I wish I had the smoking gun, but what is the likelihood that two adjacent states within the same time period would both create a Your State's Name Here Dairy / Food Labeling Advisory Committee show purpose is to ban labeling milk in connection with rBST / rBGH? Both with faux "consumer advocates" on the panel and both dedicated to doing Monsanto's bidding? Coincidence?
Last month, unbossed carried a number of stories that revealed our investigation into the members of the Pennsylvania Food Labeling Advisory Committee. Links here, here, here, here, and here. We even predicted the spread of the concept here and here.
Our investigation found that members on that committee included a lobbyist who was on the committee as the representative of a pro-consumer food group and another supposed "consumer advocate" was pro-banning milk labeling that would reveal the use of rBST. In fact, she was pro the use of rBST.
So that's life in Pennsylvania.
Let's take a look at life in the Buckeye State, a state that, unfortunately, in recent years has been a political battle ground over voting rights and home to corruption. And I mean that unfortunately, because I really like Ohio.
Ohio
Here are the similarities between the two. Pay attention, because similar efforts are probably underway in your state.
The Ohio Dairy Labeling Advisory Committee was supposed to begin holding meetings Dec. 6 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Bromfield Administration Building Auditorium, 8995 E. Main St., Reynoldsburg. Unlike Pennsylvania's P-FLAC, the O-DLAC was supposed to have public hearings to take information "to aid the Director of Agriculture in establishing a policy regarding dairy labeling issues." A second meeting was to be held on Wednesday, Dec. 19 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. That first meeting's location was changed on December 5, just as revelations about P-FLAC and the Pennsylvania ban on dairy labeling was heating up.
Unlike the secret, closed meeting of the P-FLAC, this meeting drew big name speakers, including Consumers Union.
Within a short time, there was a mass movement in Ohio asking the Governor to take action to REALLY protect consumers. In addition, to rallying the troops, that Consumer Union notice revealed:
Of the seven dairy farmers on the Advisory Committee, six use rbST on their cows. In addition, the one "consumer advocate" on the Committee, Robin Steiner, is a former area market manager for Monsanto, the company that sells Posliac, the rbST drug.
One of the other members of the committee, supposedly there as a consumer advocate, was . . . pro-rBST use.
Creston-area resident Robin Steiner, one of the members of the advisory committee, said she has talked to customers at five grocery stores in recent months, asking them specifically about the rbST issue.
"There is no milk that does not contain hormones," she said. "I just thought it was ironic because none of these people had ever heard of bST. ... Milk is milk. I don't care what anybody says."
She added, "The claims that they're putting on there are making people feel like they're purchasing something that is less healthy for their kids, and that is very misleading."
link.
In other words, as in Pennsylvania, the O-DLAC was a stacked deck.
You have to wonder how they find so many of these "consumer advocates".
Coming soon to your state?
Your state may be next. According to reports, "Similar regulations prohibiting labeling are being advanced in New Jersey." link
Knowledge and knowledge-sharing is power. Keep alert, and share what you know.
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