Just Eat It: Big Money Spends Millions to Convince Washington It's None of Our Business What We Put In Our Mouths

 

A disheartening but predictable loss for GMO labelling in Washington, where Monsanto, DuPont and other big corporate interests jumped in and spent millions, sometimes evidently illegally, to defeat Initiative 522 to label groceries containing genetically engineered ingredients. In a repeat of last year's campaign in California, food, biotech and agribusiness giants barraged voters with ads and mailers to convince them labelling would raise prices and overwhelm their wee brains with too much information about what it is they're putting in their and their children's bodies - that, despite polls showing that over 90% of Americans actually support such labelling. In other words, they spent an estimated $30 a head to convince people they don't think what they thought they think. Sigh. Colbert had the best response to the sorry spectacle, insisting it's un-American to question if there's any food in your food and quoting Fox News on the terrible consequences of no GMOs, especially on seedless watermelon - "You know what happens then - the seeds come back" - even though, actually, seedless watermelon isn't genetically modified, but hey, who needs facts when you have fear? With some substantive strategizing for how to beat them next time around.