Roundup Ready alfalfa is receiving a ton of attention lately (especially the Supreme Court case we discussed last month) and members of Congress are taking note of the organic community’s concerns. Senator Leahy and Representative DeFazio are circulating a Congressional sign-on letter in the House and Senate asking USDA “to maintain the ban on genetically engineered alfalfa.”
Will your Congressional leaders join the letter? Call your senators and representative today, and ask them to join this sign-on letter. Some quick instructions are below — it only takes a few minutes!
Click here for a list ofyour Senators/Representatives.
Telephone:
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senator/Representative’s office. Speak with the agriculture staff personor leave a message asking your Senator/Representative to sign on to the “Leahy and DeFazio DearColleague Letter to USDA about Banning GE Alfalfa.”
Email or Fax:
Below is a template for emailing or faxing your Congressional Delegation. You can simply fill in the information in italics to personalize the cover note and attach the /files/4/8/9/9/9/210501-199984/May2010CongressLetter.pdf”>That letter is attached here.)
Monsanto wants to sell its GE alfalfa and wants the USDA to approve its permit application, but consumers, farmers, dairies, and food companies don’t want GE alfalfa plants and seeds released into the environment.
USDA’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) admits that if GE alfalfa is approved:
- GE Contamination of non-GE and organic alfalfa crops will occur
- GE contamination will economically impact small and family farmers
- Foreign export markets will be at risk due to rejection of GE contaminated products
- Farmers will be forced to use more toxic herbicides to remove old stands of alfalfa
Yet USDA has decided that these impacts are insignificant and have dismissed the concerns of farmers and consumers in our state.
As a [farmer/rancher/seed dealer/consumer] from [your town or county] I urge you to sign on to this Dear Colleague Letter as soon as possible. [Try to include any personal stories or messages here.]
If you have questions or would like to discuss the importance of this letter, feel free to contact me at [your name, address, email and telephone.]
