I guess it’s my fault.
I’ve stayed silent on these things way too long. I’ve watched with helpless disgust while the politics around me shifted from the deeper social understanding of mass-movements into the isolated politics of drug legalization, spiritualism, and foodie-ism.
At a certain point though, I gotta call some people out, and my firm NO ON 37 stance is a good place to start. You might know that this is the Proposition that aims to require labeling of genetically modified food. The “right-to-know” act. My basic issue is this. We require labeling for things that have a scientifically demonstrated impact on our health. Genetic modification has no proven effect on our health, and the only demonstrations that may show a correlation are problematic studies by people with demonstrated political leanings.
I could stop there. But it goes so much deeper than this for me, it’s a deep annoyance with this “paranoid mother” social milieu that’s pushing this stuff. I’ve been watching the GMO debate for a while. And it’s full of rhetoric. I basically agree with this guy:

Meanwhile, the anti-GMO argument goes more like “it’s icky” as demonstrated by this well-rehearsed 13-year old:

And it doesn’t end there. It’s one kid after another paraded in front of the camera, begging on behalf of their paranoid mothers. And it goes further. It’s one conflation after another. Monsanto opposes it. GMO farming is big agribusiness which is bad for the environment. And a bunch of other reasons I really can’t think of nor care to right now.
Thing is, people aren’t opposed to curbing Monsanto’s power, or making big agribusiness more sensitive to the environment. But none of those things have anything to do with labeling GMOs.
I could go on and on, but I won’t. I’ll just say this:
Look, you have a right to know what’s in your food, it’s true. You have a right to buy gluten-free organic non-GMO vegan food produced in ground plowed by unicorns under a full-moon in mid-april and irrigated with Fijian artesian water. Work with the farmers you like to develop some trusted labeling system so you can live your perfect little ultra-food lifestyle.
But none of these things have any demonstrated effect on our health. Food is food. Your body grinds it up, breaks it down, and rebuilds it. It doesn’t matter what the original form was. Everything else is in your head, as far as the rest of the world and I are concerned. Leave the rest of us out of your games, don’t force the rest of us to to deal with your fantastic understanding of food.