More than $11 million has been poured into the fight against GMO labeling in Washington.
Just like last year’s defeat of a California ballot initiative that would have required the labeling of food products that contain genetically modified ingredients, big money is flowing in to defeat Washington’s 522 GMO labeling ballot initiative.
According to the state’s Public Disclosure Commission, $3.2 million was donated to the No on 522 Campaign by DuPont Pioneer on Tuesday. A few days prior to that, Monsanto chipped in nearly $4.6 million. And in the weeks just prior to that, the Grocery Manufacturers Association bellied up $1.75 million, while Bayer Crop Science, Dow AgroSciences and BASF Plant Science chipped in over a half a million dollars each, bringing the total dollar amount raised to just over $11 million.
That dwarfs the Yes on 522 campaign’s $3.5 million in funding, which came from the main donors in California’s label fight: Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps at $950,000; Organic Consumer Fund at $480,000; and Mercola.com at $200,000.
The river of money is streaming from the who’s-who of agri-chemical interests and big food. If California’s history is any measure of how this ballot measure will play out, the flow of money aimed at defeating the labeling initiative isn’t going to run dry any time soon.
Yes on 522 spokeswoman Elizabeth Larter says the influx of funding to defeat the measure was expected because her opponents have no individual donors and no in-state donors. The six companies and trade associations funding the whole effort are the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Bayer and BASF, she said.
Who’s missing so far in the current fight over labeling? PepsiCo Inc., General Mills Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Kraft Foods and others who donated millions to defeat California’s labeling effort.
TakePart reached out to the media departments of both PepsiCo and General Mills to find out if they would be donating funds to the No on 522 campaign, but did not hear back from either company.
http://www.takepart.com/money-flows-defeat-was-gmo-labeling
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