From Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/activism/millions-against-monsanto-march
Monsanto’s stocks have fallen following its GMO wheat debacle and the global March Against Monsanto.
By April M. Short
June 2, 2013
“OMG, GMO, WTF?” Nine letters printed on a protester’s T-shirt summed up the frustration of the thousands who gathered in San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza for the culmination of the local March Against Monsanto action on May 25. San Francisco’s protesters joined more than two million people in 400 cities around the world in a backlash against the $58 billion multinational corporate giant Monsanto, responsible for chemical poisoning, genetically engineered seeds, and a multitude of offenses since its founding as a chemical company 100 years ago.
Pamm Larry—the self-proclaimed Grandma behind Calif.’s Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food Initiative (Prop. 37)—spoke to the crowd about ongoing efforts to follow the momentum of the global march.
“It’s the little tiny things that add up, which have made this movement explode around the world and the country, and I’m so excited to see that it’s moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas getting out there,” she told the crowd via megaphone, noting that a mother started the March Against Monsanto (MAM) effort via a Facebook page. “I’m gonna ask you all not to let this energy die, please.”
While Prop. 37 failed to pass a vote in 2012, Larry and other organizers are pushing for another labeling initiative on the 2014 ballot.
“It takes a willingness to stand, to talk to people not like us, and meet them not with anger but with love—and to meet them with an open heart, because an open heart is what draws people in and they can’t help but want to join us and listen to us,” she continued. “Everybody eats, everybody breathes, everybody wants to breathe good fresh wonderful juicy clean air. We cannot allow them to take over our planet while we sit by and decide to go out and have another beer.”
Monica Lopez, who works with a grassroots organization called Label GMO in San Francisco and helped organize the city’s MAM rally, says the anti-GMO movement is in defense of a fundamental tenant of democracy.
“I believe that many have not yet understood the association between democracy and the situation we find our food system today,” she says. “Real food is not a privilege for the elite but rather a fundamental right for every human being. Yet our grocery stores are filled with toxin-ridden foods that could not even enter 60 other nations in the world. Is this really how we want to nourish the American population?”
Continue reading at: http://www.alternet.org/activism/millions-against-monsanto-march
