You should be following this continuing saga—Should there be GMO labeling, or not?



Read about: "Monsanto's Tobacco Files: University Scientists Caught Conspiring with Biotech Industry to Manipulate Public Opinion on GMOs<http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1521?t=1&akid=1656.73575.B3Aqnr>" at EcoWatch today.



Dear Arlene,



Have you ever wondered how Monsanto and the biotech industry constantly get the mainstream media and elected officials to go along with promoting and approving GMOs and their toxic chemicals? Well, now we know.



Earlier this month the New York Times broke a shocking story that exposed the sordid process of how Monsanto and biotech industry front groups recruited a core group of public university scientists to use their outside influence to manipulate public opinion on GMOs.



I wrote a piece published at EcoWatch<http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1521?t=2&akid=1656.73575.B3Aqnr> over the weekend detailing these findings and the deceptive tactics that are being used to try to silence us and kill our movement to label GMOs and hold Monsanto accountable in the United States and abroad.



Click here to read the exclusive details about the "Monsanto's Tobacco Files: University Scientists Caught Conspiring with Biotech Industry to Manipulate Public Opinion on GMOs<http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1521?t=3&akid=1656.73575.B3Aqnr>".



http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1521?t=5&akid=1656.73575.B3Aqnr<http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1521?t=4&akid=1656.73575.B3Aqnr>



I'm sending this out today because as we ramp up to fight Monsanto in Congress, everyone needs to know what's really happening behind the scenes while we're trying to win our basic right to know what's in our food.



The story is based on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the public watchdog group U.S. Right to Know, which used state Sunshine laws to request email communications between public university research scientists, industry front groups and biotech companies like DuPont, Dow Chemical, Bayer, BASF and Monsanto. What they show is a startling level of coordination between the biotech industry and university professors who are rabidly pro-GMO.



Incredibly, just as Food Democracy Now! and our allies were helping build a grassroots movement across the country to require food companies in American to label genetically engineered foods, Monsanto and the biotech industry were working behind the scenes with public university scientists to try to discredit the GMO labeling movement.



Not surprisingly, in order to deceive elected officials and confuse the American public, Monsanto took a page of the tobacco industry's playbook and used public university scientists as spokespersons in the media and at public hearings in multiple state capitols.



Make no doubt about it, Monsanto’s current efforts to recruit public university scientists are not about communicating science, but to manipulate public opinion just like the tobacco industry.



We're lucky these deceptive tactics have been exposed, but we need your help to make sure your friends and family, who care about this important issue, learn about these deceptive tactics to mislead the American public as well.



In the past 3 years the opposition has spent more than $110 million to kill GMO labeling in 4 state ballot initiatives, but every time, we've bounced back stronger than ever!  The next few weeks will be a defining moment for the food movement, whether Congress will pass a law to strip states of the right to label GMO foods or the voice of the American public will be heard.



Please take a moment to read this story and pass it along to 3 friends<http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1521?t=6&akid=1656.73575.B3Aqnr>, we can't let Monsanto get away with using Big Tobacco tactics to deceive us any longer.



Remember, democracy is like a muscle, either you use it or you lose it!



Thanks for participating in food democracy,



Dave Murphy



Founder / Executive Director

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