GMO Corporate claims that labeling GMO food will raise prices are lies. The recent de0railing of Congressional efforts to prevent labeling of GMOs means that we just might have GMO labeling in the US at some time in the near future. And it won’t raise prices at all!
Tell Decision Makers you demand the right to know what you are eating!@ http://TinyURL.com/AllowGMOLabels
There are some lies that have been passed around so often they are widely accepted as truth, without even so much as a momentary flicker of critical thinking engaging the mind of the listener.
- If you swallow your gum it will be in your stomach the rest of your life
- Lightning never strikes the same place twice
- You’ll catch a cold if you go out with wet hair
And now we can add another tall tale to the long list of dubious claims: adding GMO labeling to foods made with genetically modified products would cost consumers hundreds of dollars a year.
This whopper is always thrown around anytime the Big Biotech starts to panic as consumers demand to know what’s in their food. If they can’t beat the arguments against having unknown genetic material added to real food, or the argument against the spraying of toxic, cancer-causing chemicals on our food, then playing the price card is always a backstop.
Just as “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel,” alleged increased consumer cost is the last refuge of the corporate scoundrel to prevent something that they want to hide from being exposed.
One New York state study created by the lackeys of GMO corporations made the outrageous claim that it would cost the average family upwards of $500 a year if companies were forced to label their GMO products. Even the normally corporate-compliant Washington Post found this too much to swallow: the study was given “three Pinnochios” by their fact-checker.
But apparently the GMO corporations and their flacks think bigger is better, in terms of the big lie scare numbers. So now the Corn Refiners Association is claiming that GMO labeling will cost the average family more than $1,000 a year.
Well which is it, guys? $500 a year? $1,000 a year? Maybe $1,500? $15,000?
Heck, if you’re going to pull random numbers out of your math hole, you might as well go all the way: let’s just say $15,000 is what GMO labeling will cost the average family a year. WAIT! $150,000 and the dog! Why not?
The truth is all of these numbers are lies.
When was the last time you bought a familiar product that had the words “New and Improved” emblazoned across the old, familiar label?
Ask yourself, did that product cost, say, twice as much with the new label as it did before?
Of course not! Labels change all the time. If these kinds of numbers were reflected at all in reality, prices of every single consumer good that comes in packaging with a label would increase many, many times every year.
Even notoriously pro-GMO, anti-labeling corporation Campbell’s Soup CEO Denise Morrison recently was quoted saying that adding the Nutrition Facts label to their packaging years ago didn’t increase prices.
Adding a GMO label wouldn’t either–though it might make consumers rethink their decision to purchase that product, which is exactly what these companies fear.
The desperation and cheap tactics that are routinely employed by pro-GMO corporations and lobbying groups are frankly hilarious. They really must think we are stupid.
The problem is though, lots of people, while not stupid per se, are in fact ignorant when it comes to the facts on GMOs and the underhanded tactics and propaganda used by its proponents.
Although the US Government, which conducts no safety testing on GMO products, says they are “substantially equivalent”, that is a meaningless and unscientific designation. GMO food studies conducted by independent scientists uniformly show that they are dangerous to our health, reproductive abilities and immune systems. If you know they are there, you probably, like more than 92% of Americans, won’t want to eat them.
Tell Decision Makers you demand the right to know what you are eating! Take action here: http://TinyURL.com/AllowGMOLabels
http://www.nationofchange.org/news/2016/03/01/gmo-labeling-wont-increase-food-prices/