{"id":2208,"date":"2016-01-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-prod.greenpeace.org\/usa\/campaign-updates\/2208\/monsanto-student-activism-and-a-new-normal\/"},"modified":"2024-11-22T04:37:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T04:37:25","slug":"monsanto-student-activism-and-a-new-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/monsanto-student-activism-and-a-new-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"Monsanto, Student Activism, and a New Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class='p4descriptive_paragraph'>Neeka Salmasi saw a Monsanto representative&#8217;s visit to her college campus as an opportunity to start some critical conversation. But when all was said and done, even she was shocked by her community&#8217;s reaction. <\/span><\/p>\n<figure class='wp-block-image size-large p4featured_image'><img src='https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/e483dc69-gp04adc_web_size_with_credit_line.jpg' alt='Monsanto and Glyphosate' \/><figcaption class='wp-element-caption'><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After a long Wednesday of classes, I tossed my backpack onto the kitchen table and decided to check my emails one last time before cooking dinner. Scanning my inbox, I noticed one with the subject line, \u201cDid you see this?!\u201d sent by my roommate. Attached was an announcement that in two weeks, our colleges would host a speaker from Monsanto.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monsanto is a corporation with an unmistakably\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.foodandwaterwatch.org\/sites\/default\/files\/Monsanto%20Corporate%20Profile%20Report%20April%202013.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dirty history<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a habit of loop-holing its way past <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ethicalconsumer.org\/ethicalreports\/gardening\/monsantoprofile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">human rights<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/01\/02\/business\/energy-environment\/a-gray-area-in-regulation-of-genetically-modified-crops.html?_r=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">environmental regulations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The company uses its <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\/companies\/MON\/assets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">accumulated wealth<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to push\u00a0for legislation like the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mnn.com\/earth-matters\/politics\/blogs\/what-is-the-monsanto-protection-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monsanto Protection Act<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, create\u00a0a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qJXo9yRrmoM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">revolving door<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> between itself and policy makers, spend\u00a0exorbitant sums on <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucsusa.org\/food_and_agriculture\/our-failing-food-system\/genetic-engineering\/lobbying-and-advertising.html#.VpP7R8ArJcw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lobbying<\/span><\/a><b>, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/criminalising-dissent-in-india-against-gmos-and-monsanto\/5387779\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">silence voices of dissent<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a matter of days, this corporation would be on our campus to dispel its problematic <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.monsanto.com\/improvingagriculture\/pages\/feeding-the-world.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cfeed the world\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> narrative &#8212; its latest propagandized message. This incomplete story glosses over the environmental and human rights abuses associated with Monsanto\u2019s products \u2014 like the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/monsanto-s-glyphosate-impacts-on-human-health-and-plant-life\/22354\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">glyphosate in RoundUp<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 and the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.panna.org\/pesticides-big-picture\/lynchpin-industrial-ag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">industrial agriculture<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> systems that rely on them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This myth obscures what makes our food system the way it is, yet demands that we trust it. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In short, the perpetuation of this story means the perpetuation of a system that harms people and the environment.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To me, it seemed wrong that a corporation representing these values should be allowed a stage on our campus without giving voice to the entire story. And while thinking about this story, I started to see an opportunity. Monsanto, as influential as it is, had a presence on our campus whether or not\u00a0we hosted this speaker.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This talk was a chance to spur some very critical conversation; we just had to be strategic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were two groups that I wanted to reach: students who already had negative opinions of Monsanto but lacked specific evidence to stand on, and those who were interested in the company as a force for feeding the world or\u00a0even as a potential future employer. This talk was an opportunity to bridge the gap between the science those peers study on campus and its social, political, and environmental impacts. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My roommates and I spent the following Friday evening baking cookies and cooking dinner for a brainstorming meeting. After two hours conversing on broken wooden chairs and old living room couches, we resolved to protest through information. We\u2019d hand out pamphlets and a set of strategic questions that audience members could pose during the Q&amp;A at the end of the talk. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the rest of the week, we spent hours consolidating information and concerns into a few concise questions and pamphlets. We made our campus computer lab feel like a newsroom, passing coffee and Google docs back and forth and swiveling around on fancy rolling chairs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wednesday rolled around, and standing outside of the lecture hall with pamphlets and questions in hand, I was surprised by my own nerves. When the talk ended, the audience became a sea of raised hands \u2014 everyone seemed to have a bone to pick. Informed and critical questions bounced passionately around\u00a0the room. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was impressed, both by my peers who had worked so hard in creating oppositional information and by those community members who had attended on their own terms.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_50764\" style=\"width: 649px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-50764\" class=\"wp-image-50764 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/2110109d-neeka-salmasi-e1452698009344.jpg\" alt=\"Neeka Salmasi\" width=\"639\" height=\"567\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-50764\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neeka Salmasi on campus at Pitzer College in southern California.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The speaker was also supposed to present that coming Friday at another campus venue, but cancelled due to the audience\u2019s reaction that day. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But not everyone felt the way I did about it. In place of her scheduled talk, concerned students and faculty organized an open conversation on the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">College&#8217;s \u201ccommitment to free speech and academic freedom\u201d. I felt weary about it, as we had already been receiving a lot of backlash online for our part in creating the previous\u00a0audience\u2019s reaction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The conversation that followed on Friday was hardly &#8216;open&#8217;. My cohorts and I sat in the the middle of students and faculty alike throwing verbal tomatoes as they raged about \u201ccoddling the liberal arts education\u201d by \u201csilencing an opposing opinion\u201d. One faculty member even yelled, \u201cBetter be thankful you\u2019re not in Canada \u2014 hockey team would have taken care of you by now!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frustration began to whirl through me. Our purpose had been to inform people about the environmental, political, and social injustices that we were confident this talk would ignore. We wanted to inspire dialogue about our indirect participation in these injustices. In place of discussing these realities, the community around us was busy victimizing the presenter, whom they claimed had been disrespected and silenced. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if it were possible for a small group of college students to effectively silence a corporation that raked in <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.monsanto.com\/investors\/documents\/annual%20report\/2014\/2014_monsanto_annualreport.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$15.9 billion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2014, that wasn\u2019t what we wanted. <\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We wanted answers from Monsanto and discussion among our peers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The true story was manipulated, people were building off of each other\u2019s anger, and worst of all, this whole debacle was distracting from the point we wanted to raise in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We later had a meeting with one of the professors who had argued against us. Her first words were, \u201cI want to keep emotions out of this. Our role is to discuss data only\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here was our problem: this conversation is fundamentally human. It\u2019s full of emotion. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sure, we could argue for hours over conflicting science about how and why bee populations and soil quality are disintegrating, or how GMOs and pesticide residues may or may not impact human health. But how can we expect to change a world we don\u2019t feel connected to? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMonsanto isn\u2019t innocent, but they\u2019re just like any company,\u201d dismissed similar voices. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We were being asked to depend on this corporation, allow it to extend its propaganda to our campus, and take\u00a0no responsibility in the process. When we are stuck in a system that impacts people and ecosystems all over the world, this simple dismissal is not enough. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have a greater responsibility.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am demanding from members of my community &#8212; those of us who are privileged enough to criticize while benefiting from these violent systems &#8212; to\u00a0allow voices of dissent to start challenging conversations that break us out of the status quo. I am demanding that my institution support this type of innovation by presenting alternatives to the dominant narrative and encouraging students to engage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right now, I see a normal where whole, natural foods are only available to a small elite, and are often still grown within a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2015\/10\/the-bad-news-about-organic-industry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">destructive industrial model<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I see a normal where one corporation has enough political power to subsidize its patented seed and own virtually all of the crops we grow. I see a normal where <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nrdc.org\/food\/files\/wasted-food-ip.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">40 percent of food in this country goes to waste,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and where <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sustainabletable.org\/860\/community-and-economy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">communities<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sustainabletable.org\/270\/public-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">neighborhoods<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sustainabletable.org\/273\/workers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">workers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> worldwide are losing out as they are forced into industrial agriculture. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are what we eat, and I refuse to passively absorb the destruction involved with our current food system\u00a0&#8212; I need the help of my peers and my institution to create a new normal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Neeka Salmasi is a senior at Pitzer College, majoring in environmental policy and minoring in philosophy. The views shared here are her own. <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a long Wednesday of classes, I tossed my backpack onto the kitchen table and decided to check my emails one last time before cooking dinner. Scanning my inbox, I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":7231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[226,108,6],"p4-page-type":[31],"class_list":["post-2208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture-campaign","tag-agriculture","tag-gmos","tag-climate","p4-page-type-campaign-updates"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Monsanto, Student Activism, and a New Normal - Greenpeace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/monsanto-student-activism-and-a-new-normal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Monsanto, Student Activism, and a New Normal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After a long Wednesday of classes, I tossed my backpack onto the kitchen table and decided to check my emails one last time before cooking dinner. 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