Final Push for GMO Food Labeling is ON

If you are like most people in Santa Cruz, America, and some 50 countries around the world, you are in favor of labeling for foods produced with genetic engineering. GMO-Free Santa Cruz is collecting signatures to get an initiative on the California ballot this fall that would require that GMO foods be labeled as such. Labeling will let us know what's in our food so we can make informed decisions

We are collecting signatures until Sunday, April 22, so please seek out a volunteer signature-gatherer at locations listed below.

What are "GMOs"? Genetically Modified Organisms are genetically engineered in labs and injected into crops to resist herbicides or produce their own pesticides. The process creates material and foods that could never occur in nature. Some 70% of processed foods contain GMOs. The FDA does not require GMO testing nor labeling.

Thanks to about 130 GMO-Free Santa Cruz volunteers, we have collected over 10,000 signatures in the county so far. State-wide, 550,000 verified signatures from California-registered voters are required in order to get the initiative on the California ballot. For more information about this initiative and GMOs, visit www.labelgmos.org/santacruz.

Look for our volunteers at the following places:

- Santa Cruz Earth Day – San Lorenzo Park (Saturday, April 21, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.)
- Farmers Market at Cabrillo College (Saturdays, 8 a.m. – noon)
- Downtown Farmers Market (Wednesdays, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.)
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- Staff of Life (times vary)
- Tree and Soil Solutions - 138 Fern Street, Santa Cruz (near Costco) (Mon – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.)

Patti Bond is a local marketing consultant and publicist, and the PR consultant for New Leaf Community Markets.