Don’t celebrate yet, but a grassroots victory against GMO deception is now inevitable

Mike Adams
Natural News
Oct 16, 2012

The battle against genetically modified organisms being secretly engineered into our foods now has only one possible outcome: Victory for the People… and defeat of the corporate quack scientists and the outrageously dishonest and sinister biotech industry that has shoved GMO down our throats for a decade or more.

In terms of victory, I’m not just talking about Proposition 37, although that could very well be a turning point that accelerates the consumer victory. But even if Proposition 37 doesn’t pass, the end of the line for hidden GMOs in our food is fast approaching. The word is out. People are getting informed. There’s absolutely no going back to the era of “GMO ignorance,” and the truth about GMOs causing cancer, infertility, organ damage and other deadly health problems is circulating everywhere.

Even Whole Foods is now teaching its own employees more details about GMO so that they can better answer customer’s questions about GMO.

GMO labeling laws are in the planning stages in several states across the country, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich has already introduced a national GMO labeling law called the Genetically Engineered Food Safety Act, or H.R. 6635.

Monsanto is on the run from activists. Honest doctors and scientists everywhere are waking up and speaking out against GMO. Food retailers like Green PolkaDot Box have already abandoned GMO and they now run an online store that’s virtually free of all genetically modified products.

And what’s really fascinating is that both organics-loving progressives and liberty-loving conservatives are loudly speaking out against GMOs for all the same reasons!

Progressives, conservatives, libertarians… everybody wants to stop foods from being secretly formulated with deadly GMO. (CONTINUE READING)

Everything is rigged - health, politics, finance and more - but here's how to beat the system

Mike Adams
Natural News
Oct 11, 2012

I’ve been pondering this topic for weeks, trying to find the words to communicate the full impact of this realization to which we are all increasingly awakening. Everything is rigged… the stock market, the news, the food, your taxes, public schools, the health care system, and on and on. Even Lance Armstrong’s cycling victories were all apparently rigged (with doping), we’re now finding out.

But what do I mean by “rigged” specifically? All these systems and industries are rigged to cheat you, to suppress you, and ultimately to suppress your human potential.

Think about it. The sick-care system is intentionally engineered to give you cancer, keep you sick, and keep you locked into a medical system that enriches powerful corporations while sacrificing human life.

The financial system is rigged to quietly steal the value of your money through endless monetary creation also known as “quantitative easing.” The more money the Fed prints, the less valuable the money you worked so hard to earn is left remaining.

The political system is utterly rigged to give you the illusion of choice while parading in front of you two puppets of different skin colors who both serve the same masters (the banksters).

The food system is rigged with GMOs that actually poison you while spreading genetic pollution across farms and fields everywhere.

The news is utterly and comprehensively rigged, and this was highlighted yet again by former CNN star reporter Amber Lyon who just went public with scathing accusations about how CNN allowed foreign terror regimes to actually BUY positive coverage on CNN’s broadcasts! This story is absolutely astonishing, and the very best interview of Amber Lyon exposing all this was conducted by Alex Jones and is found on YouTube.com. (Must-see video.) See Amber Lyon’s website at: http://www.amberlyonlive.com 

The justice system is ridiculously rigged. A woman was arrested a few weeks ago and charged with a felony crime for drawing on the sidewalk with chalk. Meanwhile, absolute evil-minded criminals like Jon Corzine and Eric Holder go free with no prosecution whatsoever. The criminals run free while the innocent are persecuted.

“Science” is largely rigged. Science journals are all dominated by Big Pharma advertising money, and nearly all the so-called science you see in the news anymore is just a regurgitation of fabricated research from corporate science whores who have sold their integrity for a paycheck. Much of the effort behind “science” today is spent reinforcing a monopoly over medicine by pushing deadly vaccines while disparaging healing plants and nutrients. Government regulators are completely rigged. The FDA looks out primarily for the interests of Monsanto and drug companies, not the safety of the American people. The USDA is completely beholden to the biotech industry and the meat factory giants, routinely betraying Americans with its decisions.

Private property is rigged. Thanks to unconstitutional property taxes, you never really “own” your land. Instead, you lease it from the government. Don’t believe me? Try not paying property taxes and see what happens. Your property will soon be seized at gunpoint and taken over by the government.

Even WAR is completely rigged. Wars are started with false flag attacks engineered by the imperialist USA, then all the reporting on war is completely censored to shield the American public from the truth of how horrifying it really is. The entire experience of war is sanitized, processed, homogenized… just like the processed cow’s milk you’re (hopefully not) drinking.

How do you beat a rigged system? Don’t play!

With all these systems rigged against you, how do you stand a chance of getting ahead? As every Vegas gambler knows deep down, the only way to beat the house is to not play against the house. Don’t play their game, in other words.

Instead of sending your children to government-run indoctrination centers known as public schools, home school them.

Instead of watching cable news propaganda, turn off the TV and get your news from independent online media like Natural News or one of our fan sites such as Natural News tracker.

Instead of being victimized by toxic GMO food, buy organic and avoid the GMOs.
Instead of falling for vaccines and prescription drugs, say NO to vaccines and dangerous drugs. Turn to nutrition and superfoods instead!

Instead of putting all your savings and investments in the fiat currency known as the dollar, diversify your holdings into precious metals, non-U.S. currencies, farm land and other stores of real value.

Instead of voting for the next presidential puppet, simply don’t vote for any president! The mere act of voting for a presidential candidate legitimizes the corrupt system. (Yes, it’s definitely important to vote for local candidates and ballot measures like Proposition 37 in California.)

The point of all this is that you can’t beat a rigged system. That’s why it’s rigged, of course: to make sure you never come out on top. So stop playing in the rigged system! The house always wins, didn’t you know? That’s how casinos make money, and it’s how nearly everything else works, too.

Levels of awakening

The path to true freedom begins with recognizing just how completely all the systems are rigged against you. Only from there can you withdraw your consent from all the rigged systems that are insidiously working to keep you sick, suppressed, impoverished and ignorant.

From there, focus your power and your effort inward, asking self-empowering questions like how can I become better informed and educated? How can I gain new skills? How can I improve my health and set myself free from the medical enslavement system? In time, these questions will transform to more broad questions such as: How can I contribute something meaningful to the world? What can I do to serve in the defense of life and truth?
These are levels of awareness / awakening. I describe them like this: (CONTINUE READING)

Why Do Supporters of Genetically Engineered Foods Insist on Organics for Their Own Families?

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com
October 9, 2012

Over the past few years, an interesting pattern has emerged, where political supporters of genetically engineered (GE) foods are feasting on organics, while promoting unlabeled GE foods for everyone else.

Most recently, Mother Jones¹ discussed how Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney – whose ties to Monsanto go back to the late 1970′s when GE crops were still in the R&D phase – reportedly makes sure his own meals are nothing but organic…

According to Peter Alexander of MSN Today:²

“On Romney Air, or Hair Force One – as Reuters’ Steve Holland like to call it – Mitt Romney has his own galley in ‘forward cabin.’ And, while I’ve never been invited up front, sources close to the campaign tell me the shelves are stocked with a wide variety of healthy fare. Kashi cereals, hummus, pita, as well as organic applesauce.

Everything’s organic, I’m told, including the ingredients to Romney’s favorite, peanut butter and honey sandwiches.”

Even more interesting, in a 2002 article³ about Romney’s wife, Ann, she credits a combination of organic foods and holistic medicine for turning her health around after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998. The profile reads in part:

“…She was 49 at the time, and the disease was progressing rapidly, she says, prompting the doctors to put her on steroids, which made her so sick she could barely get out of bed. ‘They were killing me,’ she says of the treatment. ‘You have bone loss; they are so bad for you.’

Mrs. Romney was introduced to several practitioners of holistic medicine, who persuaded her to adopt alternative therapies. She now eats organic foods and very little meat. She practices reflexology and undergoes acupuncture treatments. She credits the lifestyle with turning her health around…

‘Everyone has to find their own way,’ she says. ‘Three years ago I was really, really sick and not able to function at all. A lot of the symptoms are [now] gone…’”

Mrs. Romney isn’t the only success story in which food played a center role in beating multiple sclerosis (MS). Last year I posted an article about Dr. Terry Wahls, who reversed MS after seven years of deterioration on the best conventional treatments available, simply by changing her diet.

Wouldn’t it be a nice change of pace if our agricultural authorities, not to mention our President, could reach into their hearts and find the humanity to fight for everyone’s right to eat wholesome food that doesn’t contain foreign DNA, built-in pesticides, and an inordinate amount of synthetic chemicals so that diseases such as MS and cancer could be curtailed before they even get a foothold?

If GE Foods are So Great, Why Won’t the Elite Eat Them?

While Obama has been a huge supporter of Big Biotech during his term, Romney is just as “tight” with Monsanto, having actually successfully guided the company out of lawsuits with Congress in the shameful aftermath of Agent Orange (a Monsanto creation, which was supposed to be harmless to everything except vegetation), and heinous chemical dumping incidents in Missouri and Alabama.⁴

He’s also in favor putting the “Monsanto rider” provision in the 2012 Farm Bill – a rider that would prevent a federal court from putting in place court-ordered restrictions on a GE crop, even if the approval were fraudulent or involved bribery, among other things.

Unfortunately, Mitt Romney is just one in a line of politicians who support and promote GE foods as being just as safe and “natural” as conventional foods while privately serving up nothing but organic for their own families. President Obama, as his predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, have all reportedly insisted on an organic diet. (READ MORE)

The Great Organic Deceivers

August 21, 2012
anh-usa.org

 

Which organic brands really believe in organic—and which are working behind the scenes to betray natural health consumers?

Many natural and organic brands are actually owned by huge conglomerates that don’t support sustainable, organic, non-GMO, non-toxic agriculture. In fact, their product labels are often designed to mislead consumers just so they can grab a share of the lucrative health-conscious consumer market.

Even worse, many of the conglomerate companies that produce so-called natural foods—and even some labeled “organic”—are allied with the biotech industry fighting by any means to defeat “Label GMO,” a.k.a. Prop 37, the California Right to Know 2012 Ballot Initiative. Why are they doing such a thing? Because they sell more food that has GMO ingredients than organic food, and don’t want consumers to have a choice about the GMO. They especially don’t want consumers to know what is actually in their so-called “natural” products.

Keep in mind that the term “natural” has no legal or regulatory meaning at all: FDA has never created a definition for it and claims that “it is difficult to define a food product that is ‘natural’ because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth.” In fact, FDA even says high-fructose corn syrup is natural! “Natural” is nothing more than a marketing term, one that is in fact meaningless.

You’d think a “natural” food wouldn’t have genetically engineered ingredients, but you’d be wrong. Kashi, which everywhere proclaims its passion for “healthy, all-natural foods,” has GMO soy in its ingredients. Kashi is owned by Kellogg, the multinational food manufacturing company that produces everything from sugary cereals to Morningstar Farms vegetarian products (some of which are organic but still use GMOs) to Keebler cookies (filled with GMOs). The company has contributed $612,000 to defeat Prop 37 and keep GMO labels off their products.

Sierra Mist Natural wears that moniker proudly because their soda is “made with real sugar and 100% natural flavors”! The brand is owned by PepsiCo, which has contributed more than $1 million to defeat Prop 37.

What you may not realize is that many organic brands have been snapped up by Big Food companies; their ownership is deliberately hidden from consumers. While they purport to have an environmental and health-conscious mission, they completely undercut that claim by fighting GMO labeling. Honest Tea, for example, is USDA-certified organic. Yet Honest Tea is owned by Coca-Cola, which has also contributed more than $1 million to defeat Label GMO. We don’t think that’s very honest. Coke also owns Odwalla, which produces “all-natural juices” and “nourishing protein bars,” and supposedly supports sustainable agriculture. GMO is sustainable agriculture?

Silk carries the “Non-GMO Project Verified” seal on its soy milk, coconut milk, and almond milk products. Both Silk and the Horizon Organic brand tell their customers that the brands oppose GMOs. Yet both are owned by Dean Foods, which has contributed $253,000 to defeat Label GMO. (CONTINUE READING)

Flawed organic foods study really just a media psyop to confuse the public about organics while pushing GMOs

Mike Adams
Natural News.com
September 4, 2012

If you read the mainstream news headlines today, you might be shocked to see headlines that say things like, “Organic foods no healthier than conventional foods” or “Organic foods may not be healthier for you.” You’ll see these headlines all across the usual disinfo outlets: NPR, Associated Press, Reuters, Washington Post, WebMD and elsewhere.

The problem with these headlines is that they are flatly false. The study these news outlets are quoting actually confirms that organic foods are far healthier for you than conventional foods.

So how is the mainstream media lying about this? By fudging the facts, of course.

For starters, the “study” isn’t even a study. It was just a review of other studies. No new laboratory analysis was done whatsoever!

The “review” was conducted at Stanford University and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. You can read the abstract here:

http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1355685
As the study itself concludes:
• Exposure to chemical pesticides was significantly lower in organic foods (roughly 30% less than conventional foods).
• Exposure to “superbugs” in meat (antibiotic-resistant bacteria) was also significantly lower in organic foods (roughly a 33% risk difference).
• The study conclusion says, right out, that “Consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”

How the media lied
Somehow, the mainstream media took this study and then lied to their readers, claiming organic food is “no different” than conventional food. That is a flat-out lie, of course. Because it fails to mention all the following:
• GMOs are not allowed in organic foods. So GMO exposure is many orders of magnitude higher in conventional foods, where GMOs are commonplace.

• Artificial chemical sweeteners are not allowed in organic foods. But conventional foods are often sweetened with toxic chemicals such as aspartame or saccharin.

• The study completely failed to look at the use of genetically-modified bovine growth hormones (rBGH) in conventional milk versus organic milk.(CONTINUE READING)

Organic farmers sue Monsanto

Organic farmers sue Monsanto

permalink email story to a friend print version

Published: 28 July, 2011, 20:50

Organic farmers are taking on corporate America.

TAGS: Health, USA, Corporate news, Agriculture, Culture

Nearly 300,000 organic farmers are filing suit against corporate agriculture giant Monsanto, who have in recent years squashed independent organic farms from coast to coast.
270,000 organic farmers filed a lawsuit in March 30 in an attempt to keep a portion of the world’s food supply organic. The plaintiffs in the case are members of around 60 family farms, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations.
Led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, the suit lashes out at Monsanto to keep their engineered Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola seed out of their farms. Organic agriculturalists say that corn, cotton, sugar beets and other crops of theirs have been contaminated by Monsanto‘s seed, and even though the contamination has been largely natural and unintended, Monsanto has been suing hundreds of farmers for infringing on their patent for incidentally using their product.
Not only are organic farmers trying to keep things — well, organic — but now many of them are being forced to throw in the towel as Monsanto unfortunately continues a successful war on the competition by suing indie growers that run organic farms. In recent years, Monsanto has acquired more than 20 of the biggest seed producers and sellers in the country, and The Street reports that they have instituted a policy whereas their customers are forced to use their bionengineered seeds — and purchase them each and every year — lest they want to be blacklisted forever.  (CONTINUE READING)

Consolidation of seed companies leading to corporate domination of world food supply

July 27, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

naturalnews.com

(NaturalNews) Throughout the history of agriculture across the globe, farming has always been a diversified sector of the economy. Small, self-sustaining, family farms were the order of the day in most cultures. Even as small farms grew larger and more specialized over time, many of them still saved seeds or purchased them from other farmers, which kept control of farming in the hands of the people.

But today everything has changed, as large chemical and agribusiness firms have acquired or merged with seed companies and other agricultural input companies. They have successfully gained a foothold on genetically-modified (GM) crops with transgenic traits.

These primary factors and several others have facilitated a crescendo towards the global domination of agriculture by corporations, and thus the world's food supply.

The dismal state in which we find ourselves today did not come overnight, of course, but it did pick up rapid speed after the introduction of GM crops in the mid-1990s. Since that time, multinational corporations like Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta have seized a significant amount of control over the global seed industry, which has greatly limited agricultural diversity and freedom.

The ability to patent both seeds and seed traits has also added injury to insult, as the ability to obtain natural or heirloom seeds is becoming increasingly difficult, and many farmers feel they have no choice but to go with the flow.

Professor Philip H. Howard from the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies at Michigan State University published a study in 2009 entitled Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996 - 2008 that analyzes the trend in agriculture towards corporate dominance.

The report, which was featured in a special issue of the journal Renewable Agriculture, provides both an extensive data analysis of agriculture's dramatic transformation over the past several decades, as well as a highly-informative visual analysis of this truly shocking hostile takeover situation.

The 'Big Six" pharmaceutical and chemical companies have acquired, created joint ventures with hundreds of seed companies over the past 15 years

In order to help assist his readers in understanding the state of the seed industry, Prof. Howard developed a very informative graphic that displays the reality of who really controls the seed industry.

Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow, and BASF collectively own or partially-own hundreds of formerly-independent seed companies -- and Monsanto, of course, dominates them all.

You can view the graphic for yourself at the following link:
http://www.naturalnews.com/files/se...

As you will see, the blue circles in the diagram represent seed companies, while the red circles -- which happen to all be chemical or pharmaceutical companies -- control the vast majority of them. Solid gray arrows indicate complete ownership of a company, while gray lines indicate partial ownership.

One of the most obvious first impressions to be gathered from the diagram is Monsanto's excessive and widespread control over the seed industry. According to Prof. Howard's analysis, Monsanto acquired more than 50 seed companies just during the time represented by his study period, which spans the years between 1996 and 2008.

Monsanto had little-to-no involvement in the seed industry prior to the mid-1980s, but since that time has been rapidly eating up seed companies and furthering its development and control over the food supply through GMOs. Today, Monsanto is the world's largest seed company, and the transnational behemoth continues to acquire or otherwise create "partnerships" with various independent seed companies that are still in existence.

Behind Monsanto, the other five of the "Big Six" that Prof. Howard illustrates -- DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow, and BASF -- collectively own or control a great portion of the remaining major seed companies not owned or controlled by Monsanto. And one of the biggest factors that has contributed to this dismal setup is GMOs and transgenic, patentable seed traits that are shared among the industry players.

The "Big Six" each have agreements with one or more of the others; their overall success has largely hinged on GMOs and increased control of agricultural inputs

The only thing worse than Monsanto and the dominance of the seed market are the cozy relationships with one another. Prof. Howard's analysis reveals that every company in the "Big Six" has at least one mutual relationship with one another, and they together share corporate control of the seed industry. (CONTINUE READING)

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033148_seed_companies_Monsanto.html#ixzz1TMYvyCL9

6 Ways Food is Being Used as a Weapon

Activist Post
July 25, 2011

Hungry people will do anything for food, which means that those who have control over food can use it as leverage.

Dees Illustration

In 1974, Henry Kissinger suggested using food as a weapon to induce targeted population reduction in a previously classified 200-page report, National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.  The primary tactic to be applied is that food aid would be withheld from developing nations until they submitted to birth control policies:

There is also some established precedent for taking account of family planning performance in appraisal of assistance requirements by AID [U.S. Agency for International Development] and consultative groups. Since population growth is a major determinant of increases in food demand, allocation of scarce PL 480 resources should take account of what steps a country is taking in population control as well as food production. In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion.

So, food was to be used as just another method of imperial colonization to force countries to conform their policies to those desired by the controllers. Notably, this tactic only works as a blunt weapon on territories enduring a severe economic collapse and with little resources for food production. Today, however, it appears that the entire globe is receiving an arsenal of food bombs as there appears to be a multifaceted attack on people’s access to food.  In other words, what has been an admitted tactic for nearly 40 years of controlling food aid for regional population reduction has now grown more complex and expansive. Because of massive corporate consolidation of agriculture, centrally coordinated global regulations, a devalued commodity-dollar and unrestrained commodity speculation, chemical and genetic modification, and real or manipulated food shortages; there is indeed a war being waged -- with food as the primary weapon.  Understand, this is a not purely a war on food, but rather a war on the general population. Therefore, it is crucial to understand these tactics in order to defend against them.

Here are six ways food is being used to wage war against the population:

1. Food inflation: Crippling food inflation is now affecting every corner of the world with the poorest feeling the worst pangs.  The U.N.  Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) food price index increased by 3 points to 234 points in June – a 39% increase on the year. These increases are causing mass starvation and rioting in many poor regions of the world, but they are also beginning to punish the middle-class in the Industrialized nations.  The price of food is inflating primarily because of a devalued commodity-dollar from excessive money printing and Wall Street commodity speculation.  Perhaps it's more appropriate to call it commodity manipulation, not speculation.  As William Engdahl recently pointed out: "The ability to manipulate the price of essential foods worldwide at will -- almost irrespective of today’s physical supply and demand for grains -- is quite recent....Up until the grain crisis of the mid-1970s there was no single 'world price' for grain, the benchmark for the price of all foods and food products."

What fuels commodity speculation is not just the obvious decline of the dollar and a flight to something tangible, but also genuine supply concerns based on a variety of factors that cause crop shortages like extreme weather or disease. Regardless of real or manipulated food shortages, food prices will continue to rise because of increased demand and an incrementally weaker dollar. Luckily, there are many ways to protect yourself from food inflation and the food war in general.
(CONTINUE READING)

USDA trying to run organic leafy green growers out of business

Sunday, July 17, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Results of the passage of S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, are beginning to come into play -- and in this case the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), rather than the FDA, has decided to take the helm.

A recent Action Alert posted by the Cornucopia Institute (CI) warns that current efforts by handlers and marketers of green leafy vegetables are attempting to formulate one-size-fits-all "food safety" standards for the entire industry that threaten to put small, organic growers at a competitive and economic disadvantage. They may even put small, family-scale growers out of business.

NaturalNews and many other news sources put out repeated warnings last year about the ill intentions of S. 510, including that the small growers would be uprooted by its provisions if it passed (http://www.naturalnews.com/S_510.html).

Now that it has, we are beginning to see the consequences of this bill come into play. Difficult guidelines for all growers, are being proposed.

According to the alert, corporate agribusiness is attempting to form a "National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement" with the USDA that will allegedly set standards to help prevent contamination and disease outbreaks. But as many NaturalNews readers already know, leafy greens are not dangerous. It is large-scale factory animal farms that pollute air and water that are mostly to blame. (CONTINUE READING)

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033021_leafy_greens_food_safety.html#ixzz1SNufc0N4

The worlds largest human experiment: GMOs, Roundup and the Monsanto monstrosity – part one

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Informed consent is one of the most basic aspects of patient-physician relations, as well as subject-researcher relations in the case of research studies. This involves making the patient aware of and verifying that they understand the risks, benefits, facts, and the future implications of the procedure or test they are going to be subjected to.

In the case of genetically modified organisms we have not been made aware of the risks. In fact, the GMO industry has deliberately hidden the real dangers behind the seeds and herbicides they peddle.  The Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America has defined informed consent in the following bureaucratic jargon:  (CONTINUE READING)

Locavorism: A Passing Trend or Lasting Benefit?

By David Kretzmann  February 28th, 2011

I had never heard the term “locavore” before coming to Berea College in 2010. I have been interested in localism and sustainability for quite some time, but I didn’t realize the local food movement had established its own descriptive term. The locavore movement presents an opportunity for people to reexamine how they live their lives; are people comfortable buying food from halfway around the country or the world? Do people place value on the security of knowing who grows their food? Locavorism’s relatively small-scale success so far has come by appealing to people’s ecological values, and presenting what looks like a viable alternative to highly industrial food systems that make up the majority of food production today. The locavore movement has a good deal of substance, but the movement’s lasting potential is threatened with narrow and rigid goals.
Personally, I find “locavore” to be a limiting term. From my experience growing up in Nevada City, California, many people are interested in localizing their lives far beyond the food they eat. In lieu of the volatility and inconsistency of the U.S. economy, people are attempting to regain control over their finances and banks by joining institutions such as credit unions, which promise more local control and input compared to national corporate banks. It is possible that my perspective is slightly biased having grown up in an area with very independent individuals who seem to constantly investigate new possibilities of engaging in transactions with others. However, it is apparent that more businesses and institutions are succeeding based on their commitment to local ownership and transactions. Daniel F. Agan Jr., President of the Massachusetts Credit Union League, recently explained, “Credit union growth is being fueled by their commitment to the local community.” [i]
Despite the passion and claims of some, I do not believe the locavore or local movement in general will expand primarily because of environmental concerns. People’s environmental concern will play a role in it, but I have my doubts that environmentalism alone will lead to a sustainable route of localism. People have different ideas of what constitutes environmental sustainability and how to achieve those goals. Very few would state that the heart of the environmental movement comes down to the food that we choose to eat. Locavorism can play a major part in environmental awareness and concern, but environmental issues stretch beyond whether we buy our food from the farmer down the street or from farmers in South America. In other words, you are likely some form of an environmentalist if you are a locavore, but you do not have to be a locavore to be an environmentalist. Locavores will limit the potential of local food expansion if they publicize the movement largely on environmental grounds, because there are numerous other environmental movements competing for attention and support from the very same crowd.
Economic influences and preferences drive individual decisions more than anything else. People vote with their dollars and naturally support businesses and systems they value over other current options. For example, just because Wal-Mart offers the cheapest produce doesn’t mean that people won’t support a local farmer for a few extra dollars; if it is fresh, locally grown produce people value, they are probably willing to dish out some extra cash if necessary. Every action comes down to the personal value people place on something. This is what the movement of locavorism must publicize if they want to send a sustainable and lasting message to people. Preserving the environment is great, but if locavores can show people that they can preserve the environment and maybe save a few bucks by supporting local agriculture, the movement will have a much higher likelihood of sticking around for the long haul. If you don’t appeal to the economic interests of people, your movement will have a very difficult time sticking.  (CONTINUE READING)