Listed: Politicians Who Received Payments To Make GMO Labeling Illegal

On July 23, The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015, know to its critics as the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, passed the House  with a vote of 275-150. As a result, the DARK Act must now be voted on by the Senate; this is the people’s last hope for finally defeating the bill that will ultimately change how our food will be labelled.

If passed, the Dark Act will override state laws that require foods containing GMO ingredients to be labelled, meaning Americans will be completely left in the ‘dark’ when it comes to food content.

Since the passing of the bill, sources have allegedly discovered that the house members who voted in favour of the bill were “paid three times as much as representative who voted to give us the right to label or ban GMO foods.” According to the source, during the 2014 cycle, “the 230 Republicans and 45 Democrats who voted to pass the bill, collectively received over £29.9 million from the agribusiness sector and food and beverage industry.” This roughly totals $108,900 per member who passed the bill, compared to the average $38,977 earned by those who voted against ‘illegalizing GMO labelling’.

This evidence would undoubtedly explain how the bill was passed, once taking into consideration the number of surveys that prove between 80 and 90 percent of Americans oppose the bills goals.

According to opensecrets.org, these representatives received large payments leading up to the vote:

…the campaigns of Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), all cosponsors of the legislation (most of whom also sit on the House Agriculture Committee), received six-figure dollar amounts from providers of agricultural services and products — one segment of the agribusiness sector — during the 2014 election cycle. That put them high among the top 20 recipients of funds from the industry.

Cosponsors such as Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.), Steve Fincher (R-Tenn.), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) aren’t on the Agriculture Committee, but nevertheless pulled in six-figure dollar amounts from the crop production and basic processing industry (another part of agribusiness; think Cargill Inc. and the National Corn Growers Association) during the midterm cycle — landing them among the 20 members who received the most from that industry.

Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), two original sponsors of the legislation, were the top two current House members receiving the most money from the Grocery Manufacturers Association in 2014. The grocery manufacturers — who have spent $4.1 million lobbying on all issues so far this year, almost as much as they spent in all of 2014 — have lobbied on the bill more than any other organization, mentioning the measure on 14 lobbying reports this year.

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