Saturday, September 21, 2013

Last month a new report by Friends of the Earth revealed that pesticides implicated in the global bee die-off may be lurking in our own backyards.
More than half of the “bee-friendly” home garden plants tested, sold at stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s, contained bee-killing pesticides called neonicotinoids (neonics) -- with no warning to consumers.
Our coalition and nearly 200,000 people have asked Home Depot and Lowe’s to stop selling “pre-poisoned” plants and off-the-shelf bee-killing pesticides. So far neither company has responded.

So now we’re upping the “buzz” to protect bees!

Join us today in a social media “swarm” on Facebook and Twitter to send Home Depot and Lowe’s an urgent demand:  "Stop selling bee-killing pesticides and pre-poisoned ‘bee-friendly’ plants!
Step 1: Copy and add this message as a comment on Home Depot's Facebook page and as a post on Lowe’s Facebook page:
Home Depot/Lowe’s: Stop selling bee-killing pesticides and pre-poisoned bee-friendly plants!www.BeeAction.org
Step 2: Click on any of these tweets to tweet them at Home Depot and Lowe’s Twitter accounts:
Don't have a Facebook or Twitter account? Give Home Depot and Lowe’s a call! 
Home Depot: 1-800-466-3337
Lowe’s: 1-800-445-6937
Step 3: Click this image to share it on your own Facebook page and get your friends involved.
Bees are essential to our food system and are dying at alarming rates. Neonic pesticides are a key part of the problem.  But we have the power to fix the problem, starting with our own backyards.

Here’s the thing. We know Home Depot and Lowe’s can do it! Europe has banned bee-harming pesticides and top retailers in the UK are refusing to sell them. Friends of the Earth is challenging top garden retailers to make the same commitment here in the US.
The bees have enough troubles -- our backyard gardens should be havens for bees -- not death traps.
Bee part of the solution! Join us today on Home Depot and Lowe’s Facebook pages to tell these home and garden giants to step up and protect bees.
For the bees and our future,Lisa Archer,Food and Technology program Director
Friends of the Earth

Thursday, September 19, 2013

GMOs by Monsanto - Bringing you the illness, hidden DNA, and the Collapse of the Bee Colonies among other things.

Please see my article in the September's Coastal Breeze @www.balboa-island.com  for the first in a series of articles on Genetically Modified Organisms.  Education is the key to winning this battle!

The battle to label GMOs in Washington State is heating up with Monsanto donated $4.6 million last week to try and kill our efforts. They were joined by fellow biotech seed and chemical giant DuPont with a donation of $3.2 million. On top of this, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) has dumped in $2.2 million to try to hide the donations of the same junk food companies that helped defeat Prop 37 last year in California.
That brings Monsanto's total to $4.8 and DuPont to $3.4 million! And means that the opposition has more than $11 million on hand to fight your Right to Know. What are they trying to hide?
Already, the Yes on 522 campaign to labeling genetically engineered foods is looking like a rematch of last year. Not only are the same companies dumping in millions of dollars once again to keep us in the dark, but they've hired the same PR firm that created the deceptive and misleading ads in California. Earlier this week Monsanto, DuPont and the GMA’s negative ads went on the air to deceive Washington voters.
If you were outraged when we narrowly lost last year in California, then we need your help to make sure that we can get our pro-GMO labeling message out to Washington voters! Right now, we are in the heat of the battle to label GMOs in the U.S. and we need your help.
While Monsanto, DuPont, Coke, Pepsi, Kraft and Kellogg's may have the money, we have the people on our side. Recent polling shows that more than 66 percent of likely voters are in favor of transparency in our food andstrongly support GMO labeling.
The other good news is that yesterday a group in Washington state sued the Grocery Manufacturers Association, claiming that the trade association is “laundering money" from their members, like Pepsi, Coke, Kraft, Kellogg's and General Mills to “illegally” hide their identities. Unlike last year, these same giant food manufacturers are refusing to donate in their own names because the growing GMO labeling movement has exposed their hypocrisy and the fact that they already label GMOs in 64 other countries.
The people in Washington are fighting back. Let's let them know that we have their back!
Farmers are growing in Washington are growing more concerned since last week a story broke nationally about a WA farmer’s crop being contamination by Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO alfalfa. They are rightfully concerned about the real impacts that the pending approvals of GMO apples, GMO wheat and GMO salmon could have on their livelihoods.
All we’re asking for is a simple label. It’s incredible that America’s leading chemical and junk food companies are fighting to hide the ingredients in our food, but with your help we can expose their lies and win the fight to label GMOs.
Each time they try, we need to be there to stop them - to trump corporate influence with people power, to expose their lies and propaganda for what it is, and show politicians that we will hold them accountable.
Thanks for participating in food democracy,