The deed is done. On Friday, July 29, 2016, President Obama signed a bill that was written by corporations, paid for by corporations and that serves no one in this country—except corporations.

S.764, known by its opponents as the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, preempts Vermont’s mandatory GMO labeling law and substitutes in its place a federal bill that, no matter how Obama and his Congress try to spin it, is not mandatory and does not require labels—at least not labels that anyone can read. Not to mention that most GMO ingredients will be exempt under this fake “law.”

I could, once again, list all the reasons this bill fails consumers. But I and others have already done that countless times, to no avail. The bill is a sham, a slap in the face to the 90 percent of Americans who support labeling. It’s an attack on states’ rights. It’s another “gift” to Monsanto and Big Food.

And, for anyone who still harbored any doubt, S.764 is proof that our Democracy is broken, that our lawmakers answer to Corporate America, not to us, the people who elect them.

It would be easy, after four-and-a-half years of non-stop fighting for labels, to cave in to despair. But let’s not give Monsanto the satisfaction. Because the truth is, while we may not always be able to win in a policy arena awash in corporate money, we, as consumers, still have tremendous power to influence the marketplace.

It’s time to wield that power. It’s time to take a page out of Gandhi’s playbook.

Read Ronnie’s essay