{"id":55748,"date":"2015-03-23T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=55748"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:56","slug":"beware-of-the-corporate-gmo-spin-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/beware-of-the-corporate-gmo-spin-doctors\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of the Corporate GMO Spin Doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"bill_nye_gmo\"<\/a>

Bill Nye, known as the Science Guy, has been an outspoken voice on climate change but has recently changed his tune on the dangers of GMO and industrial farming. ‘Companies like Monsanto hope that casting doubt on the GMO labeling debate will cause us to get caught up in the proverbial weeds of the issue,’ writes Hauter, but we should not be fooled.<\/p><\/div>\n

You may have heard that popular scientist Bill Nye has mysteriously\u00a0revised his outlook<\/a>\u00a0on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Several years ago, the children\u2019s show host advocated for the labeling of genetically modified foods, citing concerns about what GMOs could do to ecosystems. But now his position on the controversial technology has flipped. This development is the latest in a\u00a0trend<\/a>\u00a0spearheaded by agribusiness giants to discredit the GMO labeling movement, and it\u2019s especially hard to disassociate his reversal from this PR blitz since it coincided with Nye\u2019s recent trip to Monsanto\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll never know what actually went down during Nye\u2019s visit, as\u00a0Tom Philpott at\u00a0Mother Jones<\/em>\u00a0notes<\/a>, but we do know that Monsanto has poured\u00a0millions of dollars<\/a>\u00a0into public relation\u00a0efforts to sell the public on GMOs. Because that\u2019s\u00a0what you do<\/a>\u00a0when you are a corporation with deep coffers and a product that the public is wisely skeptical of.<\/p>\n

Does this mean that it\u2019s game over for the GMO labeling movement or that we should trust Monsanto\u2019s word? Of course not. In fact, it means we should be more suspicious than ever.<\/p>\n

Companies like Monsanto hope that casting doubt on the GMO labeling debate will cause us to get caught up in the proverbial weeds of the issue. So let\u2019s get something straight: the debate over GMOs isn\u2019t just about GMOs. It\u2019s about the current and future\u00a0state of our food system<\/a>\u2014who grows and sells our food, how it\u2019s marketed, and what technologies were used to produce it. By selling seeds to farmers, peddling pesticides, forming\u00a0corporate monopolies<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0funding academic research<\/a>\u00a0on GMOs, agribusiness giants like Monsanto have one goal in mind: controlling the food system. The millions of people calling for labeling of GMO foods have a problem with that. Furthermore, it is disappointing to see such beloved science advocates as Bill Nye and\u00a0Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/a>\u00a0being captured by the industry.<\/p>\n

As I outlined in my book\u00a0Foodopoly<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0Monsanto\u2019s roots in the biotech game date back decades, and they have a long history of subverting public policy. In effect, the company used its relationship with the Reagan Administration to create a weak regulatory process that would help the company bring its products to market quickly and smoothly. A 1985 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruling that allowed for plants to be\u00a0patented<\/a>\u00a0further entrenched Monsanto\u2019s power in this area. Since 1999, the fifty largest agricultural and food patent-holding companies and two of the largest biotech and agrochemical trade associations have spent more than US$572 million<\/a> in campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures, much of it to create a favorable political context to allow GMOs to proliferate.<\/p>\n

Just because the industry has launched a\u00a0charm offensive<\/a>\u00a0in the media when it comes to GMOs doesn\u2019t change the basic facts: GMOs are largely untested, and their long-term effects on our health and our planet are still unknown; they promote the use of dangerous chemicals, and they pose a significant threat to organic agriculture. What\u2019s more, consumers should absolutely get to decide whether the food they are buying carries these unknown risks or supports this system;\u00a0GMO foods must be labeled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Corporations and their hired guns love confusing people about the science behind their questionable products to help shape favorable public opinion (in the case of GMOs, asserting there is scientific consensus\u00a0where none actually exists<\/a>). But we aren\u2019t buying their spin, nor should you.<\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

Wenonah Hauter is the executive director of the consumer advocacy group <\/em>Food & Water Watch<\/a>. She has worked extensively on energy, food, water and environmental issues at the national, state and local level. Experienced in developing policy positions and legislative strategies, she is also a skilled and accomplished organizer, having lobbied and developed grassroots field strategy and action plans. <\/em><\/p>\n

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

Just because the industry has launched a charm offensive in the media when it comes to GMOs doesn\u2019t change the basic facts: GMOs are largely untested, and their long-term effects on our health and our planet are still unknown.<\/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-55748","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\/55748","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=55748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}