In spite of that disappointing reality, approval of the ballot would have brought to the fore a public discussion in a country dying of its own obesity and caloric emptiness. We are what we eat, and we should consider our own physical well being a value beyond calculation in dollars. Prop 37 lost because its opponents (spending $44 million, compared to $8 million) had the support of the rural counties where so much of our food is grown. They convinced those communities that Prop 37 would cut into their profits, and for most folks those profits are already slim. So those concerns are real for people, even if not for Monsanto, who donated $8 million themselves and would certainly not be harmed by a dip in profits.
And maybe 37 really would have cut into those profits. Interviews with Industrial Agriculture companies indicate that those companies would switch to non-GM, and thus likely more expensive, ingredients rather than risk the market share loss anticipated from labeling.
What is disappointing is that we currently live in a country where we feel that we have no choice but to forfeit our right to truly know the food out of which we’re building our bodies. This state of things is significantly a result of modern Robber Barons, megaliths like Monsanto and DuPont and, outside of Agriculture, the huge moneyed interests that have spent so much making a GOP dedicated to creating a government in which those who have the means can do whatever they want, however they want, regardless of the effects on the rest of us. They’re spending a bunch doing the same to the Democratic Party, too. They squeeze the public trough for ever more handouts, put ever less profits back in, and the pennies we have to pinch get fewer and fewer.
These are cruel, cruel people.
It’s important to remember this because politics and law isn’t just a science calculated in spreadsheets and on dry erase boards. It sets the tone for how we feel about and treat each other and ourselves in day-to-day life.
And what, really, do we have beyond that?
So I’ll pay more for my non-GM food so that farmers can keep making ends meet. And I trust that when a Prop 37 passes in the future – as it has all over the globe – lots of expensive negotiation will get Monsanto and Kellogg’s and Kraft a label that features a pretty ear of corn on a cheery green background and a phrase something like “GM-enriched food product for natural health!”
Because GM food is better than no food, and this country and the world are full of people for whom the savings of a couple of dollars at each meal makes all the difference. Recognizing that is about how we feel and treat each other and ourselves as well.
But we should be allowed to know what we eat. And we should strive to remember that we, not businesses—no matter what certain politicians say—are human, and that as humans we should be treated as more than bodies ancillary to a buck.