Why Care About Prop 37?
It’s known that genetically modified foods have been linked to toxic and allergic reactions, sick, sterile, and dead livestock, and damage to virtually every organ studied in lab animals. The effects on humans of consuming these new combinations of proteins produced in GMOs are unknown and have not been studied. You wonder why our unhealthy consumption habits will cost this country $47 Trillion over the next two decades. (Our National Debt is $15 Trillion)
The Upcoming Election
On election day in November, Californians are going to the polls to vote on Proposition 37, which is a proposal that will require the mandatory labeling of food products that have ingredients that were genetically engineered. Many large food producers have spent combined millions of dollars to defeat the proposal.
Many food and public health experts believe that it is important for Proposition 37 to pass because people really should know what their food contains. Genetically engineered crops are types of plants that had genes from other plant species put into their DNA. Some examples of this include tomatoes that have been modified with fish genes, or corn with genes from a certain bacteria. Most of the foods that we buy on the shelf at the grocery store have these modified ingredients. This is because most of the corn and soy that is grown in the US is genetically engineered.
If you look at the shelves in the supermarket, you will see that most of them contain high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, and other corn or soy ingredients. The chances are that all of these products contain genetically engineered crops, but this information is not being disclosed. See how Fructose causes chronic disease.
Of course, most food manufacturers will claim that these foods are safe, but many of the companies prohibit independent studies of their food products’ safety. If these engineered foods were as safe as it is being claimed, you would probably see the food industry promoting the fact. These companies actually do all they can to avoid telling the public that the foods they produce have changed markedly since the mid-1990s. It was at that time when they started to introduce genetically modified ingredients into our food without telling us. Big Food is serious about their big Profits, they’ll do anything to keep those growing.
What’s interesting is that the food industry usually is pleased to talk about their advanced genetically engineered processes – but only in the op-ed and business pages of the newspaper. They talk about how wonderful genetic engineering is and how it allows us to grow much more food per acre to feed the world. Still, they do not want to seem to let consumers know what they are eating every day at the dinner table. And these companies are continuing to spend millions of dollars to fight transparency for the products that they produce for consumers.
It seems entirely logical that consumers need to be informed about what is going into their foods, and this is borne out by public health data on genetically modified foods. For example, genetically modifying foods can in some cases introduce toxins and allergens into food; cause antibiotic resistance; change the nutrient content of foods; create super weeds and other environmental problems; and accidental contamination of non-modified foods.
This Infographic from Cornucopia.org shows both sides of the fight.
Democratic and Republican administrations, and Congress, have repeatedly ignored the overwhelming majority of Americans who favor labeling genetically engineered (GE) food in the marketplace. Our politicians seem to be listening to the corporate executives (donors) instead of the citizenry. But in California, the people have a right to craft laws of their choosing. Proposition 37, on the ballot in California on November 6, would mandate labeling of foods containing GE ingredients. If we win this fight in California, manufacturers will likely begin to label food nationally for GE ingredients.
Hopefully in November, enough of the California citizen population will care & demand that they have the right to know what is going into the foods they eat every day. As far as the woman turning into a Halloween pumpkin? We’re not sure on her status all we know is she’s still a little orange.
