When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, my mom would cook up an array of dishes … bright-green broccoli and thinly sliced beef with oyster sauce, golden curry chicken with potatoes, or savory garlic shrimp and snow peas. No one at our dinner table ever thought once about whether the food was genetically modified, pesticide-free, organic, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, or dye-free. No one in my family had allergies, rashes, autism, autoimmune disease, asthma, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cancer, Crohn’s disease, colitis, or Hashimoto’s disease. We didn’t know that food could be dangerous. We weren’t in a health crisis. Things have changed.
Today, after having three sons with health issues and life-threatening allergies, and after one particularly harrowing ambulance ride to the ER with my son in anaphylactic shock, I began to take a serious look at what I was feeding my children. I stopped trusting the word “healthy” on the label — or what I thought I knew to be true. I began to talk to anyone who would talk to me about GMOs, glyphosate, and other toxins in our food. First, I was shocked, then I was fearful, then I acted.
I started the nonprofit “Moms Across America” and invited moms and anyone and everyone dealing with health issues of their own or their loved ones to join forces to keep our food safe and healthy. For our first event, we entered Independence Day parades all across the country and reached thousands locally and millions nationally in a single day. Within four months, we were reaching over 300,000 a week on social media and knew that Moms Across America needed to be a nationwide, educational non-profit, not just a one-time event.
In the meantime, my three sons, who had begun eating 100% organic at home (also non-GMO) while reducing processed sugar and eating fermented foods such as sauerkraut to balance out their gut microbiome, recovered from life-threatening allergies, asthma, autism symptoms, and autoimmune issues.
The Government Isn’t Doing Its Job
Unfortunately, too many people today are still unaware of the toxins in our food supply. More than 80,000 chemicals have been approved by the EPA since the 1940s, and only nine have been banned. In the last decade, farmers everywhere have begun spraying glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world and the active ingredient in Roundup, on their crops to dry them just before harvest. Thousands of test results, which Moms Across America initiated in the United States, have revealed the presence of glyphosate in our food, wine, beer, breastmilk, tap water, and the urine of our children. These test results were produced before our own FDA or EPA had performed such tests. The results sparked a meeting with the EPA, but although policies around the world began to shift to discontinue the use of glyphosate as a desiccant before harvest, and to restrict its use altogether, the EPA continues to allow its use. In fact, the USDA is currently proposing that agricultural chemical corporations be allowed to self-determine the safety of their own products! Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse! The very agencies whose job it is to safeguard our health – aren’t doing their jobs.
The ubiquitous presence of glyphosate is particularly alarming because it has recently been found to be carcinogenic and neurotoxic, cause microbiome imbalance, liver disease, and alarming reproductive effects, and to increase antibiotic resistance. Furthermore, according to triple board-certified Dr. Zach Bush, founder of Farmer’s Footprints, glyphosate is a major contributing factor to the 3.5 trillion dollars of medical bills that Americans are spending every year. 1.5 trillion of that is the federal government — our tax dollars — an amount which makes the military budget pale in comparison. America will be bankrupted by our healthcare costs if we continue to allow toxic chemicals such as glyphosate herbicides (there are others) to be sprayed on our food or for landscaping purposes (which run off into our water supply and end up in rain).
It may seem farfetched to expect farmers to suddenly stop using the most widely used herbicide in the world. However, we have faith in the ingenuity of our farmers. They can farm successfully without toxic chemicals, as has been done for thousands of years. In doing so, they can dramatically reduce our exposure to toxins and reverse the skyrocketing chronic illnesses and cancers that are plaguing Americans today. The farmers who lead the way with methods such as regenerative agriculture and biodynamic farming will not just be feeding and caring for the planet but healing the planet and creating a healthy future.
An Exceptional Standard For A Healthier World
Moms Across America is on a mission to take over where our government is lacking by educating and empowering mothers and others with actions and solutions for creating healthy families and communities.
Moms do 85% of the food shopping, and women make 90% of household purchases. To shift the marketplace for a healthier planet, from the end product all the way back down the supply chain to the farmers, it makes sense to appeal to and empower moms to vote with the considerable power of their purses.
This is why we have created the Moms Across America Gold Standard. Awarded to food, beverage, and supplement brands that have achieved superior levels of organic practices and eco-friendly procedures, this bar-setting, multi-tiered verification will finally take the mystery out of shopping, making it simple for people to choose the healthiest products for themselves and their families and to use their wallets to take a stand against unhealthy alternatives and unethical business practices. Likewise, the standard also provides a path for companies that know better and do better to prosper by throwing the buying power and influence of millions of dedicated mothers behind their products. At the highest level, 5 Stars, a product will not only be organic and non-GMO, it will also incorporate additional pesticide testing, humanely raised animal products, Fair Trade, low- to no-pollution packaging, and support regenerative organic agriculture.
As more and more products attain the Moms Across America Gold Standard and the seal becomes noticeable in grocery store aisles, moms will recognize at a glance the brands that have taken extraordinary measures to make products that are not only good for our families but good for the planet, as well. They will buy those products, and we will see a shift in the market. Toxic pesticides will no longer be sold, as recently happened when Costco responded to our petition by removing Roundup from its shelves. Soil will regenerate, our food will become nutritious again, and incidences of chronic health issues for children and adults will drop.
It’s time to end the Chemical Era. Together, consumers, food manufacturers, and farmers can protect this and future generations from toxins and restore health and prosperity to our country.
About Moms Across America:
Moms Across America is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate and empower mothers and other with actions and solutions to create healthy communities. Their motto is “Empowered Moms, Healthy Kids.” For more information, visit www.MomsAcrossAmerica.org
Zen Honeycutt is the Founding Executive Director of “Moms Across America.”
This article is a part of the 2019 OCT / NOV issue of Whole Life Times.