GMO Labeling is a Compromise – If in Doubt, Keep Them Out!

Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

I have a question for all those out there who are fighting for GMO (genetically modified organism) labeling in our food supply and not a complete ban: If a company decided to put rat poison in cereal, would we be fighting for labeling or for banning such an additive? In other words, if the generic name for rat poison is labeled, is it okay to put in cereal?

No? Why not? If labeled GMOs are okay to put in cereal, then why not rat poison? It would be labeled, so what’s the problem? That’s different, you say? How?

We have fluoridated water. People know it’s there, and want it out. The health effects are coming to light now and individual localities are fighting to get it out. Just how many people and animals have suffered because it is in the drinking water and everything made with that water?

We know it’s in there, yet people drink fluoridated water anyway. Food is made with it, toothpaste and mouthwash have it, people swim in it, and they think it is safe and actually good for them because the ADA, AMA, FDA, and a host of other alphabet soup agencies, including their own dentists and school districts tell them it is. Take a look at the following documentary on fluoride and just substitute “GMOs” for “fluoride,” and “the food supply” for “water.” Same game, different product.

We are headed down the same direction with GMOs as we were with water fluoridation, and it is becoming clearer to me that GMO labeling is a distraction. We have well intentioned people led by not so well intentioned people in a fight against the giant Monsanto for labeling laws, and Monsanto wants us distracted. The biotech giants can live with labeling. What they can’t live with is a ban, and the labeling fight is being used as a smoke screen to keep us occupied. It’s a strategy to keep us fighting back and forth with them about labeling, expending all of our energy and resources in a battle against a company with relatively endless resources, and meanwhile it’s just business as usual for them.

Can’t you see how distracting us from banning GMOs entirely by taking the slow route of trying to raise public awareness by concentrating on simply labeling works in biotech’s favor? Time is on their side. Sure, people want to make others aware, and the labeling fight does that. However, by the time we get around to actually doing it, and mind you, any labeling legislation will be full of loopholes that an elephant could walk through, the game will be lost and we will be eating labeled and unlabeled GMOs, and the other writing on the label will be “natural.” If you just label it they will eat it. The propaganda works, especially if you have unlimited funds and resources, such as the biotech industry giants like Monsanto do, to promote your product.

Labeling is a stage show using real people as well-intentioned pawns. Everyone is caught up in this phony fight and while all this is going on, no one even notices that GMOs are being made now that bypass all of the limited definitions of GMOs, and require absolutely no regulation and will successfully bypass any labeling law currently being considered. Don’t tell me that the guys leading the charge for labeling don’t know this. If they don’t they are either stupid or ignorant, and I don’t think they are either. What some are is invested and too far down the road to even consider the possibility that they have been led astray, so continue the path even if it is useless. What others are – well, does bought and paid for ring a bell?

GMO labeling is a false fight. It is a distraction from the real fight of banning them completely. It is also a compromise. Labeling does absolutely nothing to stop the spread of GMOs. So, what to do? Start pounding the airwaves and Internet waves calling for a ban. Three counties in Oregon are fighting to ban GMOs completely:

Lane is now the third county in Oregon to receive a petition to put the issue to a vote. A proposed ban has qualified for the 2014 ballot in Jackson County, and a petition in Benton County was filed but denied by the county clerk because it addressed too many issues. That denial is now being challenged in court. There’s also a group organizing a petition in Josephine County.

Backers of the Lane County petition say they’re aiming for a broader ban than the one proposed in Jackson County. They modeled their measure after the initiative filed in Benton County, and they’re asking for a local food “bill of rights” that would trump county, state or federal regulations as well as the rights of any agricultural corporation.

It’s designed to withstand a legal challenge that a countywide ban might not survive, as The Register-Guard reports:

A potential sticking point? Oregon’s “Right to Farm” law protects all generally accepted farm practices from being infringed upon by local governments.

Some counties in the United States — Mendicino, Marin and Trinity in California and San Juan in Washington state — have successfully banned GM crops. But their ordinances typically haven’t been challenged because those areas don’t contain the intensive agricultural industry that relies on GMOs — genetically modified organisms.

http://www.opb.org/news/blog/ecotrope/three-oregon-counties-see-petitions-to-ban-genetically-modified-crops/

Our voices are the loudest things we have. We need to spread the word one on one about the dangers of GMOs and their herbicides, and shout as loud as we can that we will not merely settle for second best. We will not fall for the labeling distraction. We want a ban and not labeled rat poison. We have got to start local and beat the streets. It’s a matter of either protecting life as we know it, or just accepting our poison and rolling over in submission to Monsanto et. al.

©2013 Barbara H. Peterson

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