What are YOU eating???

This weekend, I participated in my second March Against Monsanto event, this time on Vancouver Island. According to the founder of MAM, on Saturday, at least 366 official events took place in 43 countries around the globe. Wow. The people are not happy, Monsanto. 

In case you aren't familiar, Monsanto is the chemical company that developed DDT (the insecticidal chemical that was used to kill mosquitoes during WWII and then sprayed freely as an agricultural insecticide in the 60's and 70's and caused massive environmental devastation), PCB's (toxic, organic chemical compounds used in electrical equipment and in coolants until the 1970's), RGBH (bovine growth hormone), Agent Orange, a carcinogenic defoliant used in the Vietnam War, and Roundup, the readily-available friendly,  neighborhood herbicide that has been highly controversial over the last number of years. (Info confirmation Resources: Wikipedia)

Over the last few decades, these clever folks have mostly sold off their chemical side to multiple outsiders, and have now focused on seeds and animals, playing around with the genetic material of various plants and animals to great new species of living organisms that look prettier, decompose more slowly, glow in the dark, are more convenient to slaughter, survive despite heavy pesticide/herbicide application, look like a tomato but taste and smell like a lemon (Why??!) etc, etc, etc.  Voila! GMO's. 

Back to the march...

The event was exhilarating, and it was uplifting to shout out loud how I feel about a global corporation playing "GOD" with nature's creations that feed our world. I also felt deep sadness and anger that our fellow desensitized and money-hungry human beings are behind this madness. I have a really hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that profit and "economic growth" can seem more important to some than human lives and the health of our only home!!!

Monsanto isn't the only problem that humanity faces, but they are at the mast of the corporate ship that is headed straight for a massive iceberg, of which the destruction of the global food system is just the tip. 

It was heartwarming to see the variety of people who spent their Saturday marching the city streets, waving their lovely homemade signs and trying to wake up those who are not yet aware of the frankenfoods that they are consuming on a daily basis. It's pretty safe to say that if you purchased it from a run-of-the-mill restarant/fast food joint, it's full of GMO's. If it's not labeled as Organic certified or GMO FREE, and you bought it in a regular grocery store, it likely contains GMO's. YES. IT is TRUE. They are in pretty much everything that contains a (non-organic) corn product and many more ingredients. 

Here is a list of the most common GMO ingredients you will find in your food:

10. Sugar beets

  9. Potatoes

  8. Corn

  7. Tomatoes

  6. Squash

  5. Golden rice

  4. Soybeans

  3. Cooking oils

  2. Animal feeds

  1. Salmon

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/10-genetically-modified-food-products.htm

And the list goes on and on...and keeps growing. So. Think twice before you eat that stuff we used to think was food. Read food labels and ingredient lists. 

What's the solution? The same as most solutions that I suggest: educate yourself. Grow a garden using organic seeds and heirloom varieties that have not been messed with by greedy corporate hands. Shop at farmers' markets or join an organic CSA. Buy organic food. "But it's soooo expensive!", you might argue. 

And here is my rebuttal:

Our food is our nourishment, Our lifeblood. Without it we perish. Without our health, we truly have nothing. Our bodies need clean, fresh food to thrive. I can't think of anything that trumps healthy eating on my list of basic needs. Think you need that daily latte, new outfit, car or fancy phone? Think again.

Personal challenge: Track all of your spending for one month. You might be surprised at how much you spend on frivolous things. Instead of having the latest and greatest STUFF, shift your focus to cutting unnecessary costs and making healthy (NON-GMO/organic) food your top priority. Your body and the planet will thank you.

To close, this awesome poem was written a few years ago by actor, Woody Harrelson and I couldn't have said it any better myself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVNpzT4Y38s&sns=em

Whoever painted this, it's awesome. Nice work

. 

Give. Thanks. Everyday.

On Saturday, October 12th, we marched with a crowd of protesters in Cleveland, Ohio. This was the second of a series of worldwide protests against the behind-the-scenes takeover of our global food systems.

An estimated 400 marches took place on that day around the globe. Millions are standing up and telling the government that we are not ok with the fact that GMO (genetically modified organism) foods are not labeled in our grocery stores. 

We passed out hundreds of fliers to educate the public about the devastating (not to mention the yet-to-be-discovered) effects that Monsanto is single-handedly (with ample government support) having on our worlds food supply, people and environment. It was astounding how many folks looked at us puzzled and said "G-M what??" It was also exciting how many people in cars passed by and honked and waved in support. Gave me shivers of hope.

It was such an inspiring experience. We met families who are educating themselves together by growing some of their own food, reading, watching documentaries and spreading the word to others. We also met folks who are becoming bee keepers because they want to be part of the honey bee revival that will help to move our planet back to a state of thriving. 

We highly recommend joining the next global MAM, which will likely be in the spring.  Stay tuned, and in the meantime, do some research to keep yourself up to date on the topic. There is an official Facebook page that will list upcoming marches. 

These are two flyers that we handed out that I believe are very informative. Please feel free to print many and hand them out to everyone:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/ten-things-monsanto.pdf

http://organicconsumers.org/monsanto/gmo-no.pdf

We decided to take a walk after the march to see the Rock and Roll hall of fame. It was pretty neato. Cleveland was fun. The squirrels there are very friendly. We couldn't resist stopping at this awesome little place at the end of the day for some delicious vegan pumpkin soup. 

We scooted back across the Canadian border to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with some family near Niagara Falls. It's funny how little we know about some family members. In a nutshell, we learned about Eco-friendly mining practices, Transcendental Meditation, Ayurvedic cooking and shared a wonderfully-fun-to-prepare (and eat) organic, GMO-free Ayurvedic Indian Thanksgiving dinner followed by a trip to the falls. This will be hard to top next Thanksgiving. 

Cattle and Corn and Cops! Oh my!

I have been procrastinating writing. So much to take in! My senses are on overload, in a very good way. The motorhome made a fantastically flawless journey through the Rockies to the beautiful west coast and then went on a ferry ride to Vancouver Island. We are so proud of that ol' girl! She's resting with some lovely friends on the island as we embark on our USA tour. 

One of my goals on this USA road trip is to gather some info about the average American's knowledge about GMOs in our food supply. I am calling the project "What do YOU know about GMO's?" and it consists of a five-question interview. I purchased a digital voice recorder so I can play reporter. If all goes well, I will continue this project once we return to Canada. (Please contact us if you would like to participate anonymously at alongthehearttrail@gmail.com ) I was pleasantly surprised when we made our very first stop on the US side of the border in Washington and saw these signs in an organic grocery store:

Montana is ginormous. Luckily it's also beautiful and has lots of interesting things to see. The pronghorn antelope are very plentiful and cute and seem to stay off the highways better than the deer. We made a stop in Butte, MT at sunset. The downtown has been carefully restored and maintained and it's really something! Also, we were puzzled by the giant glowing statue on one of the mountaintops nearby. Turned out it was a huge Virgin Mary called Our Lady of the Rockies. Who knew?

We stopped at a neato trading post across from the historical battlefield at Little Big Horn. 

Sadly, we couldn't actually get a tour of the area. Government shutdown.

 We listened to Glenn Beck on the radio and shook our heads as he listed the effects that the shutdown is having on US citizens. Mind boggling. He said that Mount Rushmore (as all national parks) was closed and that they went so far as to place cones along the highway so that passers-by can't even stop to look. What?? Needless to say, we settled for this postcard. If we hold it up and squint, it's pretty lifelike. 

As soon as we crossed the border into South Dakota, suddenly there was about 2 feet of snow on the ground and the trees still had green leaves, but they were broken and mangled from the freakishly heavy early snowfall. We overheard a man at a rest area saying he was trapped for 3 days in a house with no power or water under several feet of snow. As we continued, we witnessed something very bizarre and quite gruesome. There were miles of lifeless, black cattle in snowy pastures. We saw dozens of them strewn about in the ditches and on the median between the highway lanes. We stopped for fuel and asked what happened as we saw a huge heap of carcasses in a pen just behind the gas station. Apparently, it snowed so hard and so fast and with such high winds that the cattle got lost and made their way over fences and many froze to death and/or suffocated in snow drifts. It was one of the eeriest things I have ever seen. And it smelled absolutely awful. Millions of dollars of cattle lost was what they said. I was more saddened for those poor cows than for the financial losses. What happened to human compassion? 

On a lighter note, we drove late into the night last night and stopped in Mitchell, South Dakota because we really had to see the Corn Palace. That's right, it's a giant building with flashy lights and it's covered with corn cobs and corn stalks of various colors forming murals. As we stood and stared from the dark, empty street, two men in a pickup passed slowly by and one of them leaned out and declared "my life is now complete!!!" And we yelled back "us too!!"  The campground manager called it the world's largest bird feeder. So corny.

Speaking of corn, it's currently whizzing by us mile after mile as we trek through the corn mazes called Iowa and Minnesota. I am certain that most, if not all of it is GMO seed. Since corn is wind pollinated, it would be nearly impossible to avoid contamination in open prairie like this. On the bright side, there are also thousands of wind turbines producing power which, to me, is a welcome change from the thousands of oil and gas wells and refineries dotting the Alberta and Montana and area. Winds of change...

This Saturday, October 12 is a the worldwide March Against Monsanto. We plan to march and we hope you will too. There are thousands of marches planned around the globe. Find a march in a city near you! If we don't start taking action, our food supply will be forever altered and the consequences will be unfathomable. Speak up. Every voice counts. Many nations have already said NO to these science exp  If you aren't familiar with GMO foods, check out this quick explanation from Slow Food:

www.slowfood.com/international/140/gmos-in-a-nutshell?-session=query_session:42F94CA90a61127947mv8286202A