The importance of building bridges in adversarial situations was brought home to me recently by none other than that veteran negotiator, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, with whom I spent some time hanging out during the recent Middle East Economic Future Conference in Doha, Qatar. Listening to him counsel young Egyptian revolutionaries to sit down and try to work things out with the new government instead of taking an adamant position reminded me of how, rather than simply drawing lines in the sand, we need to see things more from other people’s perspectives and perhaps even extend them a helping hand. The fact that others may be not be “wired” the same as we are or may have different priorities doesn’t mean we can’t find common ground and thereby form a basis for cooperative action.
I don’t really believe that most companies would knowingly and deliberately engage in bad behavior or inaugurate destructive policies– even when I think the results are clearly detrimental to our health, safety or environment. The question is, can those who are most opposed to or alarmed by what a corporation is doing actually convince its leadership to change course? That’s something we’ll never know if we don’t at least give it a try.
And that brings me to the subject of what one of the leaders of the organic industry, Stonyfield Farm President and CEO Gary Hirshberg, is now attempting to achieve. Hirshberg has just approached a group of us to donate $2500 each to the Obama campaign with a pledge of raising $250,000 in exchange for the opportunity to spend an hour or so acquainting the president with the problems associated with GM alfalfa. Bearing in mind what Jesse Jackson advised the Egyptian revolutionaries, I got to wondering whether before taking our case to the president, we should perhaps attempt to confront the threat directly in the “belly of the beast” — that is, at Monsanto Corporation headquarters in St. Louis.
Have we really made any kind of peaceful and progressive attempt to understand the company’s mindset when it comes to bioengineering of crops? Or are we just proceeding on the assumption that they are evil and doing bad deliberately? I don’t have all the answers, but I think that such a meeting, if it accomplished nothing else, would establish that we at least tried going directly to the source of the problem before attempting to fight it through other channels. And even if such a meeting proved to be a “bridge to nowhere,” as is the most likely outcome (for unlike many companies that might prove receptive to changing their policies in regard to GMOs, Monsanto’s entire mission at this point appears to be bound up with genetically altering of as many commodities as possible), might it not have an effect of planting seeds of doubt in the minds of some Monsanto executives who have up to now unequivocally embraced the technology’s application to any and all seeds?
As a staunch opponent of the introduction of GM alfalfa — more because of what we don’t know than what we know about the consequences – I believe our proper course of action has to be to try and persuade the corporate sector to reject it, as well as educating the American public (as the European public has been successfully educated) about the harm to both health and the environment that will inevitably result from allowing this technology to proliferate unchecked. That’s a strategy that can be far more effective than trying to go through a political system that is ultimately influenced by corporate money, no matter which party is in power. But to fail to first approach the source would, in my opinion, be a lot like putting the cart before the horse.
So before Gary Hirshberg heads for D.C. to meet with Obama, I’m all in favor of sending a delegation directly to Monsanto. And my first choice to lead it would be none other than the guy who has taken it upon himself to negotiate with some of the most intransigent folks on earth, Jesse Jackson – perhaps accompanied by a group of dedicated young agrarian revolutionaries. Or, if we can’t get the man himself, at least try his approach on for size. Anybody out there care to come along?
Jesse Jackson and Anthony Zolezzi
at the Middle East Economic Future Conference in Doha, Qatar
Letter from Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farms
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This is a follow-up to my GMO letter from Friday. As I mentioned at the end of that letter, you may know that I have been spending close to 90% of my time building a broad political coalition for a GMO labelling campaign on the heels of the truly horrific GE Alfalfa decision. As part of my effort, I have been trying to secure a one hour meeting with President Obama for a group of Natural Products Industry leaders who are also donors to talk to him about our concerns and to underscore to him why we need him to pressure the FDA to take on GMO labelling. I briefly spoke to the President about this 2 weeks ago and he told me he’d see what he could do.
I just got the word this weekend that, on the strength of my commitment to raise $250K for the President’s re-election, they are working on a one hour meeting for a group of us Natural Products leaders for sometime at the end of July, probably in CA. The pressure is now on to raise these funds, so I am hoping that you can consider doing something through this link
To be clear, this is what we can all donate:
$2,500 per individual to the Obama campaign for the Primary
$2,500 per individual to the Obama campaign for the General Election
$30,800 to the DNC for the Obama Victory Fund effort in 2011
$30,800 to the DNC for the Obama Victory Fund in 2012
Meg and I just donated $35,800. If you know ANYONE who is thinking about a donation, they should definitely do it through this site as any funds raised this way will absolutely be seen as support from those of us who want GMO labelling. This is really really important.
Thanks for doing whatever you can and for spreading the word. And once I know about the meeting date, I’ll let you know.
Thanks,
Best wishes,
Gary Hirshberg
President and CE-Yo
Stonyfield Farm, Inc.
10 Burton Drive
Londonderry, NH 03053
