Campaign Pushing Walmart to Reject Monsanto's New GM Sweet Corn

gm sweet corn

News: Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) sweet corn has been approved for production and sale in the U.S. Not only that, it won’t be labeled. Food & Water Watch has a last-ditch campaign to stop the corn from invading our markets and dinner plates. It’s a campaign to get Walmart to reject the corn, and the organization is looking to get at least 100,000 signatures in support of that by April 1. (Note that this GM sweet corn hasn’t been tested for human safety.) Here’s more on FWW’s plan:

Goal — Get Walmart to commit to not sell GE sweet corn by April 1st.

Phase 1 (January): Build support for the campaign by collecting petition signatures and recruiting communities to come together to fight GE sweet corn.

Phase 2 (February): Coordinated actions (e.g. call-in days, petition deliveries to store managers) to put direct pressure on Walmart.

Phase 3 (March): Targeted actions at Walmart stores and parking lots across the country to build visibility and get a commitment to reject Monsanto’s GE sweet corn.

Why this is important: Basically, GMO companies and our policy makers are conducting a massive experiment on us. It’s not clear yet if GMOs are really safe for humans. GMOs have been linked to organ disruption in animals in at least 13 scientific studies. Why fool around and let GMOs be sold for consumption before we know they’re safe? If they’re going to be sold for consumption, at least label them so that those who want to avoid them can easily do so!

As world-leading geneticist Dr. David Suzuki puts it: “Because we aren’t certain about the effects of GMOs, we must consider one of the guiding principles in science, the precautionary principle. Under this principle, if a policy or action could harm human health or the environment, we must not proceed until we know for sure what the impact will be. And it is up to those proposing the action or policy to prove that it is not harmful.”

Opportunities for action: As you can see, there are a lot. For starters, you can sign FWW’s petition. You can also download its activist pack. You can share this news and petition anywhere you have friends! And, you can avoid eating GMOs and avoid supporting GMO companies. The safest way to do so, by the way, is eating all-organic.

Sweet corn image via gudlyf (CC BY 2.0 license)

 

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