David Bronner Gives $1 Million to Fight Big Ag in GMO Labeling Vote

By Jane Ayers, Reader Supported News

03 November 14

Jane Ayers: With the Oregon/Colorado GMO Labeling vote coming in 5th in the nation in the amount of campaign monies spent for political influencing, did you foresee that your company, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, would end up giving over $1 million to take on the deep pockets of Monsanto, DuPont, Pepsi, Kraft Foods, General Mills, and others that have dumped over $19 million into campaigns in these two states to influence the vote against GMO labeling?

David Bronner: Unfortunately, we do know how desperate the chemical pesticide industry is to keep Americans in the dark about the secret changes they are making to our food. They are willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to make sure consumers don’t know they are genetically engineering our major food crops to survive high doses of the pesticides they sell. They are financing one of the largest and most sophisticated propaganda operations to confuse voters. We all have a right to know basic information about our food, like whether ingredients are truly natural or artificial, or if fish is wild-caught or farm-raised, or even if juice is from concentrate or not. It’s ridiculous that we live in the land of the free but don’t have the right to know if our food is engineered to be saturated in pesticides, unlike 64 other countries worldwide, including all of the EU and Japan.

Q: In Oregon alone, these multinational agricultural/chemical and food companies have broken the record for the highest amount of monies ever used in the state of Oregon against a State Measure (Measure 92). Right now the polls are showing a tie in the votes. Why do you think the vote in Oregon is so scary to them?

Bronner: They know that if voters win their right to know if their food is genetically engineered in a state like Oregon, the dam will break and most states will immediately follow suit, and then a national labeling program will follow. So they are breaking records confusing Oregonians into thinking a simple label disclosure will somehow drive up the costs of their groceries by hundreds of dollars. They are just spreading lies. The reality is 64 other countries worldwide require labeling, and grocery costs did not go up. It costs nothing to add a label disclosure, and they care only about protecting their profits, not our right to know.

Q: You have a Biology degree from Harvard and recently wrote a scientific report with Dr. Ray Seidler, the retired EPA micro-biologist and senior scientist who started the initial federal program to monitor the safety of GMOs. What are your current concerns for the public’s health regarding the dangers of planting and eating foods from GMO seeds?

Bronner: Over 99% of GMO crops in US soil are engineered to survive high doses of herbicide and/or produce their own insecticide. Overdosing our farms in pesticides has rapidly created a resistance in target weed and insect populations, so now we have “superweeds” and “superbugs” that aren’t killed with normal doses of pesticides. The pesticide industry’s “solution” is to introduce new GMO crops that are resistant to much more toxic pesticides, so more and more pesticides are being blasted in our farming communities, contaminating our food and water, and killing non-target wildlife and pollinators. Our agricultural systems need to move to a less chemical-intensive model to be truly sustainable and feed future generations. But GMOs are doubling down on the pesticide treadmill, not freeing us from it. We have the right to know if our food is engineered to be saturated in pesticides, so we can choose more sustainable alternatives.

Q: You mentioned that 64 countries worldwide, including the EU, mandate GMO labeling or have banned the use of GMOs. Why do US policies celebrate and encourage companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, etc. to continue their GMO programs with American farmers?

Bronner: The chemical industry spends huge amounts of money lobbying our government, the scientific community, and media elites, and they spread huge money across both parties. Their goal is to make sure their hand-picked people are appointed to key regulatory roles at the EPA, FDA, and the USDA, to rubber-stamp their genetically engineered crops into the American market and onto our dinner plates. Of course, all these GMOs are untested and unlabeled. They also benefit from all kinds of agricultural subsidies and export assistance. It reminds us of how Enron had bought off both parties and bamboozled our media, even as they gamed our energy markets in plain light of day. The chemical industry has bought the seed industry and is engineering our food for heavy pesticide use, and we’re watching a slow motion train wreck in our agricultural systems as they overdose farms with   MOREHERE

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