GMOs and Washington's Initiative I-522 (voting Nov 5)

Mimi posted this from the Cornucopia Institute, nicely summing up the Grocery Manufacturing Association's money-laundering scheme/recent exposure:
http://www.cornucopia.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/I-522.poster.1023.jpg
(too small to really read, below, for full size click the link ^ and then click on the image there to enlarge)



The GMO fight is so frustrating.  I just want actual *food* for my kids.  I just want people to stop  pouring poison on plants, earth, and animals.  I want farmworkers' children to not suffer the exposure effects of pesticides.  I want to know that we will stop loading toxins into the oceans, that maybe someday the few sea animals (and plants) who escaped our dragnets can recover their ecosystems from our factory-food mindset -- that we haven't poured so much non-bioddegradable poison into the water that the remaining individuals will be too sick to repopulate.

Increasing the toxicity of our production methods makes no sense in any situation at this point -- but for *food*?!?  Wow, you have to be soooo wrapped up in the industrial/profit mindset to *not* see how ridiculous that "goal" is ... !

How does "Wow, great!  This gene switch allows you to use Roundup with impunity!" not trigger a "hey ... wait ... what now?" response?

Kudos to the Washington State Attorney General for exposing the money laundering.

Frankly, kudos also to the GMA for realizing they had made an unrecoverable error and simply 'fessing up.  In some ways, this is maybe better, in terms of political fallout, because this made these funders a "newsworthy story" instead of just 'annoying trivia.'

I hope the lawyers, pencil pushers, janitors, and scientists working for the profit-suckers all take a step back and realize how unsustainable their relationship (social and material) to the world is as long as they are supporting Dow, Monsanto, Bayer, etc ... .  The brain trust in these corporations is huge.  Why, people, why?

These are some of the same companies that produced chemical weapons in the 1960s/70s, sucking up taxpayer money to create pain and destruction for profit (most famously, Agent Orange -- officially a "defoliator," meant to remove the leaves from the jungle so Americans could see enemy troops) ... these same companies are now producing GMOs to justify use of their chemicals (new and old), and again they are being shielded and abetted by the federal government in profitting from selfishness and destruction.

Because of this preposterous and disgusting historical parallel, I am thinking about painting my van with this historically referential slogan:

HELL NO
G.M.O.'s!

but I can't quite decide if I want to be 'swearing' (and aggressive) so incontrovertibly ...

... At least in Portland I really have no any fear that some freaky GMO proponent will roadrage me or scare my kids because I'm referencing a hippie slogan and protesting Important American Institutions like the 1%, profits-uber-alles, "Better Living Through Science," and that unbesmirchable absolute in a world that doesn't really like absolutes anymore, "progress" : P.
.

Fb statuses: Oct 11 2013: Monsanto ate my posts!

Post1 (you would not BELIEVE the adrenaline rush I was running on ... this is a very tame explosion, here):

Hey. Who stole my March Against Monsanto post?!?
The event is tomorrow (Saturday); as I recall it's a 10am gathering in Holladay Park followed by an 11am march in the Lloyd District ...

I'm creeped out that my post doesn't appear on my timeline ... ewww. I've always asserted that Monsanto is evil, but it's NOT COOL that they apparently have inside agents warping Facebook.

Post2:

AND it's been removed from my Events Calendar.
!!!!!

OK, clue to the brothers and sisters who are trying to take over the world: you are supposed to be friggin' SUBTLE.

In the voice of the soup nazi: NO STYLE POINTS FOR YOU! Crsly. PR FAIL. Now you are just more yucky than you already were.

(Subnote to Post2: AND it was gone from my Likes.  Which was where I looked for it first when I couldn't Search it, again, using Fb's Search function)

Post3:

Sent to Facebook's "Feedback" feature, since their "Report a Problem" feature was essentially useless:

A post on my Timeline regarding the march Against Monsanto Oct 12 2013 has disappeared. The related event in my Events Calendar has ALSO disappeared. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised after the Fb page for March Against Monsanto, and specifically the links within the Portland Oregon event page, were flakey, but I find I *am* surprised. I strongly recommend someone at Fb trace all activity in the last month or so related to that event name, and see who has been accessing the systems and destroying both data and the user experience. It blows my mind that they are being so overt!!

Sincerely, [KR]

Comments (attached to Post1):
* TT: nothing new here....
* KR: I'm just surprised they care about my level of "organizing" ... clearly, regarding Monsanto, I am an extremist, even among natural-food advocates; I would think leaving me out at the edge looking like a crazy-person would not be a worry worth their time : P. Messing up the interfaces for the actual event pages makes more sense. This makes me worry about how much time and money they feel like they can essentially throw away on nothing-problems. Or maybe I have a bigger Fb readership than I think I do ; ).

On the other hand, this little blowup might have just convinced my mom, who is naturally skeptical when I get extreme, that Monsanto (or some group supporting them) really *is* as horrible a global citizen as I've been asserting ... it also was an unexpected crash-course for my kids in information suppression!

Post4:

Here is an umbrella event that mentions it:
https://www.facebook.com/events/618008444906773/

Well. I wasn't sure I was going to get the kids up to go, but now ... WELL. 

 *     *     *     *     *

As followup, the Bees and Seeds event that was actually staged was not overtly (although determinedly) aggressive, and although very anti-GMO, the anti-GMO message was held within the larger picture of positive steps people are taking and can take (bees, heirloom seeds, creativity, accessing traditional ways of interacting with the land ... and then a lot of political action groups).  So that was very Portland of them, although a few younger protesters had shown up with red+black aggressive signs and were clearly disappointed to not be marching and yelling (frankly, a couple of my kids and I were, too).

Having listened to the event, I am realizing that perhaps this is my current issue.  And maybe, when I paint my van, it will have a theme beyond just "flowers."  I sent a text to my ex that he'd better get his 4-child-capable vehicle out of the shop bcz I'm thinking about politicking-up my van and then he might not want to drive it anymore ... .  Because I'm not necessarily feeling "aggressive," but I am feeling "determined," and that is far more dangerous actually.  I've hit the IanMcKellenAsGandalf "YOU SHALL NOT PASS" stage, on this issue.  And I'm done being private about it.

Now I need to get my house cleaned out and sold so I can pay attention to the things I care about.
.