We have two choices.

We sometimes forget. Coca-Cola, General Mills, and a host of other food giants know how to make their products without using genetically engineered ingredients.

They do it all the time. For consumers in other countries.

It’s only here, in the U.S., where the food and biotech lobbyists have Congress in their back pockets, that more than 80 percent of processed foods contain genetically engineered ingredients.

Those GMO ingredients are making Monsanto and Big Food rich. They’re making us sick. And the tons of herbicides and pesticides used to grow them are poisoning our soil and water.

Food manufacturers make GMO-free products for consumers in 64 other countries for one of two reasons: Either because consumers in those countries have demanded that GMOs be banned from their food supplies. Or because consumers have demanded GMO labeling laws.

In most cases, rather than label the GMOs in their products, food manufacturers have found alternative ingredients.

We can have GMO-free food, too. But only if we demand it.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the trade group representing Coca-Cola, Pepsi, ConAgra, Unilever, General Mills and hundreds of other food companies, recently circulated a letter claiming that consumers – that means you - have created an “unprecedented period of turmoil” for food companies. How? Simply by demanding that they label the genetically engineered ingredients in their products.

We have news for the GMA and all of its dues-paying members: The turmoil has just begun. We will not rest until GMOs are labeled.

The movement to label GMOs didn’t materialize overnight. It’s been in the works for many years. But thanks to the unprecedented outpouring of support last year for California’s Prop 37 to label GMOs, this movement – your movement – has finally gone mainstream.

Activists in Connecticut and Maine recently pushed through GMO labeling laws, though neither law can take effect until four or five other New England states pass similar laws requiring mandatory labeling of GMOs.

We’re gaining traction. But we need to win Washington State.

Half of the $46 million raised last year to defeat Prop 37 came from pesticide makers like Monsanto. The other half came from junk food giants like Pepsi and General Mills. The GMA alone raised $2 million to defeat Prop 37. So far, the GMA is the largest donor to the campaign that aims to defeat I-522, the citizen’s initiative to label GMOs in Washington State.

We have two choices. Sit back and do nothing while the pesticide and junk food makers raise millions to defeat another big GMO labeling campaign. Or pull together to run a winning campaign in Washington State, and keep the GMO labeling movement strong until our demands are met.

We need to raise just a little more than $52,500 in order to reach our goal of $150,000 for GMO labeling by July 27, and earn a matching grant for OCA from natural health leader Mercola.com.

Will you help sustain the fight for GMO labeling by making a donation today? You can make a secure online donation, with a credit card or using paypal. Or you can phone or mail in your contribution. Click here for details. Thank you.

In solidarity,

Ronnie Cummins

National Director, Organic Consumers Association and Organic Consumers Fund

ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org