March Against Monsanto

Today was the day to March Against Monsanto. All over the world, people took to the streets to stand up and say no to Monsanto, their GMOs and their poisons. There were events in hundreds of cities. I doubt the mainstream media will cover any of it.

I participated in a small event, in the town of Chicopee, MA.  There was a Monsanto plant in Chicopee for years, but thankfully they left.  Long before I ever heard of Round Up or GMOs I knew Monsanto was doing somethingI very evil.  You could not drive by the Monsanto plant without rolling up your windows and holding your breath.  It smelled that foul.  That must have been when they were making Agent Orange..or DDT or some other horrible chemical concoction.  Monsanto has a long history of profiting from poison.

In any case, Chicopee knows Monsanto well, so I went there.  Despite the miserable, cold rain that poured down most of the day, well over a hundred people arrived at the Christ’s Community Church Hall on schedule.  Many thanks to Cheryl Anne who did a great job organizing the event.  Local organic farmers and businesses had been invited to set up tables and share samples and information about their products.

I was particularly interested in the display of ingredients which can be used to make your own cleaning products. They had recipes for laundry soap and other simple ideas.

They also had some information about organic companies whose parent companies are working against labeling GMOs.

Here is a photo of the list. I am sure more information is available online.

Some of the goodies I collected.

They then showed the film, Genetic Roulette.

It is a documentary about the health effects of GMOs and Round Up Ready crops. Chilling stuff. Doctors are starting to see a connection between GMO foods and cancer, diabetes, heart disease, autism, food allergies, intestinal problems…the list goes on and on. It is definitely a film worth seeing. It may be online.

By now we were all fired up and ready to March.  We got our signs and headed back outside into the rain.  We marched to City Hall.  Unfortunately, the media who were coming to cover the event, canceled.  But that didn’t stop us.

Many passing cars honked approvingly. One even stopped to ask questions about Monsanto.

The word is getting out.

I do not expect Monsanto to go out of business tomorrow. This will be a long fight. But it is clear that more and more people are becoming aware of what is happening to our food. Maybe even more people will ask questions after seeing us today. We will demand more Organic food. We will shop locally. We will not support companies who work to profit from poison. We will insist GMO food be labeled..or better yet banned. Today was just the beginning.