Consumers to demand labeling of foods containing Monsanto GMO ingredients; Targets include institutional investors in agri-chemical giant, as part of groundswell of consumer support for GMO labeling and accountability in public health and environmental sustainability.
CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—May 22, 2014. Over 90% of consumers support labeling genetically engineered crops — but not agri-chemical giant Monsanto, the planet’s largest producer of the seeds and chemicals which go into these crops and a major opponent of the sweeping grassroots call for truth in labeling. Local and regional consumer groups, civic projects and food security groups are are pushing this as a pocketbook issue — by mobilizing to target Monsanto’s institutional investors in a Chicago rally and march on Saturday, March 24. The action kicks off with a 1PM rally at Federal Plaza at Adams and Dearborn, followed by a 2PM march to some of the region’s largest investment firms. The protest, which is urging investors to divest from Monsanto stock, is part of a global day of action against Monsanto that includes protests in over 400 cities in 50 countries on six continents.
Consumer groups, fair trade projects and civic organizations are challenging Monsanto for its opposition to mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods — often referred to as GMOs, for genetically modified organisms, the technology at the heart of Monsanto’s agribusiness. Monsanto has also drawn fire for trade and manufacturing practices that activists say undermine small farmers, threaten food safety, menace public health, and thwart fair labor standards and civic accountability.
Chicago is a particularly rich target for protesters because the city is home to the offices of some of the nation’s largest mutual funds — including those which invest heavily in Monsanto — and because Illinois houses the second largest number of Monsanto plants and facilities in the United States. Saturday’s march will target some of those firms.
Besides Monsanto’s aggressive lobbying against labeling for genetically engineered products, the company has battled organic and conventional farmers whose crops have been contaminated from cross-pollinating and spillage from Monsanto’s genetically engineered crops, and its herbicides and pesticides have been linked to serious health threats. The company has been sued in a range of cases related to its chemical and agricultural products, including for poisoning Missouri residents with dioxin, for polluting the Illinois town of Sauget with dangerous toxins, for dumping PCBs on Alabama residents, and for engaging in coercive tactics to monopolize markets. The company infamously produced the Agent Orange defoliant that continues to produce severe health problems, including birth defects, for both the people of Vietnam and for US soldiers who served in that war — and their children. Its pesticides have been linked to honey bee colony collapse, a pollinator crisis that threatens the world’s food supply, including billions of dollars of agricultural crops in the United States alone.
Consumers wary of Monsanto’s dismal corporate track record argue that they have a right to know if the food products they’re buying contain GMOs — including GMOs produced by Monsanto’s behemoth GMO operation. More than a million people have signed a petition to the Food and Drug Administration asking it to label GMOs, the most of any petition in the agency’s history, and a groundswell of public support for GMO labeling has seen a push for legislation in dozens of states.
The Chicago March Against Monsanto is part of a growing global movement against the marketing of untested, unlabeled, genetically engineered foods. The metro area’s public health, urban agriculture and food security movements are among those mobilizing for Saturday, including representatives of the Illinois Fair Trade Coalition, the Institute for Responsible Technology, Know Your Farmer – Know Your Food (Chicago), IL Right to Know GMO, the Dill Pickle Food Cooperative and the Organic Consumers Association. The action will include street theater by the Chicago Bees.
