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. 

Did YOU sign up for this? (Part UNO)

I am finding that my posts are alternating between uplifting and concerning. This topic is concerning to me and also really huge (so i am splitting it up into multiple posts). Once again, inspired by a chapter in a book, I write today to encourage you to question everything. And by everything, I mean every. Single. Thing.

The concept that sparked my writing is that of a "tribal consciousness" or "collective consent". In other words, I'm going to examine some of the many facets of our society's "normal" practices (that most of us seem to be ok with, otherwise we would be changing things, right?) and explain why I think we are all being mislead in a huge way.  I don't have all the answers...I ask you to come to your own conclusions:

Water

We all need it. It's not optional. How do you like yours? Tap? Spring? Reverse osmosis? Vitamin enhanced? Fruity? Perhaps with a bit of fizz? When did something that falls freely from the sky start belonging to the world's governments and big corporations? How is it even possible for some places to deem it illegal to catch your own rainwater? How did our environment get so filthy that we have to treat our water like its toxic waste and run it through a series of contraptions in order to drink it or bathe in it? Gulp. 

Food

Also not optional, except for a handful of folks (called Breatharians. What? You don't know one? Geez.) who have apparently surpassed the need for food. Once upon a time, people around the globe grew their own food. Mhmmmm, pretty much everyone. Most of them hunted for something too. So that would mean if you were lazy, you would likely starve. These days most of us would call producing food "dirty work". We have much more glamorous goals to achieve, so we mindlessly roam through the mega "food" stores, piling carts full of processed packaged stuff labeled as edible.

  At your next meal, quiz yourself to see if you know where any of your food was grown or how far it travelled to arrive in your fridge. As Joel Salatin joked, but was actually frighteningly serious, some kids on his farm tour asked to see the salsa tree. Yikes.  If you don't live in an agricultural area of the globe, you are really missing out on seeing where many of your staple foods are coming from. The next time you eat anything containing conventional (and verrrrry likely GMO) wheat, corn, or canola oil (or a myriad of other cheap, scary fillers), consider this series of images.

It starts in the expansive fields where the crops (and surrounding homes and schools etc) get a routine shower of poisonous chemicals several times a season...

Then it all gets sprayed one last time to ensure that it all ripens perfectly just in time to harvest...

It all eventually ends up in your kitchen...And...in a frighteningly huge percentage of anything that comes in a package, box, can or bag...or a restaurant. 

I have watched the spraying on a very regular basis while riding my bike around rural Alberta. Even got sprayed once while riding. It burned my skin. I was told to smarten up and not bike around crop sprayers. Also, every minute counts in farming, so we don't stop spraying when a human is nearby.   Gag. Choke. Head shake. Huh??!

Education

I have a hard time even calling it that. It really seems more like "fill your brain, limit your creativity, think...but only inside the box, this is how it is, leave out the actual life skills portion (like taxes or budgeting or healthy eating or proper communication skills), oh and sit still and stop talking for 12 years-ucation."  

Then...if you are wealthy, a superstar athlete OR want to pay back mega debt for the next few decades, university is totally for you! What? You're not going?! You'll never make it in the real world!!! Might as well just give up now. Or work your butt off at ____ and give away a huge slice (wait, no. You keep a slice and we will take the loaf) of your hard earned money to the government. Oh, don't you worry. They are going to use it to help make your life better. Ahahaha *snort* Oh, gosh. That's funny. 

Well then. I think that's enough for everyone to question for one day. 

Ps. I plan to elaborate on all of these topics in the near future. Stay tuned for Part 2...