A protest in Hawaii against GMO.
Mayor Billy Kenoi signed Bill 113 into law this week, banning biotech companies and new genetically modified crops from the Big Island of Hawaii. The island’s GMO papaya industry is exempt from the bill. The law reflects Hawaiian sentiments to encourage community-based farming, as opposed to letting global corporations take over their agriculture. Biotech companies have not yet begun operations on the Big Island, and the new bill will help keep it that way.
Much of Hawaii’s agricultural sector opposed the bill, and, the mayor said, some farmers were “treated disrespectfully” while the new legislation was being debated. Kenoi urges community healing and an end to the angry rhetoric that lead to the passage of the bill. Just a few weeks ago, Kauai passed its own law to regulate GMO and pesticide usage.
“Our community has a deep connection and respect for our land, and we all understand we must protect our island and preserve our precious natural resources,” Kenoi wrote to council members. “We are determined to do what is right for the land because this place is unlike any other in the world.” (Originally reported by Sophie Cocke – (http://www.huffingtonpost.com))
Polls consistently show overwhelming majority of Americans support GMO labeling
As reported by RT.com, polls consistently show that the majority of Americans support laws for requiring the labeling of foods that contain genetically modified organisms.
A New York Times poll conducted earlier this year revealed that 93 percent of respondents were in favor of GMO labeling, and a 2010 survey by the Washington Post resulted in 94 percent in favor.
In recent years, states such as California and Washington have tried to pass GMO labeling initiatives, which polls had shown were supported by most of the residents who responded. Despite this, biotech companies like Monsanto and DuPont and food corporations like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Kellogg have furiously poured money into pro-GMO propaganda in those states and kept such legislation from passing, against the best interests of their customers.
Regardless of advertising, GMO labeling laws have recently been passed in Maine and Connecticut, but they will not be in effect until four other northeastern states with a combined population of at least 20 million enact similar laws.
GMO labeling continues to gain steady support across the country as people realize the dangers of eating pesticides, chemicals and man-made creatures and blindly trusting corporations with the safety and quality of their food. Enacting sensible labeling laws is possible, and we must continue our efforts to do so if we are to achieve the health freedom that we, and future generations of Americans, deserve. (http://rt.com/usa/gmo-labeled-majority-americans-601/)
Argentinian Monsanto protester threatened, then physically beaten, by industry goons
A mother of three has met the brutal hand of the insanely powerful biotechnology industry, which recently sent a duo of thugs to literally beat her relentlessly after earlier threatening to murder her. GM Watch reports that Sofia Gatica, who has successfully spearheaded campaigns to block plantings of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in her home country of Argentina, was targeted by two men on motorbikes who very likely would have killed her if it were not for the intervention of her neighbors.
Reports indicate that the men approached Gatica near her work, just 72 hours after she received a terrifying death threat. An outspoken activist on issues relating to GMOs, Gatica led the charge back in 2012 to require that chemical companies first prove the safety of their poisons before gaining official approval for their use in Argentina. She is also currently leading efforts to prevent the establishment of a new Monsanto facility in the Malvinas region of Argentina, where she helped set up blockades to impede construction.
“I was at the bus stop and two men appear on a motorcycle in the opposite direction,” recalls Sofia about her terrifying experience at the hands of pro-GMO thugs. “One jumped on top of me and they kicked and beat me. I screamed loudly and the neighbors came out to help me,” she adds, noting in a separate interview with La Voz del Interior that the men hit her “neck, arms, legs, everything.”
The unidentified assailants did not steal anything from Gatica, nor did they target her property or her neighbors, which leads her to believe that the attack was prompted by the very industry players that she actively works to prevent from destroying her homeland. Argentina, after all, is a major biotech target and is currently the world’s third largest exporter of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GM soybeans, which require heavy applications of deadly chemicals.
Gatica filed a complaint with local police not long after the incident but was wary about having to enlist the help of guards for protection. But with three little ones at home and more work to be done on the food freedom front, Gatica has cooperated with local law enforcement and agreed to have an armed guard stand watch at her property.
“I didn’t want to have guards watching over me,” she told Cordoba’s Canal 10 news. “I just want the people of Monsanto to leave me in peace.” (NaturalNews).
