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INAUGURAL GLOBAL COUNTER DEMONSTRATION TO PROMOTE GMO EDUCATION

CHICAGO (May 20, 2015) – On May 23rd, 2015, groups around the world will gather together for the first organized effort to protest the annual March Against Monsanto demonstration. For the past two years, March Against Monsanto has drawn protesters to spread misinformation and fear about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). This year March Against Myths About Modification (MAMyths) has launched a grass-roots endeavor to curb that misinformation and help consumers better understand biotechnology.

“Activist groups like March Against Monsanto have been filling consumers’ minds with distortions and unfounded alarm about GMOs,” said MAMyths co-founder and science writer Kavin Senapathy.  “We’re tired of these groups pushing an agenda rooted in false information.”

Senapathy created the MAMyths movement with research geneticist and science communicator Karl Haro von Mogel and artist and animal-rights activist David Sutherland.

“Science and reason are losing the information war to fear and pseudoscience,” said Haro von Mogel. “We started this movement to balance that misinformation with facts. This movement is centered on arming the public with facts about genetically engineered crops and helping explain real issues about food and agriculture through civil discussion.”

Initially conceived as a symbolic event in Chicago, the idea grew into a coordinated movement on social media. As the movement gained momentum, groups around the world organized city-specific events to coincide with and challenge the March Against Monsanto. In addition to the main event in Chicago, chapters have been formed in at least eight cities in the United States: Portland, Ore., Humboldt County, Calif., Seattle, Wash., Olympia, Wash., Washington, D.C., Inland Empire, Calif., and Las Vegas, Nev.; three in Canada: Ottawa, Ontario, and Victoria and Nanaimo in British Columbia; one in Brisbane, Australia and one in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

“March Against Monsanto wants you to believe that GMOs are harmful when we have a scientific consensus on the safety of genetic modification akin to that of climate change,” said Sutherland. “Misrepresenting the science and scapegoating a single company muddles up the discussion and makes it harder for genuinely concerned people to address global food security and other social justice issues.”

The science supporting the safety of biotechnology is exhaustive and sound. GMOs are the most researched and tested agricultural products in history. Since the introduction of GMOs in the mid-90’s there has not been one single documented incidence of harm to human health. Every major scientific body and regulatory agency in the world, including the American Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences and the European Commission, has looked at the research about GMOs and concluded they are safe.

To join the MAMyths movement, find the group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MAMyths or on Twitter @MAMyths. For more information go to www.mamyths.org