{"id":35616,"date":"2013-10-28T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=35616"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:21:19","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:21:19","slug":"pepsi-nestle-coca-cola-revealed-as-big-money-behind-gmo-labeling-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/10\/pepsi-nestle-coca-cola-revealed-as-big-money-behind-gmo-labeling-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Pepsi, Nestl\u00e9, Coca Cola Revealed as Big Money behind GMO Labeling Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Washington state battle, pro-GMO lobbyists forced to expose illegally hidden donors.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"(Cornucopia<\/a>

(Cornucopia Institute)<\/p><\/div>\n

Following ongoing legal pressure from campaign groups and the Washington State Attorney General’s office, pro-GMO trade group the Grocery Manufacturers Association released a list<\/a> of high rolling donors to their campaign aimed at blocking GMO labeling in the state.<\/p>\n

As was expected, major food corporations and GMO users such as PepsiCo, Nestle USA, The Coca-Cola Co. and General Mills, among many others, had secretly donated millions of dollars to the GMA campaign to stop Washington Initiative 522, which would require the labeling of all products containing GMOs if passed in November.<\/p>\n

Additionally, as Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute stated<\/a>, \u201cConsumers might be surprised to find out that some of their favorite organic and natural brands, hiding behind their lobbyist, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, are contributing bushel baskets of cash towards thwarting their right to make informed choices in the supermarket.\u201d That list includes brands such as Santa Cruz Organic, Green and Black’s Organic, and Burt’s Bees.<\/p>\n

Campaign groups Moms for Labeling<\/a> and Yes on 1-522<\/a> as well as Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson were engaged in legal battles with the GMA<\/a> for soliciting money from its members specifically for the anti-GMO-labeling campaign while illegally concealing the identity of those donors from the public.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Attorney General\u2019s Office and the Grocery Manufacturers Association both announced the deal to disclose the finances early Friday morning, one day after Ferguson filed suit. The Washington State Public Disclosure Commission<\/a> released the list<\/a> shortly after.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of Washington demand transparency in elections,\u201d Ferguson said in a news release<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m pleased the GMA board recognized their responsibility to disclose the names of companies who contributed to opposing Initiative 522, and the amount of their contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GMA, the biggest processed food trade group in the U.S., set a record this year for the most money ever raised by a single group in Washington state to fight a public initiative\u2014over $7 million so far. Over $17 million has been spent in the No on I-522 campaign in total, with most of that money coming from biotech companies.<\/p>\n

The following is the list of the companies and their contributions in the GMA\u2019s filing:<\/p>\n

\u2022 PepsiCo: $1,620,899<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nestle USA: $1,052,743<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Coca-Cola Co.: $1,047,332<\/p>\n

\u2022 General Mills: $598,819<\/p>\n

\u2022 ConAgra Foods: $285,281<\/p>\n

\u2022 Campbell Soup Co.: $265,140<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Hershey Co.: $248,305<\/p>\n

\u2022 The J.M. Smucker Co.: $241,091<\/p>\n

\u2022 Kellogg Co.: $221,852<\/p>\n

\u2022 Mondelez Global LLC: $144,895<\/p>\n

\u2022 Flowers Foods: $141,288<\/p>\n

\u2022 Abbott Nutrition: $127,459<\/p>\n

\u2022 Pinnacle Foods Group LLC: $120,846<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dean Foods Co.: $120,245<\/p>\n

\u2022 McCormick & Co.: $102,208<\/p>\n

\u2022 Land O\u2019Lakes: $99,803<\/p>\n

\u2022 Cargill: $98,601<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Hillshire Brands Co.: $97,398<\/p>\n

\u2022 Bunge North America: $94,993<\/p>\n

\u2022 Bimbo Bakeries USA: $94,693<\/p>\n

\u2022 Del Monte Foods Co.: $86,576<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ocean Spray Cranberries: $55,313<\/p>\n

\u2022 Hormel Foods Corp.: $52,908<\/p>\n

\u2022 Bumble Bee Foods, LLC: $36,073<\/p>\n

\u2022 Welch Foods: $28,859<\/p>\n

\u2022 Shearer\u2019s Foods: $25,251<\/p>\n

\u2022 Rich Products Corp.: $24,049<\/p>\n

\u2022 Clement Pappas & Co.: $21,043<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sunny Delight Beverages Co.: $21,043<\/p>\n

\u2022 Bush Brothers & Co.: $16,233<\/p>\n

\u2022 Knouse Foods Cooperative: $14,429<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Clorox Co.: $12,024<\/p>\n

\u2022 Bruce Foods Corp.: $3,006<\/p>\n

\u2022 Moody Dunbar: $1,804<\/p>\n

Click on the poster image below of campaign donors in the fight for I-522 so far, created by the Cornucopia Institute, to view a larger version:<\/p>\n

\"gmo2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.<\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 commondreams.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Washington state battle, pro-GMO lobbyists forced to expose illegally hidden donors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organic-gmo-genetic-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}