Whether you live in California, in North America or around the globe, this is a critical issue. If states can achieve labeling of GMO, we improve the chances of making this a global standard. Labeling will decide whether small farmers have an economic future and whether you will have access to real food. This is literally a question of life and death for each of us and our families. Unfortunately, California’s Prop 37 has a bounty hunter provision in it which will allow it to be used to target small businesses and advantage the large corporations. So there is a trojan horse capacity here which is of concern.
— Catherine
Dear Catherine,
The Institute for Responsible Technology’s Food Policy Fund is doing everything we can to help California pass Proposition 37 – an initiative requiring the labeling of genetically engineered food. Our Executive Director, Jeffrey Smith is speaking at various venues and educating communities around the state. But it is going to take all of us, the entire country, to beat the powerful biotech industry that wants to keep Americans in the dark about knowing what is in their food. That is why we feel compelled to share the following message.
See:
Genetic Roulette movie trailer
Are We Living the Story of Joseph?
Related Reading:
California Proposition 37, Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food (2012)
A Subscriber’s Comment:
However, when I read the Proposition I saw that it contained a “bounty hunter” provision giving anyone the right to sue anyone and everyone who does not have a GM warning label on any foods containing GM ingredients. This is exactly like the provision in Prop 65 (the Cancer warning law).
Prop 65 cases are not fun and those cases had absolutely no correlation with justice or preventing cancer. They were simple “shakedown” operations by bounty hunting law firms that specialized in these kinds of cases and were only in the game for the money that it could bring. The targets are innocent small and medium-sized businesses that could ill afford to defend against a lopsided lawsuit where the proof was hard to come by. They usually paid the extortionist just to be free of them.
This is what will happen with Prop 37. As with Prop 65 cases, the BIG firms and companies will not really suffer. But the small and medium-sized businesses will. It will cause many innocent companies to suffer extortionist lawsuits.
Now, this may not be a sufficient reason to NOT vote for or support Prop 37, but it is enough to cause me to have HUGE concerns about it due to this trow-in provision for bounty hunters. It is not surprising that the leader of the Prop 37 initiative is himself a Prop 65 bounty hunter attorney who made millions off of Prop 65 cases . . . .
Please do not support the bounty-hunter provision. We still hope Prop 37 wins but there are huge reservations about this aspect of the initiative.
Related Reading:
