Lauren McCauley of CommonDreams writes, "As voters in Oregon, California, Hawaii and Colorado prepare to weigh in on whether genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, should be banned or regulated in their states or communities, grassroots campaigns are being overwhelmed by millions that agrochemical and food industry titans are pouring in to defeat such measures." It's obvious that citizen-led initiatives to regulate GMOs face deep pockets from agribusiness.
The crack, i'll grant ya, is tiny, but, thin edge of the wedge wise, if the normally fearful were to stand up, if the middle class could for an instant be unfazed by the deceivers, if GMO labeling could mandated by initiative and the sky doesn't fall, then by the next election cycle state after state will vote for labeling.
GMOs are an indispensable part of agri-business. GMOs require doses of pesticides to fight the on going evolutionary battle that Mother Nature's 'pests' present...Ca-Ching. GMOs, their snakeoil sales teams say, generate huge profits and they do but those profits go to he banks that finance the special equipment, the seed itself, the petro-chemical fertilizers, the ground water pumps, etc. not the farmers. The multi-generation farmers mostly go bankrupt as soon as they miss a beat [think drought or twister] the land gets sold, agribusiness buys it up. GMOs are the linchpin of the global theft of agricultural land from the hands of the flesh and blood people.
Millions of people are aware that chemical-and energy-intensive industrial food and farming as a whole, not just GMOs, pose a fundamental threat to public health, the environment and climate stability. Forty per cent of all greenhouse gases come from the use of fossil fuels and chemical-intensive industrial agriculture.
Even more disgusting are the endless lies about GMOs feeding the world. The U.S. devotes 40 per cent of its corn crop to ethanol production. Corn growers use the most fertilizer of all major U.S. crops and every year millions of tons of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer leach into groundwater and run off the fields into suface and underground waterways eventually reaching the oceans and creating a massive dead zones like the one in the Gulf of Mexico where no marine life can survive.
But, as usual, i digress. Tuesday will be a big day for the flora, fauna, microbes, minerals, forces and faeries if the chronically fearful can stand up on their back legs and be strong. All 4 states are seeing massive ad buys by the corporations peddling fear. Poll numbers in Oregon, California and Hawaii that once showed the Yes side winning widely have now reversed, as they have in previous initiatives under the combination barrage of corporate lies and middle class self-interest.
Then there's Colorado where i predict that Coloradans, having seen that the falling sky syndrome preached by the corporate criminals before the pot referendum two years ago not only didn't happen but that things turned out better than anyone dared dream, will pass the mandatory labeling initiative.
