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" Sometimes, it becomes very, very clear that the government very often mistakes cleverness for the right thing. For example, if you wanted to clear the way for genetically-modified foods, the responsible public policy approach is to explain to the country why it&amp;#039;s a good thing for the government to do this. (This is so they have some investment in the eventual appearance on the landscape of a corn cob the size of a Audi.) The fact that you can skunk the thing through by employing a little legislative sleight-of-hand might get you a &amp;quot;win,&amp;quot; but it&amp;#039;s no way to ensure that the public will support what you&amp;#039;ve done. It&amp;#039;s governing by the pea under the shells. Worse, there&amp;#039;s more than a little element of corporate blackmail to it, since the the amendment in question was tacked onto a bill that was required to keep the government running. That bill, of course, was necessary because the budget process has been hijacked by vandals. The biotech rider instead was introduced anonymously as the larger bill progressed - little wonder food activists are accusing lobbyists and Congress members of backroom dealings. The Food Democracy Now and the Center for Food are directing blame at the Senate Appropriations Committee and its chairman, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. According to reports, many members of Congress were apparently unaware that the &amp;quot;Monsanto Protection Act&amp;quot; even existed within the spending bill, HR 933; they voted in order to avert a government shutdown. I assure you. In some boardroom somewhere, three guys are slapping high-fives while two other guys cut campaign checks. It turns out those Enron dudes were pikers. This is the real stuff right here. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a21156/monsanto-protection-act-032813/>