Lawmakers in Vermont are looking to regulate food labels so customers can know which products are made from genetically modified crops, but agricultural giants Monsanto say they will sue if the state follows through.
If the bill in question, H-722 (the “VT Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act”) passes the state Senate and House, manufacturers will be required to label products that are created either partially or in full from a genetically modified organism, or GMO. Such man-made crops have become a trademark of the billion-dollar Monsanto corporation, and in the past the company has gone to great lengths to keep themselves the number-one name in American agriculture, even if those profits are made possible from playing God.
Monsanto is going mad over the proposal, however, which would also make them unable to label their productions as “natural,” “naturally made,” “naturally grown” or “all natural,” if, in fact, they are not. For the corporation, it would seem that moving products and making money is much more of a worthwhile venture than telling its customers what exactly they are consuming.
With Vermont legislators now standing in the way of what could mean even more money for Monsanto, the company says they will sue the state if H-722 is approved. Now in fear of a lawsuit in the future, lawmakers in Vermont have put a hold on any future voting regarding the bill. If history is any indication, Monsanto is more than likely to have their way and win yet another battle.
So let me get this straight…Monstro is against consumers making informed decisions and the Vermont Legislature is against making hard decisions, so it sounds like Monstro has found its perfect match.
It is so sad that the politicians we elect are worse than the people we want them to protect us from.
What a sad, sad state of affairs!
Politicians in bed with those they are paid to regulate. The best democracy money can buy here in the United States, like the best justice money can buy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-27/opinion/31240089_1_nato-soldier-cia-contractor-raymond-davis-afghans
http://omanuel.wordpress.com/about/
I wish there was a counter law, something like disclosure of plants fertilized with animal feces. Of course, no one would buy mushrooms anymore.
Apples and oranges. Plants living off manure is the way of things. Artificially induced genetic changes and hormones are not the way of things. And before you go there yes I understand about hybridization and domestication, yadda yadda. I’m with it. What I am against is a giant chemical company that has been doing work with the government and department of defense making unknown changes to my food. I’ve served, when Uncle Sam says “don’t worry about it, it’s safe” watch your butt, cause it ain’t. Same applies for monstro. I grow my plants from non-hybrid, non-gmo seeds, and if I am a consumer of a product I want the producer to inform me of what I am putting in my body.
So your argument is that a white can labeled “FOOD: One Serving” should be good enough for people. I disagree.
“What I am against is a giant chemical company”
I think that’s all we needed to know.
@Gamecock, do not take my words out of context. I am neither against major corporations, nor their inovations. I am against products I am not okay with being given to me against my will and/or without my knowing.
And if all you need to know is one line of parial data, THAT is all we need to know of you.
Are you ‘with’ forced mutagenesis too?
@Ed, isn’t that inline with domestication? Why is their a backlash against informed decision making. Once the facts came to light, many rational people walked away from Gore’s climate craziness. I’m not against DDT, nor a multitude of other concepts espoused here. I am, however, against biological and chemical manipulation of my food in secret. I own a hybrid pear tree, the roots are from one type and the trunk is from another type, but I know that and I selected it by choice. As a consumer I choose those products which fit my way of living.
Telling me I can’t know what is being done to my food is like telling me I have to drive a Volt. You, or they, make decisions for me and I am not okay with that. There is nothing wrong with informed decision making or having a preference.
No, there’s nothing wrong with fully informed decision making but that is not the point here. Labeling however, induces fear and if you don’t believe that then try giving away bottles of water clearly labeled “This product contains DiHydrogen Monoxide”.
Since the 1920s, when radiological mutagenesis was introduced and even earlier for chemical mutagenesis we have been radically altering foodstuffs in ways “not natural”. Everybody was happy to try new varieties and even completely new plants, like Broccoli, for example. Would they if we had labels saying we nuked the crap out the parent stock to derive these mutations? I doubt it and I doubt the efficacy of labeling things just so competitors or advocacy groups can say “Look out! It’s got X in it!” The bottom line scientifically is there is no reason to label food as having food in it, any more than there is in going back over all the products currently available and stating this flour is from grains developed by corrupting its DNA with X-rays and chemical poisoning.
Unless you only eat weeds and wildlife then you always eat genetically modified foodstuffs and it’s not as though foreign DNA is a novelty in your diet. If you have a healthy digestive tract then you bathe your food in about 3 pounds of foreign DNA all the time, that’s the amount of bacteria, yeasts etc. that helps you digest your food and yes, you digest a lot of them too. I don’t know you but I know you are physically made up of lots of foreign DNA fragments from viruses that have afflicted humanity through the ages and left fragments of their DNA in our cells, passed down through the generations.
Providing ever more arcane detail about people’s food serves no useful function. It is simply a tool to frighten the underinformed.
@Ed, I am not trying to have the last word nor make the most comments of the night list. As you and I have things to do, this will be my last post and you can have the final word…if you choose.
I agree with what you are saying in principle, but (and it’s a big but) allowing any group the ability to do what it wants because its science is settled is bad policy.
Algore insistsed (insists?) that folks accept his beliefs, unquestioningly. And thankfully while he was in full swing I found this site and a few others to provide a counter point to the non-stop msm gore fest. This site had a the science isn’t settled, there are other points of view, don’t limit the debate to just his group. That is the point I am making.
Do I think broccoli is evil, no…brussel sprout yes. However, the lie of ommission is still a lie. These aren’t state secrets, this isn’t a defense measure on the scale of the manhattan project. This is a food producer telling us we don’t need to know what is in our food.
If the public is ignorant teach them, but don’t foster more of the same herd mentality with either a corporation or the government as shepherd.
Monsanto claims they haven’t even testified on the bill, let alone pursue litigation at this point.
http://monsantoblog.com/2012/04/06/we-said-what-in-vermont/
Anybody care to vote: was JS fed BS or is Monsanto backpeddling?