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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2016)
March 30, 2016 Page 7 O PINION The Right to Know How Our Food in Produced Shouldn’t have to eat in the dark J ill r iChardson I’m sick of writing about labeling geneti- cally engineered foods. I’m sick of it be- cause there’s really one thing to say, and I’ve said it before: Americans have a right to know how their food is produced. Peri- od. The fact is that most processed food in the supermarket is genet- ically engineered. That means it includes ingredients that have genes from other species inserted in their DNA. Nearly every single American has eaten genetically engineered foods, but many of us don’t know it. Does it matter? That’s up to each individual. Just like it’s up to you wheth- er you care if your food is kosher, gluten-free, low-carb, or anything else. You can decide whether it’s by worth it to you to buy cage-free eggs or not, because the eggs are labeled. That doesn’t take free- dom away from someone else who wishes to make a different choice than you. The labeling fight is an old one. Food companies don’t want to add any la- bel that might make you less likely to buy their products. For example, they don’t want to add easy-to-read “traffic light” labels that give each product a health rating of green (“Yes! Eat this!”), yellow (“Think before you eat”), or red (“This is really bad for you”). In studies, con- sumers find these labels really easy to use — so naturally busi- nesses that sell junk food hate them. On the flipside, food compa- nies do want to add labels that make their products look more attractive — even if the labels are misleading. Like the time orange juice from concentrate was misla- beled as “fresh.” Or when Chee- rios promised to lower your cho- lesterol, even though the claim was unproven. Sometimes, food manufactur- ers even make up voluntary label- ing systems to show consumers which of their foods are health- iest, like the corporate-backed Smart Choices Program that labeled sugary Froot Loops a “smart choice.” When pressed, they defended the claim by not- ing that Froot Loops cereal is healthier than, say, a donut. The pushback against labeling genetically engineered foods is simply an admission by manu- facturers that we wouldn’t want to eat their food if we knew what they were putting in it. You know what, then? Maybe don’t put it in the food. But, they tell us, genetically engineered ingredients are safe. OK, fine. Put them in the food and label it. And if you’re afraid consumers won’t buy it, make your case to the American people why we should eat it. Because Americans shouldn’t have to eat in the dark. In the land of the free, we ought to have the freedom to decide what to put in our mouths. Speaking of eating in the dark, Congress is on the brink of pass- ing legislation that its critics call the “DARK” Act. That stands for Deny Americans the Right to Know, and that’s exactly what this kind of law would do. It’s a common game in food politics: When individual states finally do what the federal gov- ernment won’t — as Vermont recently did by requiring labels — industry opponents go to Con- gress to ban the regulations ev- erywhere. The tactic is completely un- democratic. Whatever you think about ge- netically engineered foods, Big Food is proving again and again that its politics may be its most unappetizing product of all. OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is the author of Rec- ipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. Celebrating Six Years of the Affordable Care Act Obama Cares narrows the disparities gap M arC h. M orial On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Af- fordable Health Care Act into law in the East Room of the White House. Six years later, 20 million people who could not af- ford health insurance or were de- prived of life-saving coverage be- cause of a pre-existing condition, now have health insurance cover- age. Today, our nation is actively narrowing the gap on adverse ra- cial health care disparities. Today, under the law simul- taneously loved and reviled as “Obamacare,” most insurance plans fully cover preventative health care services; young adults, who might have other- wise been uninsured, get to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26; and women are no longer forced to pay more for health insurance because of their gender. And that is why I am adding my voice to the legion of American voices congratulating the current administration on its signature health care law as well as those by calling for the necessary reforms to fix the law’s shortcomings and ensure that this generation and fu- ture generations of Americans ex- perience health care as a right, not an exclusive and elusive privilege. From sea to shining sea, health insurance coverage gains have been shared broadly among Ameri- can communities. African Americans have the highest mortality rate of any racial and ethnic group for cancer and Latino communities also suffer from disproportionate rates of illness, like cervical can- cer, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Since the law’s hard-fought in- ception, the number of uninsureds among African Americans—and whites—has dropped by over 50 percent. The Hispanic rate of uninsured has decreased by a quarter, with almost four million Hispanic adults gaining coverage under the law. Over two million young adults, who were particu- larly likely to be uninsured after losing coverage under their par- ent’s health insurance, are now guaranteed insurance under their parent’s health plans until they are 26 years old. Despite all of these gains, Re- publicans have continued to label the Affordable Care Act a disaster. How can 20 more million Amer- icans with access to life-saving health care ever be described as a disaster? Yet, the Republicans have been engaged in a five-year long effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The GOP has busied itself taking over 50 votes to roll back the law and put the health of millions of Americans at risk, but has never leveled with the American people about a GOP alternative to the Af- fordable Care Act. Rather than take a position of slash and burn, we need to save what works and better what doesn’t. The Affordable Care Act is not the first large-scale government program to face its share of chal- lenges or wide-spread criticism. Obamacare shares company with the Social Security Act, which was described by a critic as a “fraud on the working man,” and Medi- care was widely seen as a threat to American freedom. Despite the heated rhetoric, both programs are still here serving the needs of Americans. The Affordable Care Act is in its sixth year of infancy—and while the program is no where near perfect—it is saving lives and putting an end to insurance prac- tices that unfairly deny Americans insurance coverage. Obamacare has a long, bumpy road of reforms to travel, but in year six, it has also come a long way in providing bet- ter health choices for the Ameri- can people. Marc H. Morial is president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League. The Law Offices of Patrick John Sweeney, P.C. 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