California Proposition 37 is the right start

Sustainability

I'm all for Proposition 37. It will require some foods to be labeled if they contain genetically modified material. We need to know what we are putting into our bodies. That should not be up to companies like Monsanto to decide. As it is, such companies got this stuff out into the food chain with no clearance from anyone. Our government was all "uh.... well... OK... since we're already stuck with it, we'll allow it to continue.....". Hello??? Just because someone thought this up and then created it in the lab does not automatically mean we should just accept it, no questions asked! The federal government shirked its responsibility to consider the public good just to appease some corporate race for profit. I don’t remember voting for these corporations to be running the country.

The arguments against this proposition do not make sense.

1) It will cost the consumers more money.

In countries where they are requiring this labeling, this has not happened. If our prices do go up, it will probably just be a scapegoat excuse to say it was due to this labeling requirement.

2) It will make life harder for the farmers.

Again, this has not been the case elsewhere. And many farmers WANT to be able to say they are not using and selling modified life forms. Farmers know they need to take care of the land, the biosphere, that takes care of them. But large corporations, where people are removed from the closeness of the land, don’t see any impact except that of their immediate bottom line. The future is not in their sights.

3) The proposition is hit-and-miss with the items it requires to be labeled.

So we need to start somewhere. No law is perfect, especially the first time around. It will probably need some cleanup. But that clean up should be to make it stronger, covering more of what we eat and come in contact with in our everyday lives. To say no to this start just because it is not perfect is ridiculous and just a scare tactic to get people to vote against it.

We need to start really thinking about the future generations and what we are doing to our whole environment. If we do not want the future to be viable, then what’s the point of being here?

Take a stand and vote YES on Proposition 37.

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proposition 37

GMO

genetically modified organism

organic