Step 1: Join the Campaign

If you haven’t yet, sign onto the Campaign by becoming a Member—it’s free.  Of course we need whatever financial contribution you can make, as well. All Campaign Members will be kept up-to-date through our monthly e-newsletter  Spilling the Beans.

Step 2: Buy Non-GMO

Eliminate GMOs from your diet.  Download or order the Non-GMO Shopping Guide to help you find and avoid GMO foods and ingredients. Keep the Guide with you whenever you shop: Store it inside your reusable shopping bag, put it into your coupon holder or check book, or leave it in your car. You may also want to memorize the four simple tips in the Shopping Guide and learn to recognize the most common GM ingredients. Combine your purchasing power with that of other health-conscious consumers.

Step 3: Get the Facts

Learn the Basics

- Study the Health Risk Brochure.
- Go through the Frequently Asked Questions and Answers; then 
- Test your Knowledge—take a short Quiz.

Expand Your Knowledge

- Study the free educational materials at ResponsibleTechnology.org, including our
   DVD Everything you HAVE to Know about Dangerous GM Foods.
- Read more in-depth studies of the 65 health risks outlined in Genetic Roulette or in our State of the Science report.
- Consider purchasing educational books, DVDs and CDs for yourself, and to share with others. 

 
Stay Informed

- Read the free monthly Spilling the Beans for news on the Campaign, new studies and other
   developments.
- Join our Facebook group to interact and stay informed.
- Follow the Campaign’s Director, author and filmmaker Jeffrey M. Smith, on Twitter and Huffington Post.
- Watch for Alerts in our Spilling the Beans newsletter, and at ResponsibleTechnology.org.
- Check ResponsibleTechnology.org regularly for breaking news and additional information.

Step 4: Spread the Word

Share the Basics

- Share the Non-GMO Shopping Guide and Health Risk Brochure with your friends and family, and
   everyone you talk to about the Campaign. Buy them in bulk.
- Send out links to the Non-GMO Shopping Guide online and the Campaign website, asking
people to bookmark them.
- Get the word out through your own electronic social networks: email lists, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and Twitter.
- Give educational books, DVDs and CDs as gifts.
- Help us distribute educational materials through your local networks, healthcare practitioners, Rotary, religious community, schools, etc.

Help Others Learn How to Avoid GMOs

- Tell friends, family and co-workers what you have done to eliminate GMOs from your diet.
- Go through the Non-GMO Shopping Guide with them.

Enlist New Campaign Members

- Help your friends, family and co-workers sign up online.

Step 5: Engage Your Community

- Watch the 3-minute video on the Campaign to understand the simple, but powerful, tipping point strategy.
- Familiarize yourself with all of the Campaign tools designed for the different groups below:

1. Health Conscious Consumers

We believe that natural food stores are one of the most important pieces of this campaign—they’re in a unique position to educate their customers about the fact that healthier eating starts with no GMOs.

- Take this Retailer’s Campaign Outline to your local natural foods stores.  Ask them to carry the
   Non-GMO Education Center, and to stock their store with the Health Risk Brochure and Non-GMO Shopping Guide (available free through their regular distributor).
- Read the success story of Nature’s Pantry in Kansas City, and share it with your local stores for
   inspiration.
- Help your local natural food store host or sponsor a movie showing.

2. Food Companies and Restaurants

- Contact your favorite food companies to see what their position on GMOs is. Let us know what they say. (If they are non-GMO, they will probably want to be listed in our Non-GMO Shopping Guide.)
- Encourage your favorite restaurants to go GMO-free (Read a success story here, and share this with restaurateurs and chefs.) Share the Letter to be sent to their food service suppliers, and encourage them to ask for Non-GMO options.

3. Healthcare Practitioners

- Take a printout of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine’s (AAEM) position paper, which calls for a moratorium on GMOs and urges other health care practitioners to take action, to your personal health care practitioners. (You can also include the article by Jeffrey Smith regarding the AAEM position.) Let then know what others have done, such as Physicians for Social Responsibility.

- Bring a copy of Genetic Roulette, the Shopping Guide, the CD Don’t Put That in Your Mouth, and the Health Risks brochure, all of which can be used as patient education materials. (If you can’t lend the book Genetic Roulette to the practitioner, print out the State of the Science on GMO Health Risks paper to leave with them.)

- Some larger offices will also want to purchase the Non-GMO Education Center for their waiting rooms, and/or play GMO-related videos. We also have a volunteer specialist who can help them organize their office staff to work with these materials most efficiently.

4. Parents and Schools
The emergence of the “healthy school lunch” movement in the U.S. today provides a ready platform to promote GM-free school meals. 

- Give parents and schools the GM-Free School Campaign Outline. Let them know we have a GM-FreeSchools Campaign and Media Kit available (please contact us 641-209-1765), and that the Institute supports local campaign organizers in the planning and implementation stages.
- Show the 28-minute film Hidden Dangers in Kids’ Meals, as well as the 18-minute video Your Milk on Drugs—Just Say No!, to parents and community members (both available free online, or purchase here.)

5. Faith-Based Groups

- Distribute GMO educational materials through your local religious groups. Find someone within the group to be the “GMO Campaign Champion.” (If you have contact with the leaders of a religious group at a regional or national level and are interested in working with us on this please contact IRT.)
 

Organize Educational Events and Distribute Materials

- Download the audio podcast Don't Put That in Your Mouth, the lecture on why eating genetically modified food is gambling with your health in every bite. We recommend that you burn CDs to give away or sell to raise funds, or you can buy them for bulk for $1 each here. You can use our labels and jewel case artwork as well.
- Do you want to speak to groups about GMOs? You do NOT have to be an expert to do this. Simply download the PowerPoint presentation with a script.
- Use our talking points, campaign outline, or videos to help you convey your message, or invite someone else local to speak.
- Use you own connections in your community with civic groups that are often interested in new topics.
- Get a table at local events and distribute educational material on GMOs.

Organize a Home Movie Showing

- Download the Movie Showing Kit, which includes a complete step-by-step guide for setting up your movie showing, a list of all additional materials to have on hand, an adjustable event announcement, low resolution email invite, sample press release, advertisement for your local paper or newsletter, letters to key influential leaders, and more.
- Every time you show a movie, make GMO-related DVDs available, and encourage others to show them. You can have movies and other materials available for sale or loan.
- At any event, always pass around a sign up sheet. You can subscribe people to the free monthly
   newsletter, promote your local events, and gather more volunteers.
- Also, remember to find ways to raise funds to support the cost of distributing materials. This can be done by buying books, DVDs, and CDs in bulk, or by soliciting donations.

Use the Media

- Put out a press release about GMOs and any event you organize.
- Contact us about any major media opportunities. See the IRT Media Center.
- If media in your area would like to do an interview with Jeffrey Smith, please send a request to
   media1@responsibletechnology.org.

Form a Local Action Group

- Approach local “green” organizations to see if they already have a group or would be interested in participating; your natural foods store might have a committee or see who organizes the local
farmers’ market.
- See if local religious organizations have a position on GMOs.
- Find out if parent groups in schools are working to improve school lunches.
- Learn the most effective ways of leading a group, facilitating meetings, organizing actions, and more: We highly recommend referring to the GE Activist’s Toolkit for organizing local groups at
   http://www.geaction.org/new.html
- Check out our Campaign Toolkit and share it with others interested in getting involved! 

General Support/Outreach: Questions or Comments? Call  +1 (641) 209-1765