October, 25 2012, 03:21pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Disinformation on California GMO-labeling Initiative
WASHINGTON
MICHELE SIMON [email]
Simon is a public health lawyer, president of Eat Drink Politics and author of Appetite for Profit: How the food industry undermines our health and how to fight back. She has been writing about California's Proposition 37, which would require labeling of foods with GMOs. She recently wrote: "University of California at Davis agriculture researchers are heavily influenced by the funding they receive from Monsanto and other big biotech players. This conflict of interest explains in part why we are seeing several UC Davis professors author reports and op-eds opposing California's Proposition 37, which would require labeling of foods containing GMOs.
"The latest example was published last week in at least two small California newspapers, including the Daily Democrat in Woodland. The article is authored by UC Davis professor Kent Bradford but the paper fails to mention the professor's deep ties to Monsanto. This seems like an odd omission considering those ties include a facility located in Woodland, California."
She also recently wrote "California Newspaper Editorial Boards Spread False Claims and Faulty Logic on Proposition 37," which states: "Undoubtedly, the single most disturbing and outright false argument made by at least three newspapers (the Sacramento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, and the San Francisco Chronicle) is how the proponents of Prop 37 should have gone through the legislature first. The Bee said that 'proponents made no effort to push the concept through the Legislature' and the Chronicle claimed that 'advocates of the labeling law never attempted that step, despite Democratic majorities in both houses.'
"What?
"In fact, organizations such as the Center for Food Safety have tried numerous times to introduce such a bill, and could never even get a legislator to introduce a bill."
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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