Under the Occupy 2012 banner of the “American Spring,” the movement
spearheaded the largest protest ever against the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) last Friday in Washington D.C. The Organic Consumers Association’s political director Alexis Baden-Mayer spoke at the rally. Here are two videos from the demonstration. The first includes Alexis’s speech. The second is an important speech by Helen Caldicott on current nuclear dangers. The text of Alexis’s speech follows, along with Take Action links.

Text of Alexis Baden-Mayer’s speech at the Occupy EPA action March 30, 2012:

Thank you so much for coming here today to Occupy the EPA.

Our lives depend on being able to kick the polluters and the toxic chemical companies out of the EPA. We need to replace corporate influence with sound science and common sense regulations that protect public health and the environment.

My name is Alexis Baden-Mayer. I work for the Organic Consumers Association’s Millions Against Monsanto campaign and I’m 5 months pregnant.

As a pregnant woman in North America, eating a typical North American diet, in all likelihood, I have toxins genetically engineered by Monsanto coursing through my veins. I have a 9 out of 10 chance of having Monsanto’s genetically engineered Bt toxin in my blood and the baby inside of me has an 8 out of 10 chance of the same toxic contamination. We’re also likely to be contaminated with Monsanto’s herbicide RoundUp. How did these toxins get in our blood? What does this mean for our health? And what is the EPA doing about it?

It’s the food we eat. Almost all processed foods contain genetically engineered ingredients. A soda is mostly genetically engineered high-fructose corn syrup. French fries are cooked in genetically engineered trans fats. Meat, milk and eggs come from animals raised almost exclusively on genetically engineered grains.

All of the genetically engineered crops are engineered to either to withstand herbicides or produce pesticides. Monsanto’s RoundUp is the number one herbicide of all time. We’ve never used more of one agriculture chemical. Now Dow and Monsanto are working on crops that are genetically engineered to withstand outrageous amounts of the herbicide 2,4-D. 2,4-D is half of the formula for Agent Orange. It’s the 7th largest source of the dioxin pollution that continues today, even though the EPA for the last 27 years has been collecting evidence that shows dioxin is the most toxic compound synthesized by man. If we start growing this Agent Orange corn we’re going to be using 50 times the amount of 2,4-D used today and this is only going to put more dioxin into our farmland, our food and our bodies.

Genetically engineered foods are dangerous. The genetically engineered Bt toxin found in the blood of pregnant women and our babies kills human cells. Other countries have banned it, but we’re just growing more and more of it.Where is the EPA? Genetically engineered crops greatly increase the use of herbicides and pesticides. The EPA should be banning these dangerous chemicals. The EPA should ban 2,4-D. The EPA should ban RoundUp. These pesticides cause birth defects. As a pregnant woman, if I were a Minnesota farm worker my baby would be 1.6 times more likely to have a birth defect because of exposure to pesticides. If I were pregnant in Argentina, living near the massive plantations of genetically modified soy where Monsanto’s Roundup is sprayed, my baby would be 46 times more likely to have a birth defect. If I were pregnant in Vietnam where Monsanto and Dow’s Agent Orange was used, my baby would be 131 times more likely to have a birth defect. If the EPA were occupied with sound science, if the EPA were occupied with common sense regulations — and not occupied with the corrupting influence to corporations like Monsanto, toxic chemicals would be banned and all women could have healthy babies.