Groups Will Deliver over 200,000 Signatures Demanding President Obama Veto Federal Bill to Preempt Vermont’s #GMO Labeling Law

At 1 p.m. today, right-to-know activists representing more than 100 organizations will deliver petitions, signed by over 200,000 people, to President Barack Obama at the White House. The petitions ask the President to veto S. 764, a bill known as the DARK Act because it would Deny Americans the Right to Know about GMO foods.

WHAT: Veto the DARK Act petition delivery. About 200,000 signatures were collected over the course of a few days on coalition organizations’ websites, as well as WhiteHouse.gov, ThePetitionSite.org, and MoveOn.org, where over 108,700 people signed. The petitions are live and continue to generate signatures.

WHERE: The White House (Lafayette Square), 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 20500.

WHEN: Friday, July 15, 2016, 1 p.m.

WHO: The African American food justice advocates who initiated petitions to President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama: Stephanie Anderson, a Congressional candidate in Florida’s 23rd District, and Samantha McDaniel, a nutrition educator with the DC Healthy Babies Project. They will be joined by right-to-know activists representing more than 100 organizations, including Organic Consumers Association, Center for Food Safety, Citizens for GMO Labeling, Consumers Union, Cornucopia Institute, Food Babe, Food Democracy Now, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, GMO Free USA, GMO Inside, Label GMOs, March Against Monsanto, Millions Against Monsanto, Moms Across America, National Organic Coalition, Occupy Monsanto, Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, Vermont Right to Know GMOs, A letter from the coalition to the President can be found here: http://goo.gl/forms/d9Ln1MCcatSHwvFS2

WHY: President Obama should veto S. 764. This bill would preempt Vermont’s law that requires GMO foods to be labeled as “produced with genetic engineering.” Nine out of ten Americans favor such labels. Vermont’s law requiring words on the package would be replaced with unenforceable federal regulations that, for the first time in history, would allow information to be hidden behind QR codes that can only be read with smart phones. Many Americans—especially elderly, rural, low-income and people of color—don’t have smart phones. Only 16 percent of Americans have ever scanned a QR code for any reason. The bill would exempt most GMOs from labeling. According to House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), the bill is “riddled with ambiguity and affords the Secretary a concerning level of discretion.”