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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2012)
Pase8__________________________________ ®>e ^ c r tla n h (Observer__________________ October 17.2012 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views o f the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. New Prices Effective May 1,2010 « Martin Cleaning Service Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services | Minimum Service CHG. $45.00 A small distance/travel charge may be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 Each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: I sm all H allw ay) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $40.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - With O ther Services): $25.00 What Are the Food Giants Hiding? Area/Oriental Rugs: $25.00 Minimum Area/Oriental Rugs (Wool): $40.00 Minimum The fight over genetically modified foods Heavily Soiled Area: by Additional $10.00 each area (Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying) UPHOLSTERY CLEANING Sofa: $69.00 Loveseat: $49.00 Sectional: $ 109 - $ 139 Chair or Recliner: $25 - $49 Throw Pillows (With Other Services): $5.00 ^9 ADDITIONAL SERVICES • Area & Oriental Rug Cleaning • Auto/Boat/RV Cleaning • Deodorizing & Pet Odor Treatment • Spot & Stain Removal Service • Scotchguard Protection • Minor Water Damage Services SEE CURRENT FLYER FOR ADDITIONAL PRICES & SERVICES Call for Appointment (503) 281-3949 J ill R ichardson I'm going to sell you something to eat, but I won't tell you what's in it. Trust me, the ingredients are per fectly safe — but I absolutely op pose telling you what you're eating. I also won't let independent scien tists study the ingredients. And I'm making a bundle of money by sell ing these unlabeled products. But trust me, they are safe. Go ahead, take a bite. Does that sound ridiculous? Well, chances are, your pantry is full of products made by companies that are spending millions in Califor nia to avoid telling consumers what's in their food. On Election Day, Californians will vote on Proposition 37, a measure to require mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. Coca Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, Kellogg, and Nestle have each kicked in more than half a million bucks to defeat the mea sure. And even if Californians win the right to know what's in their food, the rest of the country may remain in the dark. Genetically engineered crops are plants that have had genes from other species inserted into their DN A. Real examples include tomatoes endowed with genes from a fish or com with genes from a type of bacteria. Most of Avalon Flowers 520 SW 3rd Ave., Portland, OR 97204 • 503-796-9250 A full service flower experience B •Birthdays • Funerals »Anniversaries • Weddings Open: Mon.-Fri. 7:30am til 5:30pm Saturday 9am til 2pm. Website: avalonflowerspdx.com the packaged foods we buy already contain these ingredients, because most of our com and soy is geneti cally engineered. Check the shelves of your local supermarket and you'll have a hard time finding a product with no high fructose com syrup, soybean oil, or other com- or soy-based ingredi ent. The food industry, which pro hibits studies of these crops by independent scientists, assures us that they are safe. If they were safe and beneficial as the industry claims, you'd think the biotech and food industry would want to brag about them. You'd ex pect to see boxes of granola bars labeled "Now with genetically engi neered com!" Perhaps you'd see commercials for breakfast cereals with cartoon tigers telling kids to ask their parents for Genetically Engineered Crunch. Instead, these newfangled crops quietly slipped onto supermarket shelves in the mid-1990s without any warning. Most Americans still have no inkling that our food has changed. Now, when faced with the pros pect of actually telling their custom ers what's on their plates, Big Food is fighting tooth and nail and spend ing millions to keep us in the dark. What on Earth are they hiding, if the products they sell us are as great as they say? Think about it: Practically every major food manufacturer in America is afraid that you wouldn't buy their products if you knew what was in them. I don't care if a food's secret ingredient is antioxidants or anti freeze, carrots or carcinogens — consumers have a right to know what they're eating. Period. If a company knows that its cus tomers would not buy its products if only they knew what was in them, then it has a duty to either change the ingredients or label the ingredi ents and let its customers decide. We make food choices for any number of reasons: taste, price, eth ics, religion, even fad diets or celeb rity endorsements. When it comes to your right to know about what's in your food, it doesn't matter if you've got a good reason or a bad reason for making a particular choice. I think many fad diets are utterly insane, and even some members of my family shake their head at what I eat. And that's fine. I have a right to know what's in my food. So do you. That will leave us free to choose what we eat. Proposition 37 em braces the beauty of the free market: Let us know what's in our food and let us decide what to eat. If avoiding ge netically engineered ingredients and produce means a food costs more, we can all decide whether that's worth it. But corporations should not be able to make that decision on our behalf without so much as letting us know. OtherWords guest columnist Jill Richardson is the author o f Recipe fo r America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It.
