Dear Organic Consumer,

Are GMOs bad for your health? The debate rages on.

But no one disputes this fact: It takes tons of herbicides – hundreds of thousands of tons per year – to grow the GMO crops that end up in the world’s food supply, including in the food fed to the animals we eat.

All that poison doesn’t just go away. It ends up on our food, in our soil, in our water.

It’s time to stop Monsanto’s reckless poisoning of our food and our planet. Your donation today will help us continue the battle for GMO labeling laws and expose GMO crops for what they are: an excuse for Monsanto to sell billions of dollars’ worth of poisons. Click here for details on how you can donate online, by phone or by mail.

Glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, is the most heavily used herbicide on GMO crops. In 2007, the last year for which we have reliable statistics, U.S. farmers used 88,000 tons of glyphosate. Allowing for no increases, that amounts to 580,000 tons of glyphosate dumped onto our food and into our soil and water in the past six years alone.

And that’s just in the U.S.

According to new, reliable studies, glyphosate is causing chronic, long-term health problems for all of us, but especially for our kids. In the words of one scientist, the negative impact of glyphosate residues found in the Western diet “ . . . is insidious and manifests slowly over time, as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.”

Here are two more alarming facts. Earlier this year, the FDA raised the limits for how much glyphosate is allowed to remain on your fruits and vegetables.

And last week, the USDA opened the door for using even greater amounts of glyphosate by approving a new glyphosate-resistant canola, the first of several new glyphosate-resistant crops to be deregulated under a new, speedier review process.

Where does it stop? It stops with us.

When laws require that food products carry labels stating that they contain GMOs, consumers will find alternatives.

When consumers stop buying foods containing genetically modified ingredients, food manufacturers will stop putting GMOs in their products.

When consumers stop eating meat from animals fed GMO crops, farmers will stop growing GMO crops for animal feed.

Truth be told, I already know how to avoid buying foods that contain GMOs. You probably do, too.

But none of us can escape the danger GMO crops pose when the glyphosate required to grow them destroys the very foundations of a healthy, life-sustaining environment: soil and water.

We have the power to dry up demand for Monsanto’s glyphosate by demanding GMO labeling laws. But do we have the will?

Right now, the key battleground in the fight against Monsanto is in Washington State. You can help us win I-522, Washington State’s GMO labeling initiative, and other key labeling battles with your donation today.

We are nearing the end of our mid-year fundraising campaign, but we’re still about $20,000 short of our goal. Can you help us wrap up this campaign today and earn a matching $150,000 grant? Please click here for details on how to donate online, or by mail or phone.

We can’t stop Monsanto’s poisoning of the planet overnight. But we can stop it. If we don’t give up.

Thank you for being a part of this movement.

In solidarity,

Ronnie Cummins

National Director, Organic Consumers Association and Organic Consumers Fund

P.S. – Donations to the Organic Consumers Fund, the 501(c) 4 allied lobbying and legislative action arm of the OCA, are not tax deductible. If you need your donation to be tax-deductible, please donate here to the OCA to help continue our critical GMO public education campaign.

ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org