Obama Just Signed The DARK ACT bill S. 764 Into Law That He Opposed While Campaigning

We Are Change

Obama signed the widely controversial, DARK Act bill S. 764 into law last Friday, that would enable GMO companies to get away with simply providing a QR code on their products for consumers with a smart phone to look up further information on what exactly they are purchasing and digesting into their bodies.

The Bill is called the DARK Act because it stifles the public’s right to know about what they are eating “Denying Americans the Right to Know.”

Although, Obama signed a bill that would require GMO food companies to label their products, the provisions allow the companies to use QR codes or 1-800 numbers as a form of GMO labeling, forcing consumers to scan the code or make a call to get more information instead of simply labeling the products.

It doesn’t end there the percentage of GMO’s in a food product that requires QR code labeling or 1-800 number labeling will be decided by the future Secretary of Agriculture.
Meaning that once again the big corporate giant Monsanto has found a way around labeling GMO’s. With such a broad open ended law and no legislation that regulates the labeling GMO food companies might not have to label their products at all since the percentage of GMO’s in a given food that will have to be labeled is to be determined in the future and can be lobbied for.

The other negative side-effect to this law is that the GMO labeling legislation passed in Vermont, Maine and Connecticut is now null and void and overridden.

Which was a stronger form of legislation and required GMO companies to label their products for all consumers and not just those who can afford smartphones to scan a QR code or call a 1-800 number while shopping in the local grocery.

The Dark ACT bill also indefinitely bans Americans from their right to vote at the state level for any sort of mandatory GMO-labeling since this is a Federal nationwide law.
Something that 90% of American have called for to label genetically modified foods agreeing that American’s have a right to know whats in their foods they are eating. The executive director at the Center For Food and Safety has even responded with backlash towards Obama signing the DARK Act saying.

“This law is a sham and a shame, a rushed backroom deal that discriminates against low-income, rural, minority and elderly populations. The law also represents a major assault on the democratic decision making of several states and erases their laws with a vague multi-year bureaucratic process specifically designed to provide less transparency to consumers.
I don’t know what kind of legacy the president hopes to leave, but denying one-third of Americans the right to know what is in the food they feed their families isn’t one to be proud of.”
~Andy Kimbrell, executive director at the Center for Food Safety.

While GMO food companies argue it’s too expensive to label GMO foods it is already required in 64 countries around the world, and flat out some foods are COMPLETELY BANNED in other Countries.

Once again the people in the U.S. have been defeated by big corporate interest and the GMO food companies and never again now since it’s now federal law can citizens fight back legally with state legislation against the major GMO food giants. Here’s a trip down memory lane Obama when campaigning for president promised to label GMOs. Chock that down to another broken promise by Obama boy oh boy did we get change.

The post Obama Just Signed The DARK ACT bill S. 764 Into Law That He Opposed While Campaigning appeared first on We Are Change.

from We Are Change http://wearechange.org/obama-signs-dark-act-bill-s-764/