GMO Jedi's

The devastation I experienced last night when I was told that Prop 37, to label genetically modified food (GMO's), was lost, choked the tears right out of me. I stood in Mother's Market parking lot and bawled right in front of my family. The fact that greed and lies could win shook me to the core of my being.
My four year old son touched my wet cheeks and our exchange student Yanie, clouded over with concern. A peppy Mom came up and tried to cheerfully argue the sadness out of me, reminding me that only 17% of the vote was in.
But the percentage of blinded naysayers progressed accordingly and we lost.

The physical sensation of loss is body numbing.
My brain checked out too and I threw all caution to the wind when I saw the PTA President at school. The poor overworked woman got the brunt of my upset as I spewed upset terse words about being denied my first amendment right to free speech when I was denied my request to be able to speak at the PTA meeting about GMO's. I was an uncorked, un-showered and uninhibited and I embarrassed myself. My anger had me shaking when I got home. Before I was fighting the good fight. Now they just gone and done pissed me off! Was this who I was going to be? Some angry bitch?

I eventually breathed, ate and drank some water and realized that I am not committed to being angry about this, so I made amends to the PTA President, and we are creating the possibility of me doing a Topic Talk about genetically modified foods at the school with my son Ben. I am touched by her generosity and commitment to the school. We are creating that he can present his Happy Healthy Students Report and parents can find out how to support their kids' behavior, focus and performance in school.
I am not done. I will never be done supporting my sons', communities', nation's and worlds' health and empowerment in life.
And I see that sadness and anger will not support me in that endeavor. It's not bad or wrong, it is just not effective. It doesn't work.

When I told my 9 yr old, who has been right there with me at Honk n Waves and passing out flyers, that Prop 37 lost for sure this morning, he saw the disappointment on my face and he said, "Mom even Star Wars took 6 episodes to win." And they had YODA!
He was not sad, he was ready for the next episode! Adventure!

I am so inspired by children. Kathleens Hallal's awesome sons made this poster. This is the Art of Inspired Parenting...to stand for something, to express yourself, support THEM to express themselves, to connect with your kids in what matters to all of you...and to listen when they really are just a whole lot smarter than you. :)

Children play games all the time. They make up rules and they always set themselves up to win. If someone else tells them they lost, they get on with it. They end that game and then make up a new game. They declare themselves winner just because they say so.
So I declare I am a winner at being a GMO Jedi! I fought a good fight!I jumped in about Episode 4 I am guessing, as this fight has been going on for 14 years already and thousands of tireless, extraordinary GMO Jedi's came before me. Hats off to you. Today I rest my laser, but not the force. Today I am still a Jedi.

Love to you all who read my constant posts about Prop 37.
Love to you all who remained my Facebook friend.
Love to you all who read this blog in the twenty two other countries around the world.
Love to all of you who shared, passed out flyers, sweated in the sun by day and made calls across the USA by night.
Here's to you. Jedi's in life, in your games.
May the Force be with You.

Zen Honeycutt

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That Weird GMO Lady

I used to be angry with the hippie types outside the grocery stores, eagerly confronting me with a clip board and huge smile about a bunch of Props I was never going to remember. I would get terse and resentful. I have things to do...can't you see my three kids squawking about the grocery cart and who gets to choose the cereal? Geez. Some people....
I would brush them off and make sure not to make eye contact again on the way out. I would feel guilty and upset for many more minutes than warranted...but for good reason. Ignoring the people who were trying to better the world was crappy. I could at least give them 30 seconds of my time. But I didn't, I wrote them off as weirdos who didn't have enough to do in life, probably people who lived alone with too many cats, OCD types who got obsessed with saving the whales or where the money should go in city coffers....who has the time for these things?
I've got important things to do for God's sake. I have to get toilet paper and frozen blueberries.

I am one of "those people" now. I make time. Today was the first of many days that I will stand in the sun and wear bright buttons and talk to complete strangers about how they should vote. I am THAT person. I don't care what you look like or how fast you are walking or how many squawking kids you have (I will in fact persue you more with a gracious smile) because this Prop 37, a California bill to Label GMO's, is something that affects every single one of us, and that we can all make time for. We may not want to know about it, but if we do, we can literally be a major cause of whether or not we have great grandchildren (studies have shown that rats that eat GMO food, their third generation is sterile). We can cause that we don't get cancer (there are studies that link to cancer and allergies, weight gain and digestive diseases, read "The Unhealthy Truth" or "Seeds of Deception") or suffer from allergies for the rest of our life. If we get Prop 37 passed in California, being the 8th largest economy in the world, it will alter the future of the human race. Food manufacturers will need to change the ingredients of their food and actually make healthy food.

I am PASSIONATE about this issue. So much so that all fear, weirdness, or reasons about being busy dissapear and I find myself eye to eye with a woman who has cancer and who never heard of GMO's and promises to put a bumper sticker on her car and let thousands of people a day know about Prop 37 and saying YES to label GMO's. That moment of recognition, of her sadness and pain, of her confusion over why this is happening to her, has me ready to stand in the sun for another hour.
And when my three year old, who is sitting in his stroller playing with a monkey in the shade points out that I missed a man, I see that he wants to be a part of this connecting I am doing with people. He will "tell me about all the people" ( be my helper) and my heart fills with joy. I get that he gets to see his Mom go up to complete strangers, talk with them and leave them smiling or at least aware of something in a new way. Some may be terse, but I don't give up and sit down. I keep at it, and someday he will get that it takes tenacity and relatedness to connect with people about issues that are important.
It will be much easier for me to teach my kids to be leaders if I am a leader. It will be much easier to teach them to be polite, gracious and related if I do that. It will be much more rewarding for me and for them to be people who make a difference in the world.
I can't choose for them, I can only choose for me.

Each person I see is connected to thousands of people. Each person is very important to many people. Our health, our body is really all we have to be in the world, taking care of it by feeding it real healthy food, will impact our lives and our children's lives for generations.

Every single vote matters because every single person matters.
If that makes me weird, than bring it on!
If you want to be weird...related, connected and make a difference too, check out
http://www.carighttoknow.org/

Zen Honeycutt

The Future of Food and our lives....

I am ready to rant. Seriously. Just watched the "Future of Food" (available on Netflix) and am so riled up I could walk up to the President of Monsanto and the FDA and punch them in the face. ( Ok, I know, not very "Zen".) Or at least do a citizen arrest.I get what the "Crazy liberals" are chanting and waving signs about at the GMO food protests now. I get it. There is a crime of nature going on and most of us just don't know it. Because money, control and convenience are more important.

My father used to smoke something like 10 packs a day of cigarettes in the 40's for a while, he was a total chain smoker. He remembers ads that said "Camel cigarettes...they soothe the throat." No kidding. He thought he was doing something good for himself for a short time.
(When he found out my Mom was pregnant he stopped THANK YOU DAD!!! Amazing will power!)

The food industry has that same kind of smokescreen up right now. There is a huge percentage of our food that is genetically modified and patentented/owned by Monsanto (80% of all corn and soybeans) and we don't know it because it's not labeled. All of the European countries won't allow GM foods...but we Americans don't even know because it's just too inconvenient to label it.

What does it matter? Ok:

#1) Genetically modified is NOT natural..meaning our bodies don't know how to process a tomato with flounder fish genes in it (allows it to ripen in the cold) and so we become allergic to it....know any kids with a lot of allergies to all kinds of food especially cow's milk (fed GM corn), soy (80% US GM) and wheat...increasing GM???) Um, most of us??

#2) Genetically modified food comes from genetically modified seeds, which have been in the case of corn, as an example, been injected with some kind of chemical derived from a NERVE GAS (BT?) which is an pesticide which KILLS the worm that eats the corn....ok so what does it do to humans??? My kids??? I wonder if GM foods could be linked to the rise in autism and developemental delays which are exponenetially on the rise?

#3) To top it all off, the majority of the people in leadership positions of the FDA..that regulates all of this...have been on the board or in leadership positions of Monsanto. The laws for regulation have been laughable...they are basically complete deregulation...do what ever you want, just make money and donate to our political careers.

There are lots of other reasons to be alarmed, in action, and causing a shift in how our food is manufactured..injustices to farmers,third world hunger monopolization, crops taht are programmed not to reseed...sterile crops, so that the farmer in a third world MUST buy from Monsanto...(and we wonder why some other countries hate Americans???, Monsanto owning over 11,000 patents on seeds,on our world's food... thousands of types of potatoes and corn that are extinct because the four large food companies only grow about four types....etc, but the top three above take the cake for me.

I took on being a champion for "green" several years ago....preached to my family and friends about parabens,plastics, preservatives, and pesticides. I created a Green Earth Festival and a group called "Moms for Mother Earth". Then I saw the green movement grow around me... I had wanted to be a spear head person in growing it. The paper work for "Moms for Mother Earth " to be a non profit was daunting, however and I chose to direct my energy on kids and business.

One day as I went to the grocery store I saw two out of three other people approaching Sprouts carrying reusable bags. I breathed a sigh of relief and said to myself...ok there are lots of "Moms for Mother Earth" out there now. People know about plastic bags, saving energy and healthy personal care. Time to Champion another cause.

Like GMO food...
Folks, take a moment to consider that your voice matters. Buying Organic MATTERS:
it is Non GMO only because 250,000 US citizens wrote to the government and caused that standard.
Walmart has dropped the growth hormone rBGH (owned by Monsanto) from its dairy products because their customers spoke up!

We caused that. Those emails you get to send a petition...they matter. Buying organic of from Co-Ops matters.You matter. The natural structure of our food matters...our future generations matter.
Thank you for reading a Mom's rant and taking action for people and our planet.


Zen Honeycutt
www.zenspurplegarden.com


http://www.holisticmed.com/ge/avoid.html

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/monsanto-gmo-corn-causes-cancer-mammals.php

http://www.ewg.org/

http://www.organicconsumers.org/