date: Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 5:06 PM
subject: GMO Labeling - action needed NOW!
Hello friends, I just modified Karen's sample email below and sent it to the senators. This took 1 minute. Please consider doing the same. Thanks!
The GMO labeling bill may be dead in 48 hours if they don't budge and schedule hearings.
XOXO Asia
from: Justinefreebird Espiritu <[email protected]>
to: [email protected]
cc: [email protected]
date: Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 7:30 PM
subject: Please hold hearing for HB174 HD2, GMO Labeling
Aloha Senator Nishihara,
My name is Justine Espiritu and I am a Hawaii resident. As a concerned citizen I respectfully urge you to have a hearing on HB 174 HD so that the issue of labeling can be debated and focused on. I believe that the voice of Hawaii's citizens, not paid lobbyist, and precautionary science will be convincing to the members of your Committee, and that labeling measures will NOT adversely impact our local economy or drive prices up for consumers.
I truly believe that Hawaii's consumers have a right to know if their food contains genetically modified organisms. If the GMO industry and Federal and State regulators are not insisting on long-term testing of human consumption of GMO foods, independent of the GMO industry, labeling is the right thing to do to allow Hawaii's citizens to opt out of being GMO guinea pigs. I do hope that big moneyed interests cannot trump the public safety and environmental health of Hawaii's people.
I am sure you are well aware that Hawaii's citizens are following this bill closely and will remember that you alone have the power to kill this bill or put it forward to be debated. Please consider my concerns in your decision.
Sincerely,
Justine Espiritu
Why Roz Baker?
The consumers of Hawaii have worked very hard to voice their concerns regarding their desire to know which foods in the market place contains GMO. They have marched in the streets on all islands, rallied at the legislature, introduced bills and got one passed on the floor of the House. Newspaper polls show overwhelming support for labeling of GMOs. Senators Akaka and Inouye supported Labeling as well as did the late Patsy Mink and now the Hawaii Democratic Party. All of the County Councils except Oahu support Labeling of GMOs.
The question that we all have is why Roz Baker, the chairperson of the Senate Consumer Protection Committee, refuses to have a hearing on House Bill 174 regarding Labeling of GMOs. If the State Attorney General has legal problems with HB 174, a hearing would be the place to fix it. The commerce problem can be fixed if we include locally grown produce, and the supremacy problem does not exist because there is no federal law either requiring or precluding labeling of GMOs and thus nothing for the state law to conflict with.
The consumers of Hawaii and their “right to know” deserve fair treatment in the Senate, as they had in the House. Her refusal to have this hearing will kill the bill and leave a bad scar on the credibility of our legislative process.
Walter Ritte