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=0900006480a6b7a1. 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 John Fagan
From True Food Network
Call your Senators and Representative today and say
“USDA must not approve GE alfalfa!”
Dear Friend,
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 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@truefoodnow.org 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, click here, or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar: http://ga3.org/cfs/EIScongress.html
