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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

CT March Against GMO Seeds "Raised Awareness"

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Tuesday, May 28, 2013   

HARTFORD, Conn. - Thousands in Connecticut and across New England spent part of the long weekend participating in the worldwide "March Against Monsanto" protest. Monsanto produces genetically-modified seeds for farm crops, and protesters believe the company has used unfair business practices as it tries to increase the use of genetically-modified foods.

At one of many New England rallies, local advocate Bonnie Wright said she became active in the cause because genetically-modified organisms in food were making her sick. According to Wright, they're now in so many products that it's hard to figure out which foods are GMO-free.

"Say: 'Hey, we're not accepting this, this isn't right.' We want to be able to make informed decisions, and the way that things are now, if we don't know what's in our food, we can't make informed decisions," she declared.

Hartford and New London were among more than 400 cities worldwide with weekend protests that drew an estimated 2 million people.

The GMO process involves inserting genes into common farm seeds like corn or soybeans to make them hardier or more pest-resistant, and then patenting those seeds. The practice was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Monsanto does some of its work in North Carolina's Research Triangle. According to Roland McReynolds, executive director of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, some countries now require that GMO foods be labeled as such, but there is no such rule in the U.S.

"Because genetically modified seeds so dominate the plantings of corn and soybeans, basically, if food doesn't say it's 'GMO-free,' you should assume that it has GMOs in it," McReynolds cautioned.

Monsanto's practice of genetically modifying seeds is protected by U.S. law, although last week Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon introduced an amendment that would overturn those protections.



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