I don't follow you on the bolded part..
As far as the next part, of course these are different elements; the government corruption is what allows GMO to happen, but if there were no issues with GMOs and these other Monsanto Monsters, then that corruption would have no deleterious effect. When we list the actual health concerns, we're demonstrating the effects of having those foxes guarding the hen house. If the drawbacks thereof aren't already readily apparent.
In short, GMO tech has been rammed through to the market without oversight. If it gets that scrutiny and passes, all well and good. It's not getting it.
And the other issue is the labeling. If you're selling a product that's safe for human consumption, then why would you go bending over backward to make sure nobody can read about its presence on the label? That's indefensible -- and it speaks volumes about why you might want to keep that info hidden.
For an analogy: there are still about a dozen states (NC used to be one of them until recently) where gas stations
don't have to tell you via a label on the pump, that there's ethanol in the gas. Now why would they need to keep that a secret?
Why indeed...
In other words, if GMOs are banned, you are just trying to stop the symptoms without affecting the disease, government/corporate corruption. So, GMOs are banned. Either corporations with different products will move in and take the place of the Monsanto's, or the biotech companies will find a new product or different way to push what they have.
As far as your thoughts on labeling, I can think of at least one very good reason not to want to put GMO on food labels; this thread is a perfect example. There are many people who are adamant that all GMO foods are bad. That doesn't actually make them so. However, a company would certainly want to do whatever it could to sell its products, so if labeling foods as GMO would mean less sales, even if they are perfectly safe, of course they wouldn't want to do that. It doesn't have to be some nefarious scheme, even if it may be in some cases.
Your argument sounds too much like 'if you have nothing to hide, why do you care if the police search you?'. I realize that's an inexact analogy, but it has that ring to it. If the food is safe, why wouldn't you want it in the label? That only holds true if everyone actually accepts the food is safe.
So again, while I can accept and maybe get behind better, more stringent testing of GMO foods before they are accepted, the idea that GMO foods are inherently bad is just reactionary IMO. So banning GMO foods, especially if you don't have evidence they are all bad, is going after the symptoms rather than the disease.
You can't
possibly compare a police search to an ingredient label search. Ingredients are not citizens, while OTOH citizens absolutely
do have a right to be protected from industrial excesses. There can be no question about that. What your argument then boils down to is essentially they might want the labeling to be banned because it would be bad for profits.
Yeah, no shit. See the point directly above about protecting the consumer. Profits don't trump public safety. That's not something anyone can argue. So when I ask for a reason to oppose such labeling, I meant a
legitimate reason. We all know the ulterior one.
I don't know why this point shouldn't be arrow-through-the-brain obvious-- this is what's being satirized in this skit:
Mr. Hilton: Oh, we use only the finest juicy chunks of fresh Cornish Ram's bladder, emptied, steamed, flavoured with sesame seeds, whipped into a fondue, and garnished with lark's vomit.
Inspector: LARK'S VOMIT?!?!?
Mr. Hilton: Correct.
Inspector: It doesn't say anything here about lark's vomit!
Mr. Hilton: Ah, it does, on the bottom of the box, after 'monosodium glutamate'.
Inspector: I hardly think that's good enough! I think it's be more appropriate if the box bore a great red label: 'WARNING: LARK'S VOMIT!!!'
Mr. Hilton: Our sales would plummet!
-- and this was a case of not enough labeling, where what we have here is a failure to label
at all. WtF? Sorry, this idea that the corporate profit must be defended at all costs and the public be damned is an absolute non starter.
And for the record, I don't avoid GMO foods because they're "bad". I avoid them because they're
unknown. And the corrupt revolving door is fixated on keeping them that way. That's what government is
supposed to be doing -- requiring proof of public safety before marketing. Like the aforementioned
Frances Oldham Kelsey did with Thalidomide. How many lives were spared here because she stood up to the march of what Windbag would call "science"?
Since government
isn't doing that, we the consumer are left to sift through the grocery shelves and the corn fields for the increasingly elusive unpolluted source that continues to get pollinated and polluted while the government stands by with a wink and a wad of campaign cash. No thanks.
That's one thing that sets this issue apart: if we had allowed Thalidomide, it would have affected only those who took Thalidomide-- it wouldn't be creeping into every bottle of Tylenol.
Nomsayin'??