Mission: Save Organic Standards

Our mission at SOS FOOD is to challenge destructive practices of industrial agriculture and offer sane and sustainable alternatives. You probably care deeply about the safety and quality of your food, your health and your rights. But do you know that genetic engineering (GE) threatens them all profoundly? This technology introduces genes from animals, bacteria and viruses into the food you eat, posing risks of creating new toxins, allergens and even genetic contamination.

Over 70% of processed foods now contain genetically engineered ingredients. Unless you buy organic, you are probably eating GE corn, soy and potatoes. Other GE foods are on the way.

Founded in 1998, SOS Food is the leading group in the New York metro area organizing to stop genetically engineered food. We are a grassroots organization. With our highly dedicated volunteers we are confronting this challenge to our health and environment by educating and mobilizing the public to resist. We sponsor three campaigns to change the way agribusiness does business:

Supermarket Campaign:
SOS Food is working to pressure supermarkets in the New York metro area to remove GE products from their shelves. We are currently targeting Food Emporium (whose parent company A&P has removed GE foods from their shelves in Europe) through tabling and protest actions.

Legislative Campaign:
SOS Food volunteers testify at hearings, lobby the state capital in Albany and petition the NY State legislature and Congress for laws banning or at least labeling GE foods and crops.

Ad Campaign:
Together with Ink & Co., a local advertising firm donating its services, we have developed eye-catching posters and "go-cards" to alert the public to the dangers of GE food. Our aim is to circulate these materials as widely as possible.

Additionally, we promote CSAs or community supported agriculture projects (which link consumers directly with organic farmers) and local food co-ops as affordable and healthy alternatives for city residents. At Sixth Street Community Center where we are based, a CSA has been operating since 1996.

With branchless trees, spider-silk producing goats, luminescent monkeys and rice with human breast-milk genes looming on the biotech horizon, the need for us to STOP and CONSIDER the immediate and irrevocable changes to millions of years of natural evolution has never been more urgent.

We welcome you to join us!