Wednesday, February 12, 2014
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles…)
Tags: Food Babe, grassroots activism, food corporations
NaturalNews) If Food Babe were an Olympic gymnast, she would have just pulled off a high-speed triple back somersault with a perfect landing and a unanimous “10” score. From the once-humble site known as www.FoodBabe.com, Vani Hari has attracted a massive consumer following, daily mainstream media attention and fast-rising notoriety for convincing really big food corporations to change their ways for the better.
Last week she was declared the victor on the two-year effort to petition Subway to remove a yoga mat chemical from their sandwich breads. And just yesterday, Chick-fil-A announced they would transition away from antibiotics in their chicken meat in five years’ time.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043872_Food_Babe_grassroots_activism_corporations.html##ixzz2wWuQFc7b
This victory, largely organized by the Food Babe, “shocked the fast-food world late Tuesday” reported USA Today. But as shocking as it seems for the mainstream media, this kind of victory is fast becoming business as usual for Vani and her fast-expanding team of supporters.
At almost precisely the same time all this was going on, my own laboratory was churning out heavy metals data on vegan protein products that rocked the natural products industry. In just 24 hours after we published our discovery of the heavy metals tungsten, lead and cadmium in rice protein products, two industry leaders — Garden of Life and SunWarrior — announced their agreement on voluntary heavy metals limits in protein products.
This was due almost entirely to a massive army of online activists who share my own belief in clean food and total transparency across the food industry.
Soon after this went live with this historic news, other companies began announcing they would also join the voluntary heavy metals limits, and now we’ve launched an online petition for clean protein inspired by Food Babe’s petitions.
Welcome to the new era of responsible activisim that alters the course of billion dollar corporations
What you are witnessing here is just a small taste of the new era of powerful online activism. Corporations are now coming to realize — sometimes after being dragged kicking and screaming to the bargaining table — is that there are no secrets in food products. When they put products on the shelves, they effectively make those products available to any investigative journalist, activist or food scientist (like me) who has the time, money and dedication to really take a close look at what’s in those products.
As one incredibly surprising example of all this which has shocked the food industry, I now operate university-level atomic spectroscopy equipment which can detect heavy metals in foods at parts per billion concentrations. Previously, such technology would have only been available to universities or government science labs. Now, activists are becoming scientists and people who used to be called “bloggers” are emerging as leading investigative journalists who are making major scientific discoveries about food safety!
As Food Babe has now demonstrated again and again, activists are MAKING the news and SHAPING the food industry in phenomenal ways. The mainstream media has been slow to report on Natural News laboratory findings (mostly because heavy metals are invisible and therefore complex to verify), but they’ve done a great job covering Food Babe who focuses on ingredients which are openly stated on food company ingredients labels.
Power to the People
Many observers of all this have said these victories show that one person can truly make a difference in the world. I would expand on that, however, by pointing to the fact that neither myself (the Health Ranger) nor the Food Babe has any power or influence whatsoever without our massive number of fans and activists. In my view, it’s actually the People who hold the power in the food industry, and activists like myself and Vani are merely conduits who help organize and direct the ideas that millions of people are thinking.
Everybody wants cleaner food. Everybody wants greater transparency. Everybody wants corporate accountability. The success of our activist projects is merely based on the fact that we are able to identify actionable areas of focus with widespread grassroots agreement.
But we also have to be patient in understanding that big changes take time. For example, Chick-fil-A’s announcement of eliminating antibiotics in five years is obviously a big step in the right direction, but it was only achievable because it was within the realm of practical immediate change. Had we all petitioned Chick-fil-A to stop serving chicken altogether, the effort no doubt would have utterly failed.
One thing I’ve learned in all this is that corporations can be successfully convinced to make slow, steady adjustments to their direction, but they cannot and will not take actions that destroy their entire business. You’re never going to get McDonald’s, for example, to give up serving meat and shift to a vegetarian menu. But convincing Whole Foods to label GMOs is an achievable goal (and in fact has already been announced by Whole Foods for the year 2018).
Making good on our promises to change the food industry
Back in October of 2013, before I announced the Natural News Forensic Food Lab, I said that we would “change the future of the food industry forever.” This claim was thought to be hyperbole by some, but as you can now see, it turns out to have been 100% accurate and true.
We’ve already changed the food industry here at Natural News, and Vani over at FoodBabe.com is also performing some incredible social media martial arts on the mainstream fast food industry. With your help, we are making a lasting difference.
Then again, I really will miss chewing on yoga mat chemicals when I eat at Subway. That’s what I was using to exercise my jawline to try to look more masculine. 🙂
Finally, I also want to give a shout out to Ronnie Cummins, Jeffrey Smith and Mark Kastel — all three are champions who are also making huge differences in the future of food. I can only hope that history gives these people the proper recognition they deserve for fighting for humanity in an age where profits and greed dominate nearly all corporate decisions.
Remember this above all: Most corporations will only do the right thing IF THEY ARE FORCED TO. Left to their own devices, most corporations would gladly sell you deadly poison and call it a “delicious sandwich” if they could get away with it.
Click here to sign our rice protein petition demanding clean protein products for all!
Learn more: www.FoodBabe.com www.Cornucopia.org www.OrganicConsumers.org www.ResponsibleTechnology.org
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043872_Food_Babe_grassroots_activism_corporations.html##ixzz2wWuboa48
TLB recommends more great/pertinent articles at www.naturalnews.com
Power to the People
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