n anticipation of the GMO-labeling national day of action on March 8, the UW WashPIRG chapter will be in Red Square collecting signatures on a petition urging Safeway to label GMOs and outside the HUB until the day of the event.
The goal is to collect 1,000 signatures by Saturday. As of Wednesday, they had collected 568.
On March 8, the chapter will head a rally at the Capitol Hill Safeway, hosting speaker Chris Esh, WashPIRG’s program associate, and they will conclude the event with a meeting with the Safeway manager in which they will discuss the campaign, what it entails, and what it is trying to accomplish. The event, which marks one year since Whole Foods resolved to begin labeling GMOs in all of their products, is a day of national action with 20 events planned by PIRG groups from across the country in hopes of pushing Safeway to label their in-store brands.
“We want lots of people. The turnout will really set the mood,” said WashPIRG member Rosemary Gentle. “If we put a lot of pressure on them from the very beginning, it’s more likely that they’ll do what we want — label GMOs.”
Despite the failure of I-522, an initiative that would have required the labeling of genetically engineered food, the group hopes to spur conversation and put pressure on businesses to label on their own, as Whole Foods and Chipotle have.
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