Tag: nation
Battles Rage In Oregon, Colorado Over Genetically Modified Foods

Battles Rage In Oregon, Colorado Over Genetically Modified Foods

By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times

Voters in two Western states are caught in fierce battles over whether consumers will know what is deep inside their food.

Oregon and Colorado on Nov. 4 will decide the fate of labeling laws for genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, the latest fronts in a battle over packaging. Measure 92 in Oregon and Proposition 105 in Colorado call for labeling food so that purchasers know whether they are buying products that contain materials that have been genetically engineered or modified.

The states could become the first to pass such a referendum; Washington and California rejected similar measures after expensive campaigns in 2013 and 2012, respectively. Vermont approved such labeling through the legislative process, but the issue is still being fought in the courts.

In its most basic terms, the ballot measures pit coalitions of foodies, organic farmers and nutrition activists against many of the nation’s leading manufacturers including the biotechnology company Monsanto, Kraft Foods, and Coca-Cola. The coalition fighting against labeling has also included large grocery chains and some farmers, and some of the labeling advocates are sizable companies in their own right.

Those who want the label contend that consumers are entitled to know whether their food contains GMOs so that they can make informed decisions about their purchase. Opponents fear labeling will stigmatize their products and will place an economic burden on consumers because of the higher costs associated with separating out modified products from others.

A GMO is any plant or animal that has been modified with outside DNA, a practice companies contend is useful as a way to increase yield or provide protection against some diseases.

Still, GMOs carry the stigma of past debates that centered on “Frankenfood,” and raise fear of good, scientific intentions running into unexpected consequences. That is an ungrounded fear, say scientists who have studied the issue. A 2008 report by scientists for the National Academy of Sciences found no health problems associated with using GMOs and well more than a majority of all commercial products have them.
The current battle in Colorado mirrors those positions.

“What California really did was wake up the country,” Larry Cooper, co-chairman of Right to Know Colorado, told the Los Angeles Times. Even though the California labeling proposition lost, Cooper said the effort helped raise awareness on the issue.

In Colorado, the supporters of the labeling campaign are heavily outweighed by their opponents: $700,000 to an estimated $12 million, Cooper said.

“It’s definitely a David-versus-Goliath thing,” Cooper said, adding he was proud of the grass-roots support his side had marshaled.

“If they are so proud of GMOs, why would they be opposed” to a measure that advertises them on the label? Cooper asked.

Opponents contend that labeling measures could hurt the people they were designed to help.

“We oppose state-by-state mandatory labeling laws like Measure 92 in Oregon and Proposition 105 in Colorado,” said Monsanto spokesman Thomas M. Helscher said in an email to the Los Angeles Times. “The reason we don’t support them is simple. They don’t provide any safety or nutrition information, and these measures will hurt, not help, consumers, taxpayers, and businesses. We support a federal approach which ensures food safety and consumer choice.”

In Oregon, the battle has become the costliest over a ballot measure in the state’s history.

As of the weekend, the two sides have raised $16.7 million, The Portland Tribune reported.

Monsanto has donated more than $4 million to defeat Measure 92, it was reported.

On the other side, the Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps company, which has supported similar labeling battles elsewhere, has given $1.15 million.

And in a clever public relations move, Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont ice cream company and label supporter, renamed its popular Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavor to Food Fight Fudge Brownie to draw attention to the ballot initiatives.

Photo: CT Senate Democrats via Flickr

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Family Greets Jeffrey Fowle In Ohio This Morning

Family Greets Jeffrey Fowle In Ohio This Morning

By Barrie Barber and Thomas Gnau, Dayton Daily News

DAYTON, Ohio — Family members of Jeffrey Fowle emotionally greeted the West Carrollton, Ohio, man Wednesday morning after he spent more than five months as a detainee in North Korea.

Fowle’s three children and his wife, Tatyana, rushed to embrace him as quickly bounded down the steps of a blue and white Air Force C-40 jet that reportedly carried him from North Korea to Guam and Hawaii before landing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at 6:42 a.m.

The 56-year-old former Moraine city worker made no comments to the press.

Fowle’s children were not told their father was coming home before they greeted him, said Col. John M. Devillier, commander of the 88th Air Base Wing, who was part of an entourage that met Fowle on the tarmac.

“I got teary eyed,” Devillier said. “The reaction from his children was priceless. They hadn’t seen their dad in some time and the expectation would be that they would get teary-eyed and they did and I did too. It’s great to welcome him home.”

The State Department had requested the Air Force assist to transport Fowle back to the Miami Valley.

The Air Force jet emblazoned with the United States of America on its side and the American flag on its tail departed the base about 20 minutes after Fowle got off the plane.

He had been held by North Korean authorities since May after he allegedly left a bible in a public place. North Korean authorities consider Christian evangelism a crime.

The Beavercreek High School graduate is a former equipment operator for the city of Moraine, Ohio. In September, the city of Moraine terminated his employment after his leave from his job was exhausted.

Fowle was one of three U.S. citizens detained in the Democratic Republic of Korea, a communist nation largely isolated from the rest of the world.

AFP Photo/Kim Jae-Hwan

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Guantanamo Board Says Saudi Captive Can Go Home

Guantanamo Board Says Saudi Captive Can Go Home

By Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald

A U.S. national security panel has approved for release from Guantanamo a long-held prisoner whose advocates argued was less of a risk at-large than the five Taliban captives sent to Qatar in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May.
Muhammed Zahrani, 45, got to Guantanamo in August 2002 and was until this month held as an indefinite detainee, without charge or eligible for release, a “forever prisoner.” The Periodic Review Board announced Monday he was eligible for repatriation to his native Saudi Arabia, raising to 80 the number of men approved for transfer from the remote prison holding 149 detainees.
Separately, the panel upheld the indefinite detention status of Mohammed al-Shimrani, 39, who boycotted his May 5 parole hearing to protest military groin searches of captives going to and from appointments.
With these decisions, the parole board President Barack Obama ordered set up in 2011 has looked at nine forever prisoners files and approved five for release and retained the indefinite detention status of the other four.
Zahrani persuaded the board to make him eligible for release, according to a document released by the Pentagon, because of his “candor with the board about his presence on the battlefield, expressions of regret, and desires for a peaceful life after Guantanamo.”
It’s not possible to know what he said because, at Zahrani’s request, his remarks and written submission to the board were under seal at the parole board website.
These were the board’s first review of Saudi prisoners, and the members note in their unsigned recommendation that they gave consideration specifically to Zahrani because of the ongoing Saudi rehabilitation panel.
A panel of representatives of the Departments of Defense, Justice, State, Homeland Security, and National Intelligence Directorate heard his case June 19.
It was unclear why the decisions took so long.
A U.S. intelligence assessment, which was prepared in April, said Zahrani trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan in the two years prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. It said he has “provided information of value” to U.S. intelligence but alternately “withheld details” and “possibly has exaggerated his role in and significance to al-Qaida, to which he remains devoted.”
At his parole hearing, two unidentified U.S. military officers assigned to plead his case argued a history of misbehavior at the Pentagon prison did not mean he would be a risk to the United States, if released. Rather, an officer argued at the hearing, according to a transcript, that his behavior was “that of an inmate, rather than that of a terrorist.
“Such resistance and noncompliance with correctional staff is commonplace in penal systems, including in the U.S. … included by 12 years of detention, frustration, separation from family and boredom with no possible end in sight.”
They called him “a middle-aged, ailing man who desperately wants to return to Saudi Arabia” to receive national healthcare, go through the country’s detainee rehabilitation program and “start over.”
The brief three-paragraph decision clearing Zahrani made no mention of the portion of the U.S. military officers’ plea that called him less of a threat on paper than five Taliban prisoners sent to Qatar in May in exchange for release of Bergdahl, a long-held prisoner-of-war.
Instead, the panel declared itself impressed with his “mindset,” family support and willingness to take part in the Saudi-run rehabilitation center for former jihadists.
The board declined to change Shimrani’s status with an indirect mention of his boycott of the proceedings in protest of the groin searches.
It said it was not possible to evaluate his “mindset” because he didn’t show up, would review his case in six more months and encouraged full participation. Its short decision also encouraged him to engage with any Saudi government representatives who visit Guantanamo.

AFP Photo/Mladen Antonov

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