Look Out Monsanto: Campaigns to Label Genetically Engineered Foods Are Heating Up [View all]

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/food/look-out-monsanto-campaigns-label-genetically-engineered-foods-are-heating



On November 6, after spending $46 million burying California's voters under an avalanche of deception , Monsanto and their buddies in the pesticide and junk food business declared victory. They had defeated the "right to know", and successfully protected their "right" to keep you in the dark about whether your food is genetically engineered.

Jennifer Hatcher, senior vice president of government and public affairs for the anti-labeling Food Marketing Institute, breathed a sigh of relief after Prop 37 narrowly lost, saying: "This gives us hope that you can... defeat a ballot initiative and go directly to the voters." But she also expressed concern: "We hope we don't have too many of them, because you can't keep doing that over and over again."

If Ms. Hatcher wants to keep labeling suppressed, it looks like she may be in for a rough couple of years. Because what Monsanto and its allies hadn't counted on was that despite all their lies and deception, it's actually pretty hard to convince people that they shouldn't be allowed to know what they're eating. And although $46 million managed to put out one fire, it seems to have started about 30 new ones.

Indeed, efforts are already underway to put a similar initiative on the ballot in Washington for the 2013 election (where San Juan County voters chose on November 6 to make growing GMOs illegal in their county). And organizers in 30 other states have also begun building labeling campaigns, under the banner of the Coalition of States for Mandatory GMO labeling.