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(photo: glue&glitter / flickr)
Indications are that Proposition 37, Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food, is on track to be approved by the voters of California this November. The initiative currently holds a large lead in a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. From the LA Times:
With less than six weeks until election day, Proposition 37 is supported by 61% of registered voters and opposed by 25%, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. An additional 14% were undecided or refused to answer.
The poll showed broad support among voter groups, but the interviews took place before Tuesday’s start of a major television advertising blitz by opponents aimed at changing voters’ minds on the issue.
So far, the opposition campaign has raised more than $32.5 million, collected mostly from businesses affected by the measure.
The negative ad blitz could reduce support, but it currently holds such a large lead that it will be an uphill battle for the opposition to defeat it in what little time remains. While there are technically 40 days until the election, roughly half of voters in the state will have cast there ballot well before November 6th. This should be a real test if big corporate campaign spending can really move opinions on an issue.
This initiative is one of the few statewide ballot measures this November that could have national ramifications. If this initiative is approved, it may not be financially viable for companies to produce both national and California-specific packaging. It could indirectly force many food companies to label the presence of GM ingredients across the country. At the very least, if this initiative wins it could encourage other states to follow suit.
33 Comments
Like I was saying yesterday… what possible reason could there be for people to say NO! We dont want to know whats in our food. I cant imagine any kind of advertsing blitz having any impact. Havent seen the ads but Im baffled as to how you would promote voting NO!
Also as I said yesterday, I believe the biggest concern is reagarding Aspertame. Its being made with GM bacteria so everything from Diet Coke to chewing gum would have to have a warning. (which i think is good because its one of those things we need to get out of the food chain)
Just got an e-mail from Organic Consumers’ Association saying that Whole Foods is selling GMO foods and the employees are denying it.
The American Medical Association resolved this week that “there is no scientific justification for special labeling of bioengineered foods.”
It is a view shared by the National Academy of Sciences, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., the European Commission, and countless other national science academies and non-governmental organizations.
But some people aren’t very sciency.
Not suprised by that.
The AMA may have that belief but I have some questions – why do the food companies object to putting something on a food label if there’s nothing wrong or possibly damaging about it? Why are they spending millions in Ca to keep “it” off labels? Doesn’t make sense if “it” is harmless.
Those organizations may not be untainted and, though I am trained in scientific method, I can see no harm in pronouncement. Besides, what an advertising goldmine for the visionaries…”Non GMO” will sell me. But then again I am old. I prefer old fashioned food. I’m a sucker for the kind of food my grandfather grew.
Good point. We could force all companies to put labels on all food products:
EATING TOO MUCH OF THIS PRODUCT COULD CAUSE OBESITY which can lead to:
Diabetes.
Cancer.
Heart Disease.
Liver Disease.
Sleep Apnea.
Osteoarthritis.
Why would anyone object if it’s true.
Citizen alan1tx:
Around here, citizen Alan, folks ARE “sciency” but they aren’t really into swallowin’ bullshit from corporate shills and bagmen. By the way, how much do the crypto-Nazis pay for concern trollin’ these days…I hope you ain’t bein’ paid on merit or at least you have a night job.
Here you go.
OK yall… I know some of yall are around my age. So you remember when food didnt even list ingrediants. Anyone under 40 probably doesnt even know that food used to not even have those little plastic covers so anyone could open anything in the store and eat or tamper with it and put it back on teh shelf.
@alan this is actually a topic I follow regularly. From what I understand that most of the “data” comes from the industries themselves but the main fact is that studies only cover about 90 days. So a rate eats something for a couple of months and doesnt drop dead so its approved for sale. There also isnt a lot of cash floating around for people to do independent long term studies.
And really. In the 1950s Doctors were recommending cigarettes because there was no connection to smoking and cancer.
They did it with cigarettes…
See my link @9. wendydavis, a regular contributor at myFDL, had a piece up a week ago on this very topic. A French group studied long term effects of GMO corn and RoundUp on rats.
Shorter result – it fucking kills them.
And Alan, FWIW, Monsanto doesnt allow GM food to be served in its cafeteria.
Now that’s just silly.
Link again.
I believe that this labeling is way too late to matter much. If labeling was required early in the introduction of GM crops people could have rejected it and possibly stopped it’s takeover but it is a fait accompli now.
With GM, hormones, antibiotics and other toxins already pervasive in our food supply all labeling does is further depress people since their only choice is to starve or consume what is offered.
The one bright spot in this nightmare is that those who have profited most from these inovations have the means to avoid their own creations. Their offspring will prosper and continue to rule over the rest of us who will be the lab rats in their Island of Dr Moreau experiment.
If people don’t want to know about GMO, they won’t vote for this. If they want to know, tell them. Government is here to serve the people, not big business.
People will make informed decisions about what to buy, companies can make business decisions about what sort of food to offer. Same as labelling organic.
What’s not to like?
take a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR9H7NgOLBQ
I sure wish the AMA, NSA, WHO,and FDA were a lot more “sciency,” and a lot less “Give us your money and we’ll turn a blind eye’y.”
What’s more, you can’t really have a scientific basis for an opinion if you haven’t conducted any meaningful science to support that opinion.
Also, “EATING TOO MUCH OF THIS PRODUCT COULD CAUSE OBESITY” might be equivalent to saying “don’t stand on the top rung of this ladder,” but being able to lie to people in order to sell more fucking cancer-causing roudup that ends up in the eco-system and our bodies is patently criminal.
Here’s some science for you:
1. Pour toxic shit on the ground and on our food.
2. The toxic shit doesn’t disappear, it goes into the environment and into our bodies.
3. We get cancer, the bugs and weeds and viruses get tougher.
4. Dow gets richer.
5. Politicians get their rocks off whoring around in DC.
6. Myopic mouth breathers defend this assinine behavior.
Not to sound like whatever, but the info about Whole Foods selling GMO and not labeling as such, plus having employees deny it, is actually old news. That said, good to have the info get broadcast again, bc apparently too many people are too trusting of Whole PayCheck to really question what it is that they’re paying BIG Buck$$ for.
I say: if possible shop at your local farmers’ market. At least around me, there’s plenty that will share info about how they grow their food. Of course, it is an issue of trust, but generally the smaller producers are more reliable than big business.
Too busy to get the links, but the owner of Whole Foods is big rightwing conservative, who really doesn’t give a shit for anything other than how much money can he make for himself???? The end.
Caveat Emptor…
You REALLY think that *those* organizations haven’t been bought off to sell shit as if it’s shinola, Alan?
Puh-leeze. You come here often enough to know very well what the Veal Pen is.
If you want to trust the WHO or the AMA: be my guest, esp if you wish to believe
in Santa Clausthat these organizations have actually used “true science” to “prove” this horse hockey.Try again. Not buying what you’re peddling today. I’ve been too long aware of Monsanto (going back to the late 1960s) AND the whole science behind GMO crops.
I’m old enough to remember the Gov and their minions telling us that a little radioactive fallout was good for our health. What could possibly go wrong!
Best news I have heard today. Thanks Jon!
Just echoing revisionist here, but wonder how the anti-labeling line is sold? Does anybody have a link?
(later) I found this at slate, the line here seems to be ‘GMO labeling is alarmist, unfair and unbalanced, people who vote for it are unhip and uncool.’
Anybody see any anti-GMO ads with actual substance?
The internet is truly amazing! Here’s a rundown of some anti-labeling radio ads, although not from an unbiased source (the pro-labeling people debunking the radio ads). Hadn’t expected them to claim that it was a ban on GMO’s — maybe they just suggest it. Would like to hear a couple of these ads just to hear for myself.
I happened to be at a talk today where Prop 37 was discussed (amongst other CA ballot measures). The issue is that the companies involved have to pay money to change/upgrade the labeling on their products.
Yes. It will cost money to do this.
Furthermore, it will alert consumers that what they’re eating may be something that they don’t want.
A related issue is that bc CA is so big, the companies involved may feel that it makes more financial (and other) sense to just re-label products that are sold everywhere, not just in CA. Monsanto, amongst others, isn’t real happy about that level of transparency. As time goes by, consumers may not want GMO “products” in their food.
It’s a bit of a political football that involves a number of issues, but the bottom line, as always, is money and how much it will cost.
There’s almost nothing “science-y” driving that push-back on this Prop. It’s ONLY about money. The end.
As someone mentioned above, cigarettes were PUSHED on the notion that they were “good” for our health. I’m OLD ENOUGH to remember ads with actors faking that they were Doctors saying cigarettes had all these alleged beneficial properties.
Do recall that BigTobacco had information about how unhealthy smoking was a long, long time ago. It’s not something that was “discovered” somewhat recently.
Anyone who wishes to diss GMO concerns as “anti-science” hogwash is living in a fool’s paradise. We’ve certainly been LIED to often enough by our govt and the BigCorp’s who run it.
A renowned physician treated my friend for jaw and tongue cancer and said in front of him, me and his buddies, ” People die everyday in this country from cancer but I assure you that you won’t die from this. ” He died 7 months later from the effects of the chemo and other treatments, including a stroke after he escaped from the hospital and went home, to die in his own bed. The AMA has about as much cred as the Romney/Ryan ticket at this point. Remember: 1/2 of the AMA membership graduated in the lower percentile of their class. But you can be damn sure none of them are part of the 47%.
More Skinny from Calitics. Good Read. Thanks Jon For Paging This Issue.
The Koch Brothers have kicked in a HUGE amount to support Prop 32, I don’t know who the backers of ANTI Prop 37 are, but I’d have to figger, Calitics aside (I’ll bet they have an article about this), that right wing corporate fascist money is flowin in to my not so golden state from the likes of the Kochs and corporate fascists.
I had a list of the propositions, and my thots on them all, lost it.Now I gotta go refind them links and condense them.
CA has some serious props that are gonna impact us and the nation. I have NO faith in the CA voters to know what’s best for them, or the nation, either.
“Em G C G
Now there’s trouble busin’ in from outta state
Em G C G
And the D.A. can’t get no relief.
Em G C G
Gonna be a rumble on the promenade
Em G D
And the gamblin’ commissioner’s hangin’ on by the skin of his teeth.”
I sure hope Soros and his ilk are bussin in, too.
RIP Levon, we sure miss yas.
Or, as a wise man once told me, the solution to pollution is dilution.
Smoking gun for sure.