When friends talk among friends, they’re usually confident and candid. They tell it like it is.
When people are on camera or talking to reporters, they often raise their guard, choosing words more carefully.
That’s why we get some real insights by tuning in to reports shared among international networks of friends. That includes social media and e-mail groups such as the colleagues who became friends at last year’s Food Safety Conference in Beijing, China.
Usually if we ask to publish some of those candid comments to the world at large, our sources hesitate a bit. But… not Zen Honeycutt, founder and director of Moms Across America. Zen participated in the World Food Prize conference, the 2015 Borlaug Dialogue, Oct. 14-15 in Des Moines, Iowa, and told her friends her vivid, personal reactions to what she saw — and how people treated her.
The conference is named after Norman Borlaug, who crossbred wheat varieties in the field, developing types which could stand up under heavy commercial fertilization. Borlaug did not fire foreign genetic material into the DNA of wheat. We knew Borlaug for many years; we’ve interviewed him. He’s from our corner of northeast Iowa. American wheat growers have firmly resisted introduction of GMO wheat. Ironically, the Norman Borlaug legacy as a wheat breeder has been co-opted into a platform for promoting genetic engineering into developing countries. Even though 36 countries have banned GMO crop cultivation within their borders.
Zen Honeycutt exposes that “World Food Prize” agenda in the following memo to friends, which she gave us permission to publish without amendments or redactions. Zen leads a crusade of mothers intent on restoring healthy food to America… and the world. Our friend Bob Streit once noted that there are two powerful interest groups which GMO promoters fear the most: “Chinese consumers, and American mothers.” You can see why…. right here:
I went to the 2015 Borlaug Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa last week. It’s an international symposium of chemical company CTO’s like Dow, Dupont and Monsanto, food companies like Cargill and banks like the bank of Africa. It included notables like Chelsea Clinton, Tom Vilsack, Warren Buffet’s son, USDA officials and African/Asian dignitaries.
They were giving awards to all kinds of women African farmers, and then wooing them with their “agriculture technology.” Apparently GMO is “activist lingo” now so they barely ever mentioned the word for the two days that I attended.
The entire conference was a GMO commercial. It made me sick to my stomach to see them boldface lying over and over again. I did everything I could to contain myself and not get arrested. I did ask a question at a smaller panel with African farmers led by Julie Borlaug about bringing organic methods into Africa, especially since the UN Report“Wake up before it’s too late” stated that small organic farms are the only way to feed the world.
They denied this report and brushed it off as opinion. They asked me to leave when I brought up the harm from glyphosate, and blocked me from approaching the African farmers. I got to them anyway, as I refused to leave. Later in the big room in front of 1,200, I asked almost the same question and people literally hissed at me. It was so amazing how brainwashed they were; how they blantanly ignore harm.
My takeaway is this:
1. They are anxious. The FOIA on Kevin Folta was mentioned. They said “it’s dangerous out there.” We are making headway.
2. They will continue to dismiss us as uneducated, fringe, emotional and uncaring about the starving children until we bring SOLUTIONS for feeding the world to the world in a prominent way. The 9 billion by 2050 was the overriding theme.
3. They are going after Africa in a massive way. They are convincing them that “they deserve the best technology and no one else should stop them from having a choice, we should have the freedom to chose” (meaning NO bans of GMOs. Stealing our phrase, “Freedom to chose” GMO! Oh great!) They are taking advantage of the African people’s lack of resources and education, and I truly fear the outcome unless we get a presence there.
4. They have many new initiatives such as a free curriculum, “Bringing Biotech to Life,” for middle school, high school and college programs. They are brainwashing our youth. Everything that one college student said to me there was parroting their talking points.
5. They are promoting fisheries in Africa, which I am sure will feed the fish GMO feed.
6. I learned why the TPP has so much support. It reduces the tariffs on soy and corn by 80%. They can sell their cheap toxic food all over the world much more easily. A Cargill CEO actually said, “Resist the urge to go after domestic food security.”
Leaders around the world must be more unified and bolder and smarter than ever. We must do something unparalleled that will stop the corporate control over our governments. The timing is now, it is urgent. We need a massive campaign to reach out and speak to the leaders of these countries in person, to meet with them if possible, and to make it personal. We must appeal to them on the grounds of protecting their health, sovereignty and feeding their growing population with organic/biodiverse methods.
I am praying that the right people will see the light. That Des Moines conference — the hate I felt, the vast amount of lies — was like a tsunami of greed, covered in a cloak of “A Noble Cause of Feeding the World.” God help us.