Before you click away, read Gerald Pilger’s ‘The target is glyphosate’, even if you think you don’t have time
The organization that Gerald writes about is called Avaaz, named after the root that gives us the word “voice” in several European languages.
Over 44 million environmentalists around the world now belong to Avaaz, and they are pushing to make it the most powerful eco-organization the world has ever seen, far beyond Greenpeace or World Wildlife Fund.
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In my own circle, few farmers have heard of Avaaz. Even fewer were worried about it.
That’s about to change.
This is a group that has harnessed global energy to fight the world’s biggest environmental challenges.
They’re fighting climate change, which we can understand, and they’re fighting to keep our oceans healthy, which we can also understand.
But their third-highest priority is to kill glyphosate.
And they know how to do it, by mobilizing popular support with a Bernie Sanders sort of momentum, telling everyone who checks out their website that “Glyphosate kills ‘everything’ except Monsanto’s genetically engineered crops, transforming our planet into ecological wastelands where nothing can live but one GM crop. It’s apocalyptic.”
You know it’s wrong. I know it’s wrong. But the two million Avaaz members who lobbied Europe’s parliament this year to prevent the EU from giving glyphosate an automatic extension on its registration don’t know it. And, according to Pavel Poc, the vice-chair of the EU’s environment committee, it was Avaaz that tipped the political balance against glyphosate.
With that success, Avaaz is getting bolder. If you can secure one victory with statements like “Our planet is one tremendously fragile, interdependent ecosystem, and Monsanto’s wasteland agriculture is taking a wrecking ball to it,” why would you give up?
But we must keep the balance in mind too. For the September 2016 issue of Country Guide, I spoke with the leaders of Nourish Marketing, and I encourage you to also read this story.
For consumers, farmers are almost the only moral touchstone in a world where everyone seems directed only by their self-interest.
Farmers are wholesome, and what they do is wholesome, which is why McDonald’s and so many others are trying to save their corporate brands by using their ads to paint their links to the ranch and farm.
As you’ll see, Nourish president JoAnn McArthur believes this trust is one of the most valuable assets in today’s food industry. It creates opportunities, and despite Avaaz, these are opportunities that farmers can control.
Our challenge has got to be to show consumers that farmers are professional, and that wholesome can also be smart enough to make wise decisions about glyphosate.
Spend some time at Avaaz, and then at Nourish Food Marketing. Then let me know. Are we getting it right? Let me know at [email protected].
