Note: I hosted a special radio show on 5/22/13, on The Anti-Media Radio where we went into more depth on all of
these fundamental building blocks of the Food Revolution which included a
panel of experts from each field I listed in this article. Please listen here here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjxS7QJbmCY&feature=youtu.be
by Nick Bernabe
March Against Monsanto
How The March Against Can And Will Change The World
The March Against Monsanto was started by a
handful of millenials with a passion for change, a passion that we all have
within us. Many people make the mistake of looking for someone to make change for
them when the real change in this world comes from within. The top-down
approach for making the world a better place, i.e. electing politicians to do
our bidding has come and gone, with little success. There's a revolution
happening right before our eyes, and before I had the opportunity to help with
the world-wide March Against Monsanto, I was largely oblivious to this sea
change that is coming. The rules of change, of activism, of consciousness, and
of helping people are being rewritten by you and me, one connection at a time.
The new revolution of good is coming from the grass-roots and making its way
upward; this bottom-up effect is exactly what those who would like to see us
silent are afraid of.
This new way of media and activism cannot be controlled by
the likes of corporations or governments; these are ideas and they cannot be
stopped. This new paradigm shift starts with you, your friends and family, and
the way you can connect with people around you; the way information is
disseminated makes all the difference in this new paradigm. The mainstream
media controls 95% of the information
that we
see, from television to newspapers, to magazines. This is the top-down
technique, where you have no choice but to consume what's being served, making
for a fickle population that was manipulated by commercials and where money
made the major difference between a bill passing or failing, and a politician
being elected or losing. The new media
is a media of choice,
where people can choose to get information on a topic that they choose. What
does this mean? This means that a person that participates in the new media is
more passionate, better informed, in turn a much more valuable asset to a
social movement. These people are well versed in the information, founded in
fact, and immune to the manipulation of a mainstream media establishment that
is 90% owned by 6 monopolistic corporations. These new activists are warriors
for truth and justice, and for those currently controlling the agenda, this can
be a scary situation.
You see, the government and corporations
are ingrained into the establishment; they're comfortable in their
positions. This will be their downfall. History and science have shown that the
comfortable devolve and the oppressed evolve; struggle is the essence of innovation
and of change. This is why good always prevails over bad. The March Against
Monsanto has grown beyond my wildest dreams; a few months ago it was just an
idea. It has grown into a full blown movement and the people that started
it wouldn't be able to stop if they wanted. You see, the people have taken over the
March, the decentralization has come in a natural way, an intuitive way.
Movements can no longer be over-centralized, as over-centralization is detrimental to any
organization, institution, business and government. The new paradigm which is
forming will be driven by people who care, not people who care for power. The
old idea of inorganic manipulation, which used to be the norm, has fallen to
the side in favor of this new movement of information: this new Revolution.
Information is spreading in grass-roots, open source fashion, all the old rules
are being thrown out.
How the March AgainstMonsanto can and will change the world.
The beginning of the Food Revolution.
The March does not and cannot end on May 25,
2013. For many of the participants in the March Against Monsanto, this
is their first protest or march that they have ever taken part of. This
movement has awakened a very large group of people that care about their food
supply and care about other people’s food supply. These courageous marchers
have put aside all of their political and ideological differences to stand in
solidarity for what is right.
How do we carry on this March Against Monsanto, this new food revolution passed the 25th?
How do we carry on this March Against Monsanto, this new food revolution passed the 25th?
Capture the momentum of this movement and harness it at the
local level. Keep your local march network alive and growing.
All of the connections that you are making in your local
areas, all of the people you are meeting through the organizing, planning, and
marching process must be kept active for this march to have a lasting effect.
If we just march on the 25th and nothing more, then the movement ends right
then and there. Each event page for each local city is full of great contacts,
activists, and people that care. Compile these lists, make email lists, start a
newsletter, make a local Facebook page and keep the pressure on to continue
this fight. Pass around signup sheets at your local marches to collect emails. Even
if you don't have a plan of action for what to do with the emails you compile,
put them into a spread sheet and save them until you figure it out. I recommend
that once your march is over on Saturday evening that you change the Date of
your local Facebook event to 5/24/14; this will keep the event page up and will
make it easier to access your local food revolutionaries. Use open source
organizing techniques to lower the burden and to keep your local movement
decentralized. Using an open platform will make it easier for your local
community and activists to add information into your spread sheets, email
lists, and other data rich documents. Monsanto is not going away
without a fight: They've been around for over 100 years and deeply
entrenched in the political establishment of both parties.
After the March, take real steps to improve your food fate
locally. Remember that people on a low or fixed income don’t have a choice to
eat organic with their given incomes.
It’s not enough to simply tell people to eat organic, or vote
for initiatives that will label GMOs. The very first thing you can do is plant
your own garden. If you have the space, plant a garden larger than what you
need to feed your family and help someone that is less fortunate with some
fresh homegrown food from your garden. What if you don’t have a yard to plant
in? One option is growing indoors. There is a growing industry of indoor
gardeners that are starting to change the way we think about gardening through
the use of
hydroponics . You should be able to find a local
hydroponics store near you and get it all set up and growing food for a couple
hundred dollars. There are also plenty of online retailers of indoor growing
equipment; try Craigslist if you're on a tight budget. What if you don’t have a
yard and growing indoors in not an option for you? At this point we need to
look to our fellow local activists from the March Against Monsanto.
Aquaponics is arguably the most efficient way to grow organic
vegetables…and edible fish at the same time. This technique has been around for
hundreds if not thousands of years, but new attention is being brought to
aquaponics because of its efficiency and ability to grow both edible fish and
vegetation. A Wisconsin man was able to grow over
one million pounds of food in one year by utilizing these new and innovative
growing techniques.
Activism
There are many forms of activism that we can use to improve
our food fate and continue the food revolution. The March Against Monsanto is a
perfect example of a mass movement that disseminates information to millions of
people, awakening the masses to the injustices of the world. Activism can be
done on a much smaller scale and many different ways. As I detailed earlier,
the networks are being rebuilt in a new, more just way. Utilize your new local
network of activists to keep pressure on local politicians and hold them to
their promises. Organize mass emailing and mass calling to their offices when a
critical vote is about to be made. Let them hear your voice amplified by your
entire network. Build relationships with other activists from other causes,
reach out to other interests and help support them, and they will support you.
Spreading awareness is key to the food revolution; many people don't know what
GMOs are, let alone know the negative effects on their health and environment
that they cause.
Mobilize your local activist network often and keep them
engaged in the community; you are the leaders of this movement! It's up to you
to let your neighbors know what's in their food and how they can make real
world progress to take their food back. These techniques can also be replicated
on the national and global level, which is why it's important for you to stay connected to the national MAM campaign. We can find and spot things like the Monsanto Protection Act before they are
passed into law and put out a call to action to all the local networks to help
us get them stopped.
Support alternative media
Remember seeing the warnings about the dangers of the
'Monsanto Protection Act' on MSNBC and FOX News before it became a law? Me
neither. That's because there was no warning from the mainstream media; in fact
very few have even covered it to this day. We did find out about this bill when
it was only a proposal from multiple reports by independent journalists,
including SpreadLibertyNews on 12/17/12. The
pattern that we see from the mainstream is a dangerous one. As I noted earlier,
over 90% of the media is owned by 6 companies, and just like Monsanto, these
companies have also slipped into bed with the government.
Comedians have become the only
mainstream media sources that are willing to challenge the establishment's
political and economic might. Yet pundits like Jon Stewart who have been shown in polls to
be more trusted for news than some major news outlets, only bring light to
these harmful pieces of legislation after they are already passed into law.
This is why supporting and finding alternative news sources is so important: Do
you want to find out about harmful legislation before it's passed while we
still have time to mobilize and try to stop them, or do you want to find out
about it on TV when it's too late? Find and support independent journalists on sites like TheAnti-Media.org that aggregate news from many diverse sources, find the ones you like and subscribe to their posts.
The mainstream media has major interests in other
industries, including military adventurism and yes you guessed it, GMOs. In a court ruling in 2003, it was determined
that news companies can legally lie to their viewers and readers. The case was
brought about when two FOX News journalists tried to publish a report about the
negative health effects of Monsanto's bovine growth hormone (BGH) and
were subsequently fired when they refused to censor their story to fit FOX's
agenda. Supporting alternative media is key in decentralizing our supply of
unbiased information and getting news from sources that do not have billion-dollar
agendas, finding like-minded activists, and keeping the pressure on
politicians who seek to only enrich themselves and their corporate lackeys.
Note: I hosted a special radio show on 5/22/13, on The Anti-Media Radio where we went into more depth on all of these fundamental building blocks of the Food Revolution which included a panel of experts from each field I listed in this article. Please listen here here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjxS7QJbmCY&feature=youtu.be
I'm so grateful to be a part of this. Thanks to all who grew these ideas and who participate. Lets take it to then next level! Love and Peace, Bria
ReplyDeletefantastic details on follow up and will share this with the MILLION MASK MARCH coming up in Washington D.c. on November 5th 2013...thank you kindly for ALL your efforts and in solidarity on PLANET TRUTH ! BOYCOTT GREED! we can do this together we are stronger !
ReplyDeleteWhen my kids and I go grocery shopping we always try to buy local and organic :) before it goes in the cart they ask me if they can have it or if its " Frankenstein food " ( GMO) . People around us tend to laugh when hearing it , but it's something we take very seriously .
ReplyDeleteBecause I want us to succeed, I think it's important to disabuse ourselves of this notion: "these are ideas and they cannot be stopped".
ReplyDeleteIs our idea not to stop Monsanto's ideas? What makes our ideas unstoppable, but not theirs?
This sentiment was popularized in the movie "V for Vendetta" with the quote "Ideas are bulletproof". Even that idea isn't quite right. If I'm the only person who has an idea, I'm not bulletproof, and so neither is the idea.
The idea predates the movie by almost a century. The first expression of it that I know comes from a trial of a union leader during the Bread and Roses strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Joseph Ettor and his co-defendants were charged in the murder of Anna LoPizzo, one of the striking workers who was shot by a policeman. No one disputed that the officer pulled the gun. In fact, Ettor and his co-defendants were miles from the scene of the crime, and this fact was also undisputed. What Joseph Ettor actually said is important and worth remembering:
"Does the District Attorney believe that the gallows or guillotine ever settled an idea? If an idea can live, it lives because history adjudges it right. I ask only for justice. The scaffold has never yet and never will destroy an idea or a movement. An idea consisting of a social crime in one age becomes the very religion of humanity in the next. Whatever my social views are, they are what they are. They cannot be tried in this courtroom."
See the Wikipedia page for the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike for more information.
I agree.
ReplyDeletea lot of this is worn torn links from many avenues. + to be efficient we must be positive + follow thru. this is why we are working at restructuring project osic at i come to talk story. for all this creative fuel can resolve.
Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon is responding, he went from focusing on labeling with FDA to now repealing the Monsanto act. so we must continue to support this + sign his petition;
http://i-come-to-talk-story.3220728.n2.nabble.com/please-sign-Jeff-s-petition-repealing-Monsanto-Act-td7559579.html
everyone can reach out + do what they can as each co_evolve.
to be awakened fuels motion for harmony. we should not accept anything less.
thank you for the good work! kara j lincoln
These marches WILL bring change. Our representatives in Washington as well as on the State level will now know that there are millions of people (more importantly, voters) that are well aware that Monsanto is trying to poison the populace with their GMO franken-foods! My wife and I will be amongst those that will demand that our foods are clearly labeled, so that we can choose a safer and healthier product. Let's ROLL!!
ReplyDeleteYes... Lets ROLL...FOR SURE. IT' s all we got
DeletePeople need to wake up. They actually are now! So many will wake up this will want to be a movement. We will clean up food. We will have a chance at rescuing this planet and my kids future from the worst of climate change. Dirty energy will be a thing of the past. The media cartel.that lies, won't get their licenses renewed. The money won't be able to write the rules, the people will. The war machine will be stopped and their war drums silenced. (I'm ashamed I was even fooled by Bush's War and Obama's War - lives ruined and money wasted.)
ReplyDeleteI would like to call the next March "We the People". In every city in America! And yes, even though we are angry, we can all pull in the direction that will make this world better. We've got to, otherwise, everything we know and love will be destroyed. Diry fossil fuel emissions are killing people, our oceans and our future. See the the You Tube video. Do the Math - The Movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q2YpdHuBCA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The youtube link listed at the very top is not working correctly. Just playing rap music. Thought you'd want to know.
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting this March together. Monsanto is the worse company on the planet and I agree with you, they need to be shut down, evaporate. Farmers need to quit buying their seeds. Let's make them go away!!! :-)
Someone should start a kickstarter-type fund to raise $ to lobby against Monsanto!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, all the big political players are bought and sold by Monsanto. They look at anyone against GMOs as Luddites. The arrogance of those who sell out is outweighed only by their ignorance. Destroying the food and water supplies (GMOs, fracking, pesticides, fungicides, & herbicides, etc.) knows no income limits. The rich have to eat, too. When their kids can't reproduce or are dying of cancer, will they even make the connection? They should be careful of the monster they create in the name of greed for it might eat them next.
ReplyDeleteGod bless all of us in this food revolution as we move forward to save the earth's food, water, and resources before it's too late. There is an awakening happening... this tide will not turn... it will only grow stronger and larger...
For those old-schoolers out there... in the famous words of McFadden & Whitehead: "Ain't no stoppin' us now, we're on the move" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFL0EKEvIUA
None of this is particularly new to me. I bee on the streets for 45 years. Nam protest, united farm works
ReplyDeleteOf America,harbor blockage of USS naval ship on deployment to Nam. Chrleston Naval ship yard.
Concious objection counseling, phamphleting phamphleting and more Pham. Etc etc etc.
Writing to polician ti finger bleed. Lol congress house and presidential campaigning..lol
Active,moral and financial support to the many many environmental groups. Green peace, sea shepherd, Sierra club four years board,
ReplyDeleteBla bla bla! So so so
Now ONE QUESTION TO ANYONE OUT There..... I loved OCCUPY
WALLSTREET, world bank and other financial inst protest.
TELL HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT?...
WTF........home life style ads? What.?.
ReplyDeletewe've all worked hard, take a breath of fresh air;
ReplyDeletei agree natural living is great living, these are great ideas; http://i-come-to-talk-story.3220728.n2.nabble.com/a-natural-local-grown-simple-potluck-is-the-best-gauge-for-every-local-community-we-can-get-together-td7559587.html
Thanks to March Against Monsanto and the 2 million + people worldwide for making this happen. But we can't let this die out, we must do this at least twice a year. Next year is too long. We can try on food day October 16? That would be huge.
ReplyDeleteHow do we submit articles from a local march?
ReplyDeleteFuck Monsanto. That is all.
ReplyDelete