PETITION

Banning GMOs is the most prudent, science-based approach to the health risks of genetically modified food, including plants, animals and synthetic ingredients intended for human consumption.

GMO crops, like Monsanto's insectide-producing Bacillus thuriengensis (Bt) corn are not safe, have not been independently tested and have not undergone long-term studies.

Many GMOs that are eaten regularly by D.C. residents, including milk produced by cows injected with genetically engineered growth hormone, are banned in other countries due to safety concerns.

Hundreds of scientists around the world have come out in support of a ban on GMO food.

GMO technology is highly uncertain. No short- or long-term study on these man-made organisms has conclusively shown that they are safe for humans, livestock or biodiversity. All scientific studies about the benefits of GM crops are conducted by the same companies that sell them.

The US Department of Agriculture has been relentless in approving GMOs without the benefit of comprehensive studies or objective analysis of safety data.

The U.S. GMO regulatory system is flawed. The American Medical Association acknowledged this in a 2012 resolution calling for mandatory pre-market safety-testing of new GMOs, something the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has never required.

A ban on untested GMOs is not anti-technology or even anti-GMO, it's just common sense.