Dr. Oz Responds to Anti-Labeling GMO Critics: Label Our Food! We Won't Be Silenced! [View all]

[sabrina 1]

'Pro Industry Science'. From Mother Jones Article linked below

Well, they are at it again, the anti GMO labeling crowd.

The current group of doctors who attacked Dr. Oz, have ties to Conservative Think Tanks, and to groups with ties to Corporations like Monsanto which is documented below.

They work so hard to deny Americans the RIGHT to know what they are eating.

Their target this time is Dr. Oz who has dared to join the large and growing number of Americans who want their food LABELED.

This time ten of them, all doctors, wrote a letter to Colombia, where Dr. Oz is vice-chairman of Columbia’s surgery department, attempting to get him fired from his position.

One of those doctors, Dr. Ross, according to Mother Jones was convicted of defrauding NY States Medicaid Program of approximately $8 Million Dollars:

But more about that later ...

.

Accusations included the usual rhetoric from those who would deny Americans the same rights granted to citizens in most civilized nations, childish attacks etc. that we have come to expect from the anti food labeling contingency.

Columbia University, apparently, unlike this Conservative Group of Doctors, is aware of the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution replied stands by Dr. Oz:

Columbia University is committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding faculty members’ freedom of expression for statements they make in public discussion”.

So, let's take a look at the critics, who are they and who are they affiliated with, and what possible conflicts of interest might they have.

I have a feeling if we look deeply enough we might find the Kochs and Monsanto somewhere in the background!

Dr. Oz - We Will Not Be Silenced

Meet the Critics:

Both Miller and Swogger have previously been associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), a nonprofit advocacy organization. The ACSH has been known to advocate on behalf of issues like GMOs and fracking. While neither belongs to ACSH at the moment, two other doctors who have signed the letter, Gilbert Ross and Jack Fisher, do. According to the letter, Ross is currently the acting president and executive director of the ACSH. Fisher belongs to the ACSH board of directors.


ACSH’s donors include Monsanto, according to a Mother Jones report. Lief told the Guardian that the organization does not disclose who it deals with and who its supporters are.

“We do routinely support groups working to advance science and agriculture,” a Monsanto spokeswoman told the Guardian. “For example, over the years we have provided modest grants to the American Council on Science and Health to sponsor specific projects such as the recent GMO publications that were prepared and edited by recognized subject experts.”

Ross himself isn’t without controversy, having previously served all of 1996 in a federal prison camp for participating in a Medicaid scam.

ACSH, note the generic name of this 'non-profit'. There are so many of them, Corporate funded, refusing to reveal their donors. According to MJ, it was started back in 1978 to opposed Enviromentalists. Conservative, anti science themselves, it is ironic that they accuse anyone else of being anti-science.

Mother Jones does a little digging into who these people are:

American Council on Science and Health - ACSH - Leaked Documents Reveal the Secret Finances of a Pro-Industry Science Group

Got that?? A 'PRO INDUSTRY SCIENCE GROUP'!

The American Council on Science and Health bills itself as an independent research and advocacy organization devoted to debunking "junk science." It's a controversial outfit—a "group of scientists…concerned that many important public policies related to health and the environment did not have a sound scientific basis," it says—that often does battle with environmentalists and consumer safety advocates, wading into public health debates to defend fracking, to fight New York City's attempt to ban big sugary sodas, and to dismiss concerns about the potential harms of the chemical bisphenol-A (better known at BPA) and the pesticide atrazine. The group insists that its conclusions are driven purely by science. It acknowledges that it receives some financial support from corporations and industry groups, but ACSH, which reportedly stopped disclosing its corporate donors two decades ago, maintains that these contributions don't influence its work and agenda.

Yet internal financial documents (read them here) provided to Mother Jones show that ACSH depends heavily on funding from corporations that have a financial stake in the scientific debates it aims to shape. The group also directly solicits donations from these industry sources around specific issues. ACSH's financial links to corporations involved in hot-button health and safety controversies have been highlighted in the past, but these documents offer a more extensive accounting of ACSH's reliance on industry money—giving a rare window into the operations of a prominent and frequent defender of industry in the science wars.

So, who should we believe, a bunch of Conservatives with connections to Monsanto, Pro Fracking Corp, who are affiliated with Corporate Funded 'Science' groups, one of whom was convicted of defrauding NY State's Medicaid Program of approximately $8 Million Dollars, a convicted felon who spent several years in jail for his crimes, lost his medical license (now reinstated)

Or

Dr Oz who agrees with nearly 90% of the American public that our food should be labeled. That's an easy decision to make.

From the above linked article above:

Calling for GMO labels is not a controversial stance, Christopher Miller, social mission activism manager at Ben and Jerry’s, told the Guardian.

“Public opinion polls find that upwards of 90% of Americans support mandatory labeling. Sixty-four other countries around the world require GMO foods to be labeled. It’s not complicated or controversial,” he said.

I'm with Dr. Oz, Ben and Jerry on this!

LABEL OUR FOOD! GO DR OZ!