We’ve been working primarily on GMO issues for 7 years now. We’ve fought many battles and won a few lost a few. We lost real labeling at the federal level with a DARK law that does not require a label and may not even consider the new techniques like CRISPR to be genetic engineering at all. If they aren’t GMOs then no need of any sort of oversight or letting us know where they are…right?
In addition to no label, DARK also gives FDA $3M to align with industry to create an “Educational Campaign” to enlighten the world on the wonders of GMOs. If you think, like we do, that this is a waste of our taxpayers’ money, you have until November 17, 2017 to leave a comment for them here. Please read the questions they are asking about and give them your thoughts.
Please do take a little time to comment as it’s time for us to rally and reawaken our collective power around food issues and let our elected officials (and the agencies that work for us) know that we have NOT gone away…we’ve just been taking a long deserved rest.
We here at GMO Free California will continue to work on GMO issues. A few counties are talking about becoming GMO Free Growing Zones. Washington state is doing the preliminary research to find out how the citizens of that state feel about doing a GMO salmon ban. Please find out more and support them by going here. We will continue to ask you to weigh in on DARK as that process proceeds and to spread the word about the Artic Apple, now in stores.
But today we are also officially announcing the launch of our new, fun filled adventure called (drum roll, please):
Our mission is to create strong local food systems that are Healthy, Just, Resilient and Regenerative. GMOs come under that but aren’t the whole focus of the mission.
Why focus on local food systems? One reason is that for a few years now, I, Pamm, have been drawn to working on creating strong local food systems from the same intuitive place that I started working from for Prop 37. But there are important reasons that are behind that impulse.
Local food has been rising in popularity. It’s usually perceived as a hipster, iPhone, latte sort of movement. No offense to our Beloved Hipster Friends…we truly love you and own smartphones, too!
But it’s NOT a just a hipster thing…
It’s about creating stronger communities in a fractured country. It’s about reviving our local economies, not shipping our money off to global corporate monopolies. It’s about healthier food that’s grown to replenish the homes we live in and the Earth as our home.
It’s about using seeds that are locally adapted to our microclimates so that more of us will have a better chance of surviving the coming challenges of climate chaos. It’s about being food secure in times of unrest where, at any moment, the highway might close and the 3 day supply of food in our grocery stores is unable to be replenished. Local food is true homeland security.
The Good Food Brigade is not about fighting anyone anymore. It’s about coming together in joy, celebration and hard work as we reach out and re-establish the kind of communities we long for: connected, supportive, strong and cooperative with justice and sovereignty for all. It’s about creating a new economy and a new relationship with each other and the land that’s based on a
variety of values, not just profit.
Our first and largest campaign is Victory Gardens 2.0.
If you grow food for yourself or your community/region, please register your garden, CSA, urban farm, etc here.* We aim for 1 million gardens and farms by December 31, 2020. We love that our grandparents and great-grandparents grew 42% of their fruits and vegetables in their yards and small farms. That campaign joined the country together in powerful ways. And we know that since they could do it, we can, too! But this time we are doing it without government interference or war as our motivation. We are doing it for joy, celebration, independence, food sovereignty and community connection!
Please visit our site and send feedback to me here.
It’s a fun space with lots of great information on why Good Food is important and with practical, easy tools on how to get there.
Watch us grow as we truly make the world great again by coming together to change the food system and the planet, one tasty bite at a time!
In the meantime…please help us grow!
- Like our Facebook page
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel
- Register your garden no matter what the size.
- Keep Up To Speed on all the great stuff we’ll be doing by signing up for the infrequently sent news briefs which will contain very different (happy) things than this one. Or sign up for our Happy C.O.W.* Corps (*Change Our World…not a vegan thing) and be a part of a fun project to do one little thing a week to change the food system.
I’ll start traveling around California after Thanksgiving, take a short break for the holidays, then be on the road in January for adventures around the country and into Canada through much of 2018. I hope to visit your town and spread the important news about local food and interview you and/or locals for our new YouTube channel. (We are intentionally raw and unpolished to encourage everyone to grab their phone and join our crowdsourced channel celebrating local Good Food heroes changing their communities)
See you on the streets!
Pamm Larry
Contact me via the contact page to talk more about joining us!