The following was received from the Pesticide Action Network. We would like to share it with you...
Dear Wayne,
World Food Day is this Sunday. It’s a day for renewing our commitment to end the root causes of hunger. Here at PAN, we’ve honored this day for decades both in spirit and in daily practice with our work – always with your help.
As you know, pesticide-dependent agriculture, and the corporate-controlled food system that goes with it, are key drivers of world hunger. It's time to confront this fact.
We want off the toxic treadmillᄏ This year, nearly a billion people are hungry around the world, and 20% of people in the richest country on earth are on food stamps. Meanwhile, the handful of corporations who control the global food supply are awash in profits. We think it’s time that those corporations understand the human costs of a broken food system.
For decades the world has been trapped on a toxic treadmill by a pesticide industry peddling an unsustainable system of agriculture. Join us in telling them that we want off this ride.
Here's the planᄏ You tell your story in a picture, we’ll deliver it to Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow, DuPont and BASF – the “Big 6” pesticide/biotech corporations who control the world market. If you could say anything to Monsanto or Bayer, what would it be?
Farmers who’ve lost their land, communities who’ve lost their farms, all of us whose health has been compromised. Beekeepers who are losing their livelihoods, farmworkers doing dangerous work for sub-poverty wages, families who have lost loved ones too soon to cancer, or a father to Parkinson’s Disease. Children doing daily battle with a learning or developmental disability, and the families who support them … there are so many ways the toxic treadmill of a chemically dependent food system has resulted in real, human loss. Help us make these impacts visible to the people who run the Big 6 pesticide corporations.
The message is simple:
Hey Big 6: I am a [farmer/farmworker/food lover/beekeeper/mom/dad/student etc.], and I want off your toxic treadmill. [add your story: how pesticides have affected you, and/or why you care about safe, fair food]. We want our food system back!
We need your story to make this work. Itメs easy to do and incredibly powerful. You make the message, upload it and we’ll deliver it. You can do it with any digital camera – or snail mail or email us and we'll upload it for you. No camera? Upload just your words instead.
With thanks for whatever you do to address the root causes of hunger … and hopes that this World Food Day, we can be a part of it.
|