KCAW - Running The Country

July 27, 2014

Sitka’s KCAW Covers our Run For a GMO Free USA

Robert Woolsey from Sitka’s public radio station, KCAW, spoke with us a few days ago when we were parked at the ferry terminal in Cape May, New Jersey, getting ready to ferry our truck and trailer to Delaware. Thanks for the write up, Robert!

Sitka father, son finish 3,000 mile trans-America run
by Robert Woolsey, KCAW
July 21, 2014

Source: http://www.kcaw.org/2014/07/21/sitka-father-son-finish-3000-mile-trans-america-run/

A father-son team from Sitka has completed a six-month run across the United States.

Brett and David Wilcox ran into Ocean City, New Jersey, on Saturday (7-19-14), after covering 3,000 miles on foot. The project was intended to raise awareness about the hazards of genetically-modified foods.

There were some lonely times for the Wilcoxes, especially in the vast stretches of the Southwest.

But on the eastern seaboard, that had changed.

“We hit the big bridge going into Ocean City, and got a police escort. We were joined by a local runners club, so there were 10 or 12 of us. Kris (Wilcox) joined us. And with a police escort, they would stop all the traffic, even if we had a red light we got to keep running through it. And we ran right on to the boardwalk. There was a huge crowd waiting. They had been informed that we were coming. They were very excited. People had passed out GMO-free USA seeds. So they had some inkling of what our mission was….And it was the culmination of six months of actual running, and a year-and-a-half of preparation and time leading up to that moment.”

53-year old Brett Wilcox and his 15-year old son David are now the first father-teen son team to run across the country. They started on January 18 in Huntington Beach, California. David is the second-youngest runner to accomplish the feat.

Wife and mom, Kris Wilcox, piloted the support vehicle and handled endless logistics. Team member and sister, Olivia, provided support and dog wrangling.

Covering 20-miles a day, six days-a-week, Brett Wilcox is glad the United States is only 3,000 miles across.

“I’m down 8 pounds, and I bet David is down a few pounds, and up a couple of inches. I don’t think we could sustain that sort of schedule long-term. I think we were eating muscle. And we’re pretty worn out and pretty exhausted.”

The Wilcox family was on a campaign to raise awareness about GMO’s — or genetically-modified-organisms — and their prevalence in the American diet. Trying to live by their ideals, they were often frustrated trying to buy GMO-free food in stores along the more remote parts of their route.

But Wilcox says their message seemed to catch up with their run as they crossed the Mississippi and entered more densely-populated areas of the country.

“The final few days were pretty epic. There were some key people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey who got hold of our run, and really turned it into a mission. From GMO-Free PA and GMO-Free NJ, and they did all sorts of things to make sure the media was aware of what we were doing.”

The Wilcoxes maintained a website and blog during their run, and the number of media events increased significantly as the family moved eastward — and almost sabotaged their grand finale, as they ran to a radio interview only 14 miles from the finish line in Ocean City.

“And I took a wrong turn, even though we have the phone which told us exactly where to go. So 14 miles turned into 16 miles, and we made it to the interview with three minutes to spare, dripping wet.”

The Wilcoxes gave up their jobs, and started an Indiegogo campaign to accomplish their activist run. Their house and apartment in Sitka are leased through August. Though he’s optimistic that he’ll be able to get his old job back as a behavioral health counselor, Brett Wilcox and his family are essentially jobless and homeless.

KCAW – Do you feel it has all been worthwhile, or is it too early to tell?
Wilcox – Right now I would say it has absolutely been worthwhile. It’s been very challenging, very difficult. Day-by-day struggles just making it work, and dealing with the exhaustion and the potential injuries — it has been hard. But I wouldn’t want to have missed this experience for anything.

David Wilcox suffered from an injury for part of the trip. His dad credits a chiropractor in Pennsylvania for diagnosing and correcting the problem. David will be entering 10th grade in Sitka this fall, where his ambition is to try out for the Cross-Country team. Olivia will be entering 8th grade.

And due to some last-minute re-arranging of the itinerary, Brett and David crossed the finished on Saturday, rather than on Monday.

For Kris Wilcox, it was a special day.

“I did tell them that this would be a great wedding anniversary gift for me, if they finished on the 19th.”

Brett and Kris have been married 25 years. They’re headed to Washington DC next, for some additional activism on GMO’s, and plan to be back in Sitka sometime in August.

May 23, 2013

Do GMOs Matter To Sitka and Sitkans?

Thanks to Ed Ronco of KCAW for recording, editing, and playing the following Commentary on the radio.

I’m Brett Wilcox. My son, David, and I will run across America in 2014 to raise awareness of genetically modified organisms.

When I tell people about Monsanto and genetically modified foods or GMOs, the most common response I hear is, “What’s Monsanto?” and “What are genetically modified foods?”

These are good and important questions to which I’d like to add one more. “Do Monsanto and genetically modified foods matter to the city and the people of Sitka?

Monsanto is a multinational corporation based in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to the year 2000, Monsanto was best known for its production of PCBs, DDT, and Agent Orange, products Monsanto declared safe long after their own employees’ ill health and premature deaths proved otherwise.

In an attempt to clean up their image, Monsanto now declares itself to be dedicated solely to agriculture. To you and me, agriculture means food. To Monsanto, agriculture means profit, profit Monsanto achieves through sales of pesticides and genetically engineered seeds.

Monsanto and other biotech companies make genetically modified seeds by forcing the genes of unrelated species—most often bacteria and food plants—together through crude and imprecise methods. U.S. law allows these unnatural creations to be patented.

Monsanto licenses its patented seeds to farmers the same way software companies license software to computer users. If farmers save and replant licensed seeds the way they’ve done for thousands of years with natural seeds, Monsanto sues these farmers and wins in court.

So what! Why should Sitkans care about farmers, lawsuits, pesticides and GMOs? Here are 5 good reasons.

1. GMOs have resulted in increased use of pesticides. Pesticides are poisons. Farmers wear hazmat suits when they spray the poisons on the plants you feed your kids. Pesticide poisoning results in serious medical issues including infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, and various cancers.

2. The process of genetic modification produces massive collateral damage to the plant cells, which results in unpredictable and potentially lethal results. 1,500 people developed serious illnesses and 37 died in 1989 after ingesting the genetically modified food supplement, L-Tryptophan.

3. Key Monsanto and government personnel routinely swap offices passing through what is known as the revolving door. Naturally, this makes our government pro-biotech. A pro-biotech government is far more likely to approve genetically modified salmon than a pro-citizen government. Salmon is the first of many animal species the biotech industry plans to genetically modify.

4. Pesticides and GMOs kill bees. The EPA approves bee-killing pesticides banned in the EU. Einstein said, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.”

5. Most of us eat GMOs and we don’t know it because our pro-biotech government refuses to label GMOs, even though GMOs are labeled or banned outright in over 60 countries, including China.

Monsanto and GMOs may be one of the most important concerns facing Sitka, the USA, and the entire world. Sitkans are meeting on May 17th and 24th at Centennial Hall at 7 pm, to learn more about Monsanto. And Sitkans will meet on Castle Hill, May 25th, at 2:00 pm to participate with over 300 other cities in a global March Against Monsanto.