By not labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods Monsanto and the other biotech agriculture companies are giving us no choice but to “trust” their evaluation of the foods produced with this new technology.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the words “trust me” I immediately become very suspicious of what’s coming. It brings to mind a used car salesman or a young man who doesn’t want to keep his britches zipped.

Generally, when someone asks for your trust, it is because they don’t have it, and probably for good reason. Trust is earned, not taken or demanded of us.

Monsanto has done the opposite of earning our trust. They have in fact abused our trust with products like Agent Orange, and persistent toxic chemicals like PCBs, which can now be detected in every man, woman and child in this country according to the Public Health Statement for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) by the Center for Disease Control.

The way to earn trust is through transparency, bringing people into the process and answering everyone’s questions and concerns. This is not what we have seen with the introduction of GE foods.

In fact, people with questions about GE crops have been slandered and silenced, like British Rowett Institute scientist Dr. Arpad Pusztai who discovered toxicities in GE potatoes and was unwilling to hide the facts from the public.

In California, UC Berkeley researcher Dr. Ignacio Chapela was initially denied tenure in part for revealing that GE corn imported from the U.S. was cross pollinating and contaminating Mexican native corn.

These tactics are not the way to earn anyone’s trust. Then, of course, there was the Starlink scandal when the GE cattle food crossed into products for humans.

If we lack trust in Monsanto’s judgment on the safety of GE foods, what are our options?

There are over 40 other countries we could consider immigrating to where GE foods are labeled, or we could take Monsanto and the other biotech agricultural corporations to task and require them to label GE foods here at home.

In fact, if they want and expect us to trust them, they should be labeling these foods already, but they don’t. Why? I think it is because they don’t trust us!

They have two chief fears. They fear we’ll stop buying these foods if they are labeled. And some consumers might, but others who support the technology will use the labels to seek out GE products. Either way, I believe the consumer should have the choice.

Their other fear has more sinister roots. It is the fear that millions of American will figure out that they are bearing all the long-term risks of this hidden technology while patent holding corporations like Monsanto are reaping all the benefits.

There was no shortage of conventional corn and soy in 1996 when the first GE crops were grown. The benefit was to Monsanto whose patent on the active ingredient of “Round-UP” was about to expire, but whose future sales could be guaranteed by contractually requiring its use on the new GE herbicide tolerant crops.

The current lack of traceability of GE foods because they are not labeled on supermarket shelves insures that corporations like Monsanto will never face any liability for long term health effects, should they develop.

So there is no trust between Monsanto and us consumers. So far Monsanto and the biotech industry have held the upper hand and GE foods are not labeled and we are eating them unknowingly.

The way to tip the scales towards us, the 90 percent of Americans who want labeling, is to require by law that these foods be labeled. Not by asking; we tried that with almost 1 million letters sent to the FDA, and got nowhere. Not by having a legislative body pass a law; tried that too (remember Vermont?) and got nowhere; but with a citizens’ initiative such as we have in California Proposition 37.

The power of a citizens’ initiative is that we, the people, get to make the law, and you can be sure that it won’t be popular with those interested in maintaining the status quo. They will use every distraction, scare tactic and outright lie to convince the California electorate to vote against their right to know what they are eating.  

Monsanto and the other biotech agricultural corporations want to keep us in the dark about what we are eating, because they don’t trust us to eat what they are offering. I would like to trust them to provide me with good wholesome food, which is what I want to eat.

But until they earn my trust, I want GE foods labeled and will be exercising my right to vote this November by casting my ballot for Yes on Proposition 37 and hope that you too will choose labeling so we don’t have to blindly trust Monsanto.

Annelle Durham is an organic farmer in Upper Lake, Calif., and a member of the Yes on 37 Lake County Committee.