-- keeping in mind the fact that

The campaign for labelling is making the issue of a life-threatening technology appear to be merely an issue of civil rights. This is playing right into the hands of the biotech corporations.

Winning a "Consumer Right To Know" campaign certainly has its merits. But it is not going to resolve the fact that

Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMOs) have and will cross with non-GM crops and wild relatives. This will make it impossible to have any foods that will be free of the modified genes, and any other dangerous bits and pieces that have been inserted into the organisms.

Other evidence shows that the vectors used are also dangerous, and this means that the whole process must be stopped until such time as the scientists themselves (free of the constraints imposed on them by greedy self-interested corporations) can prove conclusively that they have reached a level of expertise and knowledge that is needed to be sure of no danger.

-- David T. Ratcliffe                
ratitor, rat haus reality press

-----------------Original Message--------------------
From: Mothers for Natural Law
[mailto:Secretary@safe-food.org] On Behalf Of Mothers for Natural Law,
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 1999 1:11 PM
Subject: Time Sensitive & Urgent


Mothers for Natural Law wrote:

Please Read and Forward This Message To Everyone You Know.

This email has three parts:

1. Signing the Petition to Label Genetically Engineered (GE) Foods
2. Info On GE Foods
3. Petition Submission And National Summit On The Dangers Of GE Foods - Washington DC, June 17.

PART 1. PETITION

Urgent! Please Sign the Petition for Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods at http://www.safe-food.org/-campaign/petition.html

(See "Info on GE Foods" part 2 for petition text)

AUSTRIA collected 1.2 million signatures in a WEEK!
This is the UNITED STATES, let's go for 10 million! We can do this!
PLEASE forward this message to everyone you know.

Ask your customers, employees, friends, neighbors, colleagues or family members to sign TODAY!

Three ways to sign the petition are:

1. On-line: http://www.safe-food.org/-campaign/petition.html
2. Phone: 1-877-REAL-FOOD
3. Hard copy. (print off website www.safe-food.org or call us for a copy)

PART 2. INFO on Concerns about (GE) Foods around the World:

Do you eat?
Do you want to know what's in your food?
Right now every one of us has been conscripted in the largest food experiment of all time--without our knowledge or consent. It's called genetic engineering.

ALL OVER THE WORLD, whole countries are fighting to keep genetically engineered foods from their borders. Yet here in the US very few Americans know anything about the issue. The risks from these foods are legion.

1. Estimates state that 60% - 70% of food on our grocery shelves contain genetically engineered organisms. The biotech industry intends to genetically engineer all of the food in the world within 5 - 10 years. GE foods are NOT subjected to proper long-term safety testing before they hit the market and none of them are labeled. (REF: Congressional Quarterly, 9/98)

2. Last week, Time Magazine, the New York Times, USA Today, Good Morning America and most major media outlets across the US carried the news that Monarch butterflies died unexpectedly from eating milkweed plants that had been dusted with pollen from genetically engineered Bt corn. This finding is the most of recent of many unwanted and unintentional effects from genetically engineered foods.

3. GE can create unexpected and hard to detect toxins, allergens and reduced nutritional content in our foods.

4. The British Medical Association is calling for a moratorium on transgenic plantings.

5. In April, the seven largest grocery chains in six European countries made a public commitment to go "GE free"--to eliminate genetically engineered ingredients from their products and stores.

6. The Pope is warning of ethical implications.

7. 1300 UK schools have banned these foods from their cafeterias.

8. The European Union is demanding segregation and labeling of all GE imports.

9. Austria is fighting to be a biotech-free zone.

Petition Text: Petition to Secure the Mandatory Labeling
of All Genetically Engineered Foods
Submitted to the President of the United States,
Congress, USDA and FDA

New substances are being introduced into our foods via a technology called genetic engineering. A growing number of scientists and physicians are voicing concern over the possible health and environmental risks from these foods. Current laws and policies do not require the food industry to label these new genetically engineered foods. Without labels consumers lose the freedom to choose what they will eat and feed their families. This petition upholds the right of consumers to make informed choices.

We, the undersigned, as citizens of the United States of America, strongly urge the passage of legislation and policies to mandate the clear and accurate labeling of all foods derived from, processed with, containing or consisting of genetically engineered organisms before they are released into any and all commercial markets.


PART 3. NATIONAL SUMMIT on the Hazards of Genetically Engineered Foods

Submitting the Consumer Right to Know petition to the President, Congress, USDA, FDA, and EPA Thursday, June 17 Capitol Hilton Hotel, 16th & K Streets, NW, Washington, D.C. 9 AM to 12 Noon

You are cordially invited to attend this national summit of eminent scientists and physicians, public policy experts, business and industy leaders, farmers, religious and spiritual leaders, and consumers to discuss the urgent need to safeguard our food supply from the hazards of genetic engineering.

- Panelists -

Science, Health, and Environment

Sheldon Krimsky, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy, Tufts University

Richard Strohman, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley

Rama Dwivedi, Ph.D., Associate Director, Targeted Mutagenesis Facility, Children's Memorial Hospital, Northwestern University Medical School

John Hagelin, Ph.D., Director, Institute of Science, Technology, and Public Policy; Presidential Candidate, Natural Law Party; Conference Moderator

Ronald David, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, D.C. General Hospital, Washington, D.C.

Gary Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Clinical Neurophysiology, North Shore University Hospital, New York University School of Medicine Agriculture, Economics, and Trade

Bill Wadsworth, Technical Manager, Iceland Frozen Foods, Plc, United Kingdom; Former Chairman, Food Legislation Committee, British Retail Consortium; 1999 Corporate Conscience Award Winner, Council on Economic Priorities

The Hon. Marie Rabideau, New Hampshire State Legislature; Sponsor of House Bill 291 that would ban "Terminator Technology" from New Hampshire

Patrick McVeigh, Executive Vice President, Trillium Asset Management (formerly Franklin Research and Development)

Steve Suppan, Ph.D., Director of Research, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Frederick Kirschenman, Ph.D., Owner, Kirschenman Family Farms; Member, National Organic Standards Board; Former member, USDA National Sustainable Agriculture Advisory Council

Margaret Wittenberg, Vice President, Governmental and Public Affairs, Whole Foods Market, Inc.; Member, USDA/EPA Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee

Susan Haeger, President, Citizens For Health

Laura Ticciati, Executive Director, Mothers for Natural Law; National Coordinator, "Consumer Right to Know Campaign;" Conference Host

Ethics and Religion

Steve Druker, President, Alliance for Bio-Integrity

Reverend Dr. Donald Conroy, Roman Catholic Priest; President, North American Coalition on Religion and Ecology

Rabbi Alan Green, Association of Jewish Renewal Rabbis

Reverend DeWitt Williams, Director of Health Ministries of North America, Seventh-Day Adventist Church


Reservations and information: 1-877-732-5366
Sponsored by Mothers for Natural Law of the Natural Law Party
Participation by panel members does not necessarily imply support for the Natural Law Party.

Natural Law Party - Blair House Suite 525 - 8201 16th Street - Silver Spring, MD 20910

Please call, fax, email your federal Senators & Representatives and urge them to come to hear the concerns of these American leaders and to receive the petitions on behalf of the people of their state. INSERT HOT LINK GLO Thursday June 17 Capitol Hilton Hotel, 16th & K Streets, NW, Washington, D. C. 9am to 12 noon. They will come if they know their constituants are concerned about the issue.

                White House phone# 202-456-1414
Congress - Senate and House phone# 202-225-3121

SIGNATURES WILL BE USED ONLY FOR PURPOSES OF THIS PETITION AND NOT FOR OTHER MAILINGS.

For more information contact:
Mothers for Natural Law of the Natural Law Party of the USA
P.O. Box 1177 - Fairfield, Iowa 52556
Phone 515-472-2809 - Fax 515-472-2683
E-mail: mothers@safe-food.org
Internet: www.safe-food.org

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TODAY TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

THANKS SO MUCH.
-----------------Original Message--------------------



from "Against The Grain" by Peter Montague,
YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, Summer 1999, pp.46-7:

A new book by Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey, Against the Grain, makes it clear that genetic engineering is revolutionizing US agriculture almost overnight.
      In 1997, 15 percent of the US soybean crop was grown from genetically engineered seed. By next year, if Monsanto Corporation's timetable unfolds on schedule, 100 percent of the US soybean crop (60 million acres) will be genetically engineered. The same revolution is occurring, at the same pace, in cotton. Corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and other food crops are lagging slightly behind, but compared to traditional rates of change in farming, are being deployed into the global ecosystem at blinding speed. . . .
      Genetic engineering is the process whereby genes of one species are implanted in another species to give new traits to the recipient. Under the natural order, the movement of genes has only been possible between closely related species. Now, however, genetic engineering allows scientists to play God, removing genes from a trout or a mosquito and implanting them in a tomatoe with unknown long-term consequences.
      Three federal agencies regulate genetically engineered crops and foods in the US: the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The heads of all three agencies are on record with speeches that make them sound remarkably like cheerleaders for genetic engineering, rather than impartial judges of a novel and powerful technology. All three agencies have set policies that no public records need be kept of which farms are using genetically engineered seeds, nor does anyone need to label any crops or any food products with information about their genetically engineered origins. In the US, every food carries a label listing its important ingredients, with the remarkable exception of genetically engineered ingredients.
      These polices have two main effects: They keep the public in the dark about the rapid spread of genetically engineered foods onto the family dinner table; and they will prevent epidemiologists from tracing health effects, should any appear, because no one knows who has been exposed to novel gene products. . . .
      Monsanto argues that genetic engineering is necessary if the world's food supply is to keep up with human population growth. If genetically engineered crops were indeed aimed at feeding the hungry, Monsanto and others would be developing seeds that:

• grow on substandard or marginal soils;
• produce plants containing more high-quality protein, with increased per-acre yield, withing increasing the need for expensive machinery, chemicals, fertilizers, or water;
• favor small farms over large;
• are cheap and freely available; and
• produce crops that feed people, not livestock.

      None of the genetically engineered crops now available or announced has any of these desirable characteristics. Quite the opposite. The new genetically engineered seeds require high-quality soils, enormous investment in machinery, and increased use of chemicals. And there is evidence that their per-acre yields are about 10 percent lower than traditional varieties (at least in the case of soybeans). The genetic engineering revolution has nothing to do with feeding the hungry.
      The plain fact is that fully two-thirds of the genetically engineered crops now available or in development are designed specifically to increase the sale of pesticides produced by the companies that are selling the genetically engineered seeds.