It’s no surprise that big food, farming and agrichemical corporations want to defeat mandatory labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). What is surprising and depressing is how many Democrats approved a bill in the House of Representatives that would deny the public’s right to know whether food they purchase has GMOs in it.

HR 1599, The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015, is anything but what its name misleadingly implies. It’s been dubbed the DARK Act, for Deny Americans the Right to Know. Every single Illinois Republican in the House of Representatives voted in favor of the DARK Act that passed the House in July with 64 percent in favor of the legislation.

Democrats voting to approve the DARK Act were Cheri Bustos, Robin Kelly, Daniel Lipinski, Danny Davis, Tammy Duckworth and Bill Foster.

Standing up for our right to know and voting against the DARK Act were Jan Schakowsky, Bobby Rush, Luis Gutierrez, and Mike Quigley.

The DARK Act would gut state legislation calling for labeling GMO food. It would preempt and nullify legislation sponsored by Sen. Dave Koehler (SB 1666) in the Illinois Senate and Rep. Deborah Mell (HS 3085) in the House. Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth is a co-sponsor of Mell’s legislation calling for labeling.

“Passage of this bill is an attempt by Monsanto and its agribusiness cronies to crush the democratic decision-making of tens of millions of Americans. Corporate influence has won and the voice of the people has been ignored,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of Center for Food Safety. “We remain confident that the Senate will preserve the rights of Americans and stand up for local democracy.”

In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act with 14 co-sponsors including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy. Queries over the course of a week to Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Mark Kirk asking for their position on Boxer’s right-to-know bill went unanswered.

The right to know is foundational to democracy. Thankfully, most Democratic legislators understand that. Labeling GMO food is mandated in 64 countries including 28 European Union members, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia and China.

GMOs have been called the biggest fraud perpetrated on the American public. A New York Times OpEd equated the growing clout behind GMOs as “Another ‘Too Big to Fail’ System.” The authors, one an investment advisor and one an academic scientist, draw parallels between mistakes leading up to the 2007 financial crisis and the support behind GMOs. However, they point out, with the financial system meltdown, a bailout was possible although painful. With GMOs, there is no bailout. When the system fails, the entire food and ecological system are in jeopardy.

Steven Druker’s book “Altered Genes, Twisted Truth” recounts the history of GMOs and how corporations subverted science, corrupted government and systematically deceived the public. It shows the pathetic state of democracy in America: money and corporations control Congress.    Clare Howard

Don’t defund Planned Parenthood

We can differ ideologically but we can’t survive as a democratic nation when people elected to public office function based on personal ideological beliefs and distortions rather than civil law, social responsibility and facts. Legislators have to rise above the personal and make decisions for the whole. And decisions, obviously, can’t be based on lies manufactured to support a personal ideological position. So a county clerk can’t legally cite her personal religion to justify decisions that violate civil law. Politicians in Washington can’t legitimately “shut down government” because they want to pretend lies are true.

The Planned Parenthood videos are false. They are edited to convey something that is not true. When Carly Fiorina cited the videos and described a scene with “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain,” she tells us more about her own lack of character than anything about America’s character.

Maybe there was confusion about the existence of “weapons of mass destruction,” but there is no confusion about the Planned Parenthood videos. They are distortions and lies. The idea of “shutting down government” unless Planned Parenthood is defunded is extortion not worthy of the U.S. Congress or a Presidential candidate.

The facts: Planned Parenthood does not sell or profit from supplying aborted fetal tissue. Research on fetal tissue is legal, and Planned Parenthood was reimbursed for its costs to ship tissue to authorized researchers. The videos were obtained illegally. The videos were edited to obscure the truth and trigger an emotional response.

If legislators can’t separate truth from lie, emotion from reason, voters should make the decision for them. And people who want to keep a low profile on this issue and “let the cycle run its course” need to assess their responsibility to civil society in a democracy.

It’s hard not to wonder if we will ever find our way back to a nation ruled by reason, law, compassion and truth.

Clare Howard