Petition Background

“Safeway, Starbucks and Target have something in common: They’re all dues-paying members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), a group that is determined to deny you the right to know if your food contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Last year, the GMA spent $2 million to help defeat California’s Prop 37, a citizens’ initiative that would have required mandatory labeling of GMOs in food products in California. (In all, GMA and its members contributed about half of the $46 million spent to defeat Prop 37). Now the GMA is at it again, pouring money into the campaign to defeat a similar initiative, I-522, in Washington State. By supporting the GMA, Safeway, Starbucks and Target are working to defeat your right to know. The battle in Washington State will have a huge impact on consumer rights. If I-522 passes, food manufacturers will likely reformulate their products, rather than label them. And if they reformulate their products in Washington State, they’ll likely reformulate them for all states – just as they’ve reformulated them in Europe and other countries that have GMO labeling laws. If we want the same right that consumers in 64 other countries have, we must demand that right. We must win in Washington State in November. We can start by making it clear to Safeway, Starbucks and Target that we won’t support their companies or their products, until they support our right to know and pressure the GMA to do the same. ”