Excerpt: "A giant food lobby - which includes Monsanto as a member - has declared that crushing the GE labeling ballot initiative is its 'single highest priority' this fall."
Farmers march against Monsanto. (photo: AFP)
A Genetically Engineered War on Your Right to Know
10 August 12
ampaign disclosures released this week reaffirm one thing: pesticide and GE seed companies are very focused on defeating Prop 37, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.
In fact, a giant food lobby — which includes Monsanto as a member — has declared that crushing the GE labeling ballot initiative is its "single highest priority" this fall.
Behind front groups and paid consultants, the “Big 6” pesticide makers (BASF, Bayer, Dow, Dupont, Monsanto and Syngenta) have quietly pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the effort to kill GE labeling, according to filings released by California’s Secretary of State. These corporations have helped garner over $1 million from several industry groups since January — most importantly the Council for Biotechnology Information — whose membership is (drum roll)...only the Big 6.
And industry opposition doesn’t just impact Californians. Several states considered passing their own laws earlier this year, only to see them quashed for fear of legal reprisal from Monsanto. Efforts to institute federal labeling standards have been similarly stymied.
It’s no surprise that industry is fighting back hard. "The Big 6 chemical and seed companies are working diligently to monopolize the food system at the expense of consumers, farmers and smaller seed companies," said Philip H. Howard, an associate professor at Michigan State University and an expert on industry consolidation.
And Californians are already feeling the opposition to Proposition 37, with the election less than four months away. The Big 6 and their front groups have started circulating a series of aggressive paid mailings, are lobbying political officials and have launched a concerted public relations offensive.
Pesticide Industry’s Business Model at Stake
For too long, pesticide and GE seed corporations have exerted undue influence on our food system while making promises on which they fail to deliver. With up to 80% of non-organic food on grocery store shelves containing GE ingredients, the Big 6 aim to keep us in the dark as their profit margins soar.
As the primary corporations controling the world’s pesticide and seed markets, they enjoy the profits of a virtual monoply. They continue to produce seeds that require more and more pesticide use — ensuring they have a continued market for their products.
As a result, over 85% of the corn and soy in the U.S. — and half of the corn and cotton in California — is genetically engineered to produce its own pesticide or withstand increasing amounts of weedkillers. The increased use of pesticides in agricultural fields puts rural communities and farmworkers at the greatest risk of health harms due to pesticide exposure.
“After over 15 years of commercialization, and millions of dollars in publicly funded research, Big Ag has yet to deliver on the benefits it has long promised farmers and consumers. Their costly seeds are designed to require more pesticide use, not less,” said PAN’s senior scientist Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman.
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Comments
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NOW.
ONCE THIS IS PASSED, WE HAVE A FOOT IN THE DOOR RE OUR FREEDOM TO EAT HEALTHY!
PLEASE HELP TO PASS THIS1
Global Climate change, 50% of our ozone is gone and burning coal destroyes Ozone, Fukushima the bigggest nuclear disaster in the history of the world that has now hit the California, tens of thousands of pesticides and other cancer causing sustances that are in our food and now 1 in 2 people will get cancer, Our planet is dieing and corporations, banks and the military don't care about anything except their interests! GMO's and Monsanto are also up there on the list! We avoid them and hate Monsanto. Clanece Thomas used to workd for them!
Though I was still a 5th generation Republican in 92 (now fiercely independent), I voted against Dan Quayle (more than "for" Clinton/Gore) for his support of label suppression (didn't want to "scare" customers by allowing dairies that didn't add rBGH to say so on the label). I want at least the right for clean food producers to honestly list what they keep out of their products. Some only complain about the 80 or so legal antibiotics (not to mention illegal ones) while we only test for 4 to 6 (depending on the states I've seen) that they sneak into our milk. According to http://www.ejnet.org/bgh/nogood.html/ the "need" for this range and quantities of antibiotics result from the rBGH they have been able to sneak into the dangerous mix.
My grandfather was a dairy inspector who championed real and safe innovations (also acting like the county agricultural advisers of old, that helped the farmers increase their productivity safely). He would probably be rolling over in his grave at what the likes of Dan Quayle have supported.
Label it (containing, and/or free of) and let the buyer exercise what must be our right to make the more informed decision!
Campbell, Hershey, DelMonte, Pepsi, Coke, ConAgra, Smucker to name a few.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_26023.cfm
Take away their charters. They are not good corporate citizens. They are interested in profits for their owners, not in the common good.
When I tell them that Prop 37 is about a label of disclosure, you would think I'm asking for Romney's tax returns!
It's a label, and the Big 6 are terrified enough to cheat, steal and lie over it because they know the truth.
The "mega-persons" (as they now are) behind this lobbying effort are working from an inverse principle: the reason-for-bein g of people is to hand over money for whatever these corporations want to unload.
On this principle, the purchasers ought NOT have a right to know what the stuff is they fork over their money for and in turn stuff into their bodies. The ideas they inject into the process can only reduce the efficiency with which they fulfill their purpose in life. For that, they should just pay up, shut up, and eat.
One might think that organically-min ded people might be able to make common cause with Tea Partyers over this kind of paternalism. But I'll wager that the orchestrating money behind the TP has a quite different view of the matter: what's good for Monsanto or Koch Industries is good for the population at large.
We need to question and fire the crooks.
Under no circumstances do I eat artificial sweeteners, colors, or preservatives, trans fat, flour, corn, or soy. You do of course what you want, but no 45 years old man should have the energy and lust for life I do 0r they're be a revolution. Probably why they've got you brainwashed into eating their shit.
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