Tuesday, March 13, 2012

I've got good news and bad news...

I wanted to give a shout out to those members of Congress who signed the bicameral letter requiring the FDA to label genetically engineered foods.

Here's the full news release from the Center for Food Safety.

Particular kudos to Pete DeFazio for taking the lead on this issue, along with Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici. Let's hear it for Oregon's congressional delegation!

What's particularly impressive is the amount of public interest in this issue; in just six months, the FDA has received over 850,000 signatures demanding GE labeling.

And now, the bad news:

Not that this should come as a surprise to anybody, but megacorporations are co-opting the work of anti-hunger organizations. You can read more about it here. My favorite (ironic) part of this article:

"Tres Bailey, Walmart’s Senior Manager of Agriculture and Food, listed off the accomplishments the company has made in its first year of its $2 billion commitment to supporting anti-hunger efforts: 250 million pounds of food donated to food banks; $67 million in grants made; with another $13 million of nutrition education grants in the works.
This sounds impressive until one considers what Mr. Bailey did not mention: the fact that the average Walmart worker, of which there are 1.4 million in the US, earns $8.81 per hour. At this pay rate, a single parent with one child working full time would qualify for food stamps."

1 comment:

bikelovejones said...

Well, I'm sure Sam And Fam would insist that whether or not one of their workers qualifies for Food Stamps is none of their concern, nor their fault. And if there was a way for them to pay their workers elss, they'd have done it by now.

Still waiting for subsidized carrots...