5 Things We Can Learn from the Battle Against GMOs

Here are five strategic lessons from the ongoing battle against GMOs that are applicable to a broad range of political issues.

 

Ronnie Cummins

Alternet

 

Twenty years after the controversial introduction of unlabeled and untested genetically engineered foods and crops, opposition to GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and Monsanto has created one of the largest netroots-grassroots movements in the U.S.

 

There are arguably more important issues facing us today than the battle against Frankenfoods. The climate crisis and corporate control over government and media come to mind. But the rapidly growing anti-GMO movement illustrates the powerful synergy that can develop from the combined use of social media, marketplace pressure and political action. Recent developments in this sector indicate that out-of-control corporations, media, politicians and the proverbial “1 percent” can be outsmarted and outmaneuvered. And quite possibly defeated.

In the wake of high-stakes multi-million dollar GMO labeling ballot initiatives in California in 2012, and Washington State in 2013, an army of organic food and natural health activists have put Corporate America and the political elite on the defensive. We’ve demonstrated that aggressive populist issue-framing; unconventional “inside-outside” coalition-building; marketplace pressure; online list-building, mobilization and fundraising can be strategically channeled into local and state-based political action and can begin to even up the odds between David and Goliath.

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