To the Editor:

It was great to watch, on Sept. 7 at the Garberville Vets Hall, the two documentaries centering on the ill effects of genetically modified seeds, and to hear the intelligent presentation done on the topic by Rosa Roshal. If we want to understand the issues surrounding the promotion and use of genetically contaminated seeds, the documentary: "Bitter Seeds," which shows the failed promises of high yield and false claims of “less pesticide use,” is a great start. Never mind the destruction of the health of the soil through the companion sales of herbicides and pesticides, on which GMOs have a heavy dependency, but can we at least have accurate labeling of our foods?

Prop 37 would simply require that foods with genetically altered ingredients be labeled so. Look, if corporations like Monsanto, Smuckers, Kraft, etc., who have already thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars to suppress the labeling initiative, were proud of their products they would instead welcome the transparency. In Europe, they either label it or they cannot sell it. I image, though, it is a tough sell. "Hey, we inject aberrant genes into the food you are about to eat." But we need not worry about the food industry giants - they hire great marketing salesmen who can make anything seem appealing. (Have you really tasted these things?)

Foreign genes are in every cell of genetically modified foods and we do not have data to support the safety of this experiment. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that when food is altered at the cellular level, when food is doused in pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, when even bees cannot live with what is going on in our fields - we have a serious problem. And surely there are negative and cumulative effects all the way up the food chain. (Do we at all recall what happened to bald eagles after our earlier experiments?)

It would take an act of God to turn these huge corporations from their short-sighted aspirations for mere profit to thinking in terms of sustainable, healthy, farming - of a balanced life for all, but it only takes an act of voting to at least make them own-up to this one small aspect of what they do. Let us vote for Prop 37, which requires companies to admit on a label that this contains genetically altered "foods."

Maureen McIver

Piercy