Prop. 37, the Jesuits, and Michael Pollan

On the ballot for California is a proposition mandating the mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food (GMOs). You can read the details at Wikipedia. There's been a lot of press on this because big guns like Monsanto, DOW, Coke, Pepsi, Bayer, etc. (and the Republican party) are against it. I'm for the labeling of GMOs and I'll vote yes on prop 37.

Speaking of GMOs, it may come as no surprise that the Vatican endorses them and that (at least some) Jesuits are against them ... Genetic Engineering Evaluated from the Perspective of Christian and Ignatian Creation Spirituality by Roland Lesseps, S.J, Promotio Lustitiae, Social Justice Secretariat, Society of Jesus (Rome), 2003.

Here's Michael Pollan speaking on GMOs and prop 37 ...



And here's a bit from an article in the NYT. The whole article is worth a read but here's the beginning of it ...

Buying the Vote on G.M.O.’s

Supporters of ingredients derived from “genetically modified foods,” which hereafter I’ll call G.M.O.’s — genetically modified organisms — are mostly the chemical companies who make them or other people who make money from them. They assert that a) there’s no proof that G.M.O.’s are harmful to humans, and b) studies demonstrating that they might be are largely flawed [1]. Point B might even be true, although since the chemical companies largely control the research, it’s hard to tell.

But even if there were a way to guarantee that food produced with G.M.O. ingredients is not directly bad for you, it remains clear that such food is in general bad for all of us, based on the collateral damage from producing it ...