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proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)
Thu Oct 25, 2012, 11:46 AM Oct 2012

DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG - Food Fight: Debating Prop 37, California’s Landmark Initiative to Label GMO Food


http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2012/10/24?autostart=true

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPTS AT LINK


PART 1 - Food Fight: Debating Prop 37, California’s Landmark Initiative to Label GMO Food
On Election Day, California voters will decide on Proposition 37, which would make their state the first in the nation to require the labeling of food products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The California Department of Public Health would be responsible for labeling everything from baby formula and instant coffee, to granola, canned soups and soy milk. Many major corporations, including Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Pepsi and Coke, are spending millions fighting the measure, which stands to impact labeling practices across the country. We host a debate on Prop 37 with two guests: Stacy Malkan, a longtime advocate for environmental health and spokesperson for the Yes on 37 California Right to Know campaign, and David Zilberman, professor of agricultural and resource economics at University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Center for Sustainable Resource Development. [includes rush transcript]


PART 2 - Michael Pollan: California’s Prop 37 Fight to Label GMOs Could Galvanize Growing U.S. Food Movement
As California voters prepare to vote on whether to label GMOs in food, we go to Berkeley to discuss Prop 37 and its implications for the broader food system with journalist and best-selling author Michael Pollan. Among the nation’s leading writers and thinkers on food and food policy, Pollan is the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Journalism. He’s written several books about food, including "The Botany of Desire," "The Omnivore’s Dilemma," "In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto," "Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual," and the forthcoming "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation." [includes rush transcript]


PART 3 - Michael Pollan: From GMOs to NYC’s Soda Ban, Local Efforts Challenge Agri-Giants’ National Control
From California’s Proposition 37 initiative to New York City’s soda ban, journalist and best-selling author Michael Pollan argues that local efforts hold the key to challenging the agricultural industry’s stranglehold over national food policy. With companies like Monsanto influencing Congress and state legislatures, Pollan warns the United States risks falling into a "two-class food system," where only those who can afford to live outside the industrial food system can access healthy ways to eat. Among the nation’s leading writers and thinkers on food and food policy, Pollan is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Journalism and author of several best-selling books, including "In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto." [includes rush transcript]



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DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG - Food Fight: Debating Prop 37, California’s Landmark Initiative to Label GMO Food (Original Post) proverbialwisdom Oct 2012 OP
More here: http://www.carighttoknow.org/ proverbialwisdom Oct 2012 #1
Just why is it wrong for Americans to know what we are eating? MrYikes Oct 2012 #2
Rap Song Video: "GMO Bodies" (DISCLAIMER: Of course, there is no scientific proof of the following) proverbialwisdom Oct 2012 #3
"Ah, God he really kind of got it (environment, energy, health), didn't he?" proverbialwisdom Oct 2012 #4

proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)
3. Rap Song Video: "GMO Bodies" (DISCLAIMER: Of course, there is no scientific proof of the following)
Thu Oct 25, 2012, 12:47 PM
Oct 2012

Just found. Used as transition between first two segments of democracynow.org broadcast (above).

youtubecom/watch?v=nYIBeE83z8k

GMO Bodies Rap Video



Published on Sep 16, 2012 by Rawllywood
2,359 views

GMO's are creating GMO BODIES. VOTE YES Prop 37 in California.
...This Video uses humor, satire and disturbing images to expose what many believe are the repercussions of what our food supply is doing to We The PEOPLE. This video in no way is meant to make fun of overweight people. MOST IMAGES IN VIDEO DENOTE DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF GMO BODIES. This makers of this video believe that certain factors in our food supply are addicting us to certain foods that are making so many fat, sick, moody, depressed and even worse. Please educate yourself about Genetically Modified Foods and what they may be doing to you and your family. Anything that has CORN, SOY, COTTON or CANOLA-- that is not organic-- could already be causing symptoms in your or a family member. Look up www.responsibletechnology.org for more information. If you are in California-- You have the right to know what is in your food. VOTE YES for PROP 37 on November 6th, 2012

http://www.rawllywood.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63
http://www.carightoknow.org

proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)
4. "Ah, God he really kind of got it (environment, energy, health), didn't he?"
Thu Oct 25, 2012, 02:05 PM
Oct 2012
MICHAEL POLLAN: "...Obama understands this very well, but he also understands political reality. And to move against this system in any significant way will spark an enormous backlash. The food industry is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, industries in Washington. Witness, you know, the debate over the farm bill. Witness the debate over antibiotics in livestock. There are many very commonsense provisions that simply don’t stand a chance in Washington. And Obama made a calculation early on that he did not have enough support behind him to move against this system and try to reform it. And, in fact, he has said this to people."



http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/24/michael_pollan_californias_prop_37_fight

PART 2 EXCERPT

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Pollan, I want to ask you about President Obama’s record on reforming the U.S. food system. Less than two weeks before he won the 2008 presidential election, President Obama told Joe Klein at Time magazine, quote, "I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollan about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the meantime, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs."

MICHAEL POLLAN: Ah, God, he really kind of got it, didn’t he? I mean, look, Obama understands the problems of the food system. He can connect the dots between the way we’re growing food in these huge monocultures to overuse of fossil fuels to grow those crops, and production of lots of unhealthy food that leads to the healthcare crisis. Environment, energy, health—they’re all linked to the food system. And you’re not going to really make progress on any of those three issues without addressing the way we’re growing food.

Obama understands this very well, but he also understands political reality. And to move against this system in any significant way will spark an enormous backlash. The food industry is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, industries in Washington. Witness, you know, the debate over the farm bill. Witness the debate over antibiotics in livestock. There are many very commonsense provisions that simply don’t stand a chance in Washington. And Obama made a calculation early on that he did not have enough support behind him to move against this system and try to reform it. And, in fact, he has said this to people.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, it’s interesting. Let’s—let’s go to what he said in 2007 when he was running for president, promising to label GMO foods, if elected.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Here’s what I’ll do as president. I’ll immediately implement country-of-origin labeling, because Americans should know where their food comes from. We’ll let folks know whether their food has been genetically modified, because Americans should know what they’re buying.


AMY GOODMAN: That was President Obama before he was president. Michael Pollan?

MICHAEL POLLAN: Yeah, so he kind of pre-endorsed Proposition 37. And—but, you know, since he’s come in, most of his decisions have taken the side of Monsanto. Most of his decisions have taken the side of industrial agriculture against people seeking, say, to break up the big monopolies in meat packing.

And the reason he’s done this is he’s a good student of politics: he understands there’s not yet enough political support, that this movement I’m describing is a very young movement. It is—you know, if you compare it to the environmental movement, it’s pre-Earth Day. It’s—it hasn’t yet had that galvanizing national political movement. People so far are voting with their forks, and we are, from the grassroots, creating an alternative food economy—very important, very powerful and incredibly exciting to watch. But this movement hasn’t yet exerted any muscle at the ballot box, in Congress, in the White House.

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