Mike Pompeo - Running The Country

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!

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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 the towns of Severy and Parsons, Kansas. Support their run and mission at RunningTheCountry.com/donate.

When David and I talked about running across the United States, we didn’t imagine that we’d end up in the Land of Oz running the Yellow Brick Road. But that’s exactly what happened. Shortly after running into Kansas from Oklahoma, we entered the city of Liberal. Wizard of Oz aficionados know that Liberal is home to various buildings and displays dedicated to preserving the magic of the Wizard of Oz. We normally don’t stop until we’ve got our 20 miles run for the day, but not stopping to see Dorothy’s home and other memorabilia seemed more wicked than the Wicked Witch of the West.

And stop we did. We soon found ourselves in a guided tour providing all sorts of backstory to one of the most famous movies of all times.

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that we were still in Liberal when we learned that Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West has a twin brother with strong Kansas roots. He goes by the name of Mike Pompeo. And of the two twins, even Oz’s flying monkeys would agree that Mike is the more wicked.

(The video above was recorded at our GMO Free discussion in Liberal.)

Mike is a politician (R-Kansas). Being a politician doesn’t necessarily make a person wicked, but people like Mike make it hard to believe otherwise. You see, in 2010 Mike opened his pockets to more money from the infamous Koch brothers than any other politician. With pockets bursting with Koch money, it’s no secret who Representative Pompeo represents.

But wait, there’s more. Mike recently sponsored a piece of legislation that was reportedly written by the Grocery Manufacturers Association. The GMA is the organization that illegally funneled money into Washington State last fall to fund a disinformation campaign to help defeat the peoples’ right to label GMOs.

Mike and the GMA are calling the bill the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014.”
Euphemistic title aside, this bill is designed to legally hide unsafe GMO frankenfoods in our food products.

Those who see the truth behind Mike’s act have named it for what it is: The DARK Act (Denying Americans the Right-to-Know Act). The DARK Act is the latest ploy of the Junk Food and Junk Gene Industries to keep GMOs hidden in your food unlabeled. But the GMA’s DARK Act goes beyond hiding dangerous GMOs in your foods. The GMA actually states that GMOs are natural and should be labeled as such.

Natural? Roundup resistant bacteria in our food is natural? Herbicide saturated foods are natural? Corn that makes bugs’ stomachs explode is natural? The DARK Act would also make it illegal for states to mandate the labeling of GMOs and it will forbid the FDA from requiring labeling (Sadly unnecessary because the FDA has made it more than clear that it’s not about to label GMOs). (http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob420.html)

We all remember the famous words, “You’re not in Kansas anymore.” The same could be said of Mike. In a call promoting his bill, Mike said that the “scientific community has spoken with one voice.” He went on to say: “There is not a single example of anyone getting sick after eating food made with GMOs.” (http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob420.html)

Mike picked up those lies in the land of the GMA and the land of the GMO Industry. You probably know that the lands of the GMA, GMO, and Koch share borders and bedrooms with a good share of the power hungry people squatting in Washington D.C. Kansans might say that the whole bunch of them are as horny as a pack of kissing cousins in a barnyard hayloft. So it’s no surprise when grinning politicians like Mike shoot off the same lies as his lying bedmates.

The fact is that there is no consensus among the scientific community regarding the safety of GMOs. A good many scientists urge caution and others come right out and say that GMOs are a death sentence or a potential death sentence to life as we know it on planet Earth. (See the following videos)

So what can you and I do to stop the likes of Representative Mike Pompeo? At the very least, take just a moment and click on the following petitions. Tell your elected officials, tell the FDA, and tell Michelle Obama it’s time to leave the land of the GMA and the GMO Industry. It’s time for our once-upon-a-time representative government to once again represent the people.

NEW! TAKE ACTION: Tell Your Representative: Don’t Support Big Food’s Bill to Kill GMO Labeling Laws!

TAKE ACTION: Tell the FDA: No Watered-Down, Voluntary Federal GMO Labeling Rules!

TAKE ACTION: Tell Michelle Obama: Consumers Want Labels on Genetically Modified Foods!

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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 the beautiful and historic Kingman Carnegie Library in Kingman, Kansas. Support their run and mission at RunningTheCountry.com/donate.

Tag: Mike Pompeo

GMO Free Earth Day Discussion in Wichita Kansas

Mike Pompeo, You’re Not In Kansas Anymore