In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, Genetic ID president Bill Witherspoon protests attempts to link the genetically engineered food testing company with activists through company founder John Fagan.
He claims that Friends of the Earth submitted samples to Genetic ID and requested testing for the presence of StarLink corn. What he didn’t divulge was Friends of the Earth’s links to Genetic ID.
Fagan, Witherspoon, and Genetic ID’s other co-founder, Jay Marcus, are followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In 1958, Maharishi began to teach the technique of transcendental meditation as a cure for modern society’s problems. In 1972 the Maharishi founded Maharishi University of Management (Fagan was a dean at the university) to teach his doctrine and in 1992 he founded the Natural Law Party to gain a voice in government (the Natural Law Party has branches in over 80 countries).
In 1996, the Natural Law Party spun off a political adjunct, Mothers for Natural Law (MFNL). Mothers for Natural Law’s one and only focus is to make testing and labels mandatory for genetically engineered (GE) foods. How do they intend to make testing and labels mandatory? By working with other activist groups like Friends of the Earth (FoE).
Example #1: MFNL and FoE, as part of the “coordinated efforts of dozens of organization,” worked together to get Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) to sponsor a bill requiring mandatory labeling of GE-foods.
Example #2: One of the biggest anti-GE campaigns is being waged by the Turning Point Project. Turning Point has taken out 25 full-page ads in the New York Times (valued at $80K apiece). The ads warn of “ecological disaster” and “genetic pollution” and call for mandatory testing. A quick look at the ads sponsors finds MFNL and FoE working hand-in-hand here also.
Its no surprise that when it comes time to test, like FoE did with the StarLink corn, MFNL says you should turn to its fellow Maharishi-followers at Genetic ID
It’s time for Genetic ID to face the music and admit its activist-influenced anti-GE bias.
