The best news to come out of the budget debacle, in my view, is the exclusion of the Monsanto Protection Act. This was a rider attached to the six-month budget bill (passed in March) that protected the planting of genetically modified crops, even when successfully challenged in court.
The rider was inserted at the last minute without debate by the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, which tried but failed to attach a similar rider to a 2012 bill. It was a hidden give-away to giant agribusiness; companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow Agrosciences and others, which have used devious legal maneuvers to put small farmers out of business.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) spoke out against the rider in March. He tried to pass a Senate amendment to eliminate it but the amendment failed. “We didn’t know about it until we read the bill when it got to the Senate,” Tester said last week. “Nobody took responsibility. This could have huge impacts on business and family farms so it needs to be done transparently. We need to at least debate why it’s in there.”
Because the appropriations bill contained the genetically modified organism (GMO) rider, Tester was the only Democratic senator to oppose the March budget extension, which passed with the hidden rider. He said he opposed the rider because it avoided the checks and balances of government and gave preference to large corporations over small farmers. Tester and his family have farmed in Montana for decades.
Since March, Monsanto and other large corporations have enjoyed protection for their genetically modified plants even as states vote on labeling laws. A bill in the U.S. Senate that would have required such labeling failed.
Washington residents will vote in November on state initiative I-522 to require labeling of any food products containing GMOs. The Grocery Manufacturers Association has spent millions opposing it and just last week agreed to disclose its donors in order to avoid court intervention. Monsanto had poured millions into a similar labeling initiative in California, which was narrowly defeated.
On its website, Monsanto said it backs voluntary labeling but that a mandatory program would threaten public confidence in GMO foods that have been tested for decades and found to be safe.
National organizations such as the Environmental Working Group and Just Label It are hoping if Washington’s initiative succeeds that other states will follow and put pressure on Congress and the Obama administration to pass a uniform standard for GMO labeling.
The United States lags behind Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia, which have mandatory labeling of nearly all GMO foods, and Brazil, China and other Asian countries that require labels on many GMO foods.
According to a recent New York Times poll, 93 percent of Americans now want labels on foods containing GMOs. Responders to the poll cited health concerns and 37 percent of those feared the foods might cause cancer or allergies. Scientific studies do not support such risk.
Meanwhile, in Hawaii, activists won a dispute against four seed companies over pesticide pollution. According to PBS Newshour Sunday, 150 residents have sued four biotech companies to force disclosure of chemicals and a state bill passed last week forces disclosure of pesticides sprayed on local fields.
When winds blow, they drive pesticides on dust and that’s causing illness in children, residents say. The companies had been making no disclosure of which chemicals were sprayed and on which fields.
Syngenta, BASF, Dow and Pioneer Seeds say they conduct tests using chemicals licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency and are strictly monitored by the EPA. The information is not disclosed, the seed companies say, because of competitive issues.
In Kauai, pesticides are being sprayed for more months each year than is possible in the Midwest where winter weather intervenes. Residents say year-round spraying causes significant health problems. The seed companies say they plan to sue to block the disclosure rules and the imposition of buffer zones between fields and homes.
So the food wars continue. I wish we knew more about the testing of GMOs on humans. If spraying pesticides all year long poses more health problems, perhaps the accumulation of GMOs now present in almost every processed food sold in this country could be significantly greater than tests of individual products.
Until we know for sure, I support labeling laws. I also deplore tactics used by Monsanto and other seed companies to silence dissenters. What are we risking in the name of cheap and abundant food?