You know what they say. You can’t fool mom.
When a group of
pro-labeling moms in Washington D.C. figured out that the Grocery
Manufacturers Association (GMA) was breaking the state’s campaign
finance disclosure laws, they did something about it. They formed a
grassroots group, Moms for Labeling, and they
sued the GMA.
Their complaint? The
GMA is concealing the identities of out-of-state corporations, namely
Big Food companies, which are funneling donations to the NO on I-522
campaign through the multi-billion dollar Washington D.C.-based lobbying
group. The Moms had a whistleblower lined up to testify. But then the
judge
dismissed their case, on a technicality.
You’d think
that would have been enough to make the GMA happy, but no. The lobbying
giant went after the Moms with a countersuit, prompting a judge to slap the Moms with a $10,000 fine, under a law that is supposed to protect citizens from frivolous suits by big companies.
End of story? Not
yet. In dismissing the suit, the judge ruled that under the
circumstances, only the state attorney general now has the authority to
sue the GMA for violating Washington’s Public Disclosure Act.
The NO on I-522 campaign has so far raised
$17.1 million
to blanket the airwaves with lies, as it tries to scare voters into
voting against the I-522 GMO labeling initiative. The GMA, which
represents over 300 corporations including Kraft, Kellogg’s, Monsanto,
Dupont, Starbucks, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, ConAgra and General Mills, has
kicked in $7.2 million so far – $5 million more than the lobbying group
spent last year in California, to defeat a similar GMO labeling
initiative.
Who’s missing from the NO on I-522 donor roster this year? The junk food giants who
spent millions last year, but this year, are hiding their donations from public view.
Let’s pick up
where the Moms for Labeling left off, by insisting that Washington’s
attorney general force the GMA to comply with the state’s campaign
disclosure laws.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Washington State’s Attorney General: Investigate the GMA’s Money Laundering Scheme, Don’t Punish Moms!
OCA IN ACTION
OCA Presents Monsanto Minions Awards, Stages Anti-Lobbying Protest
Today’s the day. The OCA, with our friends at Occupy Monsanto, will deliver the first annual Monsanto Minions Awards.
But that’s only half the story. Remember Abbie Hoffman’s famous 1967 New York Stock Exchange
theatrical protest? Where Hoffman and the Yippies threw cash out on the trading floor, prompting a Wall Street-style dash for cash?
Today,
(October 10, 2013), our pro-GMO labeling, anti-Monsanto activists,
posing as biotech and big food industry lobbyists, will stage a similar
protest. They’ll dump briefcases of cash onto the X-ray machines at the
entrances to the Congressional office buildings, where lobbyists are
waiting to go through the metal detectors. We’re hoping the real
corporate lobbyists will lunge for the fluttering bills, causing enough
of a ruckus to shut down the entrance.
Lobbyists scurrying
to grab dollar bills? It’s the perfect metaphor for what’s happening
right now on Capitol Hill. Despite the government shutdown, lobbyists
are
meeting
with the Congresspersons they supported financially during the
elections in the hopes of convincing them - with cold hard cash, no
doubt - to create or protect federal laws designed to feather their own
nests.
As for the Monsanto
Minions Awards, according to your votes, we’re crowning Rep. Steve King
(R-Iowa) as your favorite Monsanto Minion. You can see the rest of the
results
here. Thanks for voting, and let’s keep up the pressure on our favorite minions!
Read the press release
More on the Monsanto Minions Award
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