Monsanto Spends Millions to Defeat Washington GMO Labeling Initiative
Monsanto Spends Millions to Defeat Washington GMO Labeling Initiative
Monday, 16 September 2013 09:35 By Mike Ludwig, Truthout | Report
With the help of a $4.6 million check from the biotech giant Monsanto and millions more from other out-of-state corporate interests, the campaign to defeat a Washington state ballot initiative in November to label groceries that contain genetically engineered ingredients has outraised the initiative's supporters by nearly three times, according to campaign data released last week.
The campaign for Washington ballot Initiative 522 is already looking a lot like last year's Proposition 37 campaign in California, where biotech and agribusiness interests outspent organic food producers and grassroots labeling supporters by nearly 5 to 1 in a high-profile battle over labeling genetically engineered groceries in the Golden State. (Genetically engineered products are also known as Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs.)
The No on 522 campaign has raised $11.1 million so far and has spent only a fraction of its war chest. Monsanto tops the group's list of donors, while pesticide giants Dupont and Bayer CropScience have donated $3.2 million and $562,000, respectively.
All three companies spent millions opposing Proposition 37 in California in November, 2012, along with individual members of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, which represents processed foods companies like Pepsico and Kraft. The trade group has donated $2.2 million so far to defeat the Washington GMO labeling initiative.
More:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/18801-monsanto-spends-millions-to-defeat-washington-gmo-labeling-initiative
= new reply since forum marked as read
... not just for net folks who already know where to look.
Even some of the (probable majority of) undecided voters on a topic like this
would not appreciate being manipulated into voting against their own health
simply by the corporations who profit from said health damage being in a
position to dump large amounts of funds into propaganda (and then write-off
the expense against tax!).
