For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page and our Millions Against Monsanto page.
San Bernardino, CA  — Elle Cochran, Maui Council Member and Kate Webb, Representative for the State of Vermont are both facing corporate giant Monsanto head on by filling state bills for mandatory labeling of all their genetically modified products (GMOs) sold in Hawaii and Vermont. Elle and Kate have filed the bills in response to an overwhelming outcry from the people they serve who say they want to know if GMOs are in their food.

Public upset is increasing as more people become aware of the replacement of traditional crops with GMO crops over the past ten years with some as high as 96% of the total crop grown in United States. When you learn 80% of processed foods found on store shelves contain GMOs, consumers feel they are helpless to get away from them. Surveys show that as many as 90% of consumers want GMO information on labels so they can make a choice. Organic is currently the only way of being sure GMOs are not added to products.

When it became clear that the Kate Webb’s Mandatory GMO Labeling Bill was probably going to pass because of strong support from other Representatives, Monsanto then publicly came out with a statement saying they would sue the state of Vermont if the bill passed.

Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross spoke on the April 16th broadcast of “Vermont Edition” that he and the Governor support mandatory GMO labeling, but don’t feel that the structure of the current GMO bill could hold up in court against a Monsanto legal team.

Elle Cochran introduced the mandatory GMO labeling bill in Hawaii, but Oahu, the largest island, voted against the bill so there was no way that it could pass without their support. Hawaii has served as a central research center for Monsanto GMO seeds, with a presence that goes all they way back to the 1960s.

Locals have long been against the GMO research in Hawaii according to Elle in our December 2011 interview. Elle explained that the locals, which are also true Hawaiians, worried about the risk for cross contamination with the thousands of indigenous plants and foods that had developed on the islands over hundreds of years. They feared that perhaps you would never be able to take GMOs back out of the vegetation once the organisms became embedded in the DNA.