North Dakota’s GMO sugar beet industry is counting on their campaign donations to Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) to help them mount a last ditch effort, at the federal level, to block state GMO labeling laws before the first one takes effect in Vermont on July 1.

On March 1, in the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Heitkamp voted for the DARK Act, Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS)’s bill to Deny Americans the Right to Know about GMOs.

CALL TODAY! Please call Sen. Heitkamp at (202) 224-2043 to ask her to tell her how disappointed you are that she voted for the DARK Act. Please ask her to oppose any compromise that would block or delay Vermont’s GMO labeling law. Tell her that the GMA’s SmartLabels are an unacceptable replacement for the on-package GMO labels that consumers need to make informed decisions.

Roberts’ bill passed the agriculture committee, but it doesn’t have the 60 votes it would need to block a filibuster, pass the full Senate and get President Obama’s signature, unless Democrats like Heitkamp agree to a compromise. We can stop this bill if we can get Sen. Heitkamp back on our side.

This is why your voice in North Dakota is so important:

North Dakota is a leading producer of GMO sugar beets, which have been engineered to withstand heavy doses of glyphosate herbicide (Monsanto’s Roundup), which the World Health Organization says is a “probable carcinogen.”

The industry went all-out to convince Sen. Heitkamp to vote for the DARK Act. David Berg, the president and CEO of American Crystal Sugar Co., a major supplier of beet sugar based in Moorhead, Minn., told Agri-Pulse his company worked hard for her vote.

We’ve got to remind Sen. Heitkamp that she works for North Dakota voters, not the corporations. How do we do that? With phone calls! Please call Sen. Heitkamp at (202) 224-2043.

Last year, Sen. Heitkamp was thought to be willing to be the lead Democrat on Robert’s DARK Act, until she spoke up as pro-GMO but against taking away states’ rights to label.

According to the password-protected PoliticoPro website, Sen. Heitkamp said:

My first inclination always is to avoid preemption . . . You can’t fight [GMO labeling] on every front. At some point, if people say, ‘I want to know,’ … the industry and agribusiness has to say, ‘Look we’ll tell you and then we’ll educate you.’

Sen. Heitkamp has not been true to her word. The $230.9K Heitkamp has taken from agribusiness since she first ran for Senate is the reason why.

TAKE ACTION: Please call Sen. Heitkamp at (202) 224-2043 to ask her to oppose any “compromise” that would block or delay Vermont’s GMO labeling law.

Thanks for taking action!