Daisy Luther

Activist Post

Once upon a time, a system was designed in which “the people” elected delegates to go to Washington DC. These members of Congress had the specific duty of representing the wishes of their constituencies when laws were being voted upon.

The success of last weekend’s March Against Monsanto should have made it very clear that a great many people wish to see, at the very least, labels on toxic GMO foods. The fact that this success was covered up by the media does NOT mean that the members of Congress were unaware of it – just the opposite. Our success was frightening, and that is why it was covered up.

Despite that, the day before the event, an amendment to the farm bill that would have allowed the individual states to pass laws protecting consumers from unlabeled GMOs was quietly shot down in the Senate with a vote of 71-27 against this right. The timing of this betrayal, right before a long weekend, goes along with the general modus operandi of sliding through things that will meet with objections from the public when they are otherwise distracted.

The failure to pass this amendment was due in part to Monsanto mouthpiece Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the chair of the Agriculture Committee. Stabenow, incidentally, received over three quarters of a million dollars from agribusiness interests ($739,926 to be exact) in agribusiness donations. Stabenow utilized the propaganda that is being dispersed by the likes of Monsanto and the Gates Foundation to argue her point:

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the chair of the Agriculture Committee, spoke on behalf of the biotech giant seizing the opportunity to focus primarily on the myth that genetically modified ingredients feed the hungry people of the world, ignoring the fact that 64 countries now require GMO labeling.

“This particular amendment would interfere with the FDA’s science-based process to determine what food labeling is necessary for consumers,” Stabenow said.

“It’s also important to note that around the world now we are seeing genetically modified crops that have the ability to resist crop diseases and improve nutritional content and survive drought conditions in many developing countries,” she added.

Unable to make the connection with how allowing states to label GMO foods would interfere with corporate biotech operations abroad, she instead took the opportunity to show that the chair of the Agriculture Committee is marching lockstep with the Gates Foundation.

“We see wonderful work being done by foundations like the Gates Foundation and others, that are using new techniques to be able to feed hungry people,” she said. (Source)

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This puts Stabenow right up there on the list with Senator Roy Blunt (R- Mo), the inextricably-linked congressman from Monsanto’s home state of Missouri who slipped the rider in for the Monsanto Protection Act last March. But Stabenow and Blunt are not the only enemies. Monsanto is the number one donor in the agricultural lobby, having spent nearly 6 million dollars in 2012, ($5,970,000) as well as more than $925,000 directly to political candidates. ($541,854 as Monsanto, $384,890 as Scott’s Miracle Gro, which is an agent for Monsanto’s “Round-up”). Any politician who took money from them and then voted in favor of them is equally guilty of betraying their offices and the trust placed in them by voters.

There is simply no excuse for voting against the individual state’s rights to allow consumers to make informed choices about the food they purchase. The sponsor of the failed bill, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, said: