fight for your food rights

prop 37, a measure to require GMO foods in california to be labeled, was defeated but i will keep fighting back.  one day GMO labeling will be mandatory here as it is in 60 other countries, and i will be a part of making that change.

one of the reasons prop 37 failed was because of the $45 million raised by the opposition, nearly entirely  funded by food and pesticide companies.  the pro 37 side only had about $7 million, funded by concerned moms, dads, small farmers and small organic food companies.

today i decided to write letters to many of the large companies that helped fund the opposition to 37 and make my voice heard by them.  and i want to share that info with you so that you can fight back and make your voice heard too.

the following links should take you directly to each company's "contact us" page.  you will see that I only contacted food companies and none of the pesticide companies such as monsanto.  i figured that this is more effective because the only way pesticide companies are going to stop producing GMO seeds is if food companies stop purchasing GMO food crops for ingredients for their food.  pesticide companies won't be affected by my opinion as much as a food company will:

Kellogg's

Coca Cola Company

Pepsi Company

General Mills

Nestle

Kraft Foods

here is the basic letter i used, but i changed it a bit for each company depending on a few different things like how much they donated.  feel free to use this as a model or to copy it if you agree with everything i wrote:

I am writing to let you know that I am extremely disappointed about your financial support against Prop 37 in California this election season.  I also want to inform you that I will no longer be buying any of your products unless you change your stance on genetically engineered ingredients.

I find it curious that you are proud of your products but won't let your consumers know what is inside of them. I hope your company will choose to tell the truth and start labeling what is in your products.

I am not sure if you are aware of what your $1 million+ went to.  It funded the dissemination of  deception and outright lies about the proposition.  The campaign you were a part of falsely claimed that the San Francisco Examiner endorsed no on Prop 37, when in fact they endorsed yes.  They also funded deceptive mailers that claimed the Democratic party endorsed no on 37 when in fact they endorsed yes.  They aired commercials with a scientist falsely identified as being employed by Stanford University when in fact he was not. They claimed that this prop would raise food prices when the only studies that showed this were from biased sources funded by the opposition.

If your company opposes GMO labeling, that is one thing.  But it is shameful of you to fund lying to your consumers in order to get what you want.

If you truly cared about your consumers, you would have used this money to offer your products at a lower price.  Instead it seems that you decided to use the money to protect your own interests, which is why I will no longer be contributing my money to this cause.

most of the food i purchase is bulk from our food co-op or csa and rarely branded processed foods like these companies sell, but i am going to have to be intentional to completely avoid supporting these companies. but you can be sure i will work hard not to buy these products again (like the nestle cocoa powder i just bought last week... dang it!).