I have a really cool educational series planned about the health benefits of herbs and making your own Organic Tinctures.  However, before I get to that I need your attention.

Yesterday, Congress moved forward with the Dark Act. 

From Common Dreams,

"With no debate and only a voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture today (July 14, 2015) passed out of committee H.R. 1599, a bill to preempt states’ rights to label GMOs. Within hours, it was announced that the bill will go straight to the House floor, as early as next week, with no vote in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

If we don’t stop it in the House next week, this “Mother of All Monsanto Protection Acts” the fight will take place next in the U.S. Senate, before summer’s end. In his opening statement this morning, Committee Chairman Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas) (who shortly after today’s vote said he will co-sponsor H.R. 1599) couldn’t have sounded more like a Monsanto employee if he’d tried. Conaway nailed the biotech industry’s favorite talking points and mistruths, beginning with this one:

In testimony before this Committee, multiple representatives of the food and agricultural sectors commented on the cost burden that would be placed on our food system if we were to allow the 50 States, more than 3000 counties and nearly 20,000 towns and cities in the United States to establish their own laws regulating interstate commerce.

Time and again, independent experts have stated that the cost of labeling GMO foods and ingredients, to manufacturers, retailers and consumers, would be negligible here in the U.S., just as it has been in the more than 60 countries that already require labeling. GMO labels are costless, as pointed out in this Washington Post article. Companies regularly update their food packaging as they come up with new designs or marketing strategies.

And then there was the ultimate lie about GMOs, that they have been “proven safe:”

We all recognize that the overwhelming consensus within the science community is that these biotech products are safe.  We likewise understand that each and every biotech product in the marketplace today has been reviewed thorough a voluntary food safety consultation process at the Food and Drug Administration.

Wrong. Ever since GMOs were introduced into the food system in the 1990s, without adequate, independent, pre-market safety testing, there have been scientists and studies and mounds of anecdotal evidence suggesting they are unsafe. The American Medical Association believes GMO foods should be subjected to pre-market safety testing. And there is surely no consensus, as hundreds of scientists worldwide have confirmed, on the safety of GMOs that have already been approved. That is a flat-out lie.

Conaway spoke instead about the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s “voluntary food safety consultation process” as if that were a valid means of proving safety.

Glaringly absent from Conaway’s statement was any mention of the toxic chemicals used to grow GMO crops, and allowed to remain as residue on GMO foods. Not one word was spoken about the World Health Organization’s recent determination that glyphosate, the chemical used on more than 80 percent of GMO crops, is a probably human carcinogen.

None of these statements, coming from a lawmaker with ties to Big Ag, were particularly surprising. But what should concern any consumer ,voter, citizen or just plain common-sense thinking human being, is that Conaway’s statement clearly focused on how to promote the profits of corporations, rather than on how to protect people from foods that have not been proven safe, and the arsenal of toxic chemicals used to grow them. It was all about “marketing,” and how we need a government program for food producers who want to voluntarily label their products as GMO-free, or containing GMOs."

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Do you think Americans, people around the world, should have the right to choose Non-GMO food over GMO food?  To choose Organic over conventionally grown food?

From the Huffington Post,

“As this Committee has repeatedly observed, the keys to success in any marketing venture are voluntary participation, robust, transparent and meaningful standards, and comprehensive enforcement,” Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) said. “The legislation before us hits all of these marks. In developing this program, we likewise address the very real threat to interstate commerce posed by the impending implementation of a state law in Vermont.”

SERIOUSLY?  He just said "Marketing Venture."  What ever happened to what was best for THE AMERICAN PEOPLE?  The people of Vermont has spoken and they want to know if their food is GMO and yet the government now wants them silenced.

I WILL NOT BE SILENCED!  It is time for people around the world to make their voices heard.  Call your congressional representatives (I use that term and laugh).  Call your senators!  Make noise!

GROW your own organic food.  Organic labeling may become a thing of the past.  The USDA is already considering loosening their standards.  If you want to know 100% what you are eating, then growing your own and making your own will be the only way.  There are community gardens, gardening for small spaces, share a friend's yard or even CSAs.  There are so many options!

Petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/246/172/842/tell-congress-to-stop-doing-monsantos-dirtywork-americans-need-to-know-if-its-gmo/

We want to hear from you.  What do you think?