Take Action : suggestions taken from the book Seeds of Deception by Jeffrey M. Smith
(www.seedsofdeception.com) and (www.organicconsumers.org)
Here are a few of the many effective actions you can take to help raise awareness of the GMO issue, and to inspire change.
Stay informed Sign up for the newsletter (on website and in book) and stay up-to-date on the issues. The newsletter is produced by the Institute for Responsible Technology, founded by Jeffrey Smith.
Inform and inspire other individuals Let your friends and family know that you're concerned about GM foods. Help create a buzz about the issue. Understand that to convince someone that GM foods carry serious risks may take a prolonged discussion. An even longer discussion may be needed to inspire someone to actually change his or her lifelong eating habits. That's where the book Seeds of Deception may help. It's a portable long discussion-one that can be passed around. And it is unedited by the media and unsanitized by the industry. Pass around your copy, or buy several at a discount to help get the word out. Knowledge has organizing power.
Inform and inspire Opinion Leaders Books have power. Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle exposed the unsanitary conditions of the meat packing industry. After Teddy Roosevelt read the book on a long train trip, he pushed a bill through congress creating meat inspection. At a press conference, President Kennedy acknowledged the importance of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, which exposed the dangers of pesticides. Kennedy then had his scientific advisor look into the issue. According to PBS, the book was eventually "credited with beginning the American environmental movement, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the 1972 ban on DDT."
If the facts in this book get to the right people, someone might make a big difference. Consider sending a book to influential people you know. Or you can donate books that will be sent or hand-delivered to politicians, food industry executives, reporters, and celebrities. (The nonprofit organization Citizens for Health has generously offered to participate in the book donation program. They will give donors a tax deduction, automatic membership, and more than $100 in money-saving coupons.)
Write Your Senators and Congressperson The newsletter will have action alerts for organized letter writing and email campaigns. You can also click here (opens in new window) to Co-Sponsor H.R. 2916, the Genetically Engineered


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Food Right to Know Act of 2003.
Inspire Food Manufacturers to Remove GMOs Executives of large food companies may have a more immediate influence on the GMO marketplace than government. This was exhibited in the UK in 1998, where the head of Iceland Frozen Foods sparked a revolution. After receiving several letters expressing concerns about GM foods, the company's chairman Malcolm Walker decided to find out what all the fuss was about. After learning about the issues, he ordered that GM soy and corn be removed from the company's house brand. Brochures denouncing GM foods were handed out at his chain of stores. Within half a year, the rest of the UK food industry followed suit. Executives from other chains acknowledged the influence of Iceland Frozen Foods on their decisions.
In the U.S., Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe's announced that GMOs would be removed from their store brands. Gerber baby foods, as well as scores of health food products, have similarly changed their ingredients.
When a store or brand removes GM ingredients, it has a ripple effect through the industry. After a supermarket chain commits to eliminate GMOs, they usually send out a letter to their suppliers who in turn contact their suppliers and so on. A store may have hundreds of food items, each with a list of ingredients. Hundreds or thousands of businesses can be affected, right back to the farm level.
Most food companies who remove GMOs are not motivated by food safety. It's usually economics-make a change or lose the customer. Buyers, therefore, are at the top of the food chain. They move the market. When McDonalds, Pringles, and the other major potato buyers decided not to sell Monsanto's GM New Leaf potato, for example, it was soon taken off the market. McDonalds and others doomed Monsanto's potato because they wanted to satisfy consumer demands. We have that power.
When the presence of genetically engineered StarLink corn-not approved for human consumption-was discovered in food products in 2000, companies that spent millions in costly recalls began questioning their support for biotech and even publicly challenged loose government policies. In November 2002, the food industry got another heads up. Grains of corn that had been engineered to produce a vaccine for fighting a diarrhea-causing virus in pigs was accidentally mixed into 500,000 bushels of soybeans in a Nebraska grain facility. The USDA ordered the soy to be destroyed and the corn's maker, Prodigene, to pay the $2.8 million bill. The fact that the contamination was even discovered was based on several coincidences and could easily have been missed. News reports of the incident also revealed that two months earlier, Prodigene had to destroy 155 acres of corn in Iowa, because wind-blown pollen from its drug-producing corn may have contaminated that as well.
Food companies realized that they had narrowly missed another StarLink. They are now clearly concerned. They realize how vulnerable they are to another StarLink-type recall, and they have some idea that the government is not adequately protecting consumers. The time may be perfect to create a U.S. food industry landslide. Even one large company changing its policy could make GM
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foods unpopular very quickly. That is the thinking behind GE Food Alert, a coalition of seven organizations that have targeted America's largest food manufacturer, Kraft foods. Their campaign, described at www.krafty.org, is rallying consumers to contact Kraft, to ask the company to take out GM ingredients.Please email or write food companies to share your concerns about GM foods. If you have stopped buying a food brand due to GMO issues, definitely let the company know. With your message, please suggest that they read this book; they'll learn about the health risks of GM foods and the significant liability they face by using them. You can download sample letters and emails.
Local Action One of the easiest ways to motivate the food industry to remove GM foods is to inspire change at the local level. Sometimes all it takes is a simple request.
Restaurants Download notes to give to restaurant owners that will explain the issue and help them to make a switch. There are also notes you can give to waiters or waitresses to help them accommodate your desire for non-GMO food.
From Jeffrey Smith: "I asked the owner of a local restaurant to take GM foods off his menu, explaining that there were several people in town that avoided them. He invited me into his kitchen to see what that would involve. He then switched from soy oil to olive and sunflower oils, replaced his zucchini with an organic source, and started using organic milk. Since his menu items used almost no packaged foods, the changes were simple and inexpensive. I wrote a short article about it for a local weekly paper, which he posted on his window. He saw an immediate increase in business.
"Not to be outdone, a competing restaurant one block away also removed GM foods. I wrote an article for them as well. Two nearby restaurants then switched to non-GM oil and organic dairy. In fact, they raised the prices on a few entrees by $.50 to cover the increased costs and posted signs explaining what they had done. Customers loved it. Now other restaurants in town are making the switch.
"I never once had to discuss any safety issues about GM foods. It was enough for the restaurant owners to know that their customers preferred not to eat GM foods, or that a competitor was responding to that preference."
Non-GMO School Meals Of all the local strategies, inspiring schools to make a change may be the most powerful. Schools throughout the UK and parts of Europe banned GM food years ago. In the 1990s, many Parent and Teacher Associations (PTAs) in the U.S. rallied against rbGH and more than a hundred school districts banned milk from rbGH-treated cows. Wisconsin dairy farmer John Kinsman describes the method he used to inspire several schools. "I simply talked to parents of small children. Once mothers heard about this, they didn't rest until their school made the commitment." Children are at greatest risk from the potential dangers of GM foods. Since there are few forces in nature stronger than a mother protecting her child, Kinsman's strategy is powerful. A Connecticut woman also found that having a member of the school board on her side was important. Download sample letters you can use to make the approach to parents, board members, and others easy and effective.