Day 10

We woke up early and drove the last two hours to Washington DC.  We drove all over the city (lost, but great for visibility) and met up with Mintwood Media Collective, owners of the Cornfish.

We had a group of bicyclists made up of the Mintwood collective, local activists and friends escorted us all the way through DC to the White House.  We followed our growing troop of bikes all the way there, were briefly confronted by secret security for blocking an intersection with a suspicous-looking fish car, but left about four minuets later, unscathed to continue driving around.  We stopped by the capital building and the national archives, getting strange looks, thumbs-up and cheers all along the way.

That couple hour tour completed our journey just before the rain began on capital hill and Ben and I got to explore DC a little bit before regrouping with the others.  I’m not going to lie, in DC I felt like we had less support for our cause than we had  even in the backwoods of West Virginia or in Oklahoma.  Busy people in nice black business suites didn’t have time to laugh or ponder the giant bewildered corn fish.  Our friend Adam, informed us that DC is a food desert, lacking the local pride and knowledge about the source and quality about the ingredients.  Lets hope that policy will lean toward labeling, transparency and health more than the community.

Overall this journey has been extremely rewarding and eye-opening.  Now that I find myself back in North Carolina, I can’t find organic food.  Yesterday in the store, the only cereal I found that was seemingly GMO free was Rice Crispies, owned by Kellogg, a company that spent lots of money to make sure that my hard work on Prop 37 didn’t pay off.

I began my activism career as a climate activist, dealing with the very present crisis of climate change, and in my eyes, the most important issue that one could take on: How do we get to continue to live on our planet?

Over and over again I’ve made a point to remind myself and others that I’m not a single issue activist; that the GMO issue is not my fight.  The last 6 months of focused work has changed my perspective.  Listening to Vandana Shiva speak about the importance of protecting our world’s native seed supply form privatization at any cost necessary, and coming home to an ecologically bland agricultural state with no healthy food available to buy because a government that is supposed to represent me chooses to subsidize dangerous untested food and dirty energy sources, makes me think perhaps this is my fight.

In fewer words, this is ONE BIG ISSUE of conflicting interests and you, I and the planet we live on have been left out of the equation.  If I’ve learned nothing else about life and activism it is that if you want to see something happen, you have to take lead in making it happen.  We’re all busy, we all had other ideas about what our lives would look like.  I’m 22 years old.  I’m not sure what hope I have about living in a country that protects my values or the quality of my soil.  If I had children I don’t know what the planet they inherit will look like.  This fight is not too big.  If anything, the battle for GMO transparency is winnable and soon, if we do it ourselves instead of waiting for someone to lobby our officials, talk to our neighbors, write of new food policy and protect our food supply for us.

Apathy could kill this planet decades before war or climate change.  Save seeds, plant food, teach your children how to cook, and to see beyond plastic packaging, buy locally, talk to your neighbors, call your congress people- pressure the president.  FIght to label GMOs, kick monsanto out of the country, stop the Monsanto Riders on the new 2012 Farm Bill and the 2013 Fiscal Budget.

I read yesterday in the National Archives that Alexander Hamiliton, said that this country is governed by the people- So lets get to it!  Govern your country, use the hell out of the system in place, and if still doesn’t serve you, build a new one.  If nothing else, we have the right to be healthy, to feed ourselves, to live on our planet.  We just drove goofy fish-corn car across the country and we got people talking, but we didn’t change the world yet.  We need your help.  Look for updates about how we can help you build and drive and educational art car around your region.  If you’re interested email realcooperative@gmail.com.  Lets keep this going!

Day 9

The hotel desk lady informed us upon our departure this morning that the local Police Department had come out last night because of our car.

To have their pictures made with it!!!

That was a good way to start our day.

Today was a driving day all the way through West Virginia to Richmond VA.  We were passing through coal country and by huge processing facilities and mountain top removal ranges.  (MTR sites extend only to the top edge of an area where it cannot be seen by people driving down the high-way, but often you can see suspiciously bald ridge-lines; these are often at the edge of an MTR mining site.)

It was a bleak and dreary type day, leaving us with a lot to think about. We can pretend that food issues and dirty energy aren’t related, but that fact is, a broken system powered by he who has the most money is an entangled web.  Our food system, where its cheaper to buy fruit from South America than from your local farmer, is tied up in agricultural and fuel subsidies alike.  Our current agricultural system is powered by dirty energy and contributing to climate change. Period.

At one point, we were running out of fuel, and we nervously pulled off the highway onto a country side road to fill up.  With lots of eyes on us we pulled up to the little county store gas station.  To our surprise everyone loved us!  Roughneck county roads-workers pulled up in their giant truck to chat and take pictures.  The knew about GMOs and boasted, “We grow REAL corn here!”.  Although the chances of that are pretty slim, we appreciated their support and enthusiasm.  One woman pulled off the road, to take Fishy Corn’s picture and shake our hands.  It was great to talk to the folks there before driving on.

We arrived in Richmond in the afternoon.  Its a much larger city than we were expecting, but much cooler too.  We met up with our host at One Tribe art space, a local store front, art studio and gathering space in an old coffee building near the river.  We had dinner at an Urban Farm cafe and then headed over to set up for the event.  We planned a seed-bomb creation workshop and film screening of Jeffery Smith’s Genetic Roulette (watch it HERE).  Seed bombs are balls of clay and soil with seeds inside.  You can just toss them out as your walk, bike or drive to plant edible food everywhere you go! We had a great turn out and we all sat in the floor laughing and making seed-bombs and watching the movie.  It was some of the most fun I’ve had on our trip, and it felt especially good because people had come out specifically to gather around the issue.

It was a great night and we’ll be staying with a dear friend in Richmond before driving the final 2 hours to DC in the morning to rally at the White House.  Here we go!!!

P.S.

Ben and I have been practicing this in the car.  Written by and rights owned by the creative genius, Jonathan Youtt:

There’s a new freak in town, but you may not have yet heard

Because they don’t need to tell us or give us their word

They are GMOs from a freaky science vision

They are Genetically Modified Organisms

Combining plants, chemicals, and viruses together

To create something new but I have to ask whether

Or not these new things are put through a test

All we hear from their scientists is that they are the best

If they are so safe then why don’t they label

the products in stores that wind up on our table

and why are they not allowed in some other countries

they are testing on us without scrutiny

Some GMOs are sterile and won’t produce new seed, They can’t

They force the farmers to purchase next years to plant

But nature has provided seeds to give life

To create next years crop without any such strife

GMOs are no Good, they are just FrankenFOOD

No good for anything from crops, plants or wood

They should stop messing with nature, just keep things organic

Stop tampering with Earth and creating such a panic

Cause Nature knows all for thousands of years

we dont want our future to be full of tears

or what was created – a Freakshow of Greed

These are things that NObody Needs

We can start with a label cause, we need to know

so we can make choices to avoid GMOs

then people will learn the truth about Monsanto

Our dollars will say NO to this GMO Freakshow.

WE got a right to know  – we got a right to know

we got a right to label these GMOs

You got a right to know  - you got a right to know

you got a right to label these GMOs

Day 8

After a relaxing on a day off with Ben’s Family in Kentucky, got up early and drove to Evansville, IN where our good friend Fred lives there with his beautiful family.  They are super community organizers and currenty Fred runs the Downtown Evansville wine tasting room for the Winzerwald Winery.  They are committed to showcasing local products, foods, and artists in their storefront and they produce some damn good, non-GMO wine.

We hosted a Fishy Corn meet and greet at the winery, complete with live music from local musician John Dodd. There was a puppet show atop the fishy car’s hood and a local reporter came out to do a story about GMOs, the car and our journey.  It was so much fun with old friends and new, and we were sad to continue our journey so soon.

Next, we drove to Louisville KY to one of the 5 locations of the Rainbow Blossom Natural Foods Market.  Its a locally grown, run and owned natural food supplier and an excellent resource to the area.  When we arrived there was a mama and two little girls waiting with a “I am not a science experiment” sign to greet us!

We had some really insightful conversations.   A woman explained to us that after having her first child, she had a miscarriage and a still birth.  She has no physical evidence to link these complications and other health problems to Kentucky’s pollution (it in coal country) but she still wonders if she should move her family. One couple told us that they appreciated that we were pushing healthy eating, but reminded us that we were also pushing expensive eating.  It led to a long conversation about misplaced government subsidies, and a strategizing session about a very pertinent conundrum:  If you only have a small budget to spend on food, what portions should be organic?

We came up with a few strategies:

1-Read the ingredients- Especially in traditional grocery products, stick to short ingredient lists that you can understand and pronounce all the parts of.  Often GMOs are hidden in those processed ingredients and unfamiliar words.

2-Buy specialty products in bulk- Products like organic flour, corn meal or raw sugar are healthier, bust costly.  Buying them in bulk can cut the price and the packaging.

3-Strategize what produce is safest to buy non-organic and which you should stick to the organic type.  There are LISTS that let you know which fruits and veggies have the least pesticides and herbicides sprayed on them, and maybe for those you can opt to buy the non-organic version.

4-Use this non-GMO shopping guide to know which products are safer to buy organic to make sure they contain no GMO ingredients (think about processed foods with sugar (sugarbeets), corn (especially high fructose corn syrup), and soy.

5-Look for local providers of meat, dairy and produce- You can have direct conversations with local providers about their farming practices and occasionally you can gets discounts by buying straight from the source, or trading!

Thats just what we came up with.  Any other ideas?  Does anyone one know about any preexisting tool kits for GMO free organic eating on a small budget?  If not, I’m making one.

We had a great experience at the Rainbow.  The store was  wonderful, the workers were so helpful, dedicated to their work, and kind.  Way to go!

We’ll be driving late into the night tonight and most of the day tomorrow to get all the way to Richmond VA for an awesome film screening and seed bomb creating workshop at the One Tribe before heading on to DC.

Almost there!

Day 6

After spending the night with the awesome Occupy Monsanto organizers, we got ready for our day of action.  I have to say that the couple we stayed with blew away any expectations that I have about the demographics of folks who plan direct action.  Based on their cool names, the fact that they live in a community type house where the host conferences and meetings and plan direct actions, I was planning on a young, funky anarchist couple.  Boy was I surprised when we drove up to their beautiful old house and and 60 something couple came out with the plans for 5 grocery store actions in one day.  Blew my mind!  That will show me to assume that young funky people are the only organizers getting anything done! Ha!

Anyway, they are awesome, active community organizers.  We were lucky to have them for 2 days and St. Louis is lucky to have them all the time.

We started the day with a trip over to Monsanto World Headquarters. The occupy monsanto organizers had told us that we might be met at the gate by an officer taking our picture, so we decided to prepare!  We found some good ol’ mustache/glasses/eyebrows disguises and proceeded on in “incognito”.  The Headquarters basically looks like a college campus/ hospital.  We pulled in with no trouble, but within 5 min, we had 5 security guards hanging out with us, 3 behind, 2 passing us in the opposite direction every now and then. We video taped the whole thing, and honestly by the time they stopped us and asked up to leave, we were pretty ready,  It was intense.

Afterward we wanted to do some sight-seeing so we took fishy car to the St. Louis Arch!  Ot was grand fun and we rolled around in the grass before heading back to prep for the actions.

The basic plan for our actions was this:  Of our 6 person crew, 2 people would be in hazmat suits, goggles and masks to “inspect” food, I would be the “record keeper” / lesion dressed nicely, Ben would drive and guard fishy corn from towing and the rest would distribute info to customers outside and around the store.

At Schnucks, they were waiting for us at the door, we didn’t have time to park or walk in before the manager and landlord asked us to leave the property.  We were nice, they were nice, so we carried on.

At Whole Foods, we were quickly asked not to film or solicit customers.  We could answer questions and give flyers if people asked us though, and people did!  We were allowed to stay there and hunt for GMOs for quite awhile, and although we did find some (especially from the invisible ingredient list), we were surprised by the amount of non-GMO food they do carry.  One of our Hazmat guys made a great scene, saying “Oh, now everyone stand back!  This looks suspicious!” And then sneaking up to the potential GMO product with gloves and a mask on to examine its ingredients.  It was too funny and people would gather to watch and ask questions.  Outside a ferocious looking cop circled fishy corn in the parking lot.  We grew tired and moved on.

At Trader Joes, we were also stopped at the door and informed that NONE of their products contained GMOs and were asked to leave.  When the manager was pressed about the presence of GMOs in his store he got angry and refused to continue talking.  Upon further conversation with another manager we found out that Trader Joes Brand products are not 100% organic, but supposedly are 100% non-GMO.  The other brands in the store could contain GMOs if they aren’t organic.  There’s really no way to know without labeling.  We were still asked to leave.

At Dierbergs we were fussed at by a confused employee who we said that we couldn’t possibly be shopping in Hazmat suits.  We told him that we were shopping around, but hadn’t found anything we were willing to buy.  That shut him up.  Unfortunately, he was followed by a manager who told us that we couldn’t film or solicit, but we could shop.  But after a heated conversation with a Monsanto employee in the parking lot, the fishy corn got kicked out and the rest of us followed.

Our last stop was Walmart.  The produce manager asked me what a GMO was.  Oh no, bad sign. He then led me to the new variety of packaged sweet corn (the new BT variety? we wonder).  We were asked to leave shortly thereafter, by two managers who were “too busy helping customers” to look up Walmart’s store policy on GMOs.

It was fun!  We talked to a good number of people and certainly turned some heads.  After it was all over we said our goodbyes.  We even met an organizer of a local farmers market who would like the next GMO Freak on his car (a tomato fish?).  We spent another little while at the City Museum, said bye-bye to St. Louie and headed on to Kentucky.  Tomorrow, we take a day off with Ben’s family before visiting Evansville and Louisville on Sunday.

G’night.

Day 5

Today we were grateful to finally have a chance to sleep in.  We drove the final 2 hours into St. Louis (Home of Monsanto World Headquarters boooo), and headed straight to the City Museum (yay!), a spot that we’ve head a lot about for a long time and finally got to visit.

We were gifted primo parking by the entrance to show off the fishy car, and heading inside.  We’re there for about 10 min, before Ben ran by me bleeding.  He had cracked his head open on a low hanging…well…Cave in the museum in the dark (of course).  Apparently the employees there are pretty used to this and they fixed him up quickly (but not before he had scared some small children looking like a zombie with blood dripping down his nose…)  We had a slower adventure from there, and an amazing time exploring and climbing and playing.

It was a weird day of moving slow, losing things, and getting hurt so we turned in early.  We’re staying with a couple of occupy monsanto organizers that planned the actions we’ll be doing tomorrow.  They are older adults who are super tied in to the local action movement.  They work with Gateway-Green Alliance, CAMP: The community arts and movement project (that collectively bought their own building 10 years ago to run multiple organizations from!) and run their own TV show; Green Time, focusing on education the public about environmental and social issues worldwide.  Last September, they organized a conference around GMOs and food issues, directly tackling Monsanto in their own town.  For us they have planned a series of actions tomorrow to visit multiple “contaminated” grocery stores.

We’re going to get some rest tonight, but tune in for some awesome actions tomorrow!

Check out the press release: 

Gateway Green Alliance/Safe Food Action St. Louis Press Advisory — 

Is FishyCorn in the market where you shop?

December 14, 2012 – St. Louis, Missouri. On Friday, Dec. 14 the FishyCorn car will be visiting

St.Louis! Atop the car sits a sculpture of a GMO (genetically modified organism) creature, part

corn, part fish. The FishyCorn car will be visiting several local St. Louis grocery stores to alert

shoppers regarding GMO contamination of food that they may be purchasing.

FishyCorn Car dedicates its life to promote education around foods containing GMOs,

the environmental and social impact of the massive increase in chemicals used to grow them and

the importance of GMO labeling in the USA. It is in St. Louis as part of a cross country tour.

You can follow the FishyCorn Car on its facebook page.

Over 90% of soy, corn, and canola contain GMOs. GMOs are created when a gene from

a bacteria, animal or a plant is inserted into another plant or animal. Scientific tests have raised

questions about whether these foods are safe for humans to consume. Foods containing GMOs

are not labeled, so people cannot tell if they are in the foods they buy at the supermarket.

WHO: Safe Food Action St. Louis, Gateway Green Alliance, grocery store customers

WHAT: Informational tour & pickets of St. Louis grocery stores

WHERE: Begin at Schnucks parking lot, 6600 Clayton Rd (at Big Bend) 63117

WHEN: 3 pm, Friday, December 14, 2012

WHY: Genetic contamination of St. Louis food.

Day 4

We stayed with Adam, an awesome member of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative last night, staying up late and talking about the state of the world all kinds of things.  He explained that the Cooperative (OKC) is an interesting model because they operate as a distributers from farmers to customers releasing one big state-wide CSA share each month.  They’ve just moved to a retail location after operating only with online orders for a long time.  We saw the building today, its HUGE!  The warehouse was at one time an old grocery store and market, and its being revitalized as one again.  They share a compound and parking lot with an awesome old antique mall, a building that houses Anderson’s Organics and Urban Agrarian, and an outdoor produce market.  The area is being transformed into the “Farmers Market District” and it looks like its on its way toward being Oklahoma City’s local food hub.

The Antique Mall was a hoot.  We walked through the old empty building and ran into a one legged man putting together a Christmas tree and woman who runs all her cars on straight vegetable oil (with no conversion).  They were excited about the corn fish car, so we pulled him around the building and they proceeded to deck him out in country wester rancher gear complete with a saddle and huge bronco horns.  He looked fantastic!

After taking lots of photos we went around the complex visiting the other local foodies.  Anderson’s Organics and Urban Agrarian we’re too separate businesses that moved together into an huge old warehouse from the 1920s.  They have a store front where they sell goods made exclusively in Oklahoma.  In the back of the warehouse, they have an amazing decked out commercial kitchen that is available to local people to rent and run independent business ventures from.  Individuals can use it to teach classes, make and sell their own personal products, have a space to cater from, etc.  Its an amazing resource for their community.  They also have a food truck that they use as a mobile farmers market, to reach areas that don’t have the same access to local food.

Basically this is want I want to do with my life.  And the owner, Shelly was so encouraging to me.  She said that all it takes is the drive and the desire to bring local food to your community.  I’m from rural North Carolina and I’m often called home to make sure that my community has access to healthy food.  A replicable model could materialize in a few places around the country, adapting to meet the regional community’s needs.  The possibility makes me so excited.

On the way out of town we stopped at the Red Cup, a super groovy vegan and vegetarian cafe where we met a bunch of local Occupy organizers before we even stepped in the door.  They recognized the fishy corn car from the Prop 37 campaign online and we all talked for awhile.  If you’re ever in OKC, you should eat at this spot.

We traveled on down the road to Tulsa, to Anner’s Pantry.  Anner’s is a family-run, member-owned cooperative that operates from Anner’s home.  They strive to be an organic connivence store, and have been operating as such since 1998.  They offer weekly CSA bags to members that are accompanied with weekly recipes (Anner’s original) that incorporate the ingredients from the corresponding week’s CSA bag. Before the coop, Anner was a cook and she and her husband ran several restaurants.  They are now in their 70s and Anner’s son and his wife are slowly taking over the home-run business.  We visited with both generations over tea for awhile.  Anner’s husband, Ed talked about his improved quality of life through simplification and working through a labor of love, how community has saved his life and provided his living situation, his belief that “unbridled capitalism is a dangerous beast”, his concern about the horrible practices of fracking and mountain top removal and how impressed he was with the Yes Men.  These people are awesome.  Anner told us that the rest of her family perceived her dedication to healthy, organic food as extreme hippy lunacy.  She was introduced at family gatherings as “the crazy cousin”.  Needless to say, now that she runs a cooperative with 500 members from her home, her “insanity” seems to have paid off.

We were so grateful to see their thriving, evolving model (with upcoming dreams of a food truck and more), to hear their stories and to experience their kind hospitality.

If you haven’t noticed yet, this adventure isn’t about preaching or protesting.  Its been about seeing who the team is, “rallying the troops” so to speak, celebrating local food economies and sharing our info, energy and sillyness with the people doing the real work to create a world alternative to the one that monsanto is preparing. Its a huge blessing to us to meet these awesome pioneers.  We also know that down the road, the real work for change will begin, but for now we celebrate, build and connect like souls.7

After we left, we traveled on into the dark toward St. Louis for the city museum and some fun occupy monsanto actions  feeling uplifted, inspired and excited about the next things.

Day 3

After leaving the Retro Buckaroo Motel, we were on our way to Amarillo.  Along the roadside we saw fields full of tires, abandoned towns, and “free-range” cattle (in small fences rather than small stables).  It was a little boring and a little bleak.  We stopped once for fuel and I talked to the tiny Texan lady running the store.  She asked what we were up to and as I described, to my surprise she quickly expressed her approval!  She voiced her concerns about the amount of sugar that modern foods containe and her hesitation to eat them and feed them to her kids.  We talked about the fact that now most of that “sugar” in foods is actually GMO high-fructose corn syrup.  While slicing a previously frozen, box pizza to sell to customers, she explained that she and her husband keep a garden that he refuses to spray any chemicals on (even fertilizer, she fussed).  Their garden soil is good because there used to be fighting chickens on the plot, but they could never eat their eggs because there’s too much iron and sulfur in the local water source and they tasted toxic.

After talking to her we left with a wave and drove on.

What does it mean to have so many people who believe in this cause, living in impoverished communities without access to non-gmo food and far from the minds and eyes and ears of policy makers.  What does it mean when even the like minded live so far from environmental sustainability.  Are we stuck with the status quo America?

Even Fishy corn seemed especially pensive on the drive into Amarillo with his jaws-esk shadow racing along beside the road.

When we reached Amarillo, we went straight to the Eat Rite Health Promotion Market, a 63 year old family run business that supplies its community with a healthy cafe, a small selection of organic groceries, health food supplements, natural care products and advice from an in-store nutritionist.  We hadn’t even been able to find the spot on google until a facebook follower suggested that we check it out.  They are wonderful!  We were treated with such hospitality and we were so impressed by quality health service that they are offering to their community deep in the heart of Texas (the stars at night they shine so bright…sorry).

After an afternoon talking with customers and sending them home with little GMO info kits, we packed up and drove down the road with the sun setting behind us. I sang “Deep in the Heart of Texas” to Ben the whole way, knowing only the first verse… Tonight we’re being hosted by a kind employee of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, our first stop of the day before Anner’s Pantry in Tulsa.

Oh and p.s. the words to “Deep in the Heart” of Texas are as follows,

The stars at night – are big and bright

Deep in the heart of texas.

The prairie sky – is wide and high

Deep in the heart of texas.

The sage in bloom – is like perfume

Deep in the heart of texas.

Reminds me of – the one I love

Deep in the heart of texas.

The cowboys cry – ki-yip-pie-yi

Deep in the heart of texas.

The rabbits rush – around the brush

Deep in the heart of texas.

The coyotes wail – along the trail

Deep in the heart of texas.

The doggies bawl – and bawl and bawl

Deep in the heart of texas.

Tomorrow’s song will be: OOOOOOOklahoma where the wind comes right behind the plains….(Ben is really beginning to wish the radio worked…)

Happy Trails Ya’ll!

Day 2

When we woke up it was 12 degrees in Flagstaff. Fishy corn (nor his compadres were) expecting that!  We rolled by New Frontiers Natural Groceries to stock up on food staples and stock them up on GMO info, and then headed WAY down the road to Albuquerque.

As you can see on our Facebook, we passed through the land of desert, native people, fake dinosaurs (?) and big red rocks.  It was my first time in New Mexico, I found it eerily beautiful.

We drove all the way to Albuquerque to the La Montanitia Food Cooperative, where we were met with a warm welcome despite the COLD weather.  We set up in the parking lot with information to share and talked to people as the came and went.  The cooperative was awesome.  They even have a micro-lending program to help strengthen the local food system and local business economy! We interviewed Melissa, an amazing employee there that is very tied in with the GMO situation in community.  She told us that there are conversations about genetically modifying green chilies, a staple of New Mexican diet, on the table now. Already the politics are confusing because the biotech industry is involved with the “Save New Mexico Native Chilies” campaign.  The community she lives in is going to need to organize together, get their facts straight and get to work to stop the approval of the green chile- and she seems to already be doing just that.  We were honored with the opportunity to speak with her and meet the vibrant, well informed community around the cooperative.  We can’t wait to work with them in the future.

Next, we hurried over to the Skarsgard Farms CSA pickup spot in town to set up an informational display and send GMO info home with shoppers.  The farm is an amazing family run spot that employes and trains young people, several of whom have moved on to start their own farms.  They also supply their community with locally grown food via their Community Supported Agriculture shares and an organic veggie-dispensing food truck (if only we could have these in all urban areas to deal with that issue of healthy food access!).

We drove all the way to the tiny, retro Buckaroo Motel to spend then night and gear up for the next day.  We’re excited to see that not only do people know what we’re talking about, they agree.   Lets see what Texas has to say tomorrow.

Day 1

We left after dark on the first day of our trip.  The car was held up with the mechanic, pushing back the day of final details (repainting and packing) a whole 24 hours.  Still, with a rallying send-off crew singing and laughing and hugging, we rolled out of Oakland in the giant fish car at 6pm on Saturday December 8 to begin our 10 day journey across the United States.

Two years ago, Ben and I moved to Oakland at the same time to intern for Sustainable Living Roadshow.  Now after two years of touring, coordinating actions, workshops and off the grid events, we’re off to the next thing: Ben to join his sweetheart in Germany, me back to my home in the Appalachian mountains.  Despite the launching of our newest project the REAL Cooperative, The Fishy Corn tour is our last mutual “hoorah” for a while.

Ben is no stranger to driving the fishy corn.  On and off since the Right2Know march from Brooklyn New York to Washington DC, and on through the California Prop 37 campaign he has been behind the steering wheel of that befuddled fish face.  I’m still straightening out the kinks of learning to drive a stick shift car, so I’ll be handling event coordination, social networking and general organization.

On our first night, we only made it to Bakersfield, CA where we pulled off and slept beside the 5.  The next morning we drove to a farmers market that our production genius, Tom in Oakland had found for us.  Since leaving the Bay area we’d been driving through hundreds of miles of big industrial agricultural fields, now we were headed to meet the farmers who run them.

No one seems to like the fishy corn nearly as much in the AM.  People look at us groggily over their coffee cups with a scowl.  Its much too early for anything as confusing as a giant floating corn fish whizzing down the road.  We passed a motor cycle gang, who seemed unimpressed.  We were honestly a little nervous to visit the market, because we weren’t expecting a particularly receptive crowd in the agricultural belt of CA.

When we got there we immediately had a security guard pacing near by, with a sharp eye on us.  Still we carried on smiling, taking pictures, shooting video and talking to passersby. We walked through the completely non-organic farmers market talking to people, handing out non-GMO shopping guides and explaining what the hell we where doing with our giant ear of corn.  People where AMAZINGLY receptive!  A woman expressed her concern for the growing number of overweight children, another talked about her experience in the medical field studying the connection between genetics and cancers.  Overwhelmingly, people we’re confused and surprised that prop 37 hadn’t passed (even in the Central Valley).

Every where we go, people stop to talk to us and take pictures and ask questions.  Often, “what is a GMO” is the first one.  But they approach us to ask, kids and parents and shop clerks walk up to us, because its so big and goofy and interesting that people want to talk about it, they want to be part of our journey, they want to know WHY we care so much about the issue.  Its the best ice breaker in history.  It was a great experience talking to folks, and we happily rolled out to begin our LONG drive to Flagstaff, AZ.

The fishy corn isn’t heavy, but its BIG, and wind resistance is a serious factor in speed, therefore the fishy corn swam slowly through the desert, and up a mountain range into the dark.  By the time we reached Flagstaff, AZ we were at 7,000 ft and it was clear, we we’re definitely not in California anymore.  Its COLD!

We’re safe and warm and thankful at the Grand Canyon International Hostel.  Tomorrow, were on the the New Frontiers Health Food Market in Flagstaff before booking to Albuquereque to visit the La Montanita Food Coop and a farm stand for Skarsfard Farms for some good ol’ fashioned information sharing.

Good night, sleep tight and don’t let the fishy corn bite!

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