Running The Country - Running The Country

Wow! We really love the Missouri miles we’ve run thus far. Stunning farm country with beautiful people. Not saying the Show Me state is perfect though. We’d love to have Missouri show us some shoulders on the sides of their roads. On the other hand, showing us 25 ticks in one day on Jenna (the newest member of our family we picked up at DAWGS in Dalhart, Texas), seems a bit over the top.

Maybe Missouri’s subsidized agribusiness entities learned how to suck blood from their parasitic arachnid cousins. Suit-wearing bloodsuckers are fixing to amend the Missouri State constitution, something that some of the local folks might say “don’t need no fixin’.”

According to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, if Agribusiness gets its way, independent family farmers will lose the protection they need to grow seed uncontaminated from GMOs, preserve livestock bloodlines, and access the market. Dubbed “Missouri’s Monsanto Protection Act,” “House Joint Resolution 11 (HJR 11) proposes an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that will forever protect “agricultural technology” and “modern and traditional” farming practices in Missouri. . . . This bill will benefit biotech and mega farm companies, not Missouri’s small family farms nor consumers seeking wholesome locally grown food.” (http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/aa/aa-8april2013.htm)

Ticks on Jenna tend to hide out under her fur to keep us from squashing them. Ticks in agribusiness hide out behind euphemistic, confusing language that will prevent voters from understanding what they may vote on.

The following text is what Missourians may read in the voting booth this fall:

“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to ensure:
That the right of Missouri citizens to employ modern farming and ranching practices and equipment shall not be infringed.”
(http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/aa/aa-8april2013.htm)

It really ticks me off that big money and big corporations are working their hardest to remove Missourians right to limit GMOs and inhumane animal agriculture and they’re doing it with lies pretending to serve and protect family farmers.

Whether you live in Missouri or another neck of the U.S. woods, don’t fall for agribusiness and chemical industry lies. We have a right to know what’s in our food. We have a right to keep GMOs out of the fields if we the people choose to do so. We have a right to keep CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) away from schools, playgrounds, and our neighborhoods.

Today David and I are going to put in another 20 miles or so with Jenna in beautiful Missouri. No doubt, we’ll be pulling ticks all day long. It’s just what you do when you see ticks–whether those ticks feeds on dogs, people or politicians. We’re up for the job. If we all work together, we can remove and squash ticks whether they live in tall grass, St. Louis, or Washington D.C.

How can you help? Starting today and with the support of several GMO Free organizations, Food Democracy Now! has launched its Divest Monsanto Now! campaign. If you own Monsanto stock, it’s time to dump it. The timing couldn’t be better. Yesterday Vermont’s governor signed the nation’s first stand alone GMO labeling law and according to the Food Democracy Now! team, “. . . the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), and GMA member Monsanto, announced that they plan to sue the state of Vermont to stop the bill from being implemented!” Suing Vermont for giving its citizens the right to know what’s in their food? That would be unbelievable if we weren’t talking about Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

By dumping Monsanto stock, you send the unmistakably clear message to Monsanto that you refuse to profit from Monsanto blood-sucking business practices. What a fine day it will be when together we have removed one of the biggest ticks of all from our skin, farms, fields, and U.S. governmental chambers.

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Brett Wilcox is the author of We’re Monsanto: Feeding the World, Lie After Lie. Brett and his 15-year old son, David, are currently running from coast to America coast promoting a GMO-Free USA. Brett and David blog at RunningTheCountry.com. Brett wrote this blog in Willard, Missouri. Support their run and mission at RunningTheCountry.com/donate.

A group of us got together in Wichita on Earth Day and had a GMO related discussion. I have to admit that I had some trepidation prior to the discussion and prior to running through the farm country of America’s heartland. How would people respond to our run and mission? With pitchforks? Manure? Crop dusters?

We’ve still got a good many miles to run, but I’m happy to write that, thus far, my fears were unfounded. Regardless of our location—from California through Kansas—we’ve been treated with a whole lot of love, respect, and generosity, including from kind folks who don’t know us from Adam, but think nothing of lending a helping hand to stranded travelers.

That doesn’t mean everyone appreciates our run and mission, but we continue to be surprised that, even here in farm country, virtually everyone we meet opposes GMOs. And if anything, they oppose GMOs with more passion than people from more urban locations. Why? Because GMOs aren’t just an issue they face while shopping in the grocery store, they’re an issue every time they step outside. They don’t have to search the Internet to see people poisoned from vast stretches of GMO monocultures. They’re surrounded by GMO monoculture. Some also have to live with the stench and pollution from nearby concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). They’ve long since said good-bye to the idyllic vision of yesteryear’s family farm, and they’ve had to say hello to the ugly reality of modern chemical based agribusiness.

It shouldn’t surprise me that the battle is more real in these rural regions. Over the past year or so, I’ve been closely following the battle the people of Hawaii continue to wage against the chemical giants.

http://vimeo.com/93458338

In Hawaii, of course, the chemical giants aren’t selling their seeds to farmers; they’re poisoning Hawaiians as they saturate Hawaiian land with an assortment and quantity of chemicals that wouldn’t be allowed in America’s heartland, and they’re doing it in the name of research. And they’re fighting the citizens of Hawaii at every turn for their right to continue poisoning Hawaiians and their sacred land free of any responsibility for their legal but criminal acts. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maggie-sergio/gmo-pesticide-experiments_b_3513496.html)

What kind of people do that? If people did that to my family, I’d be furious. Oh wait, they are doing it to my family—the human family—and I am furious!

It’s time for Americans to wake up. The chemical companies are poisoning our families, whether that poisoning takes place in grocery stores, farms, waterways, or research plots in Hawaii, other states or countries.

The people who attended our discussion in Wichita are very much awake! Some of the participants have been fighting for their right to raise their kids in a clean world far longer than Kris and I have. Others are just learning about the dangers associated with GMOs. Some are especially fired up because their own congressman, Representative Mike Pompeo, betrayed them when he sponsored the euphemistically titled Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014, an act that would ensure no GMO will ever be labeled in the United States.

We had a fun and lively discussion. One of the participants, Tommy Tuttle, spoke of the upcoming March Against Monsanto in Wichita on May 24th. Wichita, of course, is one of hundreds of cities that will host yet another March Against Monsanto. David and I will be running through St. Louis right around May 24th. St. Louis is Monsanto’s headquarters. The St. Louis March organizers asked if I would say a few words at their March. “By all mean, yes!”

I had the privilege of organizing and speaking a year ago at the March in our hometown of Sitka, Alaska. Last October, I enjoyed speaking at the March in Salt Lake City.

Speaking in St. Louis will be a total honor! But speaking on such occasions is more than an honor; protesting Monsanto and gang is our shared responsibility. If we don’t speak out, we are complicit in the poisoning of our children, grandchildren, and the world.

We extend a big thanks to Natural Grocers in Wichita for providing the perfect room for our GMO free discussion. Thanks to everyone who showed up and shared their knowledge and passion. And special thanks to Angi Whittiker for taking the initiative to bring everyone together and for leading the good fight with lots of love and compassion.

We’re excited to attend and participate in Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company’s Spring Planting Festival on May 4th and 5th. If you’re attending, please drop by our booth and say hello.

We’re also facilitating another GMO Free discussion in Springfield, Missouri (1727 S Campbell Ave) at Mama Jean’s Natural Market on May 8th at 5:30 pm.

Thanks to our Kris and Olivia (our support team), David and I are continuing our run for a GMO Free USA. A whole lot of people are praying for us day by day as we run eastward. We deeply appreciate the prayers! Of course, we often think about and pray for the people we’ve met on our run. We pray for the people of Hawaii, and we pray for all our sisters and brothers around the globe who are battling for their right to eat clean food, breathe clean air, farm clean soil, drink clean water and enjoy sustainable agricultural systems.

Thanks for your prayers and thanks for all that you do!

We’ll see you on the road!

—

Brett Wilcox is the author of We’re Monsanto: Feeding the World, Lie After Lie. Brett and his 15-year old son, David, are currently running from coast to America coast promoting a GMO-Free USA. Brett and David blog at RunningTheCountry.com. Brett wrote this blog in the towns of Severy and Parsons, Kansas. Support their run and mission at RunningTheCountry.com/donate.

Category: Running The Country

Ticked Off In Missouri

GMO Free Earth Day Discussion in Wichita Kansas