Vote “Yes” on Proposition 37

By Dr. Michelle Perro, Rebecca Spector and Grant Lundberg 

Voting yes on Proposition 37 means three things:

You will have the right to know what’s in your food and whether your food is produced using genetic engineering.

Food will be labeled accurately. Food labels will have to disclose if the product was produced through genetic engineering.

Protecting your family’s health will be easier. You’ll have information you need about foods that some physicians and scientists say are linked to allergies and other significant health risks.

The food we buy already has nutritional information on the labels. With Proposition 37, we will have information, in plain language, if the food was genetically engineered, which means the food has DNA that was artificially altered in a laboratory using genes from viruses, bacteria or other plants or animals.

Because genetically engineered foods are controversial, over 40 countries around the world require labels for genetically engineered foods including most of Europe, Japan and even China and India.

Shouldn’t American companies give Americans the same information they give foreigners?

There are no long-term health studies that have proven that genetically engineered food is safe for humans. Whether you buy genetically engineered food or not, you have a right to know what you are buying and not gamble on your family’s health.

Labeling lets us know what’s in our food so we can decide for ourselves.

Proposition 37 is a simple common sense measure. It doesn’t cost anything to include information on a label and it’s phased in, giving manufacturers time to print new labels telling you what’s in the food or change their products if they do not want to sell food produced using genetic engineering.

Proposition 37 also prevents the misleading use of the word “natural” on products that are genetically engineered.

Big food manufacturers and agrichemical companies and their lobbyists oppose this measure. Many of these are the same companies that lied to us about the effects of pesticides or fought to keep other information off food labels, such as the number of calories or how much fat or salt is in their products.

Now they want to keep us in the dark about their genetic engineering of our foods.

Whether you want to eat genetically engineered foods or not, Proposition 37 gives you the power to choose what foods to feed your family. The big chemical companies should not make the decision for you.

Consumers, family famer, doctors, nurses, nutritionists and small business people and nearly 1 million Californians already stepped up to sign the petitions giving you the right to know what’s in our food. Will you join them?

When you vote on Proposition 37 please ask yourself one question: Do I have the right to know what is in the food I eat and feed my family?

The answer is “Yes on Proposition 37.”

 Dr. Perro is a Bay Area pediatrician. Spector is the West Coast director of the Center for Food Safety. Lundberg is the chief executive officer of Lundberg Family Farms.

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 (With some minor editing, this is the ballot argument in favor of November ‘s Proposition 37. Here’s the explanation of what the proposition does from the Legislative Analyst.)

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