Open letter to Mrs. Obama

I know I promised to write an article on my favorite fats, but I've been spending every free moment on GMO awareness.  Here is a letter we wrote some months ago, while sitting at a track meet.  Now seemed like a good time to send it out! 

Monday, September 3, 2012

MRS. OBAMA, PLEASE HELP US LABEL GMOS

From Left: Zofia Hausman (Documentary Film Maker of the Agtivist), Representative Richard Roy (the original sponsor of the GMO Labeling Bill in CT), Ellen McCormick, Tara Cook-Littman, Beth Beisel, Diana Reeves,Whitney Riggs, and Cathie Iaccarino

Below is an open letter written to Mrs. Obama with a plea for help from the women leading the activist movement here in CT and beyond.  We have all heard Mrs. Obama talk about the importance of eating a healthy diet, but not once have we ever heard her speak about GMOs.  A healthy diet that is filled with GMOs is not a healthy diet at all.  PLEASE, Mrs. Obama, talk to your husband and ask him to label GMOs.  We have a right to know what is in our food and be able to choose whether or not to feed our families GMOs.  

OPEN LETTER TO FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA

Dear First Lady Michelle Obama,

We applaud your efforts to feed your family organically and to change the way Americans eat for the better, but we have yet to hear you address the issue of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).  We are writing to ask for your help.  We are leaders in an organization in Connecticut called GMO Free CT, a group of individuals educating the public about GMOs and advocating for our right to know what is in our food.   We are certain that you are aware that our food supply is being taken over by GMOs and that the children of this country are paying the price. 

As women ranging in age from 20 to 60 plus, we find ourselves bound together by common purpose and by the overwhelming urgency to secure a safe food supply for generations to come.  Right now over 90% of the processed foods on our grocery store shelves contain GMO ingredients.  Corn, Canola, Soy, Sugar, and Cottonseed along with the hundreds of derivatives made from these 5 crops, have been modified to include genes from other, unrelated species.   These GMOs have been granted “GRAS” status (generally recognized as safe) by the FDA and therefore have NEVER been tested for safety through long term feeding studies. Current research is raising significant health concerns as scientific studies are linking genetically engineered foods to an increase in food allergies, autism, autoimmune diseases, cancer, organ damage, infertility and inflammatory bowel diseases, all of which, are on the rise and increasing medical costs in this country.   GMO labeling is mandated in over 50 countries around the world, yet here in America, supposedly one of the most progressive countries in the world, we are still shopping completely blind.  Currently, voters in California have the opportunity to support mandatory GMO labeling by voting in favor of Proposition 37.   As mothers, aunts, grandmothers and sisters, we deserve to have the right to choose whether or not to feed our families GMOs.  

During his last campaign, your husband pledged to require labeling of GMOs. Instead, he hired a former Monsanto executive (Monsanto being the company that stands to benefit the most from the proliferation of GMOs), Michael Taylor, as his food safety czar. Mrs. Obama, we need your help. We need a strong, caring and intelligent mother like you to stand up for the welfare and safety of America’s children.  Over one million Americans signed a petition to the FDA asking for GMO labeling, fifty five US Senators signed a letter to the FDA asking for GMO labeling, professional polls show that 95% of Americans want GMOs labeled, and 19 states, including CT, are introducing GMO labeling legislation.  The FDA refuses to act. We need you to stand up for democracy and for freedom of choice. Please talk to your husband on behalf of your children, our children and America’s children. Ask him to make good on his campaign promise to label GMOs. California’s ballot initiative to label GMOs needs the support of the Obama family. Please speak out in support of GMO labeling so that America’s families can have the ability to choose clean, unadulterated food.

Thank you very much for your personal attention and reply to this letter.  We can be reached at gmofreeconnecticut@gmail.com.  We would very much like to visit with you to discuss this very urgent matter.  It is a complicated issue and we are aware of the political implications as well.  We would like to hear back from you directly.  The health and safety of our families, future generations and our fragile environment are at stake.

Sincerely,

Beth Beisel
Tara Cook-Littman
Cathie Iaccarino
Ellen McCormick
Diana Reeves
Whitney Riggs
Elaine Titus