Robyn O'Brien - Front Line Food Activist

by Doug Pineda

I will never forget the moment when my trust in the United States food supply was broken. I was sitting next to a woman on a plane, and as our flight progressed, I noticed that she appeared highly distressed and was on the verge of tears - I asked if there was something I could do to help. That question opened up conversation that would forever change how I saw the world. I learned that she was a biological engineer, specifically a 'food scientist', and she was traveling with a dozen other food scientists that were seated throughout the cabin of the plane. They were returning from an out-of-country training they were sent to by their employer; one of the largest and oldest multinational companies in the world and based in the United States.

She described how she and her colleagues were enthusiastic to attend that training as it would keep them on the cutting edge of food science and part of the vision of supplying the world better food. Instead, what they experienced was nearly two weeks of scientific reprogramming. She described how they were being taught and tested on talking scripts to speak with their friends and family about the virtues of genetically modified seeds, why seeds need to be regulated and controlled by professional companies and not by amateur farmers without scientific degrees, and how to [specifically] convince women that non-GMO foods could not be trusted and how GMO foods were completely safe and why labeling GMO foods would destroy the economy and skyrocket the price of food. She explained the thinly veiled threats that was peppered throughout the nearly two week training of how their current employment and their future careers in science were dependent upon their compliance with this 'training'. She said the training had nothing to do with actual science, but was an immersive indoctrination on how to use their scientific title and perceived consumer authority to promote GMO propaganda strategies.

This woman was on the edge of an emotional collapse on that flight. Not only was she the first person in her family to graduate high school, but practically a living legend in her little village for having achieved her childhood dream of becoming a scientist. However, on that plane ride, she came to realize she could no longer in good conscience work for an immoral corporation with no regard for human life, and whose sole purpose was to profit from controlling the food supply of the world. She lost the illusion that the corporation needed her for her scientific mind and skills, but they needed her ethnicity and her gender to make the case for GMO engineering. She likened it to the tobacco companies of the 1960's that used official-looking white male doctors with a stethoscope draped around their neck and wearing a white lab coat to promote the health benefits of smoking.

I don't know what happened to that food scientist I met on the plane that day, but the whole experience came rushing back as I was introduced to the work of the heroic food crusader, Robyn O'Brien. In less than 20 minutes, you can watch this TEDx Talk with Robyn and learn about the evils of the food supply chain management in the United States. Be prepared to hear the cold hard truth about the profit scheme that the United States politicians and their corporate sponsors have created at the expense of humanity. Once you see this presentation, you can't unlearn the information and there's no going back. Please watch and comment.

So, what can we do? We keep pushing this message out to the rest of the world and we keep educating each other. We can live more consciously, we can consume more mindfully, we can grow our own food and continually learn where food comes from and the impact it has on Mother Earth. Together, we can vote for a better world with every dollar we spend on food, and we can also boycott corporations that allegedly perpetrate crimes against the environment and humanity. We owe it to our seventh generation to turn the tide of the many years of disgusting decisions made by corrupt politicians and greedy corporations that have put us in this position. It's going to take time and it's going to take all of us to turn this around. So, let's make it a good one!

Follow Robyn's work on her Facebook page: click here

A'HO MITAKUYE OYASIN

Standing Rock Colorado - The Front Range is the Next Front Line of Defense

Boulder County's fracking moratorium expires in 2017 and all legal options to stop the poisoning of the families living on the Front Range have been exhausted.

Colorado's political and corporate love of a never-ending energy future of fracked crude oil has won. They won't stop until all water sources have been poisoned, all wildlife is sick and diseased, and the front range of Colorado is littered with cancer clusters and trending infant mortality rates.

Colorado Governor Hickenlooper, former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and a hundred other politicians, judges and attorneys have sold out the families of Colorado to their fracking and crude oil financial contributor's. Together, over a period of many years, they have created a finely tuned system of political and corporate corruption. In Colorado, these parties have firmly put in place legislation making it illegal for any city or county to vote to ban fracking. Did you catch that? The corporations and politicians have teamed up and literally made it ILLEGAL to vote against fracking and crude oil in any way. The level of evil and corruption that exists in Colorado's [and our nation's] political and legal system as it relates to the fracked crude oil industry is beyond sick and wrong.

Each of us must find courage within ourselves and encouragement among each other. We must rise together to protect ourselves, our earth, our children and our unborn grandchildren. The defense of Mother Earth and those we love is up to us. This three and a half minute video describes the fracking crisis along the Colorado Front Range and the concept of non-violent direct action to defend ourselves against those who legally defile our earth and poison our families for their profit and power. Please watch this video, then contribute your comment and SHARE it with your communities to spread awareness:

Follow the Facebook page for East Boulder County United for updates and information on the ongoing fracking and crude oil extraction crimes happening in Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties in Colorado.

Can Standing Rock be the template for the fossil fuel fight in Colorado? Water protectors at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in Standing Rock are winning against the Dakota Access Pipeline, they're exposing the corrupt local politicians and judges that serve the oil companies and defying the abusive law enforcement that protect Energy Transfer Partners. And, most importantly, they have slowed or stopped the pipeline on several occasions. All this was accomplished without a main figurehead or spokesperson with singular power over anyone. A thousand different tribes and communities have converged in one place, and even though everyone comes with their own agenda, when viewed through the lens of indigenous culture of honor, respect and non-violence; everyone is able to focus the principles of their agenda's to achieve a massive collective impact. The Standing Rock model for environmental justice works, and the Colorado Front Range is the next front line of defense.

Standing Rock has defined the triumph of the human spirit in the face of unjust law enforcement, widespread political corruption and illegal oil company practices. Standing Rock raised awareness that the front lines of defense are everywhere and all the time. We are all Standing Rock. We are the ones we've been waiting for.

Share this article and these videos with all of your communities. And, subscribe to Spirit Horse Nation's social media and YouTube Channel for updates and more information.

A'HO MITAKUYE OYASIN

WWW - the Wood Wide Web

Researcher Discovers How Our Tree Relatives Talk To Each Other

Mitakuye Oyasin - commonly pronounced: me-talk-oo yah-sin - translates to "All My Relations." Every being on Mother Earth has a spirit - from the two-legged's, to the four legged's, from the winged's and tiny earth crawlers, to the stone and plant people and everything in between. All spirits are interconnected and that makes us all one family. Indigenous First Nations people have always known that our tree relatives communicate and share medicine with each other, but there's some interesting news on the science front that's worth sharing.

Our Tree Relatives Have Their Own Social Network

Move over Mark Zuckerburg, professor and forest ecologist Suzanne Simard with the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences in Vancouver, British Columbia has discovered that trees have the largest social network on Mother Earth. Suzanne was the project leader of the team that led to this scientific discovery and she gave a presentation about the results of that experiment in which she said, “…we set about an experiment, and we grew mother trees with kin and stranger’s seedlings. And it turns out they do recognize their own kin. Mother trees colonize their kin with bigger mycorrhizal networks. They send them more carbon below ground. They even reduce their own root competition to make elbow room for their kids. When mother trees are injured or dying, they also send messages of wisdom on to the next generation of seedlings…so trees talk.” She further explained that it is thought the communication and sharing is done through a fungal network throughout the root system. The fascinating details of this scientific discovery is told in Suzanne Simard's 2016 TedX Talk:

The Divine Feminine Is At The Center

This forest ecologist identifies the trees with the most activity of communicating and nurturing as "Mother Trees." These Mother Trees send wisdom and nutrients through fungal networks that transfers water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, defense signals and other forms of energy to other trees. Mycorrhizae is the name of the fungal network that forms around the root systems of the trees that works like neural synapses to bridges the transfer of these energies from tree to tree. It's truly amazing how Creator teaches us time and again the divine power of the earth medicine.

Whether it's conventional science or ancient understanding, we have been given the knowing that our tree relatives are sentient beings - and they are to be honored as such.

A'ho Mitakuye Oyasin