Photo Credit: Adisa/ Shutterstock.com
August 1, 2013
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Monsanto and Big Food are taking the battle for consumers’ hearts
and minds to the next level. And it’s no coincidence that they’re
pulling out the big guns just as the
Washington State I-522 campaign to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food products is gaining steam.
Can
industry front groups and slick public relations firms convince us that
the products they’re peddling are not only safe, but good for us? Will
the millions they spend on websites and advertorials pay off?
We’re guessing not, given the latest
New York Times poll stating that 93 percent of Americans want labels on foods containing GMOs.
Still, it can’t hurt to know who’s behind the latest salvo of lies and misinformation.
In
this case, it’s a new website and forum, introduced by biotech trade
groups no doubt with the help of a new PR firm. And a new front group.
The freshly launched
GMOAnswers.com is funded by the biotech industry, which claims it just “wants to talk.” And the recently formed
Alliance to Feed the Future, representing
more than 50 multinational food, agribusiness and biotech companies,
wants to give us the “real” scoop on our food system.
Monsanto Has All the Answers
Last month the
Holmes Report revealed
that Monsanto was interviewing public relations firms to spruce up its
image. A tall order given Monsanto’s status as “most evil corporation in
the world.” (A google search of “Monsanto most hated corporation”
returns over 823,000 results).
This week, the
New York Times reported on the launch of
GMOAnswers.com,
a new website intended to “answer virtually any question posed by
consumers about genetically engineered crops.” Except, of course, where
they’re hidden in our food.
You’ve got to hand it to the PR firm – new, old, Monsanto’s or otherwise - that landed that article. Who gets a mention in the
Times these days just for launching a website? Organizations that are funded by Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta and BASF, apparently.
The
Timesquoted,
extensively, Cathleen Enright, executive director of the Council for
Biotechnology Information and also vice president for food and
agriculture at another trade group, the Biotechnology Industry
Organization. Enright told the
Times that: “We have been
accused of purposely hiding information. We haven’t done that but now we
will open the doors and provide information.” Say what?
Enright
couldn’t emphasize enough how this was all a result of the biotech
industry being misunderstood by the public, and how Monsanto and the
rest of the industry just wants to be open.
Whoever registered the
website domain name for GMOAnswers.com doesn’t share Enright’s new
touchy-feely enthusiasm for openness and transparency. The domain’s
ownership is hidden behind Network Solutions LLC. Maybe the new PR firm
isn’t all that proud of its new clients?
Big Food Is Dishing up the Lies, Too
It isn’t just the biotech industry spinning the facts. Big Food is dishing up its share of lies, too.
To
counter the steady drumbeat of public relations defeats, damning
scientific research and grassroots political pressure, Monsanto and over
50 other multi-national food, agribusiness, and biotech companies
created the “Alliance to Feed the Future” (AFF).
The AFF’s stated
mission? To "balance the public dialogue on modern agriculture and
large-scale food production and technology” and to serve as a source for
accurate and “real” information about our food system.
In fact,
the AFF is nothing more than a few high paid consultants doing the
bidding of the American Meat Institute, CropLife America, Grocery
Manufacturers Association, United Egg Producers, Biotechnology Industry
Organization, and the International Food Additives Council, among
others.
Dave Schmidt coordinates the alliance. Schmidt, who is also CEO at the International Food Information Council, recently
told Sustainable Food News that
“the alliance's aim is to educate who he called 'opinion leaders,'
including those in the university sector, professional societies,
journalists and government officials.” Of course, he said, the group
also aims to “inform” consumers, too.
But a close look at the AFF
reveals all the hallmarks of a typical “astroturf” group. A
deceptive-sounding name designed to create a positive public impression.
A sophisticated public relations plan designed to control and shape the
public discourse. Obfuscation around its main sources of funding. And a
tendency to attack industry critics, create the perception of doubt
regarding previously accepted science, and exploit consumers legitimate
economic fears.
And, like most front groups, the AFF’s seemingly
unlimited resources guarantee it can churn out one lie after another,
faster than the independent fact-checkers can debunk them.
Big
Food recognizes its stranglehold on our food supply is threatened. A
critical mass of educated consumers, food and natural health activists,
environmentalists, social justice advocates, and animal cruelty groups
are organizing a powerful movement capable of overthrowing North
America’s trillion-dollar junk food empire.
Consumers are
increasingly wary of foods that have been genetically engineered by the
same companies that brought us toxic pesticides, DDT, Agent Orange,
dangerous pharmaceuticals and PCBs.
Sales of organic foods are
projected grow this year at twice the rate of conventional food sales,
and exceed $35 billion in 2013. Proof that consumers by the millions are
rejecting an industrial food and farming system that relies on toxic
pesticides, animal drugs, antibiotics, growth hormones, climate
disrupting nitrate fertilizer, and inhumane, polluting, and
disease-ridden factory farms.
More and more critics and journalists are exposing the hazards and cruelty of our food supply system. Even the
New York Times recently
revealed that
for decades, processed foods have been diabolically engineered and
laced with synthetic chemicals and additives designed to turn consumers
and children into obese, cancer- and heart disease-prone junk food
addicts.
The writing is on the wall. No amount of industry smoke
and mirrors can change the fact that more and more people are looking at
food with their eyes wide open.
Will corporations win our hearts and minds with their website propaganda and front groups? We think not.
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