JULY 22, 2013

Dear Neighbors,

Hello-

Welcome to the first edition of Health and the Environment, a new monthly newsletter from my legislative office. Many of us or members of our families have experienced health issues, from cancer, reproductive health issues, behavioral issues like autism or ADHD, or conditions like Alzheimer’s, that may be linked to environmental causes. New research reports regularly help us understand these conditions in new ways, often with a need for a policy change to address the issue and improve health outcomes. This newsletter will be a way to share information and bring you into the conversation about policy changes that may be necessary in Alaska.

FRANKENFISH UPDATE

There’s good news, bad news, and some more good news.

First, the good news. Senators Begich and Murkowski were successful in getting an amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations Bill to provide funding to the FDA to implement a requirement to label genetically modified (gm) salmon. While we continue to fight gm salmon, dubbed Frankenfish, this amendment is necessary should the FDA approve sale of gm salmon in the United States. Read more here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=545982685447292

The bad news. A recent research report released by McGill University reported findings that genetically modified salmon can breed with wild fish. In the study they tested whether wild brown trout and genetically modified salmon could breed and found that they can. This is alarming. What’s worse is the finding that these hybridized fish are more aggressive than their wild counterparts and can out compete both the wild brown trout and gm salmon.

Read my press release here: http://akdemocrats.org/rep_tarr/2013/06/12/news-representative-tarr-asks-fda-to-consider-recent-gm-salmon-study/

Read my letter to the FDA here: http://akdemocrats.org/tarr/061213_letter_Commissioner_Hamburg.pdf

The good news. The FDA responded that while the comment period for the application to approve genetically modified salmon had closed they would consider the research findings in their decision.

Read the response from the FDA here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=553308681381359

FOOD AND FILM FESTIVAL THIS WEEK AT BEAR TOOTH

This week the Alaska Center for the Environment, the Bear Tooth Theatre pub, and Alaska Food Policy Council are teaming up to host the 4th Annual Food Film Festival at Bear Tooth. I’ll be there for both presentations of GMO:OMG to talk about / answer questions about gmo issues in Alaska, their potential impact on Alaska’s future and why I am sponsoring legislation to require labeling of gm foods in Alaska!

It’s hard to leave the sun, but you have to eat dinner, right? Come by with your questions and be prepared to watch an excellent film and enjoy great non-gm, Alaska grown food from Bear Tooth!

Show times: Tue 7/23 7:45 PM, Thu 7/25 5:30 PM

Run time: 1:37

Movie Rating: Not rated. Nothing objectionable

Full Movie Schedule: http://www.anchoragenightout.com

THE GMO FILM PROJECT tells the story of a father’s discovery of GMOs through the symbolic act of poor Haitian farmers burning seeds in defiance of Monsanto’s gift of 475 tons of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds to Haiti shortly after the devastating earthquake of January 2010. After a journey to Haiti to learn why hungry farmers would burn seeds, the real awakening of what has happened to our food in the US, what we are feeding our families, and what is at stake for the global food supply unfolds in a trip across the United States and other countries in search of answers. Are we at a tipping point? Is it time to take back our food? The encroaching darkness of unknown health and environmental risks, seed take over, chemical toxins, and food monopoly meets with the light of a growing resistance of organic farmers, concerned citizens, and a burgeoning movement to take back what we have lost.

If you are not interested in receiving Health and the Environment newsletters, please click here to unsubscribe.

Sincerely,

Representative Geran Tarr

To unsubscribe from Tarr's Times click here