Marjory: Hi, everyone.
This is Marjory Wildcraft,
and today I really have the pleasure
to be with Ronnie Cummings.
Ronnie is the director,
national director
for the Organic Consumers Association.
And we've been having
some amazing conversations.
Ronnie has brought up
a very important point
about how what you eat
is directly related
to the major crisis
on our planet right now,
which is global climate change.
Ronnie: Yes. I mean,
the main reason
why we should join
in on the organic revolution,
if we haven't already,
and do it more consciously
if we have begun,
is the climate crisis.
Most people don't understand
that industrial food and farming,
the direct and indirect impacts
are the major cause of global warming.
Everything from producing pesticides
and chemical fertilizers,
to not composting food
and throwing it in dumps
and producing methane,
the enormous amounts
of greenhouse gases
produced by factory farms,
which produce over 90%
of the United States'
meat and animal products,
all the way to long-distance transportation,
a diet based largely
on highly processed foods,
add up to a disaster for the climate.
That's the bad news.
We must change
the food and farming system
if we're going to save the climate.
The indirect impacts
of industrial food and farming
are just as horrific.
I mean the deforestation of the Amazon,
of the tropical forests in Indonesia and Malaysia,
and the draining
of the last remaining wetlands in the world,
are a major contributing cause,
20% of global warming.
That's the not the timber industry anymore.
It's industrial food and farming today,
including soybeans, palm oil, etc.
Marjory: But we were also talking about
how hopeful this is,
and we were also talking about
what we're up against.
I mean we have some big powers,
big, large agribusiness,
and it almost seems hopeless
to the average person
to be able to deal with this.
But there really is,
there really is a revolution
going on among people,
you and me,
and there's a lot that we can do individually.
Ronnie: Yes,
this global movement of Millions against Monsanto,
millions against industrial agriculture,
has the seeds in it of our salvation,
our survival.
When the planet has overheated in the past
because of volcanic eruptions
or meteors hitting the surface,
the earth had the ability
to restabilize the climate
by sucking in, sequestering, photosynthesis
through the plants and trees
and soil and grasses
of the excess greenhouse gasses.
We can do that again.
If we start back
on the long transition
to organic food and farming
and rotational grazing of animals,
as was traditionally done
for over 10,000 years
until the second world war,
we can sequester
up to 100 parts per million
of this excess greenhouse gas
that's up in our atmosphere
heating up the planet.
The international farmer's network
Via Compasina
says that
small farmers can cool the planet.
That is true.
What we,
the Organic Consumer's Association
said last Saturday,
February 17th,
at the National Climate Crisis demonstration
in Washington, D.C.,
our banner said,
"Cook organic, not the planet."
So the solution to our problems,
of course we have to change.
We have to stop the tar sands
and the coal mines
and the gas fracking.
We've got to reduce
our consumption of fossil fuels
by 90 percent or so
over the next couple of decades.
We've got to adopt
alternative sources of energy
that are renewable
with a vengeance,
solar and wind especially.
But we've also got to
vote with our forks for a livable planet.
We've got to walk our talk in our daily lives.
Millions of us
are starting to do this
around the world.
Our example is contagious.
We can get back to
the kind of sustainable food
and farming system
that we had,
but it's going to take
all of us working together.
And it's,
this is not just about the climate.
This is about the fact that
large corporations like Monsanto
and McDonald's
and Walmart
have seized control of our political system.
They control the laws that are passed.
They control the media.
They control to a large extent
the consciousness of the confused public
who are stumbling through life dissatisfied,
but uninspired,
unsure of what to do.
We have to break the stranglehold
of the big corporations
in order to save the planet
from climate catastrophe.
So let's join the organic revolution,
if you haven't already.
But those of us
who have already joined the revolution,
let's make sure we get more
united, stronger, inspired, healthier,
and let's do it.
Marjory: Not only can we do this,
but we really have to do this.
This really is the issue
on the planet
at this point in time.
Ronnie, how can people get in touch with you?
What's the website?
And I assume
there's free newsletters
and ways to be involved
that don't involve
a lot of time or money,
but something that people
can do to help.
Ronnie: Yes.
We've got about a million people
across the United States
right now
who get our newsletter,
our information off our Facebook pages,
and share it.
So go to OrganicConsumers.org.
That's our website.
Or you can go to our Facebook pages,
Organic Consumers Association,
or Millions Against Monsanto.
Marjory: Thanks so much
for spending time with us,
with me this morning, Ronnie.
This is Marjory Wildcraft,
and we'll see you on another segment.