Ever heard of bovine growth hormone (bgh)? How about Agent Orange, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), dioxins, saccharin, or aspartame? These are just a few of the products lovingly brought to you by your neighborhood biotech company, Monsanto. This is the same company that Oregonians allowed to pump more than $5 million into “No on 27” ads, which made knowing the origins of our food sound like an infringement on their rights to poison us. The “No on 27” campaign has become the largest public relations effort on a state ballot initiative in Oregon’s history, and most of the money came from out-of-state and even out-of-country sources.
The “No on 27” campaign, largely funded by Monsanto, quoted the price a family would pay for the labeling of genetically engineered foods to $550 annually; in fact, an independent study at Oregon State University estimated the costs at only $4 to $10 per person (or $16 to $40 for a four person family) annually.
While it has been argued that Measure 27 was badly written, I cannot suspend reality for even a moment to believe that 72 percent of voters actually read the measure and came to this conclusion on their own. They were fooled by special interest money that has a large stake in maintaining genetically engineered foods’ invisibility.
Furthermore, isn’t it ironic that more than half of the U.S. soybean crop was genetically engineered to survive heavy doses of spraying of Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide, Roundup? According to Pesticide Action Network North American (PANNA), a corporate watchdog group, the amount of Roundup sold each year has increased by 20 percent over the past five years.
At the same time, an analysis of 8,200 university research trials revealed that farmers who are planting Roundup Ready soybeans (made by Monsanto) are using two to five times as much herbicide as those using the conventional varieties.
Pat McCormick, a public relations executive who ran the “No on 27” ad campaign, was quoted in the Oregonian as saying that “Oregonians have emphatically rejected the effort to raise people’s fear about the foods they eat.” McCormick, who I am sure can buy high quality foods, neglects the fact that it is the underprivileged who are forced to buy lower-end products.
Organic foods have found a firm consumer base in middle-class Americans who can afford the more expensive prices in exchange for knowing how their foods were produced. It is the genetically modified and pesticide-laden foods that are able to hide their presence in foods that lower-income families are forced to buy.
Finally, it seems ironic that groups calling themselves Oregon Family Farm Association and Oregon Farm Bureau Federation should align themselves with groups like Monsanto. Monsanto’s genetically engineered seeds will drastically hurt the small farmer, not help him. While traditionally farmers have been able to save seeds to be reused the next year, Monsanto’s genetically engineered seeds produce only infertile seeds at the end of the farming cycle.
Thus, farmers would be forced to buy seeds year after year from Monsanto, costing them more money. Simply because the November elections have passed does not mean this issue is dead; stay alert, and in all seriousness, watch what you eat.