What one misleading mailer and one false press release tell us about truth in labeling.

In the final days of the 2012 election, an exchange took place over California Proposition 37, which showed problems for both campaigns for and against the measure. It started with a mailer produced by the No on 37 campaign, which may have stretched the truth, and ended with the Yes on 37 campaign holding a press conference Friday with nonprofit groups that was quickly erased from existence once it was debunked by the mainstream media.
The goal of Proposition 37 is to require labels on foods and food products that were produced using genetic engineering (GE), with some exemptions. Chief among the claims of proponents are that consumers have a “right to know” these details about how their food was produced, and that these foods carry health and environmental risks that go beyond conventionally-produced food. It would also prohibit labeling such foods as “natural,” and due to ambiguities in the wording of the proposition, the same may be true for processed foods that do not contain genetically engineered content. The Yes on 37 campaign is primarily funded by companies that sell competing foods that could gain from altering how these products are labeled. Continue reading “The FDA, The FBI, and Prop 37” →