For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page, Millions Against Monsanto page and our California News page.

As an ambitious young Senator battling for what seemed an unlikely shot at the White House in 2007,
Barack Obama said that if he was President, he would “let folks know when their food is genetically modified, because Americans have a right to know what they’re buying.”  On Thursday afternoon,
Alexis Baden-Meyer, the political director for
Organic Consumers Association, will deliver a petition to the White House addressed to
First Lady Michelle Obama, calling on her to urge her husband to keep his campaign-trail promise.  The petition has more than 203,000 signatures, Baden-Meyer said.

The petition delivery comes as California is battling over Proposition 37, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act, a ballot measure for November that requires GM foods to be labeled as such.  Since President Obama entered office, the Department of Agriculture has issued a series of decisions favoring GM crops, including sugar beets, alfalfa, and sweet corn.

The Obama Administration, says, Baden-Meyer, has “exponentially increased the public’s exposure to genetically modified food.”  She hopes that thanks to being the nation’s foremost spokesperson for healthy eating with the Let’s Move! campaign, Mrs. Obama will both endorse the California measure and leverage her influence with her husband to get GM foods labeled.  Baden-Meyer stars in a video OCA has created for the effort, titled “Michelle Obama: Tell Barack to honor his campaign promise to label GMOs.”