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Farmageddon Screening in Nantucket Raises $2,000 for The Center for Food Safety
Between ticket sales and donations, we raised just under $2,000 for The Center for Food Safety this past weekend at a screening of the movie Farmageddon in Nantucket.
For those who were not on the island, it was an absolutely gorgeous day and pulling people off of the beach to attend a 4PM showing was not the easiest thing to do.
Nevertheless, it was a great and very engaged crowd.
After the movie, Kristin Canty (above), the filmmaker, and I did a Q/A. Below is a recap of some of the major things that were discussed.
Q: What has happened since the movie was released a few months ago?
A: A LOT!! Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) contacted Kristin Canty, asked for a copy of the movie and screened it for her entire office.
Rep. Pingree, a long-time organic farmer herself, LOVED the movie and wants to show it to the entire Committee on Agriculture, of which she is a member.
She is also going to try to get legislation regarding consumers’ rights to purchase and sell raw milk into the Farm Bill.
Screenings of Farmageddon are taking place all over the country and at many colleges including Cornell, University of Colorado and Harvard.
Farmageddon will be shown for a week at the AMC Theaters on Boston Common in mid-September. This is big news, since this will allow the movie to reach a very mainstream audience.
Q: What are your feeling on “big organic”?
A: (Max) Some people have problems have big organic companies. I, personally, do not.
The more that people consume organic, the more organic companies are needed and the bigger our industry grows.
Organic food is a $27 billion dollar industry, and that means that some organic companies are going to be quite large. As long as they are following the USDA organic rules, I don’t have a problem with it at all.
Q: Is there one central place to get information about what is going on? It seems that there isn’t and you have no idea where to get all of the important news.
A: This is certainly an issue. There are many different organizations, each with a slightly different mission.
Three great resources are The Center for Food Safety, Organic Consumers Association and The Institute for Responsible Technology.
Q: What is the most pressing issue we face?
A: (Max) In my view, it is the labeling of genetically-modified food. Europe, Japan and Australia require that genetically-modified foods be labeled.
Hungary has completely banned GMOs, and Haiti burned tons of GM-seeds that were donated to the country after its earthquake.
Yet, the U.S. not only allows GMOs, it subsidizes them. This is something that needs to change because organic does not have a level playing field.
We must make the labeling of GMOs a 2012 presidential election campaign issue. Please join the Right2Know March in October.
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It is a big thrill to have raised this money for The Center for Food Safety. If protecting the organic dairy and meat industries is important to you, please consider making a donation to this amazing organization.
Whatever you can give is very much appreciated.