I have to thank the lovely woman who brought this sign to the March Against Monsanto in St. Paul today for my diary title.
Of course, they are already in our plants. While I am not convinced GMOs are safe, I have friends and family who are, but even they can admit we should be labelling them. There is also what Monsanto is doing to farmers who try to resist their dominance in the seed market to consider. So maybe I should not have been surprised this was one of the biggest marches I have ever been in, probably 2000+, exceeded in my experience only by the 2008 RNC protest. It was a very diverse crowd, too, I even ran into a fellow Muse fan! Photos of some of these many protesters below the fold.
We gathered on the Capitol grounds. Adding to the diversity were a few dogs :-) but this was the only one I saw with its own sign.
This is an older article, but does a good job of explaining why we marched against Monsanto specifically.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/...
I snapped a few others before the march, mostly while waiting in line to sign a petition.
Then we lined up to head for downtown St. Paul.
Our chants were not very original "Hey hey, ho ho, GMOs have got to go" but we kept them going.
I was not at all surprised to see a number of my activist friends today.
However, I kept moving around so I could get more pictures.
As something of a John Lennon fan, I loved this one!
Coming back to the Capitol:
I did not get to hear many of the speakers because I got back in the petition line. Saw this creative costume while waiting again.
Here's who was listed as speaking.
Atina Diffley – Organic consultant, farmer, author of Turn Here Sweet Corn
Nancy Brown – Right to Know MN
Steve Suppan – Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Deborah Ramos - the Zenteotl Project
I also left a bit early to go get some organic non-GMO groceries at the Wedge Co-op, but not before I snagged a new bumper sticker!