OUR MISSION
GMO / Toxin Free USA’s mission is to harness independent science and agroecological concepts to advocate for clean and healthy food and ecological systems. We will educate consumers and other stakeholders about the potential hazards of genetically engineered organisms, synthetic pesticides and other toxins, and advance the application of the Precautionary Principle.
OUR VISION
Clean food and environment. Food transparency. Food and environmental justice. To see a world where we have full disclosure of what is in the food we eat and how it is produced. To see a world whose food and ecological systems are clean, accessible to all, and fully protected from contamination by GMOs and other toxins. To see the private, governmental and public sectors follow the Precautionary Principle.
The Precautionary Principle is (as defined by the UNESCO COMEST 2005 Report):
When human activities may lead to morally unacceptable harm that is scientifically plausible but uncertain, actions shall be taken to avoid or diminish that harm. Morally unacceptable harm refers to harm to humans or the environment that is:
- threatening to human life or health, or
- serious and effectively irreversible, or
- inequitable to present or future generations, or
- imposed without adequate consideration of the human rights of those affected.
The judgment of plausibility should be grounded in scientific analysis. Analysis should be ongoing so that chosen actions are subject to review. Uncertainty may apply to, but need not be limited to, causality or the bounds of the possible harm.
Actions are interventions that are undertaken before harm occurs that seek to avoid or diminish the harm. Actions should be chosen that are proportional to the seriousness of the potential harm, with consideration of their positive and negative consequences, and with an assessment of the moral implications of both action and inaction. The choice of action should be the result of a participatory process.
OUR VALUES & PLEDGE
Integrity: The decisions that we make as an organization will be guided by integrity, first and foremost, and will be the cornerstone for all that we do. We will hold ourselves accountable to the same standards that we expect of others. We will never take donations or gifts from the corporations, or their charitable foundations, that we aim to change. We will never compromise the Movement for what is expedient or singularly beneficial for our organization. We will admit when we are wrong. We will walk our talk.
Transparency: It would be hypocritical to not pursue a value that we demand from corporations, governments and other nonprofit organizations. Transparency means that we will give reason for all that we do. It means that we will be open with our finances, distributed in our annual reports, so that our donors know exactly how their donations are being used.
Collaboration: We believe in working with others without regard for self-benefit, whether they be other nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, or individuals, so long as we find integrity within the collaborator. We believe that the Movement is stronger through unity.
OUR HISTORY
The state of Connecticut was on its way to passing a GMO food labeling bill, widely supported by the public, until the threat of a lawsuit by agrichemical giant Monsanto Company all but stopped the process in its tracks.
Diana Reeves, fed up with the overwhelming corporate influence on her state’s government, decided to take a market-based approach to change. Reeves, a mother of three, launched the GMO Free USA initiative in May of 2012 with the intent of organizing national boycotts of food companies that used GMO ingredients in their products, and pressuring them to remove those GMO ingredients. It began with putting out a national call for the formation of at least 5,000 activists centralized into a Facebook Group where actions would be directed. With the initial help of the nonprofit, Organic Consumers Association, the GMO Free USA grassroots initiative rapidly achieved its numbers, and the Boycott Kellogg’s GMOs campaign was launched.
Through summer and fall of 2012, key volunteer members coalesced with Reeves to form the core leadership of GMO Free USA and at the beginning of 2013, their focus turned to growing the boycott and the GMO-free movement using the public Facebook Page and social media. The GMO Free USA team established the organization as a formal 501(c)(3) nonprofit in mid-2014. Since then, GMO Free USA has experienced rapid growth and garnered fierce public engagement, reaching millions of people through the years.
In 2020 GMO Free USA expanded its public education mission beyond GMOs and GMO-related pesticides, establishing Toxin Free USA as a complimentary arm to our existing organization. It is impossible to have “clean food and environment” without addressing the many toxins beyond GMOs and pesticides, such as PFAS chemicals, that have become pervasive in our food and environment.
