Countering the Big Bucks Campaign to Defeat California’s GMO Labeling Prop 37

As sup­port­ers of Prop 37, we rea­son­ably expected this sort of finan­cial dog pile from com­pa­nies who make their liv­ing sell­ing highly processed food-like sub­stances or chem­i­cals and pes­ti­cides des­tined for agriculture.

Every sin­gle com­pany on this list stands behind their prod­ucts’ safety. Yet they are will­ing to pay mas­sive sums of money to keep us in the dark about the pres­ence of GMO ingre­di­ents in our foods.

Since over 90 per­cent of American vot­ers want GMO label­ing, it must be that they see the exer­cise of per­sonal con­sumer choice as a threat to their bot­tom lines. The major­ity want a clear and cor­rect pic­ture of what is in our foods. Nonetheless, the entire indus­trial food machine, with its roots in ear­lier times, has been built on obfus­ca­tion rather than trans­parency. We should not shrink in fear of the mas­sive sums being brought to bear to sup­press our food choices. The amount of money being thrown against Prop 37 by these com­pa­nies in itself does not actu­ally endan­ger passage.

A case in point is PG&E’s failed 2010 bal­lot ini­tia­tive in California. The util­ity spent over $46 mil­lion on a cam­paign to foist off an ini­tia­tive designed to increase their monop­oly hold on power dis­tri­b­u­tion in some areas of California. The oppo­si­tion to that propo­si­tion raised only a lit­tle over $100,000 and the mea­sure was roundly, even embar­rass­ingly defeated.

The Yes on 37 cam­paign has for­tu­nately gar­nered far more finan­cial sup­port than the oppo­si­tion to PG&E’s effort was able to muster. In addi­tion, the social media and grass­roots sup­port for Prop 37 is large and grow­ing. Passing Prop 37 will be a fight, but keep some basic facts in mind:

• Over 90 per­cent of US vot­ers want labeling.
• Big Food and Big AG actu­ally need con­sumers more than con­sumers need them, and it is how con­sumers vote with their wal­lets at the super­mar­ket as well as at the bal­lot box that is their biggest worry.
• As Stacy Malkan noted, only one major oppo­si­tion fun­der is from California. This means this is a national fight. As goes California, so goes the nation is the commonly—and correctly—held belief.
• Massively funded cam­paigns can be defeated by true grass­roots move­ments and the use of social media. (The oppo­si­tion will, and is try­ing to, use social media as well, but the attempts are pretty obvious.)

We rec­om­mend sup­port of Prop 37, no mat­ter where you live! Visit www.carighttoknow.org for the lat­est updates.