Don’t Let The DARK Act Sneak Through Congress

Some lawmakers are trying to slip the darkest part of the DARK Act onto the must-pass spending bill Congress will consider.

Such a move is aimed at Vermont, Alaska, Connecticut, and Maine, which have passed state laws requiring genetically engineered, or “GMO,” food to be labeled.  The DARK Act provision would prevent those states from implementing their GMO labeling statutes, starting with Vermont, whose law is scheduled to go into effect July 2016.

Anti-labeling lobbyists and legislators are racing to jam a bill through Congress in time to stop Vermont from protecting its citizens’ right to know which foods contain GMOs.

People in 64 other nations already enjoy that right while Americans are left in the dark. In fact, polls show that 90 percent of Americans want GMOs to require labels.

One big reason so many people want to know if their food contains GMO ingredients is that the most widely planted GMO crops – corn and soybeans – have driven up the quantity of toxic herbicides used by farmers.

Glyphosate – the toxic herbicide most commonly used on GMOs – is spreading like a cancer across the U.S. EWG analyses found more than 11,000 churches and 3,200 elementary schools near fields planted primarily with GMO corn and soybeans. While these GMO crops have already been blanketed with glyphosate – a probable carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization – many of these fields will soon also be doused in 2,4-D, a defoliant linked to Parkinson’s disease and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 

Americans want the right to know what’s in their food, plain and simple. A basic, non-judgmental two-word indication on the back of package is really all that it would take. But instead of just giving folks the information they crave at the grocery store, some members of Congress want to keep them in the dark.

Click here to tell Washington not to let any part of the DARK Act pass.

Areas of Focus
Disqus Comments

Related News

Continue Reading

What is GRAS?

Food and chemical companies are permitted to approve the use of new potentially harmful additives and other substances in snacks, drinks and more without the Food and Drug Administration’s review and...

It’s time to ban paraquat

The Environmental Protection Agency must ban the toxic weedkiller paraquat – a step more than 60 other countries have taken because of its threats to human health. Paraquat has been linked to...