Losing the Right to Knowledge: Monsanto Controls Access to Information

There’s a lesson to be learned from Monsanto’s threat to sue the people of Vermont over GM labeling, but it isn’t that the governor isn’t brave or is selling out. It’s that our right to information was stolen, and the US government  supports that theft.

The people of Vermont overwhelmingly want to know if their food has been adulterated with genetic modification (GM). A full 90% of the populace is clear about their inherent right to know such information. By the same 9 to 1 margin, the House Agriculture Committee passed bill number 722 stating that such food would be labeled in Vermont. Although the status of the bill is still in question, as it hasn’t yet cleared all hurdles, including the House Judiciary Committee, it had been believed likely to reach the governor’s desk, and he had indicated that he wanted to sign it.

Now, Governor Peter Shumlin appears to be doing a turn-around based on a threat from Monsanto that they would sue the people of Vermont if the bill is passed. As a result, pressure is being piled on him to sign, no matter what Monsanto might do. Shumlin has been responding to calls that he sign anyway with a, frankly, honest statement:

Dear Friend,

Thank you for contacting me about labeling genetically modified foods. I agree with those who advocate for clear labeling of genetically modified foods. GMO labeling makes sense and would give Vermonters key information about their food choices. However, we know from attempts to pass similar legislation in the past that such a requirement would not stand up to federal legal scrutiny. I don’t think it is fair to ask Vermonters to bear the burden of the cost of those legal challenges …

The Organic Consumers Association asks if Shumlin is “surrendering”. They’re suggesting that readers phone his office and tell him to, “encourage the House and Senate to speed up the review process, pass the GM labeling bill, and sign it before the legislative session ends on May 1.” But is this reasonable? Is it possible for a single state to stand up to Monsanto on the right to be informed about genetically engineered food?

In a word, no. Sad to say, the  United States has taken a federal stance against GM labeling. Vermont cannot stand alone. This is a national issue. Is the United States giving up its sovereignty to multinational corporate interests? In a word, yes.

How Monsanto Can Be So Sure

All of this has been in the alternative news media, but the truly salient factor is consistently missed: Why would it even be possible for Monsanto to sue? On what basis? The people of the United States have a Constitutionally-guaranteed right to freedom of speech, doesn’t they? Doesn’t that mean that the people have the right to know if their food has been adulterated?

Not in today’s United States of America. The US, along with virtually every other nation in the world, has sold its citizens out to corporate interests. When that means corporate interests are in conflict with the people’s rights, then the people’s rights are simply ignored.

That’s why the FDA has declared that we have no right to know if our food is genetically modified. 

That’s why the FDA has declared that we have no right to the foods of our choice.

That’s why the FDA has stated, “There is no generalized right to bodily and physical health”!

That’s why the FDA gets away with sending out SWAT teams to destroy legitimate businesses, shut down farms producing healthy foods that people want, and performs a host of other travesties against personal and legitimate business rights.

And that’s why Monsanto feels secure in threatening to sue the state of Vermont if they try to insist on a right to know whether their food has been adulterated by genetic modification.

Does the FDA have the right to make these claims, and can they back them up? The fact is that they’re doing it and that the United States Justice Department has taken no steps to stop them. Individual states simply don’t have the power to go up against such a juggernaut. It would require a majority of the states to stand against the might of the US government and military force.

Therefore, it’s pointless to ask Governor Shumlin to raid the state’s budget to fight a lawsuit that it cannot win. Just take a look at what’s happening in states that have chosen to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. The full might of the US Injustice Department has been brought to bear against those people who’ve been involved—and some are being sent to do hard time in prison.

We Don’t Care ‘Bout No Stinkin’ Rights!

Corporations and national governments may as well tell the people, “Rights? We don’t care ’bout no steenkin’ rights!”

Our rights are being stripped away. Access to information is now being destroyed by international treaties that nations have been making to support the absolute right of corporations to do business as they see fit, without interference from the desires of petty humans.

To sell this usurpation of our rights, we’re told that it’s for our health. The terminology is intentionally misleading. Most commonly, it’s called “harmonizing”. A United Nations agency, Codex Alimentarius, is setting rules by which we are required to eat and what we’re allowed to do for health maintenance. They are deciding whether we have access to vaccines and herbs. They’re deciding what can and cannot be put in our foods. They are deciding what’s healthy.

It makes no difference whether we disagree or how definitively we can prove our points. If Codex Alimentarius declares it to be so, then it will become so. If it benefits Agribusiness and other multinational corporate interests to “harmonize” laws so that all countries have the same rules for foods, then that’s what happens.

How Treaties Are Used to Sell Us Out

Treaties are created in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations (UN) to enforce rules of international trade. These rules now affect what is legal within a country. For example, the US currently allows labeling of country of origin on food. That, though, won’t last much longer. Because of treaties, other countries say that it’s a “technical barrier to trade”. In other words, if you know that a product comes from a particular country, then you might not buy it. Therefore, you don’t have the right to know.

Because the US signed the technical barriers to trade treaty, the federal government is enforcing it. While it may take a couple of years before this particular rule goes into effect, because the countries that have complained must first press their case with the WTO, there can be little doubt of the outcome. The WTO will agree that country of origin labeling is a barrier to trade, and the US Justice Department will go along with it.

Therefore, when the FDA makes up rules that coincide with these treaties and then enforces them, it’s because the US government is behind them. The US government supports these usurpations of our rights because the US government has been complicit in creating the treaties that result in these losses of rights.

Vermont’s governor is not surrendering to Monsanto. He’s surrendering to the United States government.

Further Information on This Issue in Gaia Health:

• FDA Says Walnuts Are Drugs and Doritos Are Heart Healthy
• The FDA Says You Have No Right to Freedom of Food
• Attacks on Raw Foods Accelerate to Police State Levels
• The Source of Food Is None of Your Business, Says WTO.
• FDA Counts Million Signatures for GMO Labeling As Only One: WTO Treaties Are the Reason

Sources:

• Is Vermont’s Governor Surrendering to Monsanto?
• Is Vermont’s Governor Surrendering to Monsanto?
• H.722 Passes out of Committee

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