It is our right to know what we put inside our bodies. It’s our right to know WHAT we eat. We’re not just talking about looking at a restaurant menu or reading the nutritional values of your cereal.
We’re talking about knowing when we are eating foods that have been genetically modified (GMO). That is exactly what California’s Proposition 37 ballot initiative is aiming to do.
Julio Salgado
When something is genetically modified it means that it’s DNA has been altered. Much of the rest of the world – including Japan, Australia, the European Union and China – requires that GE foods be clearly labeled. GMO’s are about the corporate control of our food systems. The “Big 6” pesticide companies – Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Bayer AG, BASF & Syngenta – are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that YOU don’t know what is in your food, so that they can make higher profits from GMO foods.
According to the Pesticide Action Network, 99% of genetically engineered crops are designed to either contain an insecticide or go
through various applications of herbicides. Immigrant farm workers and rural communities are constantly at an increased health risk connected to their exposure to pesticide in the air, water and food.
The fight against GMOs is one that intersects with food justice, food security, migrant rights, worker rights, and climate change. That’s
why it’s an important issue for artists to take one. CultureStrikers Favianna Rodriguez, Oree Originol and Julio Salgado have created a series of posters making reference to the importance of GMO labeling.
Voice of Art, a YouTube art series, also followed street artists Nuclear Winter and Crevis as they wheat-paste their own Yes On Prop. 37 campaigns throughout the state.
Oree Originol
Favianna Rodriguez