Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Washington-Based Think Tank Suggests Prop 37 Labeling Goes Too Far

The Washington Legal Foundation, a D.C. nonprofit group organized around pro-business and free market principles, has released two recent op-ed pieces questioning the wisdom of California’s Proposition 37, which would require the labeling of food products whose manufacturers knowingly use genetically modified organisms in the production process, and would prohibit such products from being labeled as “natural.”

Compelled Speech: Is California the Too Much Information State argues that labeling of products has gone too far. For example it points to California’s Prop 65, which requires that signs be posted in many public places informing consumers of the presence of known cancer-causing chemicals. Anastasia Killian, writing for the Foundation, says that the measure “has wrought a cottage industry built around strike suits under the act’s private attorney general provisions.”

Killian also points to the recent defeat of the city of San Francisco in a bid to mandate disclosures regarding a supposed risk of cancer linked to cellular phone emissions. Both a lower court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the disclosures “misleading and controversial,” and thus undermined the First Amendment rights of cellular phone vendors.

She further argues that, per the federal Supreme Court, any government mandated disclosure must be “purely factual and uncontroversial.” Using this logic, because a controversy exists over whether or not genetically modified foods are safe, food manufacturers could not be forced to disclose their presence.

Mandated Biotech Food Labeling Proposal: Regulate to Eliminate, penned by Glenn Lammi for the Foundation, begins with a Reuters news service quote related to a new French study of genetically modified corn that erroneously states that “opponents of genetically engineered foods in California are fighting to have all GMOs removed from the food supply.”

Lammi suggests that while Reuters got the facts wrong, they may have accurately stated the ultimate goal of proponents of labeling lab-engineered foods. Polling data among food producers supports his claim, strongly suggesting that many fear consumer rejection of their products if they were to disclose modified content, and would rather switch to costlier non-modified ingredients than label their packaging using existing ingredients.

Some supporters of Prop 37 are openly admitting that they see consumer disclosure as a means to curtailing the use of genetically modified products entirely. Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association, cited by Lammi as the second largest supporter of the Yes on 37 campaign, told the New York Times that “if a company like Kellogg’s has to print a label stating that their famous Corn Flakes have been genetically engineered, it will be the kiss of death for their iconic brand in California,” and that if the initiative passes “we will be on our way to getting GE-tainted foods out of our nation’s food supply for good.”

The Organic Consumers Association, per the California Secretary of State, has provided about $550,000 in funding to the Yes campaign, while top donor Joseph Mercola, an Illinois-based alternative health promoter, has spent $800,000.

Most funding for the No campaign has come from outside the state as well, with the two largest contributors, Monsanto of St. Louis and E.I. DuPont of Washington, D.C. pouring over $12 million into the campaign as of mid-September.

Lammi closes with a warning: “The suffering you’ve felt from drought-related food price increases this year will feel like a minor bump in the road compared to the cost ramifications of eliminating biotech-derived ingredients,” he says, and tells voters that “without biotechnology, it will be impossible to feed the world’s growing population.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Tuna within 3-day range Back in the Counts

Mind the rockfish regulations

The Washington Legal Foundation, a D.C. nonprofit group organized around pro-business and free market principles, has released two recent op-ed pieces questioning the wisdom of California’s Proposition 37, which would require the labeling of food products whose manufacturers knowingly use genetically modified organisms in the production process, and would prohibit such products from being labeled as “natural.”

Compelled Speech: Is California the Too Much Information State argues that labeling of products has gone too far. For example it points to California’s Prop 65, which requires that signs be posted in many public places informing consumers of the presence of known cancer-causing chemicals. Anastasia Killian, writing for the Foundation, says that the measure “has wrought a cottage industry built around strike suits under the act’s private attorney general provisions.”

Killian also points to the recent defeat of the city of San Francisco in a bid to mandate disclosures regarding a supposed risk of cancer linked to cellular phone emissions. Both a lower court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the disclosures “misleading and controversial,” and thus undermined the First Amendment rights of cellular phone vendors.

She further argues that, per the federal Supreme Court, any government mandated disclosure must be “purely factual and uncontroversial.” Using this logic, because a controversy exists over whether or not genetically modified foods are safe, food manufacturers could not be forced to disclose their presence.

Mandated Biotech Food Labeling Proposal: Regulate to Eliminate, penned by Glenn Lammi for the Foundation, begins with a Reuters news service quote related to a new French study of genetically modified corn that erroneously states that “opponents of genetically engineered foods in California are fighting to have all GMOs removed from the food supply.”

Lammi suggests that while Reuters got the facts wrong, they may have accurately stated the ultimate goal of proponents of labeling lab-engineered foods. Polling data among food producers supports his claim, strongly suggesting that many fear consumer rejection of their products if they were to disclose modified content, and would rather switch to costlier non-modified ingredients than label their packaging using existing ingredients.

Some supporters of Prop 37 are openly admitting that they see consumer disclosure as a means to curtailing the use of genetically modified products entirely. Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association, cited by Lammi as the second largest supporter of the Yes on 37 campaign, told the New York Times that “if a company like Kellogg’s has to print a label stating that their famous Corn Flakes have been genetically engineered, it will be the kiss of death for their iconic brand in California,” and that if the initiative passes “we will be on our way to getting GE-tainted foods out of our nation’s food supply for good.”

The Organic Consumers Association, per the California Secretary of State, has provided about $550,000 in funding to the Yes campaign, while top donor Joseph Mercola, an Illinois-based alternative health promoter, has spent $800,000.

Most funding for the No campaign has come from outside the state as well, with the two largest contributors, Monsanto of St. Louis and E.I. DuPont of Washington, D.C. pouring over $12 million into the campaign as of mid-September.

Lammi closes with a warning: “The suffering you’ve felt from drought-related food price increases this year will feel like a minor bump in the road compared to the cost ramifications of eliminating biotech-derived ingredients,” he says, and tells voters that “without biotechnology, it will be impossible to feed the world’s growing population.”

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Genetically modified crops result in 527 million pound spike in herbicide used on crops

Next Article

Women Occupy San Diego lead rally supporting Prop 37

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader