Serving Monsanto’s Leftovers

Monsanto’s president, Brett Begemann, must like serving leftovers.

After all, he served up all of Monsanto’s warmed-over arguments against giving mom the right to know what’s in her food when he was interviewed for a Wall Street Journal opinion piece titled “Meet Mr. Frankenfood.”

Some of those arguments – like the claim that labeling genetically engineered ingredients increases food prices – are getting pretty stale.

Contrary to what Mr. Begemann claims, studies show that adding a few words to the back of the package will have no impact of the price of food.

Other Monsanto arguments are just red herrings. What does feeding the world have to do with GE labeling?

If Monsanto is so interested in feeding the world, they should be fighting to end food-to-fuel mandates, not fighting GE labeling. Besides, yields of conventional crops are increasing just as fast as yields of GE crops.

Other of Mr. Begamann’s arguments have passed their sell-by date. Recent studies show that GE crops have increased the use of weed killers such as Monsanto’s own glyphosate. But that didn’t stop him from serving up the half-baked argument that GE crops are better for the environment.

Perhaps groggy from poor food choices, he finally reached for a quilt – a patchwork quilt, that is. He contended that the dreaded patchwork quilt of state GE labeling laws would be bad for business.

Does that mean Monsanto supports national GE labeling? Nope. It turns out that Mr. Begemann forgot to mention that Monsanto has been lobbying for legislation that would make it harder for the FDA to create a national GE labeling system.

Monsanto’s leftovers are getting old, and it’s time to label GE foods so that moms can choose what they serve for dinner.