A recent article by the arguably conservative Fortune magazine painted a bleak picture for the processed junk food industry. Fortune reported that the top 25 U.S. food and beverage companies have lost an equivalent of $18 billion since 2009. According to a survey paid for by the financial magazine, 64.2 percent of consumers are “very” or “extremely” concerned about pesticides on their food; 56.5 percent said the same thing about hormones, 52.2 percent about antibiotics and 45.9 percent about GMOs.
No wonder food companies are desperate to keep GMO labels off of their products, and avoid conversations around the fact that GMO foods are grown using massive quantities of cancer-causing pesticides.
Lucky for them, these companies belong to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in D.C. The GMA is behind the obscene spending to defeat GMO labeling ballot initiatives. It’s behind the lawsuit to overturn Vermont’s GMO labeling law. And it’s behind this week’s swift green-lighting of H.R. 1599, a bill to ensure that GMOs are never labeled, and never ever subjected to pre-market safety testing.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Which is why a host of D.C. lawmakers, who depend on Big Ag for campaign contributions, are willing to throw consumers and democracy under the bus, in order to pass what we’ve alternately referred to as the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act and the “Mother of All Monsanto Protection Acts.”
H.R. 1599 will be voted on by the House, probably next week. We must let every single member of Congress know that this bill subverts the truth about GMOs and the pesticides used to grow them, as well as the rights of states to protect their citizens as granted under the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.