you from ever learning which foods you buy and/or eat, that may contain GMOs by banning cities, counties and states from passing a labeling bill.
This bill was “inspired” by Vermont’s passage of a GMO labeling bill in 2014. Rather than have to fight each GMO labeling bill as it passed in several states, Monsanto and the other agrochemical giants decided instead to “persuade” Congress to write a bill to kill potential GMO food labeling completely and thus kill any attempt for passage of protective bills. Rep. Pompeo, carried that bill forward.
Though many countries either label or ban GMOs, the United States lags behind, allowing agribusiness giants like Monsanto and other corporate minions to “set” policy, rather than listen to the will of the American people.
GMOs are partially banned by Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Russia, Luxembourg, Madeira, New Zealand, Peru, South America, France, Switzerland and Costa Rico, and are currently labeled in 64 countries. 95% of Americans surveyed call for labeling of GMO foods (The right to know what they are eating).
http://www.justlabelit.org/...
Organic Consumers Association International Director Ronnie Cummins said: “The Pompeo bill, aptly dubbed the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, is not only anti-consumer, but anti-democracy and anti-state's rights as well.
“The bill will take away the right of states to require GMO labeling and will legalize the routine industry practice of labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods as ‘natural’ or ‘all natural.’ It also includes a complicated scheme for voluntary labeling of non-GMO foods," said Cummins.
“The DARK Act overturns the century-old balance of power between the federal government and states, whereby states have exercised their right to pass numerous laws regarding food safety or food labels when the federal government failed to act," added Cummins.
