A Senate version of Big Food’s voluntary GMO labeling bill is in the works, now that the terrible Pompeo bill is gaining steam. Action Alert!
A few weeks ago, we told you about legislation that would let food producers decide whether to label their products that contain genetically engineered or modified ingredients. It’s being jokingly called the Deny Americans’ Right to Know Act (the “DARK Act”) by pro-labeling advocates, because if HR 1599, the deceptively named Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 sponsored by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-CA) passes, it would preempt any state laws mandating the labeling of foods containing GM ingredients.
Unfortunately, the bill is gaining bipartisan support: since it was introduced, forty-seven House members have signed on, including twelve Democrats.
Not only is voluntary labeling legislation gaining momentum in the House, it now has a champion in the Senate as well. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) has indicated that his office is also preparing a voluntary GMO labeling bill that would preempt state efforts. Sen. Hoeven’s bill would use the USDA to implement the bill (Pompeo’s bill uses the FDA), placing it under the jurisdiction of the Senate Agricultural Committee—whose chair, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), has received the second highest amount of money from the agricultural services and products sector and is among the top three senators receiving money from the food processing and sales sector.
This is all the more troubling considering the state of mandatory GMO labeling legislation. In the Senate, the Boxer-Blumenthal bill that we favor has no Republican support; the bill’s counterpart in the House, sponsored by Rep. DeFazio (D-OR), has only one Republican cosponsor. Without bipartisan report, neither version is likely to move.
Rep. Pompeo (and other supporters of GMOs and GMO-related special interests) continue to ignore the impact of GMOs on our health and environment while intentionally misleading the public.
In a recent op-ed in Roll Call, the daily Capitol Hill newspaper, Rep. Pompeo touts the same—now thoroughly debunked—myths that have been used for years to mislead the public into thinking that GMOs are biotech’s great gift to humanity. To prove that GMOs are “ushering in a new world of possibilities,” Pompeo makes a number of remarkable claims.
First, Pompeo argues that GMOs are decreasing pesticide usage, citing a 2003 figure showing a 46.4 million pound reduction that year. The trouble is that the truth is the exact opposite, as confirmed by a former senior scientist at the EPA’s Office of Research and Development. In a paper released last September, Dr. Ramon Seidler wrote,
Much has been written by scientific and mainstream media about the advantages of using genetically engineered (GE) crops because, according to popular belief, these crops require significantly less pesticide to control weed and insect pests….These accounts are inaccurate and rely on annual pesticide and application rates and volumes reported prior to 2010, when widespread resistance began to emerge in “superweeds” and “superinsects”….These reports also ignore the now widespread practice of coating seeds in systemic pesticides, which has emerged in the past ten years. This lack of journalistic and scientific integrity distorts the facts on the ground.
Second, Pompeo makes the familiar argument about GMOs increasing crop yields. We covered this claim, one of biotech’s favorites (“GMOs will feed the world!”), a few years back in an in-depth report. The evidence suggests that, overall, corn and soybean yields have risen over the past fifteen years, but this is mainly because of traditional breeding or improvement in agricultural practices. According to a Union of Concerned Scientists report, several recent studies show that organic and low-external-input farming methods (i.e., using reduced amounts of fertilizer and pesticides) can improve yield by over 100% in those countries, along with greater health benefits.
Next, Pompeo cites research projects that have affirmed the safety of GMOs. The fact is, there have been no epidemiological studies done on GMOs, nor any scientific consensus on their safety. Most of the studies showing GMOs to be safe have been done by the biotech companies themselves.
(Note: you can find all of this information and more on our GMO Fact Check site.)
By laboring to prove the benefits of GMOs by bringing up these arguments, proponents of biotech crops are diverting attention from the main issue. This debate is about consumers’ right to know what’s in their food, and the bottom line is this: the Pompeo and Hoeven bills, supported by biotech and Big Food giants like Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association, keep consumers in the dark. We must prevent this from becoming law. The 93% of Americans who support labeling foods with GMOs must make their voices heard.
Action Alert! Write your senators and representatives, and tell them consumers have a right to know what’s in their food and that you support the mandatory labeling of GMOs. Urge them NOT to support the House and Senate bills that would leave it up to food companies to decide whether or not to label GMOs. Please send your message immediately!
Republicans are all for states’ rights! Except of course when it conflicts with industry “rights”. All Republicans who support Rep. Pompeo’s bill should be ashamed of themselves. I suppose this is just a warmup for the TPP and TTIP, which would enshrine the corporations’ inalienable right to make a profit. By the way, I’m not letting Democrats off the hook either! Just because they aren’t known for insisting on states’ rights doesn’t mean it’s ok for them to vote for this bill.
I also find it hilarious that pro-GMO people claim that growing extra corn and soybeans will “feed the world”. What a healthy and varied diet. Especially since so much of that corn is going towards ethanol production. Not to mention that poor people are hungry because they can’t afford to buy enough food (or are prevented from growing it themselves), not because there’s not enough of it to go around…. but who needs little details like that when promoting feeding the world through the miracle of GMO’s?
(P.S. Rep. Pompeo’s from Kansas, not California. Somebody might want to fix that.)
Monsanto and the bio-tech’s think Consumers are stupid. They never thought we’d object to their GMO crap ahem…crop. Well, big surprise we are and they’ve got our Congress in their pockets…even the Dems. I’m a Dem btw.
Most of those in Congress know absolutely NOTHING about GMO’s and if you write them, they’ll respond by telling you that GMO’s have been found to be harmless. It’s the party line they’ve been fed so, they regurgitate it back to consumers rather than really look into it. Why do we pay these people if they’re not going to take us seriously?
We’ve just got to keep going in the push-back of GMO’s and I think we can prevail at some point in the future. Whole Foods will be moving the debate forward when their policy of all foods in their stores being labeled in 2016 (I believe that’s the date).
To reward WF’s, I now only shop there and will continue to do so, as long as they take consumers and food seriously. Consumers need to vote with their dollars, it’s one way to get around Congress’ stupidity and Monsanto’s evil plan to feel the world crap.
Thank you for your comment, sj. I actually believe the year WF is set to label GMO’s is 2018. I remember back when they first announced it, I complained on their website for the several year wait, haha. At the time, I believed (and actually I still kinda do…) that it was a PR stunt because the long timeline meant that there would be plenty of time for GMO labeling to become mandatory across the country by that time anyway. But now I’m just glad it’s pushing things forward if we somehow still don’t have mandatory labels by then.
I wonder how many items will be labeled as “GMO” in WF at that time, or if the companies will just settle to not sell at WF anymore to avoid having to disclose GMO on their labels.
I’m lucky to live near an independent grocery store I refer to as the “super-Whole Foods”. It’s on the list of Organic Consumer’s Association’s highest rated grocery stores (I’d say which one but I’d rather not reveal my location). They already refuse to sell anything GMO and most of their food is organic. Unfortunately though, I’m a dirt poor young person who relies on their parents to support them so I can only buy certain things there. But in the future my goal is to eat 100% organic and majority local. Maybe have my own garden too (permaculture styled of course).
Thanks for clarifying the date.
I assumed the 2018 date was due to WF giving their suppliers a chance to make changes on their labels,etc. if they wanted to be carried in the WF stores. These things can’t be changed over night. WF would probably need to know who’s in and who’s out so they can arrange their stores accordingly,etc. Not everything in WF is organic.
The assurances we’re also getting is that we’re not eating Glyphosate/Round up but now that Monsanto is trying to buy Syngenta….that may make glyphosate a none-issue because Syngenta has other chemicals and Monsanto has to drop Round-up due to it’s bad reputation of over usage because the weeds become resistant to it over time.
I too live near a tiny organic vegetarian store and use to shop there daily but it’s only now and then due to their higher than WF prices. I realize they have to charge those prices due to their size. Great place tho. My town has a high rate of affluent people so, this store gets a lot of traffic.
Since you’re dirt poor, have you seen the WF announcement about their proposed new stores? They announced (last week?) that they’re going to build a new store brand which cater to younger, less affluent customers because they realize that target group doesn’t shop at WF’s. I’m sure you can find the News Release if you google it. What this Plan means in terms of organic, GMO’s was not laid out in that release.
WF did lower some of their prices on some items to attract new customers. I’m not sure many people got that announcement. WF doesn’t do TV ads like big stores, (Kroger) who are known for their weekly sales to get people into their stores.
Eating local is big here, even in the restaurants. We have an outdoor Farmer’s Market. The prices are high but the Market is very popular and it’s crowded every Saturday even if it’s 90 degrees!
I hope your dirt poor situation improves. I have children and so far, have not had to support them after they graduated from college. They’re both lucky to have good jobs. One of them has many friends who still live at home after graduating from college because of their low salaries and rent is outrageously expensive.
There’s just something so wrong in this country about older parents having to support their children who have college degrees/jobs or that these kids have to move back in with their parents!
Hi sj, I usually comment sooner I apologize for the late response.
I have not heard about that WF announcement! It sounds interesting, but who knows where the new stores will be located. I currently live in a temporary situation (unpaid internship across the country from my real home…) as I discussed above with bsroon so I have no idea what the future will bring for me. Local is also big in the place I’m living (maybe too big since everything’s super expensive here). Apparently (as I’ve been told) there’s a lot of rich people who want to pay exorbitant amounts for organic/local to separate themselves from “common people” so the farmers’ markets are more expensive than the grocery stores (which are also expensive). This is not the case at my real home where the local farmers’ market is cheaper.
Once this internship is over I’m sure (I seriously hope) that I’ll get a well-paying job in my field (environmental stuff; I’m keeping this broad so I have a better chance.) The internship came with free housing so I don’t have to pay rent, but I still get no other money so my parents are literally putting food money into my bank account every month. So in this case the salary is worse than low. I still prefer it to my previous job though, which was part time minimum wage ($7.25) retail. Awful. At least this internship is related to my field and looks better on a resume. And it’s more interesting.
I may sound a bit pessimistic, but I don’t mean to. I try to focus on making a difference in the world (and would definitely support making organic food the norm and affordable for all). Thank you for the encouragement.
Most people can grow some food. i know of some who use containers on apt balconies, and you can intensively grow in containers or square foot gardening most places. Small aquaponics systems in houses. Things like that.
We buy our seeds from Baker Creek Seeds since they are the only people i know of who check the DNA of their seed sources to verify no contamination. They are finding increasing levels of genetic contamination, in increasingly remote locations so they must check. If i knew anyone else that did this genetic checking – i’d throw them some business too!
Not that they’ll retire to Aruba from my purchases.
Maybe you have a timebank near you, and can donate some hours in return for food at a local farmer using a farmer’s market? In Minnesota the wife and i got together with a few other families and started a buying club because we couldn’t afford the local (and only) Co-op’s low stock and bad prices. It was greatly cheaper. Then we decided to join the co-op and fix it. Got it out of the red within 6 months (18,000$ debt!) and got produce in for the first time. Expensive, but it flew off the shelves.
There are options out there which hopefully can be used to help your situation. If you aren’t aware – a (Swedish?) family spent a mere TWO WEEKS eating entirely organic – and the testing of toxic Ag chemicals etc prior, during, and after proved that 2 wks is sufficient to virtually eliminate the toxic load from your body. Likely not all people that quickly if they are unhealthy and the elimination cycle is damaged, but…
Wanted that last to give you hope.
I really appreciate you commenting here. I didn’t specify my situation before, but I’m currently in an unpaid internship position across the country from where I really live (at my parents’ house). The internship came with housing so I don’t have to pay rent, but I share with a few other interns and the temporary nature of the position means I don’t want to start planting anything. At my real home my mom has a small vegetable garden I usually help her with! This year before I left for the internship I helped her pick out heirloom vegetable seeds.
I’m unaware of any time banks locally. The internship’s in a rather unpopulated region and I don’t have a car to regularly get to the nearest city. I carpool with my housemates to the grocery (several miles away otherwise I would walk), but they want to go to Safeway which sells mostly crap food in my opinion so it’s either that or get them to drop me off at another place and then take the local bus back (which still involves a lot of walking because our house is in the middle of nowhere and the bus doesn’t stop near it). I’m getting better at the bus though!
I’ve seen the video with the Swedish family. I think it’s amazing. Someday I know I’ll be able to access and afford good healthy food. I’m doing the best I can currently. I know I sound kinda pessimistic, but I don’t mean to. Thank you for the encouragement.
You are generally better off to be in the country. i believe the fit will hit the shan soon. Before 2017, or O-bomb-ya leaves office. EMP from Russia is my most likely scenario. Cities are going to be disease vectors as people think they can hang for a few days and things will be fixed – then no water. Desperation will have folks drinking damaged, toxic or other water – then the lack of food is going to be controlled by a few gangs w/guns, and finally those still functioning will spread out desperate for food/water.
Some will carry disease, but they will eat that cow, horse, chicken – burger today – not a food supply for the future with farming/ranching skills. Being able to integrate them into a community is the best option – motive to stick and contribute – labor, security, whatever – in return for shelter and food.
i know – really negative, not something people want to hear, and folks think we that expect problems are whacko. When one considers that i still function well with other people, and that my protective infrastructure and skillset are functioning to improve my life right now – the lack of doing these things – to placate someone whose opinions i may not respect or follow – seems to really be stupid,
Probably not well stated, but maybe you get my gist.
No, I understand what you mean. If something does happen I’m probably not that well prepared, although I do know some wild edibles. I’m sure I’ll manage, although water will be an issue since the streams around here are polluted (not badly though so I guess in an emergency…) I figure if it’s helping your life now, there’s no reason not to do it. Self-sufficiency is good. 🙂
Yeah, 2018 for GMO labeling – think maybe they know the contamination is unstoppable by then?
Not sure why they picked 2018 as their target date but it probably has more to do with getting their stores ready for this big change and allowing their suppliers to conform to the GMO labeling rule or be dropped.
Well, they are a major corporation. That accounts for their proven dishonesty – telling people that GMOs weren’t GMO, and more. This is the nature of corporations – they have ONLY a profit mandate. That is why Drug Pushers (pHARMaceuticals – keeping the harm large in medicine) will push drugs they KNOW are inefffective, or WILL kill and damage people – because by the time the govt (collusion) gets around to fining them – they’ve more than reached that amount by sales and have profits even with a 1.3 and 3 billion $$$$ fine. (Merck, GSK and others w/other amounts)
Bigger corpse-orations force their hands to some degree. i’m not going to spend time investigating who their BOD members cross over with, but it would be educational. This is how many corporations control segments of the economy you’d never expect.
Nuts and bolts? Yeah – it’s going to take some time. Chipotle’s did it earlier and is pushing the comfort zone. WF could have done something similar and forced change, instead, they lay back and by the time the policy is implemented (coincidentally or otherwise) there WILL be increased GMO invasions in more species and genomes. Guaranteed.
i’ve learned to never trust rich people – they are parasites and seldom treat others with fairness – the entire system is set up that way now, and that was even before the US became a Fascist nation – govt run for business and/or a small group of people. (Mussolini) That is undeniably us, and this lets companies (the rich people that run them all in reality) cause more damage. In at least one aspect – they are going to have a longer time of increased profits. Your health, for their profits on a relatively benign (corporate/rich) scale, but still damage to others in typical corporate psychopathic manner to lower than avg degreee.
We belong to Costco, we vote with every purchase. We have only bought Organic products. Trader Joe’s Organic chicken breasts have been larger then normal. Used to be 4 in a package, now there are 3 in a package. We stopped Trader Joe’s chicken purchases and now purchase our Organic Chicken at Costco. Trader Joe’s breasts are as big as turkey breasts. That is not natural. You are right! We are being poisoned. Our Beer? If you love beer, go to Food Babe .com
Search beer. We can get chemicals out by learning from each other, one person at a time, and then share, with everyone. I enjoy Peak beer and other Organic beers.
Those huge chicken breasts are a hybrid chicken that my wife and i grew once. NEVER AGAIN!!!! They take only 6 weeks to grow out instead of something like 18 weeks for a Cornish Cross – the old fashioned type.
The Mrs. called them “Sumo Chickens” because that is how they waddle. They are so stupid, they don’t even know to eat berries if you toss them in their pen. They didn’t even eat any grass. Just the crumbles. They grow so fast that two of them just died – usually the heart goes. They can’t stand up for any time of significance, so they tend to get up, walk about 6 – 10 steps, and sit down. They sit down so much, they wear off their breast feathers.
Because they always sit – and pretty much wherever, they seem to be dirtier than regular chickens, too. You DO get more meat, faster, but you still need to put a lot of food out for them. A bit more efficient feed ratio than real chickens, but man, they are so sad.
Plz don’t make the mistake of thinking dems are different from reps. Congress, in both parties, has given the rich the benefit of up to 93% of the legislation passed for at least that long. Usually not so high, but always the huge majority helps the rich and hurts we the people.
Since the repubs need democrat’s support to pass a bill and vice versa – our problems are obviously NOT from too many reps or too many dems – they all are flip sides of the same coin in a rich man’s pocket.
Therefore voting for either a demo or repub is empowering these parties in damaging you and NOT any variety of “lesser evil” vote.
If you want to make a difference, convince everyone you know to never vote for a rep or dem again – only vote for people that support the US Constitution. Without it you are a slave, with it we can deal with problems. When the “two” parties find that they are having “their” supporters join other parties they will know (regardless of how they lie and fake the results) that THEY ARE DESPISED, NOT TRUSTED, HAVING OUR POWER REMOVED FROM THE LOAN THAT WE VOTED TO THEM!
They will either have to change or go away. Romney changed his whole tune in the debates because a few million wanted RPaul’s constitution points instead of the scripted “conflict” btwn rep/dems. Divide and conquer.
Well, let’s divide THEM and not vote for these rich fool’s puppets. They can go away or do what we the people tell them to – almost like they are supposed to. Crazy concept, no?
My goal is to have Rand vs Bernie to be nominated by the two parties. They agree with each other on our involvement in foreign wars involving Sunni & Shia hatred of each other. They disagree on respect for women and I trust Bernie to defend all Americans. In a fantasy world I would pick Bernie for President and Jon Stewart for Vice President. Appoint Dr. Ron Paul to head the FDA and appoint the defeated Rand Paul as Secretary of State. I know, you say fantasy, why not? You have fantasy football and now baseball, why not fantasy team ups of contenders for president. You know it is all a joke, and we are the laughing stock. Lets make a game out of this. Who would you like to team up and have then appoint?
Of the public figure, Sanders is far and away the best. Screw Jon Stewart (comedy central?) he has done too many shows where he supports things (medicinal stuff, illegal aliens, etc) i can’t.
Ron Paul to head the FDA? He is an MD – delivered babies – totally anti-abortion and rumor has it (man i looked it up years ago) he recommended that women who have an abortion go to prison. As an MD he supports the medical system here – i don’t care about Obombya care – that’s unlawful and unconstitutional, – wrong on every level.
Since the US medical system is the worst in the industrialized nations, we don’t want RP there supporting that garbage. We would do better with Dr Jonathan V Wright – who was smart enough to use biochemistry and nutrition (he’s a naturopath) and he keeps curing people that MDs can’t.
Hello bsroon. I usually try to respond to replies sooner; I apologize for the late response.
My original comment was aimed primarily at Republicans’ hypocrisy regarding states’ rights, but I definitely do not think Democrats are any better. I’m young and haven’t voted in many elections yet, but I voted for Jill Stein (Green Party) during the last presidential election because I couldn’t bear to vote for Obama or Romney. I try to inform myself of the various candidates and vote for who I believe is the best, but it’s a work in progress. What complicates things is that my positions on various issues don’t match up very well with the usual party lines, so sometimes I have to choose which issue is most important to me and vote based on that.
I still believe voting is better than not voting, even if I have to write-in somebody.
Time? No problem – it’s a concept i’ve HEARD of but seldom note, lol.
Think about what i stated above. i think that touches on ample proof that never voting for repub or demo is the best bet and only way to change things. They might push an issue that you support – and convince one that “hey, they must be all right.”
Wrong.They MUST do something to pretend to be our friends or we’d have tarred and feathered them long ago. They have little, small, usually hot button issues and if they really would help you? Well, they ‘tried’ to do the right thing but _____ stopped them! This causes division and separation btwn “cons/lib & rep/dem” and makes us suckers to control.
Meanwhile it is: Score – rich parasite legislation 147 – poor/we the people 9. Literally. 15:1 – for over 50 years basically helps rich hurts us. With such a track record – they INTEND to screw us over. You don’t accidentally do the same thing for decades by accident. NOBODY beside rep or dem has ever had majority in the last ONE HUNDRED SIXTY YEARS – so ALL the political problems are these “two” parties handing favors to the rich. Think about that. So they pretend to be your bud for election day – then give your rights and power, taxes and future to the worst people on the planet – and we take it?
Isn’t one definition of insanity the continued performing of an action with the expectation of having a different result? Well, vote rep and dem for 160 years – watch the country get worse from those people, and expect that THIS TIME, they are going to get it right? No, you are doing the right thing, but i hope you become more active in understanding that rep/dem are BOTH flip sides of the same coin in a rich man’s pocket.
Continue your good work, and get the non-voters to vote – against dem/rep. They are partially right in that voting for those “2” makes no difference because they are NOT lesser evil votes – they are the same. If the result of their ASSISTING each other pass bad/damaging legislation (it needs collusion from the minority party to get quorum to pass the bills) is consistent damage to us – they are not different.
I will definitely keep educating myself into the future. My friends are voters too so I don’t know many non-voters. When I was in college I told some people who I heard say they weren’t going to vote to vote third party instead. I don’t know if they did or not.
I believe that there is a better world in front of us. We just all have to do what we know is right to get there faster.
Had an interesting epiphany the other day regarding calamities. If one survives there is VAST hope – think about it. With technology down, the roundup and 1.1 billion pounds of poison won’t be applied to the US each year.
A recent study showed that a Swedish family went organic for 2 weeks and cleaned out almost all the poisons from their bodies – measured on cellular assays before and after. THAT is heartening!
If you’ve never read it (not likely) a book by Masaru Emoto called HIDDEN MESSAGES IN WATER proved that the conscious state directed at water will change the crystal structure of that water as it freezes. Think positive and loving thoughts and the crystals become beautiful and symmetrical. When negativity is directed at the water the crystals look lumpy, ugly, tumorous.
What makes water the only thing that can change? When quantum physics has proven that matter is manifest from the potential, and the latent unmanifest energy by conscious intent. Literally making the world from our thoughts. Hmmm
i submit that conscious, directed, positive intent to our foods, our sky, rain, earth, plants and gardens – can ALSO improve their quality and remediate some of the bad Ag effects and toxic environment caused by this alleged civilization. The measurement may be impossible because it is nowhere close to being as simple as freezing water – a quick, visible, and significant change of states in that molecule.
So for those surviving – the destruction of “civilization” and technology in particular – will be a huge blessing/positive event. It is up to us who choose to go forward in a cooperative effort (and life really mandates that when we think about it) to reform whatever tribal, sovereign, communities we can for our protection, our sustenance, and our increased life quality.
We can do it.
Third party sounds good to me, The Constitutional Party or the Tea Party. Tea Party is easier to spell.
I support Sanders but the only way he’s going to get real traction is IF people donate money to him for this campaign.
It now takes a Billion to run a potus campaign and unless we want candidates like the Hillary, Bush, Cruz, Romney,etc….types who can accumulate the cash…we need to donate money to people like Sanders.
Obama had the largest donors grass roots campaign in history and it was from small donations from people who were not wealthy. (He had millionaire donors also.) But Sanders doesn’t have that kind of cachet unfortunately and I’m not sure he’s even got millionaire donors either.
He doesn’t have the machine that Obama and his team created. Sanders came to my town to speak a few weeks ago and I only heard about it after the fact!
His team isn’t ready for prime time. He spoke at a church and all other potus candidates usually speak at UVA. Even Michelle Obama spoke at UVA when O was running.
My town is a Dem stronghold so, I don’t understand why they missed that opportunity to invite The People to hear him speak? Not a good sign of a well oiled campaign or a team who’s serious about their candidate.
I gave $10. I plan to give another $10, in a while. I gave Dr. Ron Paul $50 on four separate occasions because he stated in the New Hampshire primary that as President the first thing he would do would be to fire 60% of FDA and have the remaining 40% concentrate on natural products that are superior to Big Pharma chemical poison, as is the statins that destroy CoQ10 in every cell. My plan is to write Bernie, on his Senate site and ask him his position on FDA. If the answer is favorable, I will give additional $200, in intervals.
Good for you! I wish someone Big with money would step up to support him but the Media is pushing ‘socialism’ to scare people away from him and they will continue to do so in favor of Hillary or a GOP candidate.
Every declared candidate who tries to run on progressive ideas for the country gets shut down, sidelined, ignored so they can’t gain any traction in the campaign by Media. Obama had an incredible Team which made it possible for him to push through those who would try to stand in his way.
Through the years I’ve only seen Bernie Sanders taken seriously on PBS. I happen to love PBS but they are not the Media that most people watch.
I’ve come to the conclusion, too many Americans are stupid and our young people have no idea what they’re failure to participate by voting is causing who gets elected to Congress and the harm they go on to do to the country.
Too many young people are watching & only care about the Kardasian’s and the like. Our young voters would rather get in line to get Kim’s autograph than go to the polls and vote! Seriously, we can’t change anything for the better unless our young voters get more serious about the direction the country is going in! They complain but they won’t do anything about it. They are too reliant on their parents to FIX things and so, we’ve created kids who are reliant on the old folks….and we can’t do it alone. They came out and voted for Obama but went back to sleep and let the Mid Terms slide and gave the Republicans a majority in both houses.
If we elect a Republican president it will be a disaster for the country. They will create bliss for the 1% and just watch Bill after Bill be passed in favor of Big Corps while any progress for the 99% slides to the bottom of the list ignored.
The FDA is a joke. Big Pharm is in the pockets of our Gov. About 98% of everyone I know is on pharmaceutical drugs today. I’m talking highly educated and financially well off people!
This is just one case of what happens when the $ is dangled in front of people. A friend of mine who is an MD was just a passionate researcher not making a lot of money for a long time until Big Pharm dangled the $. He decided to take it and began raking in the $’s. His stories of how big Pharm gets it’s billions for research is mind boggling. Some of those billionaires from Tech industry who donate to research are NOT doctors but they want to decide how the research is done!
We’ll keep trying to take down the cancer industry. Eight years, and counting.
What the corporation do to the food they sell in the blind headlong quest for ever richer profits is is utterly insane and anti-social. It is a heinous crime against humanity. The Boston bomber is given the death penalty and the number of his victims is nowhere near the same scale. The CEO of Monsanto should be tried and then given a lethal injection of his own pesticides.
We had a Citizen’s Initiative where we here on Maui voted to have our food labeled and it passed with more voters than we ever had in any election. The state refused to follow what we voted for. It got one line in the Maui News. We still don’t have GMO labeling but I still have one of our great 4 color signs.
I realize I am a month late on the discussion