By Organic Consumers Association

To be delivered to: Michelle Obama, First Lady

Michelle, tell President Obama to honor his campaign promise to require GMO labeling and ask him to endorse California’s Proposition 37, a citizens’ ballot initiative to label GMOs.

Michelle Obama is a champion of better nutrition in school lunches and of ending childhood obesity. Which makes it all the more disappointing that her husband, President Obama, has failed to keep his campaign promise to support GMO labeling.

On the campaign trail in 2007, candidate Barack Obama said: “We’ll let folks know whether their food has been genetically modified because Americans should know what they’re buying.”

 

But since becoming President, Obama has turned his back on the 90% of Americans who want GMO labeling.

If Michelle has done her homework, she knows that many studies link GMOs to childhood allergies and obesity–even cancer. So we’re asking her to pressure the President until he does the right thing: Honor his word and support California’s Proposition 37, a citizens’ ballot initiative to label GMOs.

National polls indicate that that more than 90% of Americans want GMOs labeled. And yet, President Obama has continued to green light a flood of new GMOs, including genetically engineered alfalfa, salmon, and 2,4 D “Agent Orange” corn.

The FDA does no pre-market safety testing on genetically engineered foods, instead relying on the word of Monsanto, Dupont and other biotech companies that these foods are safe. However, a growing number of studies link genetically modified foods to a host of health issues, including obesity and allergies. Even the American Medical Association has recently warned that GMO foods need to be safety-tested before they are placed on the market. Nearly 80% of all non-organic processed foods in the U.S. contain GMOs. Without labeling, it is very difficult to keep these foods out of our, and our kids’ diets.

In a visit to an elementary school in January, in Alexandria, Va., Mrs. Obama said: “We have a right to expect the food (our kids) get at school is the same kind of food we want to serve at our own kitchen tables.” http://thegrio.com/2012/01/25/michelle-obama-school-lunches-to-have-more-veggies-whole-grains/

If Prop. 37 passes in November, California will become the first state in the country to require what nearly 50 other nations in the world already require: labels on genetically engineered foods.

Michelle, please tell President Obama to honor his word!

Read the full article and sign the petition here: http://signon.org/sign/michelle-obama-tell-presiden