It is important that we voice our opposition to this bully bill, SB1056. Please see messages and sites linked below for more; please contact your representatives!
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.
Original: Stop Biotech Bullies and Big AgriBusiness! Hearing on Wednesday! Call Your Rep!