by Ken Root
I once made the argument that we need to do away with county government. That drew wrath from those who believe the only people who know them and care about them are the elected officials and staff at their county level. I could make the same argument about doing away with state government and you would come back with a similar allegiance to those who represent you at the state level. If I asked: ?Which level of government should be supreme over others?? I suspect you would say it should be the federal government except in special cases where states have specific situations that require more localized jurisdiction.
The crux of today?s legislative and regulatory challenges hinge on who has the final say. If we were getting all the government we pay for, Congress would have shut down state food labeling laws many years ago. There wouldn?t be cancer warnings coming out of California nor genetic modification notices coming from Vermont. But Congress is locked up politically so it surrenders authority to a single state. This can create a field day for environmental and social activists who only have to get their political subdivision to pass a law that is constitutional and no other government entity supersedes it.
It is interesting to watch the food companies and their reaction to the genetic ingredient labeling bill in Vermont and the inaction by Congress. The major players: Campbell, Con Agra, Mars and General Foods all abandoned hope for a legislative fix and began printing new labels last week. They still contend their current products, containing genetically modified ingredients, are safe but principle is put behind profit in the board room. Some in Congress have suggested these companies will stop selling their products to the six hundred thousand people in Vermont but that is as likely as Mitch McConnell giving President Obama a big hug. It is all about the bottom line and giving up market share is far more important than anything else.
The next situation to watch for is whether this declaration of ingredients will truly cause any companies to make their cereals, soups or cake mixes GMO free. At this point the sugar beet industry is seeing contracts canceled because literally all beet sugar is GMO. Cane sugar is not and would be attractive, domestic or imported, at a similar price. Getting that ingredient out of some products could allow a label without the GMO acknowledgement but keep in mind a lot of sweetener comes from corn in the form of high fructose corn syrup. It is the major sweetener for soft drinks and the vast majority of corn is genetically modified. So is almost all vegetable oil. As a result the corn and soybean industries could be vulnerable if non GMO grain and oil seeds can be sourced, domestic or imported, at a reasonable price.
It is safe to say the food companies won?t be reformulating unless they lose market share or can make more money on non GMO products. Organic is the new profit center but it adds another layer of documentation and expense.
We are going through this entire exercise because one state passed a law that requires action from the major players in the food industry. This state law could do more to disrupt the rich and powerful than Vermont?s own Bernie Sanders will accomplish in his presidential campaign. With the rift between Republicans and Democrats in Congress, the failure of a Republican backed voluntary system of food labeling has given way to a Democrat supported mandatory system so the only action would be to validate Vermont?s mandatory law as long as a Democrat is in the White House.
What all this indicates to me is that we either need to get rid of all levels of government except that which stands supreme or to get rid of the federal government because it isn?t doing its job. Before you cast blame, remember we elected every one of the officials with whom we are so displeased.
The only thing worse than the government we have now is the one we will elect in November! According to the campaign rhetoric, we will either block our borders or allow everyone in. We will end trade agreements. We will dismantle corporations and regulate everything, or we will put more control in the hands of the powerful and regulate nothing. We will be taxed at a much higher rate to pay for universal healthcare and make education free through college or we will strip out all existing federal health and welfare programs and give them to the states to operate as they see fit.
Wow, I?m starting to look at travel brochures for a lot of countries that let you stay after your visa runs out. I?m sixty-seven and this is the strangest political environment I?ve seen in my lifetime. I only hope the candidates who emerge from the conventions become sane people who have the capability to govern and the vision to do so.
I regret to say that all of this was caused by us. We elected people who became more partisan than pragmatic. We endorsed extremism in primary elections and we now have most of the Democrats in the left ditch and most of the Republicans in the right ditch. Only a few are in the middle of the road trying to govern while being run down by political action vehicles funded by eccentrics, formerly known as crazy people with money.
In July, as you open your cereal box in Hugoton, Kansas, look for the label that says: ?contains GMO?s,? and remember neither your county, state nor federal government had input in the law that requires declaration of the ingredient?s presence in your food.
