Pesticide Corporations Pushing Hard To Stop GE Labeling In California
FRIDAY, 03 AUGUST 2012 12:15
Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–August 3, 2012. Pesticide manufactures don’t want you to know what’s in your food. According to filings released Tuesday through the office of California’s Secretary of State, chemical company lobby groups have so far spent $750,000 in efforts to block the passage of California’s Prop 37, which would require mandatory labeling on genetically engineered (GE) foods.
Opponents of the proposition raised over one million dollars this year for the “Coalition Against the Deceptive Food Labeling Scheme.” Members of this coalition include the ‘big 6’ chemical companies Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, Dow, DuPont, and BASF, which have spent $375,000 alone through their exclusive lobbying group Council for Biotechnology Information. Overlapping ‘big 6’ membership, the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA), which also includes the corporations Pepsico Inc., The Coca-Cola Company, and Kelloggs, recently stated in a speech at the American Soybean Association that defeating the California initiative is “the single highest-priority of the GMA this year,” according to a story in The Huffington Post. GMA has also spent $375,000 this year lobbying against Prop 37.
“The Big Six chemical & 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 in an article in Examiner. “Polls consistently show that the public wants much more transparency in food production, yet the chemical/seed industry wants to suppress this information.”
A March survey revealed that 91% of consumers favor labeling for GE foods, with 81% of those ‘strongly’ in favor of enacting these requirements. Given the current partisan divide in the country, this represents a remarkable consensus from consumers that cuts across party lines.
The California Right to Know campaign gathered 971,126 petition signatures for Prop 37, nearly double the 555,236 signatures required to qualify for inclusion on the ballot. If approved, Californians would join citizens from over 40 countries, including all of Europe, Japan, and China, who have the right to know whether they are eating GE food. http://ow.ly/cIU0K
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