Grocery Manufacturers Association sues the state of Washington over GMO labeling fight: GMA more evil than Monsanto

Monday, February 17, 2014 by: Zach C. Miller
Tags: Grocery Manufacturers Association, GMO labeling, Washington State

(NaturalNews) Monsanto has for years now been referred to as the most evil and hated company on the planet to those in the know. But before Monsanto, junk food companies were already peddling their wares to Americans and influencing the American diet. Junk food companies are represented by a single entity called the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). The GMA represents leading junk food producers such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Kellogg's, General Mills, Nestle and Monsanto. As you might guess from seeing this list of Big Ag names, the GMA is loyal to its members and cares little about human health and human rights issues. After GMO labeling ballot measure I-522 failed to pass in Washington State by a narrow margin, a list of the companies paying to defeat the measure was released. And as you might be able to guess, these same companies were on that list.

GMA's long-term plans to combat GMO labeling: label GMO food ingredients as "natural"

The GMA's primary objective is really to keep consumers as uninformed about GMOs as possible. A key aspect of the GMA's plan for fighting GMO labeling efforts in the US is the pursuit of statutory federal preemption. This preemption, once passed, would prevent a labeling requirement.

According to documents released through the Attorney General, the GMA has made long-term plans to quench GMO transparency issues in order to keep consumers uninformed about what's in their food. Another section in the documents revealed details about the Association's "Industry Image Efforts" which are related to the GMA's plan for dealing with "attackers," i.e., organizations and people working toward food ingredient transparency.

On December 5, 2013, the GMA sent a letter to the Chief Counsel of the FDA, Elizabeth Dickinsin. The letter informed her that the "GMA will be filing a Citizen Petition early in 2014 that asks the FDA to issue a regulation authorizing foods containing ingredients derived from biotechnology to be labeled 'natural.'" The GMA also wants to shut down any potential state lawsuits regarding the the legal interpretation of the "natural" label. 65 class action suits have previously been filed against food manufacturers who use GMOs in "natural" products.

GMA sues the State of Washington

On January 13, 2013, the GMA sued the state of Washington. The Association sued for the right to hide corporate campaign fund sources. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson declared that the GMA broke Washington State's campaign finance disclosure laws. As a counterpunch move, the GMA sought to have the campaign finance laws declared unconsitutional! The Attorney General stated after this that he "looked forward to defending transparency in Washington elections."

Having an answer to everything, the GMA has laid out a clear strategy for dealing with any state in the union that implements a GMO labeling law: They will sue. The GMA states, "The first state to implement a GMO labeling law will be sued on the constitutional grounds seen in IDFA v. Amestoy." The GMA use threats of costly litigation and bully anyone in their way to protect its interests and agenda, the agenda to keep consumers in the dark about the dangers of GMOs and heavily processed junk foods by any means possible. However, as consumers become more aware, the GMA's attempts at passing unpopular bills will likely meet with increasingly greater and more expensive public resistance.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org

www.news-beacon-ireland.info

www.politico.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

About the author:
Zach C. Miller was raised from an early age to believe in the power and value of healthy-conscious living. He later found in himself a talent for writing, and it only made sense to put two & two together! He has written and published articles about health & wellness and other topics on ehow.com and here on NaturalNews. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Applied Science.