Of the top ten donors to No on 37:

• Four are subsidiaries of foreign companies (BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, Nestle).
• Nine are out-of-state companies. Only one – Nestle USA – is based in California, but it is a subsidiary of Nestle S.A., which is based in Switzerland.
• Three are subsidiaries of foreign pesticide companies (BASF, Bayer, Syngenta) that are not allowed to grow genetically engineered crops in their own countries for health and environmental reasons. 
• Six are pesticide companies not based in California, which together have given $20 million to oppose Californians right to know about genetically engineered food.

“Foreign and non-California companies are trying to buy this election, and keep California mothers and fathers from finding out what’s really in their children’s food,” said Stacy Malkan, media director for Yes on Proposition 37 California Right to Know campaign.
 
“It’s especially stunning that the opposition is being bankrolled to such a large extent by foreign pesticide companies that are using California families as guinea pigs for their genetically engineered crops that are shunned back at home,” Malkan said.
 
Switzerland has banned the growing of genetically engineered crops since 2005.  Germany severely restricts genetically engineered crops in Germany, and none are being planted there in 2012. The Swiss company Syngenta, along with German-based BASF and Bayer, have spent $2 million each to oppose Prop 37.
 
“These foreign companies are subverting our elections with a massive propaganda cocktail of lies and deception,” Malkan said.
 
On Friday, Oct. 19, food and consumer products companies contributed an additional $5.2 million to the No on 37 campaign.  Of the 35 contributors, only two are based in California, Nestle (a subsidiary of Swiss-based Nestle S.A.) and Clorox.
 
“The vote on Proposition 37 will come down to a question of whom should we trust. Should we trust the world’s largest pesticide and junk food companies to make the choices about what’s in our food, or do we want to make those decisions ourselves?”
 
Thus far, the opponents of Proposition 37 have raised a total of $40.7 million. The Yes on 37 California Right to Know campaign has raised $5.3 million, largely from natural and organic food companies, and from more than 10,000 individual donors.
 
The Yes on 37 campaign is also backed by more than 2,000 health, faith, labor and consumer groups including the American Public Health Association, California Nurses Association, California Council of Churches, United Farm Workers, California Labor Federation, Consumers Union, Public Citizen, the United Food and Commercial Workers and many more. See full list of endorsers here: http://www.carighttoknow.org/endorsements

 For more information about the Yes on 37 California Right to Know campaign, see www.CaRightToKnow.org.