Rallying for the Right to Know: Label GMO Foods Now

Even if it's all icy outside (gorgeous -- the ice glistening on the trees), it's still time for a springy change here on the blog.

Today, there are Right to Know-Truth in Labeling for GMO foods Rallies all over the country. I'm not going to the one about an hour away because I got very little sleep (sick -- yes, still -- plus Tot sleep shenanigans), but I want to support them in any way I can. Even if you can ignore the research that shows that GMO foods are bad and ignore the doctors who are prescribing non-GMO diets to everyone as cranks, the fact is that here again we have big business unduly influencing government agencies. Apart from potential harm to human and animal health and the environment, the danger is that the biotech companies involved in GMO development (you know who I'm talking about) spend millions of dollars on lobbying the FDA to keep GMO foods unlabeled -- which means most of us are consuming GMO foods without knowing it. I don't want Big Biotech to decide what it's okay for me to eat. I don't want to be their guinea pig. And I don't want to have to find out whether GMO foods really cause pesticide production in our guts.

Moreover, scientists are warning the FDA that new pathogens are being developed from GMOs, pigs are too smart to eat GMO feed, and then there's this incredible scariness: agribusiness takes schoolteachers on Agriscience Bus Tours so that teachers will develop curriculum based on what they learn. And they are not learning about the dangers of GMO, nor are the tour leaders answering GMO concerns satisfactorily. I challenge you to look up teachers and GMO -- while there is plenty of stuff that is anti-GMO, there are also things like the Biotechnology Activity Book and other biotech lessons, "educating" our kids so that totally unnatural foods seem normal by teaching them in schools. Yuck.

Corporate propaganda in our public schools. Corporate influence on regulatory agencies. It's disgusting. I say we all revolt.

Counting Up the Lies

The next time you have a knock-down drag-out fight with a lying cur, don't you wish you had these people on your opponent's ass?

The Center for Public Integrity just put out a report on the Bush Administration's 935 lies about the threat of Iraq. 935 lies! Think about that! 20 lies would be a lot. But 935? At least the American people can feel slightly less stupid for believing that crap -- we were inundated! But really, come on. Am I the only one who remembers how Bush tried to tie 9/11 to Iraq when there was absolutely NO evidence to show any relationship whatsoever?

Anyway, this is fascinating not only from a civic viewpoint, but from a rhetorical viewpoint. People are counting up lies! Lies made in the name of persuasion and justification of foreign and domestic (let's not forget the Patriot Act, a related issue, though one not included in the report) policy. Fascinating. I hope some rhetorical scholars who work on presidential public speaking are working on this. I wonder what the effect will be. Let's make sure people hear of it. Pass it on.