I'm mad. I'm furious that Washington state residents stood up for the right to choose who you want to love and marry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Referendum_74).
I'm enraged that Washington state residents felt we have the right to ingest the finest green whenever we wish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Initiative_502).
However, Washington state residents decided to give into the fear mongering that large corporations presented and chose to remain in the dark about what is in their food. At this point I have to stop and scream - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! When you break it down logically, it does not make any sense. Why would people who believe everyone deserves the right to choose to marry whom they want and ingest pot turn and suddenly say, "No! I don't want to know what you're putting in my food"?
The little blue flyer inviting people to a discussion on the upcoming Let Me Decide initiative showed up at our favorite coffee house one day and I recognized that a piece missing from my graduate school work was the political nature of food. I decided to attend the meeting and see how I could become involved. The meeting was dynamic, fun and definitely aligned with my goal of obtaining more exposure to food politics.
The initiative was referred to as I-522, Let Me Decide, and was created with the goal of requiring all genetically engineered (GE) food to be labeled. It was a first tier labeling initiative and would only require foods containing genetically engineered ingredients, or those which had been genetically modified, to be labeled. The people leading the charge months before the campaign group ever arrived on the scene was Food & Water Watch and numerous grassroots volunteers, coordinators and other advocacy groups.
"Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping the global commons — our shared resources — under public control. We envision a world where all people have access to enough affordable, healthy, and wholesome food and clean water to meet their basic needs — a world in which governments are accountable to their citizens and manage essential resources sustainably" (http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/about/).
