From Richard Tamm:
Mark,
NO, the GMO food labeling law will NOT be on the ballot unless they get
close to: "*800,000 signatures*". And this will be very hard to
accomplish with just volunteers. We tried it a few years ago with the
California Democracy Act. However, that did not have the best of
organizations, and we started collecting signatures late. There is a
possibility this could get on the ballot. but it will take a lot of
work, a lot of volunteers, a lot of organization, a lot of money - not
just educating people to vote for it once it is on the ballot.
Typically now, the only things that get on the ballot are initiatives
where they have a few million to hire signature gatherers.
I just went to their volunteer page which gave a little more information
for people who want to pledge to collect signatures:
"I want to help win our right to know about genetically engineered
foods in California!
Please contact me, so that I can meet up with local LabelGMOs.org
supporters and attend a training session on how to fulfill my
signature gathering pledge (required).
I understand that we'll have about two and a half months for
signature gathering, starting January 3, 2011, and ending April 18,
2012, and that, while we need to get 504,760 qualifying signatures
to get on the ballot, we should count on gathering 800,000 to make
sure we have enough valid signatures.
I can commit to gathering X signatures. That's X signatures a week
for X weeks."
It's not impossible - if they have good organization and a large group
of dedicated volunteers. But it will be a real uphill effort. I
sincerely hope they can do it, and I might even volunteer to collect
hundreds of signatures myself if I'm not too busy on other causes.
Yours,
Rich
On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 4:10 AM, Mark Crispin Miller
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Now let's hope that a majority of Californians vote for it—/and/
that it passes!
MCM
*http://wakeup-world.com/2011/11/11/support-californias-gmo-food-labelling-ballot-nov-
<http://wakeup-world.com/2011/11/11/support-californias-gmo-food-labelling-ballot-nov-2012/>**2012/
<http://wakeup-world.com/2011/11/11/support-californias-gmo-food-labelling-ballot-nov-2012/>*
*
*
*
*
»
Support California’s GMO Food Labelling Ballot – Nov 2012
*11 11 11*
*/By Jack Adam Weber <http://www.poetichealing.com/> – Guest Writer
for Wake Up World/*
Dear Activists and Fellow Insanely Sane Humans who love this Earth,
We now have a golden opportunity to begin to save our planet and
humanity a huge burden. I just received word from Organic Consumers
Association (OCA) that the ballot initiative for mandatory labeling
of GMO foods will be on the California ballot in November 2012.
organicconsumersfund.org <http://organicconsumersfund.org/label>
PLEASE DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO HELP. Spread the word, give them some
money to help spread the word, and share this and the linked
articles far and wide. For those of us who care about sanity and the
preservation of Nature to make a difference, this is a key moment in
history. Here’s the rub, in a nutshell.
To my understanding, every state has ballot initiatives, for which
citizens of that state can vote on Acts and legislature to determine
laws and regulations for that state. Federal laws, on the other
hand, apply to the nation as a whole and are enacted at the national
level, i.e. the White House. As we have seen, GMO labeling and
curtailing GMO progress on the federal level has been almost futile,
given that Big Agro-business is in bed with our so-called policy
makers. No matter how many petitions we sign and noise we make, our
supposed democracy has not listened to the desires of its
constituents to curtail Big Agrobusiness. The state ballot
initiatives, on the other hand, allow the residents of a state to
vote on important issues, which have a better chance at allowing
democracy to work.
**
*Video – Genetically Modified Food – The Right To Know*
In a previous article by OCA I learned that a victory in even one
state could help to foil Monsanto’s, as well as other large bio-tech
companies’, GMO proliferation. Why? The reasoning is that if GMO’s
are mandated to be labeled in one state, people will wonder why they
should not be in all states. This will also pose a publicity
nightmare for Monsanto and other companies trying to justify the
safety of their twisted inventions. A victory in just one state
would essentially be a key blow in what is described as the Achilles
heel of the GMO enterprise: state ballot initiatives.
We now have an opportunity to pass legislation that could severely
cripple the GMO machine. We need to support Californians and the
groups in California now working to spread the word about this
ballot initiative. Please share this with anyone and everyone you
know in California. Again, here is an information page and to donate.
http://organicconsumersfund.org <http://organicconsumersfund.org/label>
GMO foods are responsible for the depletion of top soils, the
pollution of our water, air and minds (via media lies), the
poisoning of our millions of innocent people, the uncontrolled and
grotesque overuse (/any/ use in my opinion) of herbicides,
pesticides, and fungicides, especially RoundUp, among other human
and Earth rights and abuses. I just learned that a GM mosquito has
been made and being tested in Florida. We need to stop this GMO
craze now.
Yes, it is insane that we have to do take action because this issue
is so insane to begin with. But so it is. Put your insane sanity to
work and let’s try to make this happen! This is the opportunity we
have been waiting for, for too long. Give the residents of
California your crazy love today. Here is the announcement by OCA.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_24296.cfm
--
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