An old adage says, “Never buy a pig in a poke.” But what about a poke hidden in a pig?
That’s different, say the corporate profiteers behind the startling number of our food products that now contain genetically engineered organisms, altering the DNA make-up of everything from corn to pigs. Yet — even though GE foods pose serious health, environmental and economic dangers to consumers and farmers — the profiteers want to keep the very existence of such contents hidden from consumers. No need to put that information on food packages, insist industry officials, just trust us.
Uh, no. In consumer surveys, about 9 out of 10 Americans say they want GE foods to be labeled so they can decide for themselves whether to buy the industry’s hype. That’s why public support is so strong for California’s right-toknow initiative that would require food companies to admit using GE ingredients.
So, how have the manipulators and deceivers responded? By doubling down on manipulation and deception. Bio-engineering giants like Monsanto and such food powers as Kellogg’s and Kraft are putting as much as $100 million into a PR campaign to lie about the safety of these DNA-altered foods and to scare voters with false claims about skyrocketing food prices if the initiative passes. Posing as the consumers’ friend, the “Coalition Against Costly Food Labeling” has sprung up in California. It’s a PR front group funded by such “friends” of ours as the Grocery Manufacturers of America and the Council for Biotech Information — which themselves are political fronts for the usual corporate suspects.
Why are these purveyors of GE food so desperate to hide the true content of their own product from their customers? Because they have something to hide. For more information, go to: www. OrganicConsumers.org.
Respond: [email protected] This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.
