Payback Time: Boycott the Organic and ‘Natural’ Traitor Brands that Helped Kill Prop 37

They stomped on our right to know. Now it’s time to get even.

Prop 37, the California Right to Know GMO labeling initiative, was narrowly defeated last week thanks to a relentless, deceitful $46-million advertising blitz. Among the largest bankrollers of the NO on 37 campaign were huge multinational food and beverage companies whose subsidiaries make billions selling some of your favorite organic and “natural” brands.

Brands like Kashi. Honest Tea. Naked Juice. Muir Glen, Horizon, Silk, and Morningstar Farms.

It’s time to boycott the companies and brands whose dirty money confused and scared millions of California voters into voting No on Prop 37. It’s time to plaster their facebook pages with this message: We won’t support you until you support us. It’s time to call their consumer hotlines, complain to the store managers where you buy your organic and natural products. It’s time to tarnish their holy organic and natural images, to expose their hypocrisy and greed.

It’s time to raise a little hell. If we raise enough hell, maybe their parent companies will come to their senses and stop carrying the water for Monsanto and the biotech industry. Maybe they’ll stay neutral in the upcoming labeling battles in Washington state and Vermont.

The OCA is calling on consumers to boycott these organic and “natural” traitor brands:

• PepsiCo (Donated $2.5M): Naked Juice, Tostito’s Organic, Tropicana Organic
• Kraft (Donated $2M): Boca Burgers and Back to Nature
• Safeway (Member of Grocery Manufacturers Association, which donated $2M):“O” Organics
• Coca-Cola (Donated $1.7M): Honest Tea, Odwalla
• General Mills (Donated $1.2M):  Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Larabar
• Con-Agra (Donated $1.2M): Orville Redenbacher’s Organic, Hunt’s Organic, Lightlife, Alexia
• Kellogg’s (Donated $791k): Kashi, Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms, Gardenburger
• Smucker’s (Donated $555k ): R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organic
• Unilever (Donated $467k): Ben & Jerry’s
• Dean Foods (Donated $254k): Horizon, Silk, White Wave

Tell these companies that if they want your loyalty – and your grocery dollars – they must do two things:

1. Speak out publicly in favor of the pending GMO Labeling Ballot Initiative (I-522) in Washington State in 2013, as well as the pending GMO labeling bills coming up in Vermont and other states.

2. Contribute as much or more money to the Yes on I-522 Campaign in Washington than their parent corporations spent to defeat Prop 37 in California.

Prop 37 was narrowly defeated, by dirty money and dirty tricks. But it spawned a huge, national consumer movement that is fired up and more determined than ever to fight this battle until we win the right to know if our food has been genetically modified. We’re already collecting signatures in Washington State, talking to legislators in Vermont and Connecticut. A 30-state coalition is formulating a plan to collaborate on GMO-labeling laws and initiatives.

You are a part of this movement, and today we’re calling on you, on the millions of consumers who were outraged by the NO on 37’s dirty campaign, to send a clear message to the traitor brands who helped kill Prop 37, in the only language they understand: lost profits and lower sales.

Join the boycott

Read the press release

See which brands helped defeat Prop 37

Campaign Update

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over: Counting the Vote

There’s still some confusion around the Prop 37 final vote count. Here’s the scoop.

On election night, the California Secretary of State announced that Prop 37 was defeated by 6 percentage points, 53% to 47%., with 3.3 million votes still uncounted. As with every election, not every ballot had been counted as of midnight Nov. 6.

The votes are still being counted. As of Nov. 13 at 5:24 PM, the official count was: Yes: 4,929,582 (47.2%) No: 5,508,063 (52.8%)

The OCA continues to monitor the vote counting process, and will contest the “official” results if the final vote tally differs substantially from pre-election poll results or election-night results. Meanwhile, we are soliciting testimonials from anyone who witnessed voting irregularities, particularly in Orange and San Mateo counties, where paperless ballot systems make voting more vulnerable to fraud.

Read more here

SUPPORT THE OCA AND OCF

Help Us Keep this Movement Strong!

It’s been only nine days since Prop 37 went down in California, buried under a heap of lies and trickery that were bankrolled to the tune of $46 million by the largest pesticide and junk food manufacturers in the world.

Yet far from sounding the death knell for GMO labeling, our narrow loss has fired up our Movement like never before.

We have a lot of work to do in the coming months to support the GMO labeling ballot initiative in Washington State (I-522), and to reintroduce legislation in Vermont, Connecticut, and dozens of other states.

Dirty tricks and dirty money knocked us down in Round One, but the battle has just begun.

As momentum builds, we need you, our growing army of Organic Consumer financial contributors to step up to the plate and help fund this movement. We are a grassroots movement, fighting powerful corporations with deep pockets. It up to us to lead the way by putting our money where our mouths are.

Thanks to you – thousands of you – the OCA and OCF were able to contribute more than $1.4 million to the Prop 37 campaign. Though we may have narrowly lost Round One, your money and volunteer energy was not wasted. It helped us win over more than 5 million Californians who are now ready to help us take this struggle to the next battlegrounds in Washington state and Vermont.

We can move forward to an organic, just, and sustainable future, but we need your help. Please make a donation today so we can keep the GMO labeling story alive in the media, and keep the attention and support of the millions of people who are new to this fight.

Thank you!

Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our legislative efforts in California and other states)

Help Dr. Bronner’s Fight Malaria in Eastern Ghana

An estimated 40% of the population in the district surrounding Asuom, Ghana, is infected with malaria each year. A quarter of the cases affect children under age five.

Dr. Bronner’s is working with its partners in Ghana to help prevent this painful disease. Here’s how you can help, too. Donate today to help purchase life-saving mosquito nets for families in Asuom, and Dr. Bronner’s will match your donation, up to $25,000.

The Bronner family has been making soap for 5 generations. Today’s generation of Dr. Bronner’s is carrying on the social and environmental ideals of their grandfather by doing right by the farmers and workers who produce the raw materials in Dr. Bronner’s soaps.

Learn more and watch the video here

Cuba

Join Ronnie Cummins and OCA Staff on an Organic Agriculture Tour to Cuba Feb. 13-23, 2013

Come and explore Cuba with us this winter.

Take a first-hand look at Cuba’s organic agriculture and its cooperatives, both rural and urban. Examine some of the economic and social policies that aim toward greater food sovereignty as the country adjusts to an ongoing energy and climate crisis. Investigate the rapidly expanding cooperative sector and other facets of Cuban society.

The tour cost is estimated to be $1400 plus airfare. The per person price includes hotel, meals and a full program of activities, translation, guide and transportation.

This is a legal people-to-people educational exchange under the license of the Center for Global Justice, organized in collaboration with Via Organica (OCA’s Mexico network), and the Organic Consumers Association. This people-to-people exchange comes under a specific license issued to the Center for Global Justice by the US Treasury Department. For more information and application, contact: Deadline for application is January 1st. Limited scholarships available.

For more information and application, contact: info@viaorganica. Deadline for application is January 1st. Limited scholarships available.

Little Bytes

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MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSORS

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