Can We Get an Injunction Against Ignorance?

Many weeks back I wrote here about the polls from the 1990s in which a majority of Democrats favored repealing the Public Affairs Act of 1975 because Bill Clinton was said to recommended repeal, with the punch line being that there is no such thing as the Public Affairs Act of 1975. It was a contrivance of pollsters to check on public ignorance.

Well, some merry pranksters at Oklahoma State University have struck a similar vein of comedy gold, with a poll showing that 80 percent of respondents favor mandatory labels for all foods containing DNA:

A recent survey by the Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Economics finds that over 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA,” about the same number as support mandatory labeling of GMO foods “produced with genetic engineering.” Oklahoma State economist Jayson Lusk has some additional details on the survey. If the government does impose mandatory labeling on foods containing DNA, perhaps the label might look something like this:

“WARNING: This product contains deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The Surgeon General has determined that DNA is linked to a variety of diseases in both animals and humans. In some configurations, it is a risk factor for cancer and heart disease. Pregnant women are at very high risk of passing on DNA to their children.”

Jonathan Gruber, call your office. And tell them they better get busy working on the ban on di-hydrogen monoxide, too, because it is clearly a much more dangerous than DNA. Or maybe the Justice Department can ask a federal judge for an injunction against ignorance. Yeah, that ought to work.

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