While lots of great, hard-working organizations are winding down for the year, maybe even having holiday parties, we’ve been cranking up.
OCA has so far contributed about $850,000 (not counting staff time) to Oregon’s Measure 92, an initiative to label GMOs, and another $50,000 to help Proposition 105 in Colorado. And then there were the contributions we made to help win GMO crop bans in several Oregon counties, and Humboldt County in California.
Yesterday, we finally had to concede in Oregon–because the Secretary of State refused to count 4600 ballots, claiming the signatures on the envelopes didn't match the signatures on the voters' registration cards. The campaign alone was costly, because we were up against $20.7 million in spending by the opposition. Then there was the recount. And the lawsuit filed in an attempt to get those 4600 votes counted.
With the Oregon campaign in overtime, we also felt it was critical to take a stand against a federal bill that would wipe out every state's right to pass GMO labeling laws. So we dedicated ourselves these past few weeks to organizing a major rally in Washington D.C., to protest H.R. 4432.
We pulled that off on Wednesday, after coordinating among more than two dozen organizations that volunteered to help out, and organizing buses from about a dozen states. It had to be done. We could not sit by while lawmakers, bought and paid for by Monsanto, pass egregiously anti-consumer, anti-Democracy laws.
The unexpected recount and lawsuit in Oregon, and the last-minute demonstration on Capitol Hill, have put a dent in our year-end budget. We greatly appreciate your generous donations to support this past month of work that is so critical to the rights of consumers everywhere.
Donate to help fund our December 10 rally against Pompeo’s bill to kill GMO labeling.
Donate to help offset the cost of the Oregon Measure 92 recount and lawsuit