Fighting GMO Labeling in California Is Food Lobby’s “Highest Priority”

In case you had any doubt that California's Prop 37 - which would require labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) - poses a significant threat to the food industry, a top food lobby has now made it perfectly clear that it...

July 31, 2012 | Source: Huffington Post | by Michele Simon

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In case you had any doubt that California’s Prop 37 – which would require labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) – poses a significant threat to the food industry, a top food lobby has now made it perfectly clear that it does.

In a recent speech to the American Soybean Association (most soy grown in the U.S. is GMO), Pamela Bailey, president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), said that defeating the initiative “is the single highest priority for GMA this year.”

You may not know the GMA, but its members represent the nation’s largest food producers – those with the most at stake in the battle over GMO labeling. Soft drink and snack giant PepsiCo, cereal makers Kellogg and General Mills, and of course, biotech behemoth Monsanto all belong to the GMA.

According to state filing reports, GMA has already spent $375,000 on its efforts to oppose the labeling measure, with its members adding additional out-of-state lobbying power in the tens of thousands of dollars.