(soft bluegrass music throughout)
I am back for day two at the National heirloom Expo and the first person I run
into is the founder of Moms Across America. Moms across America, Zen.. Hi, I'm
Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America. We're a National Coalition of
unstoppable moms. Our motto is "Empowered Moms, Healthy Kids' and our mission is to
empower millions to educate themselves about GMOs and related toxins, to offer
GMO free and organic solutions, and, while empowering local leadership, we create
healthy communities together. That is so awesome! I mean, how did you, what was the
first thing that, that triggered you to make you jump into this? Well, Prop 37,
which was the GMO labeling initiative, was how I started to get involved, by
passing out flyers. And when that did not pass, I was so frustrated, I was, I was
actually crying in the parking lot, and my son said to me, "Well, you know, mom even
Star Wars took six episodes." And I thought, you know what, it's just time for
a new episode, and we need to do something. And what if I took on
leadership, what if I said "I'm the one to transform the food industry." Not
me, by myself, but, I'm not waiting for somebody else to do it. So I asked myself,
how can I reach as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time?
And I thought of 4th of July parades, because they're local, you just join
in, the porta-potties and the permits and the police are already set up, and so I
invited people. I created a website and a Facebook page for people to join in to
local 4th of July parades, and it took off! It went crazy, there's, you know,
nearly....179 people joined in groups of parades all across the nation and now
we've had over 600 leaders create nearly 900 events in the past four and a half
years. How many total people are involved in this organization now? Hund... hundreds
of thousands now, that are we're reaching. That's fantastic.Yes, so, it's, it's really fantastic.
They're, I mean, we have we have about a thousand volunteers, but we're reaching hundreds
of thousands a week. And it's really grown quite a
bit. We're growing the organic marketplace, because we see that as the
solution, not only for our health, and for local communities, but for climate change
as well, because big GMO toxic chemical farming does impact climate change in a
very negative way. That's right, that's right, so would you say that's the number
one thing and then, your mandate? For me, it's health, the health of my child, but
yes, of course, I'm extremely concerned about the climate, and the environment,
and, and the power of local communities. Most importantly, with our our motto is
"empowered moms healthy kids," I want moms empowered, so that no matter
what comes our way, whether its climate change, or GMOs, or toxic chemicals, or
health issues, you're empowered to take action. You know what to do, you know how
to do it, you feel inspired, you know you can do it, and you can take that on. And
we can restore health in America, one mom at a time, restore health in America,
one mom at a time, one family at a time. Thank you so much, you're welcome. So if
people want to get involved, where do they go, how do they sign up? You go to
MomsAcrossAmerica.org and you sign up for our newsletter, which is really a call to
action, so you can get involved. And you go to events, post your own event, and
start inviting other people in your area to get involved. It's awesome. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Hey, tell your name. My name's Anne. I'm from Milwaukee.
I'm Lisa from Menifee, California, and we're Moms Across America, yes. Awesome.
And there's Zen Honeycutt, our founder.