{"id":90782,"date":"2013-11-12T17:30:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T16:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonrappoport.wordpress.com\/?p=4965"},"modified":"2013-11-12T18:53:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T17:53:15","slug":"why-gmo-labeling-really-failed-in-washington-state-stop-whining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/why-gmo-labeling-really-failed-in-washington-state-stop-whining\/","title":{"rendered":"Why GMO labeling really failed in Washington State: stop whining"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a question for you. During the campaign for prop 37 in California, and the campaign for Prop 522 in the state of Washington, the ballot measures to label GMO food, did you see political ads like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cHello. My name is\u2026 I\u2019m a researcher with a long track record. I study what\u2019s in your food. I know that Monsanto, the company that puts genes in your food and sells a toxic herbicide called Roundup, which is also in your food, wants Prop 522 to fail. They don\u2019t want you to know what\u2019s in your food. I\u2019m willing to debate Monsanto anytime, anywhere. Their GMOs and their Roundup are toxic, unhealthy. Vote Yes on 522, so you don\u2019t have to eat Monsanto.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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No, you didn\u2019t see an ad like that. <\/span><\/p>\n

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So why did Prop 522 go down to defeat? <\/span><\/p>\n

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What\u2019s that? Oh, it was those big bad food corporations that donated $22 million to shoot it down. That\u2019s why. I mean, who could have seen that coming? What a shock. Who could have predicted it? Whine, whine, complain, complain.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What did Yes on 522 leaders think was going to happen? Did they think the bad guys were going to reach into their wallets and pull out a few thousand bucks and leave it at that? <\/span><\/p>\n

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And on Democracy Now, David Bronner, who donated the most $$ to Yes on 522, intimated the big-money effort to defeat 522 \u201cwas the Republicans.\u201d Wow. That\u2019s the answer? <\/span><\/p>\n

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Obama is the number-one political supporter of GMO food in America. I\u2019ve run it down in previous articles. Appointments of Monsanto people to key posts in government. Opening the door to a parade of GMO crops during his term as President.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve quoted the communication director of Yes on 522, Elizabeth Harter, saying the WA labeling campaign was only about people having the right to know what\u2019s in their food, not about good GMOs or bad GMOs. How weak. How very, very weak. How false.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Following on the heels of Prop 37\u00e2\u20ac\u00b2s defeat in California, which was \u201ca right to know\u201d wimpoid effort, I was told it would be different in Washington State. Yes on 522 would really go after Monsanto full-bore. The gloves would come off. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Didn\u2019t happen. Wasn\u2019t ever in the cards.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh, but you see, the right to know what\u2019s in your food is just part of a much bigger strategy. For voters (who are stupid and don\u2019t have a clue they\u2019re eating poison), you go soft: you tell them \u2018you have a right to know.\u2019 It\u2019s all about waking up the sleeping masses (a little bit). Educating them (a tiny bit). <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cMeanwhile, on the activist front, it\u2019s attack attack Monsanto 24\/7.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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And this double-barreled brilliance will bring us into port. In the end, we\u2019ll win and Monsanto will go down to crushing defeat.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Really?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Spend all the money you have on the labeling initiatives (with two losses now in the books), and then, on a shoestring, get those millions of angry Americans out in the streets against Monsanto and DuPont and Syngenta. I see. Right.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What\u2019s happening is this: huge numbers of Americans are being lulled to sleep by the labeling initiatives. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s great, people can vote for labeling and that\u2019ll solve the problem. It\u2019s wonderful. The system works. I\u2019ll vote when it comes my time. Meanwhile, zzzzz, I think I\u2019ll take a nap.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Let me run down the underlying factors here. Start with this: when things have been going against you for too long, when the bad guys (Monsanto) have overrun the field and taken it for their own, when they hold political and economic power, when they\u2019re the insiders, do you say, \u201cWell, we can\u2019t fight them directly and win, we can\u2019t go for the throat and publicize their crimes, we have to soft-pedal it, we have to tread lightly, we have to coexist with them, it\u2019s too late to try to rip away all their victories and territory, we have to go through a different door\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Is that what you say? Is that what you do?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Analogy: \u201cLook, the government has taken away so many of our freedoms, we can\u2019t just demand all that freedom back, no, we have to start small and easy, we have to ask for the right to label ourselves free and win back the right to cross the street\u2013because it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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No. When it\u2019s too late, you go all the way. Now. You show everyone the crimes of the oppressor, for starters. Up front. Immediately. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019re eating poison and we can prove it.\u201d Lead with that. Don\u2019t be shy. Don\u2019t tap dance.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Reveal the threat.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Why do you think millions of young people took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War? Because they saw the threat to themselves. They knew they could get drafted. They knew they could get sent to the jungle to get their asses shot off.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Reveal the threat. Right up front. Right away. Lead with that. \u201cYou\u2019re eating poison.\u201d Don\u2019t hide behind \u201cright to know what\u2019s in your food.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh but you see, our polls show voters want a softer message. Polls show and our experts tell us we have to go easy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Have you been hiding under a rock? Have you missed seeing thousands of political campaign ads? The negative ads that actually work? <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh but you see, we did tell people during the 522 campaign that GMOs aren\u2019t healthy. We did do that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Yeah, a few of you did that, way down the line after you broadcast the main theme, which was \u201cright to know what\u2019s in your food.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh but you see, Americans are in such a deep hypnotic state these days, we have to go soft.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Really? When people are down in the subterranean caverns of Nod, you\u2019re going to tap them lightly on the shoulder and tell them they have a right to know something? Where did you get that PR gem from?<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh but you see, those of us in the trenches working so hard to get these ballot initiatives passed, so we can have labeling\u2026don\u2019t be hard on us. We\u2019re trying. Don\u2019t be nasty\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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I know you\u2019re working yourselves to the bone. I\u2019m talking about your leaders, the ones who are setting the agenda and bankrolling the whole thing. They\u2019re the ones. They\u2019re making all the mistakes. They\u2019re leading with the wrong message. They\u2019re willing to coexist with Monsanto. They\u2019re directing you to say over and over again, \u201cYou have a right to know what\u2019s in your food.\u201d Instead of: \u201cMonsanto is poisoning people.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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David Bronner, in that Democracy Now interview, also said the big bioetch-ag companies are afraid of the \u201cright to know what\u2019s in your food\u201d message. Really? It\u2019s been a loser for anti-GMO forces twice now, in CA and WA.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh but you see, we came close in CA, we only lost by a little, and in WA the vote count is showing we\u2019re creeping up closer there, too. And one of these days, we\u2019re going to win one, we\u2019ll win a ballot initiative, and then other states will follow suit and the dominoes will fall in our favor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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A loss is a loss. And what makes you think you\u2019ll provoke a domino effect before Monsanto achieves a fait accompli and just about all farmland in the US is blanketed with GMO crops and drifting Monsanto genes?<\/span><\/p>\n

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A real campaign against Monsanto is about relentlessly showing people the threat to their health. Putting that front and center. Every day. Overwhelming the mainstream media. Attacking Monsanto head-on.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Polls in New Hampshire show that 90% of voters want GMO labeling. So last week, a legislative committee voted <\/span>against<\/i><\/span> a GMO labeling bill, and it recommended the full legislature kill it. Does that tell you something?<\/span><\/p>\n

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The fix is in. It\u2019s in on so many levels. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The self-appointed leaders in the Yes on Prop 37 and 522 labeling initiatives have been playing the wrong tune. They\u2019ve been using a feather to knock over a giant.<\/span><\/p>\n

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To all those who have been working for them, who have been laboring for months, for years, to get GMO labeling, and to those who may work for them up the road, I say\u2013demand to meet with them; refuse to work for them unless you get that meeting where everybody has to lay his cards on the table. Demand to know why \u201cyou have a right to know what\u2019s in your food\u201d is the leading message and the only out-front message. Make them explain themselves and don\u2019t settle for easy answers. Make them explain why they won\u2019t go after Monsanto with real power in these campaigns, why they won\u2019t nail Monsanto to the wall.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh but you see, we couldn\u2019t do that. You want us to actually meet with the health-food CEOs who are bankrolling the ballot initiatives and question them, question their strategy, raise serious doubts, air it all out, before we work for them? I\u2019ve never heard of anything like that. That wouldn\u2019t be\u2026nice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Exactly, and as we all know, Nice is what this whole thing is about, isn\u2019t it? Nice is God. Nice is, well, so nice.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Is it working? <\/span><\/p>\n

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Or do you need political ads like this: \u201cMonsanto. Remember Agent Orange, the poison sprayed all over Vietnam that caused widespread cancer? Monsanto made it. They\u2019re the same people who say you don\u2019t need to know they injected genes in your food. You don\u2019t need to know that Roundup, their toxic herbicide, is in the food you eat every day. You don\u2019t need to know. Do you buy that?\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh, but your see, we can\u2019t run ads like that. We could get sued by Monsanto.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Really? Your 1<\/span>st<\/span><\/sup> Amendment right is trumped by Monsanto, a corporation? If so, let them bring a suit. Run an ad that says, \u201cMonsanto is now suing us for false statements. Bring it on! We\u2019re happy to go into court and prove that GMO food and Roundup have dangerous health effects on you, the people who eat their food. When\u2019s the court date? We\u2019ll be there with our experts. Vote Yes on 522!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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What\u2019s that? Television stations wouldn\u2019t let you run attack ads against Monsanto? Then sue the stations for abridgment of your 1st Amendment rights. And run hundreds of ads on the Web, on sites that residents of WA look at: \u201cGuess what? We\u2019re Yes on 522 and television stations in WA won\u2019t run our ads. They\u2019re scared of Monsanto. They\u2019re shutting down our right to free speech. What are they hiding? These stations don\u2019t want you to know there\u2019s something bad and unhealthy in your food. They don\u2019t want you to have the right to know what\u2019s in your food\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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That\u2019s where \u201cright to know\u201d comes in. That\u2019s how you use it. That\u2019s how you attack. That\u2019s how you go balls to the wall.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Unless your leaders don\u2019t have what it takes for that fight. Talking about David Bronner (Dr. Bronner\u2019s Magic Soaps), Gary Hirshberg (Stonyfield Organic), Grant Lundberg (Lundberg Family Farms), Joe Mercola (mercola.com), Joe Sandler (attorney, adviser to moveon.org and former counsel for the Democratic National Committee). <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at <\/span>www.nomorefakenews.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why GMO labeling really failed in Washington State: stop whining   by Jon Rappoport November 12, 2013 www.nomorefakenews.com   Here’s a question for you. During the campaign for prop 37 in California, and the campaign for Prop 522 in the state of Washington, the ballot measures to label GMO food, did you see political ads […]\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-90782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90782","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\/1225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}