Change the World Wednesday – 22nd Jan

One of the last photos taken the previous weekend.

Not an auspicious start to CTWW, unfortunately, I have toothache and have had it since Saturday, off to the dentist this morning being his first day open since the public holiday on Monday. And, even worse, Cloro has done a bunk. I haven’t seen him since Sunday when we had a play in the yard late in the evening. So today is the third day. I am hoping that he is just being a randy Tom cat, and will come home when he has satisfied his cravings and demand breakfast.

It’s wonderful to be able to welcome Small back after her hiatus and she has presented us with the first CTWW of 2014. Happy New Year Small.

This post I am going to translate into Portuguese as I go, because it affects us here in Brazil too; and hopefully this post will bring some awareness.

Click on the banner for the full post

The challenge.

FIRST …Please visit Organic Consumers Association and read “Tell the FDA: No Watered-Down, Voluntary Federal GMO Labeling Rules!”. For additional information on this topic, scroll to the bottom of the page for links. You can also visit this PAGE for recent articles. Read through the information to lean about the GMO issue.

Por favor, visitar os enlaces em cima, e ler as informações (são em inglês)

THEN … If you live in the US and agree, sign the petition.

OR … If you don’t live in the US, please find out what your country’s policies are concerning GMO food and labeling. Are they accepted? If so, must they be labeled? If they aren’t accepted in your country, are there any other food health concerns which you are facing?

OU …

Sé você não mora na USA, por favor busca infromações sobre as politicos sobre OGM (Organismos geneticamente modificados) comidas a clasificação dos OGMs As etiquetas. São aceitaveis? É o lei? Sé não são aceitaveis, tem mais coisa sobre a saúde da comida que está enfrentando?

Here in Brazil the labeling issue is almost unknown, despite the fact that Brazil has encompassed the GMO philosophy totally.

Aqui no Brasil o problema com etiquetas está quasi não conhecido, apesar de fato que Brasil rodeado a filósofia dos OGMs totalmente.

“About 91 percent of Brazil’s soybean crop, which is likely to be the largest in the world when it is harvested early next year, has been planted with GMO seeds.”

“Nearly 71 percent of the first of two annual corn crops planted in Brazil has been planted with genetically modified seeds”

Aproxidamente 91% da soja que provavalmente vai ser o maior no mundo quando está coletado o proximo ano, está creado com OGM sementes.

Quasi 71% dos primeiro dois coletas do milho estão com OGM sementes. – Reuters

Brazil is also growing GMO  cotton.

Brasil etsá tambem criando OGM algodão.

“Brazil is the second largest producer of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the world, behind only the United States.” – Epoch Times

Brasil está a segundo maior produtor de organismos geneticamente modificado no mundo, só atras os USA.

Labeling:

“The sale of GMOs was banned in 1998 due to a lawsuit by the Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defense. But in 2003, the government again permitted the marketing of GM products with regulations. In the same year, the Brazilian government issued the Labeling Decree (4680/2003), which requires producers and sellers to identify on food packaging products that contain more than 1 percent GM raw materials.” – Epoch Times

A venda de OGMs era banido in 1998 por caso de um processo pelo o Instituto para Defesa do Consumidor. Mas em 2003, o governo de novo permitiu a venda de OGM produtos com regulamento. No mesmo ano, o governo brasileiro decreto a requeramento para vendadores e produtores identifica produtos que contem 1% de materias OGM.

I have never seen labeling that says the contents contain GMOs.

Eu nunca viu etiquetas com essa tipo de aviso.

Studies:

Surprisingly, there are only eight studies in Brazil relating to the safety of GMOs; none of these studies approve GMOs as safe.

“Coelho asked, “What studies provided the basis for the permission of CTNBio for commercial release of GMOs if in the sample [studies] analyzed by us all claim that such foods are not safe?”” – Epoch Times

Coelho perguntou, “O que pesquesas provicenciou o base para a permissão do CTNBio para o lancamento comercial quando todos as pesquesas falam que essas comidas não são seguro.”

All official reports are labeled as confidential.

Todos os relatorios são confidenciais.

So there is an issue in Brazil, but the public are not aware of the pitfalls, they are not informed; and worse generally the education of the people is not sufficient for them to make them aware of the dangers.

Então temos um problema em Brasil, mas o povo não estão ciente dos perigos. eles não estão informados; e pior generalmente a educação do povo não é suficiente para fazem eles ciente dos perigos.

Esse é um assunto para tudo mundo.

NB: Sé você é brasileiro, estamos muito interessado ne sua opinão, deixar uma comment, e não criticar meu português, por favor, eu sei está ruim.

UPDATE:

Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to get these labeling requirements passed?

It’s because the issue is no longer statewide, it’s federal, and there are some big guns out there lying in ambush, read on…

Industry’s Secret Plan to Get the Feds to Kill GMO Labeling in Every State

By Michele Simon,

Internal documents from the Grocery Manufacturers Association reveal height of corporate chutzpah. Industry’s solution to GMO labeling is to: “Pursue statutory federal preemption which does not include a labeling requirement.”

With the disappointing results now in from I-522, the initiative in Washington State that would have required labeling of genetically-engineered food (aka GMOs), the looming question is, what’s next? At least for the junk food lobby, that answer in painfully clear: Stop this state-level movement at any cost. In today’s New York Times, Stephanie Strom reports on the dirty details contained in industry documents that I obtained from the Washington State attorney general’s office in the wake of a lawsuit brought against the Grocery Manufacturers Association for illegally concealing donors to the No on 522 campaign.

As I explained back in February, the food industry’s ultimate game plan to stop the bleeding in the state-by-state onslaught of GMO labeling efforts is to lobby for a weak federal law that simultaneously preempts or trumps any state-level policy. While we have known that industry would want to put an end to the public relations nightmare happening state by state, this document for the first time reveals the lobbyists’ specific strategy.

The details are even worse than I thought and give new meaning to the word chutzpah. I had predicted a federal compromise, where industry would agree to a weak form of labeling in exchange for stripping state authority. But what industry wants instead is to stop state laws to require labeling, while not giving up anything in return. In their own words, the game plan is to “pursue statutory federal preemption which does not include a labeling requirement.”

Let me repeat that: The junk food lobby’s “federal solution” is to make it illegal for states to pass laws requiring GMO labeling. Period. End of story.

Source: Food Democracy Now read more, because that’s not the end of this story.