Report: GMO Labeling Opponents Triple Spending
Monsanto, Du Pont, others devote millions of dollars toward lobbying.
Groceries, food makers and biotech companies opposed to laws that would require genetically modified products to be labeled have spent聽far more money lobbying this year than in 2013.
that the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Monsanto, DuPont, Coca-Cola and others opposed to mandatory labeling spent $27.5 million during the first six months of 2014, according to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that supports GMO labeling. That’s up from $9.3 million in all of 2013.
Groups who support GMO labeling have disclosed spending $1.9 million in lobbying expenses during the first half of 2014, up from $1.6 million the previous year.
An aerial view of Monsanto Company’s fields on Molokai, part of Maui County.
GMA Vice President Mike Gruber told Reuters that the EWG report is “grossly misleading,” noting that the lobbying expenses go toward many other issues besides GMO labeling.
The GMO labeling issue is expected to resurface next year in the Hawaii Legislature, which has batted it down time and again in recent sessions.
Civil Beat reported last month that the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation plans to spend $400,000 as part of a public relations campaign to convince voters that genetically engineered farming is good. It’s聽partly in response to a ballot initiative in Maui County that would聽ban genetically modified farming until it’s deemed safe.
Citizens Against the Maui County Farming Ban put聽over聽$80,000 into ads on local TV stations last week. Civil Beat reported Monday that the ads are likely the first of many this election to focus on biotechnology in agriculture.
Read the EWG’s full report .
