February 24, 2016

While it is important to sign petitions or call your Senators to make sure they reject the DARK Act, Center for Food Safety director Andrew Kimbrell says that there are additional, maybe even more important, steps that people need to take: calling the Democratic senators on the Agriculture Committee.

“Right now, there is only Republican support for the DARK Act on the Ag Committee, and the Republicans desperately want but don’t yet have any Democrats supporting this bill.”

This is stunning to me, since I was raised in a Republican family in Texas and taught the importance of “personal responsibility.” It’s a Republican mantra, and it is critical when it comes to our food, so that we can make an informed choice when it comes to feeding our families.  How can we take responsibility for our health? How can we keep ourselves, our families and employees healthy and out of the health care system that has become so much about disease management if we don’t know what is in our food?

How can we take responsibility for our health if we don’t know how our food is made?

All of our key trading partners have been given this information. Our own American corporations already label GMOs in the products that they sell overseas. Yet for some reason, it’s a handful of Republicans that don’t want that liberty for all. It is the only party that I ever belonged to, when I was younger, and I can not understand how they haven’t taken a stand against “big government” feeding us these ingredients without our informed consent.

Not only is it anti-American, but it is anti-personal responsibility, a Republican mantra.

So what can an American do? Our best strategy is to call all of the Democrats on the Ag Committee, particularly Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN). These two Democrats are from the Midwest, a part of the country where Big Food has a lot of influence, and they are undoubtedly facing a lot of pressure to change their positions and support the DARK Act, the Roberts Bill

Democrats on the Agriculture Committee include:

Debbie Stabenow (MI), Ranking Member (202) 224-4822
Patrick Leahy (VT) (202) 224-4242
Sherrod Brown (OH) (202) 224-2315
Amy Klobuchar (MN) (202) 224-3244
Michael Bennet (CO) (202) 224-5852
Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) (202) 224-4451
Joe Donnelly (IN) (202) 224-4814
Heidi Heitkamp (ND) (202) 224-2043
Robert Casey (PA) (202) 224-6324

Please call the Senators above – ESPECIALLY the one from your state – and urge them to reject Sen. Pat Roberts’ DARK Act that would make it illegal for states to label GMOs. Anything than less than full labeling of GMOs on a product’s packaging is unacceptable.

Thank you so much for all you do!