Please phone Barbara Matthews, Chair of the California Assembly Agriculture Committee, (916) 319-2017, to voice your opposition to SB1056! Numbers for other reps on this committee are listed below as well.

Below messages from the Center for Food Safety and Californians for GE Free Agriculture.

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Center for Food Safety:

LOCAL DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT IN CALIFORNIA!

TAKE ACTION!

*Update - the hearing has been pushed back to June 28th!! If you have not yet contacted your Assembly member, please do so today! If you live in the Sacramento area you can attend the hearing - Wednesday at 1:30 pm in room 126 at the Capitol building.

SB1056, a bill preventing counties, towns and cities in California from passing any local regulation on seeds, undermining existing local ordinances that restrict GE in agriculture, and prohibiting any future citizen initiatives relating to food and agriculture will be heard in the Agriculture Committee on Wednesday, June 28th

In 2005, the California pre-emption attempts were stopped by a groundswell of organizational and citizen response defending the right to local democratic self-determination - we need your help to prevent the passage of this bill once and for all!

Like similar language introduced in other states on behalf of big agribusiness, this is an obvious attempt at stopping local restrictions or regulations on genetically modified food crops. However, it also sweeps very broadly and blocks all local powers over virtually any seeds, including potential weeds and other plants that could be nuisances or cause allergies. In short, seed preemption bills strip the rights of citizens and their locally elected governments to protect their own public health, environmental, agricultural and economic interests.

The battle to save local control isn’t just about biotech, it is also about saving local authority to regulate guns, indoor smoking, big box stores, living wages, pesticides and other issues. Local authority provides a positive, hopeful, democratic way for citizens to take meaningful action in their hometown or county. We can’t let corporations continue taking away those rights!

Contact your Assembly member TODAY and tell them to vote NO on SB 1056! If you’d like to call your Assembly member or mail your letter via post, click here to look up their contact information. We also asked that you contact Barbara Matthews, Chair of the Assembly Agriculture Comittee, but she does not have a working email. Please phone Assembly member Matthews at (916) 319-2017, or download your letter and fax her at (916) 319-2117.

Take action NOW!



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And another one on this:

BioDemocracy under Attack in California

Dear friends,

The Biotech Bullies and the Farm Bureau are attempting a pass a "stealth"

law in the California State Legislature that would take away city and

counties' rights to ban genetically engineered crops. As you know,

Mendocino, Trinity and Marin counties, together with the cities of Arcata

and Point Arena, have all banned GE crops.

This latest attack is part of a larger assault on community control and

Biodemocracy. These Monsanto Laws threaten our collective organic future.

ACT NOW TO DEFEND LOCAL RIGHTS TO OPPOSE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROPS!

A bill (SB 1056) containing language that prohibits counties, towns and

cities in California from introducing any legislation relating to

agricultural seed has been introduced in the Assembly Agriculture Committee

and is being scheduled for a special hearing. Act now to protect the right

to have a voice at the local level!

SB 1056 is the second attempt in as many days to stealthily insert

anti-democratic language into an existing bill and undermine local authority

on all matters relating to seeds. The language used is strikingly similar to

that inserted into bills that have been passed into law in 12 states around

the nation as part of an orchestrated biotech industry response to recent

local actions on genetically engineered (GE) organisms. These preemption

laws are a direct response to successful ballot initiatives in three

California counties that have prohibited the cultivation of GE crops.

PLEASE contact the representatives listed below by phone or fax (scroll down

for sample letter) to oppose the amended SB 1056 and defend local democratic

rights to legislate on matters of health, safety and welfare. As amended,

SB 1056 is an anti-democratic attack on the right of local government to act

in a legal manner to protect their interests.

The battle to halt the proliferation of GMOs is a difficult one to win

quickly at the federal level. Local GE-Free actions in the form of

ordinances against GE organisms have provided a positive and hopeful

solution, and allowed citizens to take meaningful action in their home town

or county. We must maintain the right to have a voice at the local level!

Sincerely,

Cal GE Free

http://www.calgefree.org

Barbara S. Matthews, Chair (Dem-17)

(916) 319-2017

Bill Maze, Vice Chair (Rep-34)

(916) 319-2034

Assemblymember.maze@assembly.ca.gov

Sam Blakeslee (Rep-33)

(916) 319-2033

assemblymember.blakeslee@assembly.ca.gov

Joseph Canciamilla (Dem-11)

(916) 319-2011

Assemblymember.Canciamilla@assembly.ca.gov

Dave Cogdill (Rep-25)

(916) 319-2025

Assemblymember.Cogdill@assembly.ca.gov

Nicole Parra (Dem-30)

(916) 319-2030

Assemblymember.Parra@assembly.ca.gov

Simon Salinas (Dem-28)

(916) 319-2028

Assemblymember.Salinas@assembly.ca.gov

Juan Vargas (Dem-79)

(916) 319-2079

Assemblymember.Vargas@assembly.ca.gov

[Continued on this page on the Organic Consumers Association's web site, http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/BioDem070305.cfm> and for more please visit the Californians for GE Free Agriculture web site.