{"id":55862,"date":"2013-08-05T08:16:50","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T07:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/93-of-the-public-wants-gmo-labeling-monsanto-and-the-big-agribusiness-giants-plan-to-spend-millions-in-propaganda-to-change-our-minds\/55862\/"},"modified":"2013-08-05T15:02:47","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T14:02:47","slug":"93-of-the-public-wants-gmo-labeling-monsanto-and-the-big-agribusiness-giants-plan-to-spend-millions-in-propaganda-to-change-our-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/93-of-the-public-wants-gmo-labeling-monsanto-and-the-big-agribusiness-giants-plan-to-spend-millions-in-propaganda-to-change-our-minds\/","title":{"rendered":"93% of the Public Wants GMO Labeling\u2013Monsanto and the Big Agribusiness Giants Plan to Spend Millions in Propaganda to Change Our Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
Monsanto and Big Food are taking the battle for consumers\u2019 hearts and minds to the next level. And it\u2019s no coincidence that they\u2019re pulling out the big guns just as the Washington State I-522<\/a> campaign to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food products is gaining steam.<\/div>\n

Can industry front groups and slick public relations firms convince us that the products they\u2019re peddling are not only safe, but good for us? Will the millions they spend on websites and advertorials pay off?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re guessing not, given the latest New York Times<\/em> poll<\/a>\u00a0stating that 93 percent of Americans want labels on foods containing GMOs.<\/p>\n

Still, it can\u2019t hurt to know who\u2019s behind the latest salvo of lies and misinformation.<\/p>\n

In this case, it\u2019s a new website and forum, introduced by biotech trade groups no doubt with the help of a new PR firm. And a new front group. The freshly launched GMOAnswers.com<\/a>\u00a0is funded by the biotech industry, which claims it just \u201cwants to talk.\u201d And the recently formed Alliance to Feed the Future<\/a>,\u00a0representing more than 50 multinational food, agribusiness and biotech companies, wants to give us the \u201creal\u201d scoop on our food system.<\/p>\n

Monsanto Has All the Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last month the Holmes Report<\/em>\u00a0revealed<\/a> that Monsanto was interviewing public relations firms to spruce up its image. A tall order given Monsanto\u2019s status as \u201cmost evil corporation in the world.\u201d (A google search of \u201cMonsanto most hated corporation\u201d returns over 823,000 results).<\/p>\n

This week, the New York Times<\/em> reported on the launch of GMOAnswers.com<\/a>, a new website intended to \u201canswer virtually any question posed by consumers about genetically engineered crops.\u201d Except, of course, where they\u2019re hidden in our food.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to hand it to the PR firm \u2014 new, old, Monsanto\u2019s or otherwise – that landed that article. Who gets a mention in the Times<\/em> these days just for launching a website? Organizations that are funded by Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta and BASF, apparently.<\/p>\n

The Times <\/em>quoted, extensively, Cathleen Enright, executive director of the Council for Biotechnology Information and also vice president for food and agriculture at another trade group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Enright told the Times<\/em> that: \u201cWe have been accused of purposely hiding information. We haven\u2019t done that but now we will open the doors and provide information.\u201d Say what?<\/p>\n

Enright couldn\u2019t emphasize enough how this was all a result of the biotech industry being misunderstood by the public, and how Monsanto and the rest of the industry just wants to be open.<\/p>\n

Whoever registered the website domain name for GMOAnswers.com doesn\u2019t share Enright\u2019s new touchy-feely enthusiasm for openness and transparency. The domain\u2019s ownership is hidden behind Network Solutions LLC. Maybe the new PR firm isn\u2019t all that proud of its new clients?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Big Food Is Dishing up the Lies, Too<\/strong><\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t just the biotech industry spinning the facts. Big Food is dishing up its share of lies, too.<\/p>\n

To counter the steady drumbeat of public relations defeats, damning scientific research and grassroots political pressure, Monsanto and over 50 other multi-national food, agribusiness, and biotech companies created the \u201cAlliance to Feed the Future\u201d (AFF).<\/p>\n

The AFF\u2019s stated mission? To “balance the public dialogue on modern agriculture and large-scale food production and technology\u201d and to serve as a source for accurate and \u201creal\u201d information about our food system.<\/p>\n

In fact, the AFF is nothing more than a few high paid consultants doing the bidding of the American Meat Institute, CropLife America, Grocery Manufacturers Association, United Egg Producers, Biotechnology Industry Organization, and the International Food Additives Council, among others.<\/p>\n

Republished from: AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monsanto and Big Food are taking the battle for consumers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hearts and minds to the next level. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no coincidence that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re pulling out the big guns just as the Washington State I-522 campaign to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food products is gaining steam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}