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Prop 37 opponents say: ‘Trust us. Just eat it!’

  The money: Agriculture giants Monsanto, E.I. Dupont, DOW, Bayer, BASF, and Syngenta have contributed more than $22 million. Food manufacturers Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, General Mills, Hormel, Nestle, Del Monte, Conagra, Hershey’s and Campbell Soups, along with many more companies, have contributed millions more, bringing the total – as of Oct. 27, according to ballotpedia.com – to more than $41 million for the campaign against Proposition 37.

  Why? To avoid labeling their genetically engineered foods.

  The yes-on-37 campaign, composed of smaller organic businesses and individual people, has raised only about $8 million.

  The issue: A layman’s example of genetic engineering for corn on the cob: injecting a corn seed with bug killer designed to kill bugs that damage corn crops. When corn grows, any bugs feeding on that corn self-exterminate. The problem is, we eat this very same ear of corn that contains the bug killer that has just killed the bug. Realistically, we have no real knowledge if this bug killer, lethal to the bugs, may be compromising our health. With big rises in yet incurable diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, food allergies and autism, there is a very clear and distinct possibility that this is true.

  The fact is, there were (coincidentally?) fewer cases of these and many other illnesses prior to genetic engineering. Watching even a small portion of geneticroulettemovie.com will open your eyes to the issue. We are getting bombarded with information not related to this labeling initiative by the “no” side. Their ads are saying that almost all California newspapers are opposed to Prop. 37. Is that relevant?

  When was the last time you saw a newspaper eat food or get sick?? They claim that labeling will cause lawsuits. Why? If labels are truthful, there will be nothing to sue about. The truth is their choice. They claim higher grocery bills. Why? If you wanted to eat the same things you have been eating, only with GE ingredients now labeled on the can, why should you pay more? The cost of ink?

  Claiming the measure doesn’t cover all foods raises the question, is it better to know nothing about everything when it comes to a person’s health, or to have accurate ingredient labels on a good number of things?

  There is no perfect proposition – additions can always be made. The opposition has no problem feeding us this garbage, so I guess one can understand why they do not want genetic labeling. We certainly have the right to know just what we are being fed.

  Vote “yes” on proposition 37.

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  Gary Germano is a resident of Sonoma.