We know that a multi-million dollar campaign killed Washington's GMO Labeling Initiative 522. What are these giant food companies that greatly contributed to the campaign of killing GMO labeling?
Washington Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch from the Thurston County Superior Court made a ruling that the food industry group Grocery Manufacturer's Association, violated the state's campaign finance disclosure laws when it tried to hide the identities of the corporate funders. GMA had waged a fight against Washington in 2013 food-labeling initiative, with $11 million in donations major contributing food companies that want to kill GMO labeling in the U.S.
Accordingly, the top 10 donors and their contributions have been listed as follows:
1. PepsiCo PEP 0.53% : $1.7 million,
2. Nestlé USA Nestlé S.A. : $1.1 million
3. General Mills GIS 0.88% : $646,000
4. Coca-Cola KO -0.07% : $565,000
5. ConAgra CAG 1.06% : $308,000
6. Campbell Soup CPB 1.43% : $286,000
7. The Hershey Company HSYFB 2.43% : $268,000
8. J.M. Smucker SJM 0.80% : $260,000
9. Kellogg K 0.39% : $239,000
10. Mondelez MDLZ 1.66% : $156,000
Washington Initiative 522 (I-522) "concerns labeling of genetically-engineered foods" and was a 2012 initiative to the Washington State Legislature. As certified by the Washington Secretary of State, it achieved enough signatures to be forwarded to the legislature for consideration during the 2013 session. The legislature did not vote on the initiative, so I-522 advanced to the November 5, 2013 general election ballot. If only it was passed into law by voters, I-522 would have taken effect on July 1, 2015 but this did not happen. The initiative failed to 51% opposition according to Washington Secretary of State's Elections Division.
This multi-million campaign has alarmed Washington and Attorney General Bob Ferguson was quoted in saying, "This ruling sends an unequivocal message: Big money donors cannot evade Washington law and hide from public scrutiny. My office will hold you accountable."
On the other hand, Katrina Asay, chair of the Public Disclosure Commission, praised the court's ruling: "The Commission is very pleased with the ruling. This case sends a strong message that the Commission will not tolerate efforts to conceal the truth about who is funding campaigns and attempting to influence elections. We appreciate how quickly the Attorney General acted in this matter, and we believe his staff did a great job of defending Washington's campaign disclosure requirements for the people of Washington State."
We have to stay tuned on and pay extra attention to what happens next in this GMO labeling saga.
