Human Right to Health and Safe Food

Marybeth Gardam and Nancy Price, Corporations v Democracy and Earth Democracy

Corporations v Democracy and Earth Democracy Launch new
Human Right to Health and Safe Food Campaign

As Guardians of Future Generations, it’s time to assert our right to a safe environment and food.  Together, let’s carry out the Resolution passed at Congress to invoke the Precautionary Principle and assert that the chemical/agricultural complex has no right to harm our health. Your participation is key to the success of this new collaborative four-part one-year CAMPAIGN.

WILPF as a woman’s group has a role to play in lifting up the human right to health and safe food.  “Glyphosate, “as Marybeth points out, “has been found in the breast milk of nursing mothers, which gives lie to Monsanto’s claim this chemical does not accumulate in human tissue. Because the health impact of these chemicals is particularly felt by women and children, we believe this is an issue that WILPF needs to address.” 

We call on all branches and at-large members to join us in this new campaign.  Our minigrant will fund the first two parts of this four-part one-year Human Right to Health and Safe Food campaign to launch in December.   We invite all branches and members to participate in some way, no matter what your primary issue. Be as involved as you can.  A menu of options will soon be posted on the website. 

The issue: 
The campaign focus will be on education and action on the chemical/agricultural complex’s production and wide-spread use of the herbicide glyphosate on their GMO-engineered crops.  Glyphosate is the major component of Monsanto’s Roundup and Dow Chemical’s new EPA-approved ENLIST Duo that also has 2, 4-D, a component of the defoliant Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War.  Glyphosate use has increased exponentially as more “Roundup Ready” GMO seeds are developed and fields planted.  Monsanto’s Roundup is used in the U.S. and world-wide on major crops as soybeans, corn, canola, and sugar beets, and the USDA just approved Dow’s new Enlist Duo-ready GMO soybean and corn, in part because Roundup resistant weeds are now super resistant weeds and new herbicides are needed.

Marybeth emphasizes that “most of the public are unaware of that these chemical herbicides are dangerous to public health or that there are alternative safe and effective methods of weed control in both agriculture and municipal and home lawn and garden care.  Our campaign will seek to raise the visibility of this issue across America and promote more sustainable methods.“

As Nancy points out now “a decade’s worth of research and reports in peer-reviewed scientific journals  has finally identified some of the mechanisms by which glyphosate produces birth defects and the health impacts that exposure may be linked to” such as: infertility, miscarriages, various cancers, neurological developmental problems such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD), Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s;  gastrointestinal disorders, celiac disease and gluten intolerance; obesity, diabetes, heart and chronic kidney disease or failure, respiratory disease and asthma. 

Exposure to glyphosate comes from drinking water and eating raw, cooked, or processed food contaminated with chemical residues, and from breathing contaminated air polluted by chemical drift from spraying.

The campaign:
Click here for campaign calendar. In brief, Part I will launch in December with a brochure available for bulk order and downloadable for printing, both posted on the website, along with a Fact Sheets and supplementary materials.  For Part II, we’ll join the Organic Consumers Association, Mothers Across America and other groups at the January 2015 Monsanto Shareholders meeting in St. Louis.  In Spring 2015, for Part III we’ll begin to gather a variety of evidence to build the case against glyphosate, and in Part IV, we will publish this evidence in concert with our collaborating partners and International WILPF.

Click here for a campaign description including the local, national and international components.

Local commitment and follow up:
The campaign committee will contact Branches and at-large members to invite you to engage with us in this campaign and undertake some aspect of local education and action during the year. A tool kit will be available on line. Member and Branch commitment for engagement will be asked. We’ll personally follow up to find out what activities are being pursued.  “We can only hope to have a broad national impact if we gain the support and participation of our branches and members in this campaign”, said Marybeth. “This is a real test of our strength in getting the word out and mobilizing members and branches.”

Photo credit: Marybeth Gardam