Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Food Lobby Colossus Sues Vermont over GMO 'Right to Know'

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, June 13, 2014

Food Lobby Colossus Sues Vermont over GMO 'Right to Know'

Click here to access article by Jon Queally from Common Dreams.

It appears that agri-business and food corporations are planning to warn other cash-strapped states not to pass such laws or else...or else they will face costly lawsuits from cash-rich corporations in courts whose judges were appointed to serve corporate interests.

But Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers Association, defended the Vermont law and said the industry lawsuit was simply an example of large corporate interests trying to intimidate other states who are now considering labeling laws of their own.

As Cummins told the Burlington Free Press: "Every U.S. citizen should be concerned when a multi-billion dollar corporate lobbying group sues in federal court to overturn a state's right to govern for the health and safety of its citizens."