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Farmageddon: A Food Documentary That Should Serve as a Wake-Up Call to All Americans

Last night, I went to go see the documentary Farmageddon, a movie that I had been hearing about for the last few months.

Farmageddon highlights the USDA’s brutal crackdown on farmers selling raw milk and how the agency’s heavy-handed, corrupt and politically-motivated ways have destroyed the lives of small, organic farmers trying to do the right thing.

The objective of the movie is not to promote raw milk, however. The objective of the movie is to get people to wake up and to start demanding change.

Our food system is in serious, serious peril. As of now, Big Ag has tremendous influence in setting food policy and controlling the USDA, all to the detriment of organics.

This has resulted in monoculture farming, widespread adoption of genetically-modified foods and seeds, growth hormones and antibiotics for animals, toxic pesticides and factory farms — nothing that creates more nutritious food.

Additionally, as Farmageddon so deftly points out, it has also resulted in Americans losing their right to choose what to eat, grow and sell.

Yet the reality is this. Americans are not getting angry enough and raising hell with our president, senators and representatives. Politicians would absolutely change their views regarding industrial agriculture if they knew that their jobs were in jeopardy.

Hopefully, this movie will serve as a true wake-up call for all Americans. We MUST make change happen.

What Can You Do?

1) There is a list of resources on the Farmageddon website of ways to get involved.

2) Sign up for the newsletter at The Center for Food Safety, my favorite non-profit when it comes to protecting the rights of organic consumers. They are constantly suing Monsanto and the USDA in order to protect organic food.

3) Get involved, don’t sit back and educate your friends and family as to what is truly going on in this country.

If you are under the assumption that President Obama cares about protecting organic food, then you must watch this video I shot recently with Andrew Kimbrell, the Executive Director of The Center for Food Safety.

Our president has a very, very strong GMO agenda.

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Living Maxwell

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MUST-WATCH: The Colbert Report Mocks GMOs, My Fox Interview Gets Airtime

The Colbert Report

I got a call at about 8AM this morning from my good friend Karl, who lives in Miami.

It was very surprising to hear from him at that hour because we normally talk late at night. However, he had some interesting news to share – my Fox News Channel interview had made The Colbert Report.

Colbert reported on the loss of I-522, the GMO-labeling initiative in Washington State, and took serious aim at GMOs and the GMO-companies who are fighting against labeling.

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A message from Tradin Organic

How Tradin Organic is Helping Coconut Farmers in The Philippines

For more than a decade, Tradin Organic has been working with local partners in The Philippines to bring a diversified range of organic products to the market, such as coconut oil, tropical fruits and even cocoa.

The company is helping to support local farmers by assisting them with technical support and organic certification, in addition to paying Fairtrade premium on top of the organic premium.

Learn more.

Living Maxwell

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The Struggles I Faced in College and How I Handled Them

As I wrote about the other day, it was during college when I went on antidepressants. Each day was getting harder than the next. The sky was growing darker and darker. It was a major struggle just to survive.

I was overwhelmed with a variety of responsibilities — school work, in which I seemed to be drowning; the tennis team, which occupied several hours of my time per day, not including constant traveling to other schools for matches and tournaments; and my fraternity, something in which I was very actively involved.

With my voice becoming more heavy during each phone conversation, my parents suggested that I go visit a local psychiatrist to see if he could help. More specifically, they thought that antidepressants were the answer. After a brief chat with the doctor, he diagnosed me with a mild case of depression and believed that Prozac would indeed improve my situation.

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Living Maxwell

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My Morning Meditation and Visualization

I learned how to meditate in college when I took a Transcendental Meditation class and have maintained a very serious practice over the past 11 years.

For some reason, I don’t remember doing it that consistently in the 90s. Most likely, it was the hard-partying lifestyle that got in the way.

Anyhow, my meditation practice is something that I cannot live without. It calms me down, centers me and gets me more focused. Nothing makes me more relaxed or present.

So, when I get up in the morning I sit and meditate for 20 minutes. The meditation is Transcendental Meditation, which uses a mantra as a way to keep the mind from wandering.

And after I finish meditating, I do something called Creating My Day.

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"My Everyday, Must-Have Green Organic Aquabotanical"

Go deeper

MUST-WATCH: The Colbert Report Mocks GMOs, My Fox Interview Gets Airtime

How Tradin Organic is Helping Coconut Farmers in The Philippines

The Struggles I Faced in College and How I Handled Them

My Morning Meditation and Visualization