This past week The 'No on I-522' campaign set a record for fundraising having raised $17.2 million, the most money ever raised to defeat an initiative in Washington state. Then on Wednesday, the State attorney filed a lawsuit against the Grocery Manufacturers Association for illegally collecting and hiding millions of dollars in their campaign against GMO labeling. The trouble is, as Delana Jones manager for the Yes on 522 campaign said, “They don’t want to tell us whats in their food and they don’t want tell us who is paying for their ads.”
The No campaign's misleading ads [all of which have been rebutted here] are largely bankrolled by five out-of-state corporations and a trade group, GMA, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group for the food industry, which is now the single biggest contributor to the No campaign, collectively donating $7.2 million to date. Biochemical companies Monsanto and Dupont Pioneer have donated $4.8 million and $3.2 million respectively, records show [complete list available here].
According to Ocean Robbins article at the Huffington Post, "It hasn't been a good week for Monsanto and the rest of the biotech industry." Ocean's article, 'Huge GMO News', concludes: "Nobody knows what's going to happen in Washington between now and November 5. But from Mexico, to Hawaii and to the 64 nations that already have GMO labeling, this tide just might be turning. Maybe we, the people, do get a say in what we know, and what we eat, after all.
We all know why are Monsanto and the junk food industry willing to spend millions of dollars trying to keep you in the dark about what's in your food. Big corporate ag.don't want you to know because they're afraid of what might happen if you do. They're afraid they'd have to change practices, maybe 'profit' a little less, maybe see their stock price fall, maybe see their home in Malibu with a big ol' For Sale sign on the lawn, whadda shame eh.
In the 20 years since GMO crops first came on the market, studies have found that they have led to higher pesticide use, and no meaningful improvement in flavor, nutrition, yield or water requirements. Instead, what they've created are plants that are engineered to withstand massive dosing of toxic herbicides, and plants that function as living pesticide factories. Monsanto's Bt. corn, for example, is actually registered with the EPA as a pesticide.
Win or lose on Nov. 5th it's only one battle in a long fight, but up here at the hideout we've got our fingers and paws crossed, we're hoping that the gang at the 'Yes on I-522' campaign gives them old corporate ag, folks a shot broadside.
