Barbara H. Peterson
I have watched while the GMO labeling movement got on its knees and begged and pleaded for the government to label GMOs, all the while proclaiming that labeling is the key to success. I have watched while ballot measures to label them were watered down to ensure that most GMOs would not even be impacted, and still a majority of the voting public has indicated that it really doesn’t give a rodent’s patoot about what we put in our mouths.
Measure 92 , the Oregon GMO labeling measure, lost by 1%. This was a measure to label only a portion of the 2% of GMOs that actually go into 85% of processed foods. It was the least we could do. And it failed.
http://oregonvotes.gov/results/2014G/1029276478.html
But mark my words, the labeling crowd will still declare victory because the vote was so close. They will declare victory because they have to keep up appearances. They have to keep up the “fight” while raking in the dough. We’re in it for the long haul, they will say. Next time it will be different. More people will be aware. Hogwash. By the time we get through with this labeling dance, we will be eyeballs deep in genetically engineered everything. How ya gonna label that?
If you were truly in it for the long haul, you would be advocating a ban on the planting and growing of 100% of the GMOs on the planet and not be concentrating on less than 2%. You would be amping up the real threat, which is the wholesale contamination of our entire food supply by GMOs. You would be like the people of Maui:
They got into Monsanto’s face. They accused Monsanto/Dow of spreading poison.
They didn’t say, “You have a right to know what’s in your food and we’re all nice people, and reasonable people have a right to disagree.”
They hit it hard.
The Maui SHAKA Movement and voteyesmaui.org and other activists won by a very narrow margin—and instituted a temporary ban on new Monsanto/Dow GMO crops in Maui County.
Their corporate opposition spent $300 for every vote they got. And lost.
http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/election-bang-maui-bans-gmo-crops/
Maui banned GMOs while Oregon got on its knees, begged for scraps and got kicked in the teeth.
I don’t give a rodent’s patoot if people want to eat as many GMOs as they can stuff in their pie holes. I just don’t believe that anyone has the right to force them on me. You do not have the right to force me to eat the same garbage as you through genetic and pesticide contamination.
And that is the key.
By allowing GMOs to proliferate, contamination is a given. If GMOs completely take over agriculture, labeling is a moot point. It is high time to quit chopping at the branches and start at the root.
People of Maui – Farm Wars salutes you! People of Oregon? Not so much. You started out with a bang when Jackson and Josephine counties instituted a ban. Then the governor panicked and the Oregon Monsanto Protection Act was passed in an emergency session. It was an emergency alright, an emergency for the biotech industry and its cronies. Enter the labeling distraction. Don’t worry about a ban, we’ve got labeling on the ballot. And the very same governor that did this got voted in again.
Relating to preemption of the local regulation of agriculture; declaring an emergency.
Makes legislative finding and declaration that regulation of agricultural seed, flower seed, nursery seed and vegetable seed and products of agricultural seed, flower seed, nursery seed and vegetable seed be reserved to state.
Congratulations, the subterfuge worked. Let’s all get on the bandwagon for GMO labeling!
So far, the counter-reality is: let Monsanto and their allied farmers grow their food, as long as the consumer can ID it on the label and reject it, if he wants to.
That’s going to win the day?
That’s the superior new reality?
That’s suicide through lack of imagination and courage.
Take a few million of the dollars now being spent on pro-labeling campaigns and, instead, put it into video web ads that play all over the world:
For example:
A destitute farmer (and his family) stands in front of his wasted, dusty, super-weed-choked field, states his name, and says: “I’m an American farmer. Monsanto lied to me and killed my farm and my livelihood with their poison called Roundup. And it doesn’t even work. The weeds it was supposed to knock out are bigger than ever. Monsanto strangled my soybean crop. They ruined my farm. And my daughter is sick from the Roundup poison…”
http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/election-bang-maui-bans-gmo-crops/
It’s not labeling that scares them, it’s banning. Labeling is the salve. The ointment to sooth the angry crowd. The appeasement. The bandaid that covers up the open, oozing sore that is the Monsanto death machine. It doesn’t matter if you win or not or if anything actually gets labeled. The real victory is that people are becoming aware… Hey, I can be aware that I’m falling off a cliff, but does that make the impact at the bottom any less real?
©2014 Barbara H. Peterson
Tags: Barbara H. Peterson, biotechnology, Farm Wars, farmwars, genetic engineering, GMO, gmo ban, labeling, maui, monsanto, oregon, vote
Great article, I have been saying this too! “Labeling” is a ruse to keep soccer moms busy. Once Obama signs the unlawful, secret TPP trade agreement. ALL countries signing on to TPP or its sister TTIP must allow GMOs to be grown in their country & ALL GMO labeling will be outlawed: http://t.co/jeE0eKK7gu
I too favor bans and applaud those places that have pulled it off but … I disagree that the label fight is all for show and ineffective.
1) It is costing Monsanto tens of millions a year that affects their bottom line negatively.
2) There is lots publicity and it has helped public awareness grow from next to nothing to being a discussion item around coffee at work.
3) Other countries are moving away from GM foods. Russia, China, Mexico, Central America have all had serious victories for non-GMO agriculture. Soon the markets will start to dry up and then the farmers will switch because their customers won’t buy it.
4) Lawsuits pitting one giant corporation against another is so nice to see. Lawsuits from farmers against GMO companies are also
having good effects.
The death of a thousand paper cuts is what is in store for Monsanto. They are trying to play Whack’A’Mole in thousands of locations and approaches world wide.
Be creative, be non-violent and get in their face. The tide has turned so now it is time to double our efforts at everything. Most importantly is to vote with your wallet. Don’t poison yourself and pay for the privilege to do it.
Cheers and keep fighting.
The easily bamboozled sheeple of Oregon capitulated to the fork tongued snake oil salesmen of MonSatan while the warriors of Maui were not to be so easily duped or intimidated, instead relying on their innate wisdom, grounded in centuries of living with the land, and in their profound and heartfelt spirituality, as so beautifully expressed in their state motto “Ua Mau ke Ea o ka Aina I ka Pono” THE LIFE OF THIS LAND IS PERPETUATED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, they were thus armed, as all God’s warriors are, against the savage depredations of the vile Beast, and accordingly they chased the Serpent out of their Garden of Eden. Too bad the rubes of Oregon were not as wise.
Many are familiar with a relationship book titled “He’s Just Not That Into You your daily wake-up call”
The message is that suffering and the pain-full lessons of life are avoidable by recognizing obvious but often overlooked signs that are right in front of you. It’s not what is said but what isn’t said that usually tells the real story of truth.
It isn’t said why or for what purpose a respected, intelligent techno geek like Bill Gates would spend countless millions on a nuclear doomsday bunker style world seed vault in of all places Svalbard, a mere 1100 kilometers from the North Pole. Not exactly farming country!
It isn’t said why he just happens to be so interested in agricultural seeds for farming and willingly, foolishly spent millions of his own, preserving what doesn’t seem to need preserving for any reason at the moment or any time in the past 6000 years. It isn’t said why he just happens to be a major stockholder in Monsanto, and they just happened to be creating genetically modified aluminum tolerant seeds of the very same variety of non G.M.O. seeds that are in his doomsday seed vault! It isn’t said why or who is spending billions of their own money, to spray a nano-aluminum cocktail of chemical particles to save the earth from global warming while simultaneously poisoning the earths surface with plant intolerable aluminum amounts that coincidentally cause sterility in all life forms. It isn’t said why if the earth is warming and ice is melting, why anyone would spend millions to build a place to store seeds in a place that’s soon going to be surrounded by or submerged in water. It isn’t said why this same techno geek who is all of a sudden gung-ho into agricultural seeds and chemicals, is also into vaccinating all of Africa, and for some strange reason the Zebra’s there haven’t noticed any unusual chemtrail activity in the sky above.
It isn’t said why this respected techno geek trillionaire seems to always be right smack dab in the middle of what isn’t being said.
It might be your daily wake-up call that He’s Just Not That Into You and me, and maybe it’s time to realize it’s not real love.
I agree with you Barbara!
The plan is to COMPLETELY destroy ALL natural heirloom plants world-wide! Think Soylent Green, where one company control’s the whole food supply!
The GMO’S have ALSO been designed to weaken and kill our natural world. To destroy ALL living things on the planet and REDESIGN
ALL life forms!
What give’s them that right? — Our IGNORANCE?
Humboldt county passed a GMO growth ban this election year.But guess what passed in August? California passed a bill similar to Hawaii’s which says plant and seed regulation needs permission from the state. So Humboldt was the last CA county to be able to do this. Crazy huh? I hate this preemptive stuff :/
RIGHT ON. Every WORD. I have been saying my version of what YOU’VE said for YEARS. You’ve gotten a lot farther … BRAVO.
If their GMO’s are so safe for everything then why do they oppose our consumables to state that they are Geneticly modified or to inform us that we are in-jesting their Super SAVE THE WORLD Great Product’s?