Annie Leonard, a proponent of sustainability and director of the Story of Stuff Project, released a video about how to solve problems with sustainable solutions. The video inspired Stacy Malkan, the former media director for California’s GMO labeling bill Prop 37, to apply Leonard’s theories to the issue of GMO labeling. Malkan writes that Washington’s labeling bill I-522 would empower consumers to make informed decisions about what they eat while educating them on environmental impacts of GMOs.
More than 350,000 people signed petitions to put I-522 on the ballot in Washington, the second highest number in state history. In California, nearly a million people put the California Right to Know Initiative, Prop 37, on the ballot in 2012, and more than 6 million voted for it. Tens of thousands of people have donated money to fund these campaigns — while the big chemical and food companies are spending tens of millions to stop them.
These petition drives, and the hard-fought political battles that followed, showcase something new to the food movement: an unprecedented grassroots mobilization of volunteers, many of them newly engaged in food politics, and largely led by moms — the people buying the food and making the links between unhealthy kids and our unhealthy food system.
Read the full, original story here: “Why GMO labeling is a ‘Story of Solutions'”
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