Press Releases
- Celebrity Moms Sarah Gilbert, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jillian Michaels, Jordana Brewster And More Add Their Voices To The Conceal Or Reveal Campaign’s Call To Label GMO’s
- New Poll Shows Quaker And Other Food Brands Risk Losing Their Primary Customer – Moms – Over GMO Labeling!
- Conceal or Reveal Will Identify Major Food Brands Working to Block GMO Labeling
For Immediate Release
August 4, 2015
Celebrity Moms Sarah Gilbert, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jillian Michaels, Jordana Brewster And More Add Their Voices To The Conceal Or Reveal Campaign’s Call To Label GMO’s
New Data Shows That Big Food and BioTech Companies Have Spent $51.6 Million So Far In 2015 To Lobby On Issues Including Blocking GMO Labeling
WASHINGTON – For those wondering why the significant majority of Americans want companies to label GMO’s, Just Label It’s most recent ambassadors have answers in a new PSA video released by the organization today. Celebrity Moms including Sara Gilbert, Jillian Michaels, Jordana Brewster, Constance Zimmer, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Sarah Michelle Gellar illustrate the concerns moms everywhere have on this issue. They join the more than 200,000 people who’ve signed JLI’s Conceal or Reveal petition that calls on major household food brands to support FDA’s rules for mandatory labeling and label GMO’s.
“When I started looking into what’s in the food that I feed my son I discovered how difficult it is to figure out,” says actress and mom, Jordana Brewster. “I want GMO’s labeled so that I don’t need to guess whether or not they’re in our food.”
Just Label It, along with their support network of moms, chefs, food advocates and health-conscious consumers is adding General Mills, Kellogg’s and Coca-Cola to their current petition that calls on companies to stop blocking Americans’ right to know, the petition already targets Quaker Oats, a division of PepsiCo.
“You cannot conceal what’s in our kids’ food,” Jillian Michaels of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, emphatically states in the video.
Just Label It’s Chairman, Gary Hirshberg stated, “The vast majority of Americans believe that we all have a right to know what’s in our food and how it was grown. Labeling GMOs is the next logical step in our country’s effort to provide transparent and accurate information to every consumer.”
Right now the food and biotechnology industries are trying everything to prevent Vermont’s mandatory GMO labeling law from going into effect in 2016. Large food companies combined have already spent more than $100 million to fight GMO labeling campaigns across the country. The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents these and other food manufacturers, lobbied for the anti-consumer DARK Act, which the House passed last month. The legislation blocks state GMO labeling laws, blocks state laws prohibiting “natural” claims on GMO foods, and makes it virtually impossible for FDA to create a mandatory national GMO labeling system.
In addition, just released lobbying data revealed that big food and biotechnology companies and trade groups opposed to mandatory GMO labeling, disclosed lobbying expenditures of $51.6 million for the first two quarters of 2015 that made reference to legislation designed to block state and federal GMO labeling laws. Coca-Cola ($5,040,000), PepsiCo ($3,230,000), Kellogg’s ($1,310,000) and General Mills ($1,100,000) were among food manufacturers that disclosed the largest lobbying expenditures.
Since there isn’t movement in Congress for mandatory labeling, an alternative is for companies to call on the FDA to mandate it. Just Label It is calling on Americans to tell some of the country’s top food companies that have built their brands on the trust of moms: Quaker, PepsiCo, General Mills, Kellogg’s and Coca-Cola – to stop funding anti-labeling measures and instead support mandatory labeling. Citizens can join the “Conceal or Reveal” campaign by going to www.justlabelit.org/reveal.
The PSA was produced by ongoing NGO partner The Environmental Media Association (www.green4ema.org) and feature EMA Parent Board Members Ginnifer Goodwin, Constance Zimmer and Sara Gilbert.
About Conceal or Reveal
Conceal or Reveal is a project of Organic Voices, which was formed to educate and empower consumers by advocating for mandatory GMO labeling. Without labeling, the public cannot make informed choices about what they eat and the marketplace lacks the information needed to make decisions about innovations that meet consumer demand. Just Label It comprises more than 700 corporate and NGO partners.
For Immediate Release
June 9, 2015
New Poll Shows Quaker And Other Food Brands Risk Losing Their Primary Customer – Moms – Over GMO Labeling!
WASHINGTON – A first-of-its-kind poll released today comprising moms who purchase select major food brands reveals the vulnerabilities that companies face based on their GMO labeling activities. Specifically, brands that either don’t label GMO food ingredients in their products, or support anti-mandatory GMO labeling efforts risk losing this demographic as customers. Three household name brands trusted by families for generations were tested including Quaker, a division of Pepsi.
“Customers want to know if products contain GMO food ingredients and they feel betrayed by the brands they trust when they aren’t transparent about it,” said Joshua Ulibarri, Partner at Lake Research Partners, which conducted the poll. “They were even more concerned when they learned that these same brands fund efforts to block mandatory GMO food labeling.”
The survey showed that nearly 70 percent of moms were less likely to purchase products from Quaker and its parent company PepsiCo when told that the company funneled millions of dollars into campaigns to deny consumers the right to know about GMOs. Nearly 93 percent of moms want Quaker to label GMOs and 80 percent want Quaker to stop funding anti-GMO labeling efforts.
And 81 percent of moms surveyed said they’d be less likely to purchase a brand’s products if they found out that a company was using GMO food ingredients that contribute to the increased use of toxic pesticides. Glyphosate, the primary herbicide used on GMO crops, is considered a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization.
“Mothers are increasingly concerned about their children’s exposure to chemicals and rightfully so,” said Anna Lappé, bestselling author, healthy food advocate and mother of two. “Glyphosate is now found in rainwater, soil and in samples of both breast milk and infant formula.”
GMO crops have changed farming practices and instead of decreasing the amount of herbicides used, (as was originally claimed by the biotech industry), have lead to an ever-increasing chemical treadmill as weeds have quickly become resistant to them. This has created a Jack and the Beanstalk scenario for farmers that requires greater toxic concentrations to combat weeds.
Three thousand elementary schools in the U.S. are near GMO corn and soybean fields where glyphosate is sprayed, putting America’s youngest students at risk of significant toxic herbicide exposure. In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics called on the government, schools, parents and medical professionals to take concerted action to protect children from pesticides.
“Food companies change labels regularly in order to give consumers more, rather than less, information about how food is made,” said Just Label It executive director Scott Faber. “We label orange juice from concentrate, country of origin for meat and poultry, and whether foods are irradiated; GMOs should be labeled in the same way.”
But big food and biotechnology companies spent more than $63 million lobbying in 2014 alone, much of it against GMO labeling, and have poured more than $105 million into campaigns against state-level labeling efforts.
“Everyday across the country, kids eat Quaker’s most popular snack – chewy granola bars – and all their moms are asking for is that companies like Quaker support mandatory GMO labeling,” said Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Just Label It and chairman and co-founder of Stonyfield Farm. “Why are they wiling to risk losing the trust of their most loyal customers?”
In a matter of just a few weeks, well over 100,000 concerned consumers have added their names to a petition calling for Quaker and Pepsi to support a federal law that would make GMO labeling mandatory. Just Label It is calling on Quaker to support the FDA in using its authority to mandate GMO labeling nationwide.
In the Lake poll, 93 percent of mothers surveyed said that companies should be required to display a label saying that a product contains GMO food ingredients. Latino moms expressed the greatest concern polling 8 percent higher than their peers over concerns about food companies denying consumers the right to know through labeling. And it isn’t just mothers who want GMO foods labeled. A recent national poll by the Mellman Group found that nearly 90% of Americans, regardless of political identification, said it was important to know if the foods they purchased contained genetically engineered ingredients.
At the same time, other food industry leaders have woken-up to the reality of a marketplace of customers who are informed and demanding transparency on the issue, 135 companies including Chipotle and Patagonia support mandatory labeling of GMO’s as members of Just Label It.
“It should be my decision whether or not to feed my children foods produced with GMOs,” said Anna Lappé. “I can do that if they are labeled organic, but otherwise the only way I’ll know whether a food contains GMOs is if it’s labeled.”
Ultimately, the vast majority of Americans which includes many of Quaker’s customers and the customers of some of America’s most trusted food companies, want these iconic brands to do what’s right and Just Label It .
For Immediate Release
April 29, 2015
Conceal or Reveal Will Identify Major Food Brands Working to Block GMO Labeling
Pepsico’s Quaker Oats Division Is First Focus of Campaign
Washington DC, April 29, 2015 – Just Label It (JLI), a project of Organic Voices Action Fund and Organic Voices, today launched its national “Conceal or Reveal” campaign to publicly identify well-known brand-name food companies that are funding state and federal efforts to block mandatory GMO labeling.
Consumers have trusted many of these brands for generations and most don’t know that the same companies are spending millions to keep them from finding out what foods contain genetically engineered ingredients, or GMOs. The first company to be identified is Quaker Oats, whose parent company, PepsiCo, has alone spent $8.8 million to oppose grassroots GMO labeling referendums in four states.
Polls consistently show that 92 percent of Americans want GMO labeling. Just Label It believes that the federal Food and Drug Administration has an obligation to inform the public of processes or ingredients that alter or materially change food in ways that are not obvious. Familiar examples include existing requirements to label orange juice made from concentrate and farm-raised fish.
“It should be my decision whether or not to feed my children foods produced with GMOs,” said Anna Lappé, bestselling author, healthy food advocate and mother of two. “I can do that if they are labeled organic, but otherwise the only way I’ll know whether a food contains GMOs is if it’s labeled.”
Unlike the United States, 64 nations around the world – including the European Union, most of Asia and even China and Russia – require mandatory labeling of GMO’s, and most large U.S. food producers comply with those requirements overseas. Just Label It, along with its more than 700 corporate and non-profit supporters, wants them to do the same here at home.
JLI identified Quaker Oats first because the brand has a strong reputation among mothers as a producer of healthy snacks and other foods, but it is actively working to keep parents and other consumers from knowing whether its products are genetically modified.
“Because of corporate lobbying we now have a bill pending in Congress that would essentially permanently deny the public’s right to know whether food contains GMOs,” said Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Just Label It and chairman and co-founder of Stonyfield Farm. “These companies should stop concealing and start revealing how they grow our food and respect their customers’ desire to know and choose.”
The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 – dubbed the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act by those who support labeling, “codifies our broken voluntary labeling system and blocks mandatory labeling,” said Scott Faber, executive director of Just Label It. “Companies have been able to voluntarily label GMOs since 2001, but they aren’t doing it – and consumers are more confused than ever.”
If passed, the DARK Act would effectively keep the federal government from ever requiring labeling and prevent existing state-level mandates, such as Vermont’s, from taking effect. It would also prohibit all other states from imposing mandatory labeling.
“Because of GMOs, many Americans are exposed every day to glyphosate, a probable cancer-causing herbicide that’s in our air, water, soil and food,” added Hirshberg. “The unnecessary and increasing use of herbicides is a direct result of the proliferation of GMOs. Without mandatory labeling, the public has no chance to reject this chemical treadmill.”
Glyphosate is the herbicide most widely used with GMO crops and was recently classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization. The proliferation of GMO crops has led to a sixteen-fold increase in agricultural use of glyphosate since the 1990’s. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, it is now present in 60-100 percent of the rain in Midwest farming communities, and according to a recent report by Reuters, tests have found it in samples of breast milk and baby formula.
Just Label It is calling on Americans to ask Quaker Oats, PepsiCo and other popular food brands to stop funding anti-labeling efforts and stand with the overwhelming number of Americans who support mandatory GMO labeling. Consumers can join the “Conceal or Reveal” campaign by going to www.justlabelit.org/quaker.
JLI’s campaign comes on the heels of a federal court ruling allowing the Vermont labeling law – the first in the nation – to proceed, keeping it on track to go into effect in July 2016.
About Conceal or Reveal
Conceal or Reveal is a project of Organic Voices, which was formed to educate and empower consumers by advocating for mandatory GMO labeling. Without labeling, the public cannot make informed choices about what they eat and the marketplace lacks the information needed to make decisions about innovations that meet consumer demand. Just Label It comprises more than 700 corporate and NGO partners.