On the recordJuly 6, 2016
I rise today to address the bill before us, a bill that presents itself as a labeling bill but which is deeply defective, with three major loopholes that mean this labeling bill will not label GMO products, and I am going to lay out those challenges. First, I want to be clear that this is about American citizens' right to know what is in their food. We have all kinds of consumer laws about rights to know, but maybe there is nothing as personal as what you put in your mouth or what you feed your family. That is why emotions run so deep. Citizens have a right to make up their own mind. We talk a lot about the vision of our country being a ``we the people'' democracy, and certainly it was Jefferson who said ``the mother principle'' of our Republic is that we can call ourselves a Republic only to the degree that the decisions reflect the will of the people, and that will happen only if the people have an equal voice. In this case, we have a powerful enterprise--a company named Monsanto--that has come to this Chamber with a goal, which is to take away the right of consumers across this Nation and take away the right of citizens across this Nation to know what is in their food. I am specifically referring to the Monsanto DARK Act. Why is it called the DARK Act? It is called the DARK Act because it is an acronym: Deny Americans the Right to Know.…





