The Florida leaders entrusted with saving the state’s endangered citrus groves discussed waging a government-funded campaign to convince growers, packers, processors, and customers to accept GMOs as real “oranges.”
The proposal pushes for the official re-definition of “orange juice” to include juice from synthetic strains of oranges.
The discussion took place at the Citrus Research & Development Foundation’s April 28 board of directors meeting.
CRDF is anticipating that the HLB disease will destroy Florida citrus groves before the Foundation’s favored Monsanto/Bayer GMO solution will come to market.
The CRDF board heard a “CRAFT Foundation Pre-Application Proposal to NIFA for Funding” to promote GMOs envisioned to replace Florida’s present citrus groves once HLB wipes them out.
NIFA is a federal grant program of the US Department of Agriculture.
SaveCitrus.com obtained a copy of the CRAFT Foundation slide presentation. Screenshots of the April 28 board meeting show that CRDF COO Rick Dantzler was part of the discussion.
Step 1: Get USDA to re-define what a ‘orange juice’ is
The argument presented to CRDF was that GMO oranges aren’t legally “oranges” under federal guidelines, so proponents would have to lobby the US Department of Agriculture to change its regulatory definition of “orange juice.” That way, GMO juice could be marketed as the real thing.
Step 2: Wage propaganda campaign to get Florida citrus growers, packers, and processors to accept GMOs
To do that, however, GMO proponents – apparently banking on total HLB destruction of Florida’s present citrus groves – would have to persuade Florida citrus farmers to accept GMO seeds and plants. This means a government-funded campaign to modify the perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of everyone in Florida’s orange juice supply chain.
Step 3: Wage propaganda campaign against American public to get people to accept GMO juice
GMO proponents would then have to wage a campaign to pressure or persuade the orange juice-buying public to accept juice from genetically-modified frankenfruit.
Nobody on the CRDF board objected to the proposal. Screenshots of the slide presentation, displayed on Zoom’s online conferencing app, show CRDF board members, including COO Rick Dantzler, observing the propaganda-advocacy presentation.
What the CRAFT Foundation and CRDF board discussed
The exact wording of the CRAFT Foundation’s presentation to the CRDF board, as shown in the slide, was this:
‘Identify an optimized approach to gain grower, processor, packer and consumer acceptance, as well as expedite large scale commercialization of selections that could replace established HLB susceptible sweet orange varieties and other cultivars.’
Using government funds to get citizens to change their attitudes, perception, and behavior is called propaganda.
The slide presentation and recorded Zoom meeting show that CRDF considered – and did not raise questions about or object to – a proposal to apply to the US government to modify public attitudes, opinion, and behavior for a pre-determined purpose.
Not one member of the CRDF board raised an objection to the proposed propaganda campaign – not even COO Dantzler, who as a lawyer and a politician would understand precisely what was being considered.
Juice from GMO oranges isn’t legally ‘orange juice’
One big hurdle is that Bayer’s planned GMO oranges aren’t really oranges at all. What Bayer allies apparently want to do is to lobby the federal government to re-define what an “orange” is, and re-define “orange juice,” so that Bayer’s GMOs can legally be called oranges and orange juice.
Once the feds re-define synthetic oranges as natural oranges, Bayer can market its frankenfruit products to replace Florida’s dead groves.
Then it will have to convince citrus growers to accept the fake fruit as the real thing.
At the same time, growers will need to know that their customers who depend on Florida’s pure, natural citrus will go along with eating and drinking Bayer frankenfruit instead.
This means that Bayer allies must wage a propaganda campaign against the American public to trick or convince them to go along with the plan.
Meanwhile, Dantzler and CRDF aren’t willing to listen to smaller innovators who might have a cheaper, quicker solution that will save Florida’s remaining citrus groves.
