participated in this program. and actually we've done just fine as a hospital provider because, you know, we've been able to earn incentives, as you mentioned, through better health outcomes. i think that is a model for the future. but i think we all ought to be realistic about how long that will take. meanwhile, there's some great innovations taking place among the providers. you know, putting in place these advanced clinical systems to even capture the type of data that we're capturing, that just didn't exist six or seven years ago. you mentioned government policy and incentives. the incentives for adopting these clinical systems has been very effective in our own company's case in total we're spending about $1 billion in advanced clinical systems and the government incentives are making that -- it possible for us to do that by offsetting about half of that cost.

and although the op rablt and sharing of data doesn't yet exist freely, there are other great things that are happening. so, you know, we're -- just in our company we've avoided hundreds of thousands -- several hundreds of thousands of unnecessary tests, unnecessary because they were duplicates. we've all been in hospital environments when a physician walks in and is looking for a result of a test that he or she ordered and the result isn't there, what do they do? they order another test. and we're able to avoid that. we're able to avoid medication errors. maybe the wrong dose or even the wrong medication or at the wrong time being given to patients. so these are really important innovations and improvements in safety and quality in hospitals that are being driven by this technology. everything patrick described is possible and i think it will occur. but i think we need to give it a little time. >> let me ask you this -- i know -- you can say whatever you're going to say but i want to follow up on this.

your position is, i take it, that if we completely stop paying for procedures and pay for performance for health care, that the government wouldn't have to do much more to end the siloization, if you will, of electronic medical records then there would be literally no incentive in the world to not share a medical records with, you know, appropriate privacy protections for the patients but -- is that what you're saying? >> correct. that's exactly right. i think we have completely disincentivized the system and, in fact, perversely incentivize it. you hear -- with all due respect, the incentives of getting the money to actually put in systems that actually don't talk to another system is a perverse incentive that the government has actually funded. so, and i think when we talk

about the time -- i want to emphasize, not the time, that this is not some hypothetical. we actually are installed, as we sit and speak as you said, in 50 practices -- 155 systems, 3.3 million lives, we're capturing 40 million claims a day, 3 billion vital signs, it's being adopted by the nhs as we sit and speak. the software system that is intelligent is running 70% of the emergency rooms of portugal. it's running the largest hospital brighten in the united kingdom. running the largest cancer center in brazil. so, this is not some hypothetical. what it is a will of us actually integrating a platform that gives you actual knowledge in realtime anywhere, any time and is evidence based. but it also needs to incentivize the provider to give the best

care. and the marketplace will do that if you actually provide and you will sift out. you hear problems like accountable care organization and i will challenge anybody, how can you have an accountable care organization when in no realtime can you tell who is accountable for that patient? if you have surgery and you're elderly, you see just as one person 27 health care providers. an elderly person has 19 medications. who is accountable? so, you can't have accountable care organization when you can't measure who is accountable. then you want to give this thing a value-based care. value-based care is outcomes divided by cost. if you can't measure outcomes in pathways in realtime, how can you know whether you're giving value-based care and you have no idea about the cost in realtime. so we have now built a system that can measure outcomes in

realtime and costs in realtime in st. john's hospital, a patient walks into the hospital. the minute he walks into the hospital, we know exactly where he is, what doctor is touching him, what is being used by the minute. so, if you can measure outcomes in realtime and cost in realtime, you can give value-based care and create accountable care. but the accountability gives you outcomes for health and that's how they will actually be bonused. so that's a system that i've -- i don't think is hypothetical. i think it's actually real. we just need the courage and organizations like yourselves to actually be the voice -- >> but you're saying it could be done within the existing legal frame work or we need to at least change the payment system rules? >> and the way i'm approaching it is i'm working then exactly as sue has talked about with the fortune 500 companies and with the unions and that's what we're

announcing today the bps council the ceo council, we will be taking the self-insured and in that context, build a collaborative of providers across this nation, install this system, but on one condition, this collaborative will also work with the underinsured and the underserved. and now we will bring evidence-based 21st century care to cancer patience in beverly hills or south central california and doctors can do what they do best, i.e., provide the best care. [ applause ]. >> let me just say -- and in theory, we should be able to bring it to any country in the world, right? >> correct. >> if we have -- one of the things that our foundations involved in is this remarkable effort to the rwandaen

government asked us to undertake. they want to be free of all foreign assistance in their health care program by 2020. so, they -- we worked with them for years and dr. paul farmer partners in health to design a program they can afford to run that will provide high outcomes for them. and it's basically build a good hospital in every region of the country which we have now completed doing. have one good cancer center in the country, which we have now completed doing. lot of people think poor people don't get cancer. the rates are fairly consistent across the world. and then do a network of clinics and then train community health workers, which is why i had this nightmare experience i mentioned to you because it's really the same in america, you know? but if you have the technology, it should work. i mean, we've got 19 american medical institutions working

there training these people for 7% overhead. i'm very proud of that. lowest in history. and they're going to be free of, i think, all foreign assistance. but they will only have really good care if they are hooked into a global information network that will enable people -- the thing that kills me, like in ethee yoep ya, so there are all these people in the world that you don't think about that are still dying unanimously. nobody ever knows they lived. nobody ever knows they died. that is nobody who keeps such records. and so, i'm very interested for the rest of my life, the stuff i don't do here, about how to apply these technological possibilities to places like in -- patrick is from port elizabeth in south africa.

if you get sick in south african cities you'll be find. but out in the bush, there are still people who are dying alone. >> i'm working with -- in ethiopia and we're doing these kinds of things for africa. >> but it's true. so the point i'm trying to make if we did this in america, it would have incredible ripple effect across the world by just building the infrastructure for people to access. what were you going to say? >> i was just going to build on pat's aspect, bringing it a little bit back to the states. 70% of our revenue is medicare advantage. and it has just transformed the organization over the last number of years from -- because of guaranteed issuance. we have to take everybody. we're not an insurance company. we're a clinical company because we are highly incentive to keep people healthy. i mentioned to you about the individual i visited in south florida. the reason why we have nurses going to their home, checking if

they have nutrition, ensuring they're not depressed is because we're responsible for their health. we are paid an overall fee for their health and they stay with us for seven to ten years. and so, getting back to patrick, i think it's the integration of the technology with a reimbursement system that motivates people to take responsibility for people's health, not just the information side of that. to me, what is done for our organization is transformed our organization to be innovative about being responsible for people's health. and i think if you change the reimbursement system, you will bring that innovation as what you were saying before. >> i want to comment just really quickly on one thing and that is in rest of the world. some of the things you're talking about, patrick, and in terms of some of the african nations, could, in fact, happen faster because they don't have a

legacy system like we have. we don't -- they don't have to defend the fifa service system as we have here. a lot is self pay. in fact, the percentage of self pay -- that's what governs so much of the health care system over there. so, in fact, pilots that we're trying to do a ge surround around some of these activities that you're talking about, we should be able to do those fairly quickly in some of those developing countries. >> you are. in bangladesh and ges, they have leapfrogged. bangladesh doesn't have land lines, they have cell phones. >> let me comment on that. for me it was pretty inspiring when i learned about what ge is doing. that is, we have a hand held ultrasound. for those of you who experienced ultrasound, you have to go into the hospital or go into a system and you essentially, you know, you have to book an appointment. there's a lot of things about the system that just is.

ge came out with this hand held ultrasound and now has it connected. so now, you can just imagine as it relates to prenatal care and as it relates to decreasing themore bitty of infant death, it's a remarkable tool. and we're doing that in a lot of developing countries to be able to help this because in remote villages they all have phones and they're all connected, but they don't have the tools. and we feel like this is something you can train people to utilize very, very easily. so, as it relates to possibilities of bringing technology into these developing countries, getting the connected world actually utilizing these in these remote, remote villages, it's happening today. i have to agree with you with that. here, we have the legacy systems. we have to breakthrough. and i know you say it's happening already, but i have to agree with you, it's going to take a little bit of time because the policies don't allow us to do what we like to do

state by state. we're still breaking down those sort of barriers that we have to do, unless you fund it yourself. >> no. so the way we're addressing, president, we're going state by state. i'm working with the governors, so we're going through -- unfortunately state by state. >> but let me just -- to make sure everybody understand, we had a little bit of a -- we got off on a little techno -- speak, the reason that medicare advantage works and the way they're talking about is it was conceived as a way of paying people to take care of people on medicare and to get a premium for doing prevention, for keeping them well. so, the idea was there's a fixed price list here. that's the medicare payment that let's say i would get at my age for me.

i'm enrolled in medicare. and if i sign up with you, you are going to get this to fix me when i'm sick. so, we'll give you this to keep me well. in the beginning, there was a lot of controversy about it because in the congress, there was almost 100% agreement that there should be more preventive care but there was the suspicion that it was being done to privatize medicare in a way that would allow the whole program ultimately to be drastically underfunded. but it was -- because immediately people began to see the benefits of the preventive work in keeping people healthy, it was obvious that it was costing the providers about $600 -- i'm making this up, but this is pretty close, about $600 a patient a year to do this and they were getting reimbursed at

$1,100 and nearly everybody would do anything for an 80% markup that was legal that wouldn't send you to jail. over time, the providers got better and better at keeping people swoel the reimbursement rate could get lower and closer to the cost of providing the preventive services. eventually you're going to go into negative territory because you're not going to have people using the medicare on a per capita basis you had accepted. that's why in a funny way what started off as this big ideologic fight and a big leap of faith has led to a broad -- wide-spread acceptance of funding prevention and paying people for wellness instead of paying by procedure, which we're out of time and i want to get -- this brings me back to the conversation i had with tim when he asked me to try to co-sponsor

this bob hope golf tournament and we got human that involved. i said, i will do this if you let us have the conference at the beginning on health care because one of the things that i had to face up to when i had my heart bypass surgery is i love getting my heart fixed at columbia presbyterian. they saved my life. it was fabulous. then they had to go fix me again. but i -- americans cannot see themselves as helpless, passive creatures on a conveyer belt waiting -- and so -- because i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, oh my god, if i get cancer, i want this guy to do my g gnome in a hurry and find the one miracle cure that

will make me healthy again and 20. we're all laughing, but i'm pretty close, aren't i? okay. i got it. i want that, too. but the job that tim and i have -- and the rest of us -- even the providers are telling you that that's what they want now, is we are not helpless inanimate blops on a conveyor belt. our conversation in this whole deal is to minimize the number of times they'll have to help us. [ applause ]. >> so that's why -- i'll go back to the pga. when he agreed to do this, there were an unusual number of golfers and their families who had devoted their foundations to health care. right?

but normally for perfectly understandable and wonderful reasons they were trying to help solve a particular problem that someone in their family had experienced. so, tim is a day or two younger or older. look how healthy he is. i just want to point that out. the pga took a big risk in doing this. they were trying to save this tournament. we were trying to preserve the legacy of bob hope in having -- raise a lot of money year every year that goes into the foundations. but i think the main thing that golfers can do what tim said about walking 30 hours a week, we've all contributed to this idea that you can't ask all the rest of these people to just take care of us. we have a heavy responsibility here, personally and in our families and in our communities

to take better care of ourselves. so, i want to thank tim for doing his part to send the getoff the conveyor belt message to america. [ applause ]. >> anybody want to say anything snels. >> i just want to say thank you, president, for all you're doing. >> thank you. let's give him a hand. they were great. [ applause ]. on our next "washington journal" chris chicola talks about his organization's goal trying to elect physically conserve ifr candidates in congress. and then we move on to ben wikler. after that our big ten college tour continues at the university of maryland where president wallace lowe looks at public policy issues and higher education. plus your phone calls, facebook comments and tweets. "washington journal" is live

each morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. with live coverage of the u.s. house on c-span and the senate on c-span 2, here on c-span 3, we compliment that coverage by showing you the most relevant hearing and public events. on weekends, it's the home to american history it have with programs that tell our nation's stories including six unique series. the civil war's visiting battlefields and key events. >> american art facts, touring museums and sites to discover what art facts reveal about america's past. history book shelf. the presidency, looking at the policies and legacies of our nation's commanders in chief. lectures in history, with top college professors devilling into america's past. and our new series, real america featuring our government and films through the '30s through the '70s.

c-span 3 funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. now a look at how genetically modified foods and pesticides are raising health concerns. a group of women film makers took part in this discussion hosted by the commonwealth club of california. it's a little over an hour. >> it's actually organic wine tonight. hello and welcome to tonight's program the commonwealth club of california. my name is kevin o'malley. i'm chairman here at the club and your host for tonight. our program tonight food fights for the 21st century, women's voices driving change. our panelists are deborah coons

garcia. zen honeycut. judy shields. and our host and moderator tonight is christie-dames. >> thank you very much, kevin. thank you to the commonwealth club really appreciate being here tonight. i'm very excited to have these three powerful women, some moms, some aren't. powerful women all the same. and so tonight we have a very exciting program about food and what's happening with our food. i'm going to ask my first question of deborah coons garcia. you have two major award-winning films. you've been a film maker since 1970. you are quite the vocal activist and speaker. you have a famous husband, jerry garcia. how did you come to make films about food? you've been a film maker for a long time. how did you arrive at food? >> yeah. well n 1970 when i was in college i started making films

and also because of that era, back to the land and going natural and all that i became vegetarian, stopped eating junk food and soda pop and became an organic fanatic and felt better and became committed to that. i knew at some point i wanted to make films. i didn't start off making documentaries. i didn't make documentaries for many years after making films. but i also wanted to make a film about the food system. i had been informing myself about food and social justice and food and health for many years. so, that first film i made was the future of food, which came out ten years ago. when i started filming it about 14, 15 years ago, no one was really talking about the food system. they were talking about the perfect pear and the lovely bread and that's important. but i wanted to make it broader and make people understand the changes that were happening in the food system, especially genetic engineering, buying up the seed supply, pattening and

all that stuff was really under the radar. i didn't know that and i was an extremely informed consumer. that film, i did a lot of outreach. netflix bought 50,000 copies, all the whole foods carried it. we had this great program where people could buy bulk copies of the film. so after four years of that i decided to go more deeply into that same realm and so i made the film sim fany of the soil which is about soil. the first part is soil. the middle part is our relationship to soil which is primarily agriculture and big ideas. it looks at agriculture from soil's point of view. you don't want to poison it. you don't want to kill it. you want to give back to it. and it's really promoting this idea of healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy people, healthy planet, which i think we need to demand. and we deserve and we should get

it. so -- >> beautiful. thank you. >> next, we have zen honeycut is up here from southern california. zen is a mother and executive director. there's a moms across america and moms across the globe that's taken off. every year there's 172 parades that happen as part of the fourth of july celebration. she is a major voice on roundup. she was just invited to the epa a few weeks ago because she had such a major storm that happened around the country and they asked her to come to washington. so, zen, how did you arrive at food activism? >> well, i got involved because i love my kids and like millions of moms across america today, they had food allergies. and still have food allergies. and dairy, wheat, gluten, nuts and even karen genen.

the dairy wheat gluten and nuts allergies, i had about those. the karen genen, it's like a karen what-in? it's a seaweed food thickener that is in everything that kids like. when i found out about this that karen genen can cause stomach ulcers and cancer, i realized that what we don't see is extremely important as well. because the inflammation on the outside is actually a warning light for what's going on in the inside. so i started to research about food. i watched food ink. that was the first movie i watched about food. i watched robin o'brien on ted talk and found out that gmos are foreign proteins. i got involved. with prop 37. we went gmo free as possible. within four months, my son's allergies, a red line around his

mouth that swelled up for weeks, within four months it was almost completely gone. and so when i saw my children's health improve, i got very active in prop 37. and thanks to pam larry. when prop 37, it was election night and i was sitting in the back of the room, much like this room, and the leader up at the front of room, she had done landmark, which is personal training and development and leadership and all that. she had done it and i had done it. why is she up there as the leader and i'm back here? you know, what had my role been in this campaign and this cause? and i realized that i had been just conveniently, you know, involved. i was helping out. and i asked myself, what if i took on -- i'm the one to transform the food industry. not me by myself, but my actions, myself, i'm taking it on. and i knew in that moment that the results would be completely different than being somebody who helps out. so i asked myself, how can i let as many people know about gmos

in the short amount of time as possible. and i came up with the idea of fourth of july parades because not many moms are going to go to washington and march on the national mall but we will go tour local fourth of july parades the permits the port potties are set up, they're waiting for you and the media cannot ignore you, lot of them are televised. we will bring your kids and hold a big banner that says moms across america. what is a gmo and why are these moms marching about it. a mom's only special interest the the well being of her children. and so that's why i believe moms are so important and why i got involved in this. we have done lots of other things too that we'll talk about later. >> beautiful. thank you, zen. our third panelist today is judy shields. she's the founder and executive founder of moms turning green. the two of you did something

amazing years ago about 12 years ago now i think and it has started a real revolution in so many ways. can you tell us how you came to food? >> yeah. i actually all of my life changed when my daughter was born and i read a book called diet for a poisoned planet by a gentleman named david stineman. and in a day, my entire kitchen went from conventional to organic and i never looked back. and i realized that the child that i was carrying in me needed to come into a clean world. and she grew up and some years later i realized that i needed to do for her and for her peer group everything i could possibly do to sustain the world. so we started together something called teens turning green, which is really much more now college turning green and so many of our students are here with me tonight. but basically our whole goal is literally to march around to college campuses to advocate on college campuses to work with some of the most extraordinary young people on earth to really

affect change. and my role and my daughter's role in that is to be mentors and to identify the issues that are the largest issues in front of them and teach them how to fight the fight. i think we take on every fight there is. food this year has become a huge one for us. there's a lot of food justice initiatives on most college campuses. lot of food policy committees, as there should be. the food that is being fed to our children from the time they're in preschool through college is some of the most horrific food there is. i think we all know that. filled with everything that we're hearing about. and so this particular year i decided that i was going to do something about food. and for many years i've been standing up and talking about you can absolutely change the food in your school. you can absolutely change the food in your life and in your refrigerator, but the school piece i never saw happen. and so i decided that we were going to focus on a school in our community, very underserved. and that we were going to set criteria that wouldn't waiver.

fresh, local, organic, seasonal non-gmo and zero waste. everybody looked at me, you're out of your mind, this can't happen. and i shot off an e-mail to the superintendent at the time and i said, i want to change your food program. can i? and the response back was, absolutely. and it was at that moment i thought, who am i to change the food system? probably an epiphany much like you had. i didn't really know what i was doing. i partnered with a local chef that had a lot of buying power and was pretty well known and he helped up a lot of doors with per va yors and farmers. and we started. we had a chef start the day the lunch program started and basically we've done this for a year now. and we see healthy kids and we see kids that care about the land and we see kids that are learning about the garden and we're starting a farm on their campus. but, i think it sort of goes back to each one of us had a passion and we each realized

that we had a purpose and that our voices were just as powerful as anybody else's and why not? and i think for my daughter and i, our moto is dream and do and we teach that to every single student we work with. i think if you know that you can dream and realistically do something to change the world, you don't have a choice. >> thank you. >> so, deborah, you've had an enormous right out of the box with symphony of the soil. so premiered at the smithsonian, new york times, critic pick, you're in universities, education programs. can you talk about the state of our soil? what's going -- what is -- what did you learn from this film or what did you bring through in the film? what's happening with soil? and then if you could also talk about the world congress of soil where you just spoke last week? >> right. one of the really interesting things i learned. i was telling people i was going to make a film on soil and

interviews before i spoke before i knew anything about soil so i had to learn about it. one of the things i learned is that the united states is really gifted with a very high percentage of really good soil. the two most fertile soils. we have 43% of our soils are excellent soils. so that's why we are the country we are because we have these resources. what we would do in america is we would use up the soil and move west. use it up and move west because there was always so much. we could always -- there was always more. so it's actually shaped our character. because we don't like limits. and when people say to americans, you have to accept limits, they're like that's un-american to accept limits because, in fact, our soil and our resources were unlimited. now f we keep farming the way we are, we'll be out of topsoil in 30 years. so we're poisoning our soil. the whole agricultural system is very destructive to soil. the leaf falls from the tree, the micro or began nichls break

it down. so there's a cycle in nature that has to do with giving back to the soil. you have to feed the soil. industrial agriculture just takes and takes and takes and doesn't give back. the soil just becomes more and more depleted. they have to use more chemicals, more fertilizer and it's a very unhealthy system that actually depletes the soil and creates -- it can kill the soil and it can deform it. organic agriculture, sustainable agriculture gives back. and i think that our society -- we've mirrored this. society now -- people just -- lot of people just take and take and take. they don't have to give back. you know? and i think that we need to change this whole system in america to make -- to actually bring out this other quality that we have which is this is a really difficult challenge and we have to be really smart and really courageous to face it because we might not be able to

do it. and then americans go, we can do it. you know? so i think we need to shift this idea of what it is to be american. you know to be patriotic. doesn't mean we can do whatever the hell we want. that means let's do the right thing for the right reasons. this soil film is a really wonderful film and we're going to sell it afterwards. i'm in business. but i've shown it's now being sold at whole foods. i've shown it at farming festivals. we've sold 30 copies just to schools in iowa in the past several months and these -- they show it -- the belly of the beast. and they're showing it to farmers and the nrcs, the natural resources con ver investigation service, soil scientists of our government, part of the department of agriculture, they've bought copies if their centers around the country to show farmers to help them do things like even small steps like cover crops, simple cover crops. turn those back into the soil, returns nutrients and nitrogen to the soil so you don't have to

use as much synthetic nitrogen if any. last week -- i'm happy about that. i love making films. i'm also very passionate about that -- we change things. i think a lot of people have with health is because we're not growing food in the right way. and even if it's -- without the toxins, we're not returning nutrients to the soil so a lot of our fool isn't nutrient dense, it's just junk. so i was in korea a couple weeks ago showing the film at the world congress of soil science where -- every four years they have this. it's the big thing for the planet. 2,400 soil scientists who are all really cute in their plaid shirts were there. and so i was there. the film was shown as the cultural centerpiece of the conference -- of the congress which was really an honor. so what made me feel really good

because film is collaborative and you can brag about it. i was putting up a poster outside the big auditorium where it was showing and the morning before it was showing. i'm putting up the poster and this woman walks by and she says, are you deborah? in this accent. i said, well, yes. she said, i'm deborah too. i'm from brazil. and i use your film in our classes. and it's great. i said, oh, thank you so much. and just as we were talking, i said that's great. i'm really honored. this other woman came by who was german and i said, are you deborah and she said yes. i'm from germany and i use your film in classes. and she named all these soil scientists. we all use it. and i'm like, right on. so -- and it's being shown at whole foods. it's kind of like the next level. and my philosophy is smarten up. don't dumb down. smarten up. give people information in a way they can take it in and understand it and they feel empowered and they get it and

then they think, yeah, i get that. therefore, i'm going to eat organic. or i'm not going to put roundup in my garden. or i'm going to show this film at thanksgiving dinner next year so we can all be on the same page and understand it because soil science is cutting edge. if we change the way we do agriculture, not only is it healthy for our bodies and for our planet, we can put a whole lot of carbon back in the soil and it's going to help with globe warming. there's all kinds of reasons to move away from being soil blind to soil conscious and it's we are creatures of the soil. and we should treat the soil as if it's part of us, which, in fact, it is. >> beautiful. thank you. >> so, speaking to soil, zen, perfect segue to you because one of the things that you and moms all across this country who are -- have educated themselves and know what's going on, they see it in their families and in

their children, the number one thing or one of the number one things really hurting our soil is chemicals and what's going into the soil. so, you are specifically around anti-gmo and what that means. could you talk about the passion that you have around that and the moms all around the country that are here with you on this? >> sure. first of all, i'll clarify that gmos are genetically engineered to with stand pesticides. it's either is a pesticide the pesticide is inside of the food itself or it's genetically engineered to with stand pesticides. so last year alone there's a 73% increase in roundup, which is the number one herbicide used in the world. and the active chemical ingredient in roundup is glief sate. talk about taking, taking, taking it actually takes from the soil. sit a key later, meaning it draws out or holds and makes unavailable the vital nutrients

of any living thing it touches. it is indiscriminate. so therefore causing vitamin deficiency, mineral deficiency and any living thing it touches. dr. huber, plant pathologist of 50 years says it gives the plant aids. it kills its immune system. therefore the normally harmless bacteria in the soil kills the weed. so what is it doing to our children? right? is our question. and glief sate is being used to the tune of 132 million pounds a year in the united states. 500 million pounds around the world. it is just been explosive in its use. in fact, they don't just use it on the soil before the crop is planted and they don't just use it on gmos they spray it as a drying agent on our rice, our wheat, our sugar, our dried peas, our dry beans, it's on your gar bonn sow beans in our hum mus. it's on your tea. the level thatsry awe lod by the

epa are far above what has been shown to destroy gut bacteria in chickens. it's a tenth of a part per million which destroyed gut back tear yas in chicken. scientifically proven. the epa allows three parts per millen on sweet potatoes. five parts for mel on regular potatoes. 40 parts on the ka know la oils they cook with in the restaurants. 400 parts per mill on the grains that the animals eat that we consume. so the soil is getting enone dated with this chemical that's sprayed on gmos, as a drying agent and we are extremely concerned about the health risk to our children. what we're seeing across the board is one out of two of our children now have some form of chronic illness and all kinds of health issues. >> well, that actually goes to the point of a very highly respected researcher at m.i.t., stephanie senef who just recently came out with some very alarming statistics and she

said, quote, at today's rate, by 2025, 1 in 2 children will be autistic. and she's able to absolutely map gliofoe sate use and autism and she has a chart that shows exactly one on one exactly the use of that. so -- >> it's not just scientists. we are seeing -- we have testimonials from hundreds of moms -- moms across america, we launched last february. within four months we had a reach on facebook of over 300,000 a week. we have thousands of people that come to our website. we have hundreds of testimonials about how their kids get better when they get off gmos. for instance, cindy from rhode island found out about gmoss when he was 11. went organic. within two weeks her father that would come to visit often, do you have him on a new drug and she said no, we just went organic. this fall, two years later, he entered high school and not one of his teachers could tell that

he was ever severely autistic. not one. and we have mothers with their children with as ma, with autism, with allergies, with auto immune issues, all kinds of health issues across the board, one mom the stigmatism in his eye went away. he no longer needs glasses. the doctor said must be because there was some form of inflammation. it was gmos and guy foe sates. she knows. we moms know that this is the issue what's happening with our children. >> thank you. >> judy, please talk about what you're doing in the schools because you now are -- you have so much reach around universities and schools but now you're doing something different and you had said that this feels like the most important work of your life right now and what you're engaged in. can you talk about that and why you think that's so? >> just sitting here and thinking about you more lets me know why we're doing.

moms can take care of their children when they're home. but they're in school a big chunk of their lives. 16 years at least. and they're being fed gmo food. they're being fed the worst food they can be fed and everybody thinks that's okay. part of what we're trying to do is mobilize food policy committees on these campuses, encourage kids to fight the fight. one of the things we just created was a non-gmo pantry. the goal of that is to show chefs on campuses and chefs in restaurants the differences they could make just by eliminating corn, soil, ka know la and transitions it to what it needs to be, non-gmo. they're probably eliminating 90% of the impacts that we're having. but i think that part of what we all have to do as responsible citizens and i think especially moms is we have to fight the fight in our schools. and we can't keep hearing that we can't afford to do this and this doesn't work because we're killing our kids at the same time. we're killing off the next

generation. we're impairing their ability to be able to have children. and i think that if each of us is responsible citizens really works in the spheres that we can, whether it's in our local schools, our local community, stopping roundup being sprayed in the common areas in our parks and every place else, then we're reducing the impacts that our kids are feeling. for us and for me personally, if we change the way we're feeding our children and we did it this year in one little school for 150 kids, but the most underserved kids in our population, the kids that are eating the worst food three meals a day, so i personally wanted to start there because we can make a difference and in all of our communities, there are populations that look like that. and what's our responsibility as citizens in these communities to take care of these kids? and i think, you know, it's been interesting because our whole career as teens turning green we typically work with wealthier white people and everybody is always saying, why aren't you working with the underserved

populations and my response as always been, we're all underserved when it comes to these issues. nobody is taking care of. there's some of us that are worse off than others, but i feel like the opportunity to know that you can effect change and now my opportunity to stand in front of people and say you can do this at your schools, you can do it within budget, you can do it within the usda guidelines, you can do it at public schools, you don't have to be going to a private school is a really important next step for all of us because we can now go back to all of the superintendents and leaders of school districts and say, you know, stop. and i think the more of this kind of information, you know, deborah is talking about soil that's the most vital piece of our lives and talking about roundup and the exposures and the autism rates, like who is going to take care of all these kids with autism? who is going to school them? and eventually, you know, the externalities, what we're paying at the end of the day, we might not be spending the money now, but we're going to so spend it

later and it's getting worse. i think for me, food is the core issue and the seminal issue of our lives and we all owe it back. and that's what i try to do everyday. >> i want to add to how important this is because there's actually 31 million gmo meals that are served each day in our schools. so what judy is doing is just crucial to the entire -- just to the integrity of our entire culture. and the survival of our entire culture, so we're going to be promoting, you know the whole entire process with moms across america to our moms all across the country. we've had 246 leaders in 44 states, so we want to get that out in the fall in our back to school campaign. you know, it's just crucial that they are empowered in our hometowns, all of us are empowered in our hometowns to do things like what you're doing, judy, and toic ma it happen and make it real. >> thank you. >> and we can. >> and i have this dream of a map with red dots for every single school that's gone gmo

free. ours is our first. this little bay side academy. i know within the year we're going to start seeing dots all over this map and i think if we can see it and it's tangible and if one of us does it and makes the next person brave and courageous, it's going -- there's going to be a ripple effect and the world will change. >> yes. >> moms. >> and i was going to say, let's take on moms here for a second because i'm involved with a mom's determined project and i am just astounded at the moms and their power. and so, i've had people say, talking about how we're represented in the press, in the media. first, we're women but then you're just a mom. like, what does she know, she's just a mom. and i've been meeting with moms who are the mothers of autistic children who go to bed at night with a medical text and can speak to mitochondrial disorder in a heart beat unlike anybody's

business. so this thing that the media, the portrayal of just moms or just women and we have -- we run 85% of the spending of the home is spent by the woman. so, can we talk about moms and their power and how -- and women and their power and how are we gaining it? are we at a standstill? are there things blocking us? what about this? any of you. >> there's a huge movement i see of moms right now. and i just want to say, historically as well moms have been the ones to determine the longevity of the human race. now, that may be a bold statement, but i say this because fathers provided. they protected and they would provide for the tribe or the community. but mothers were the ones that decided what the tribe and the community ate. and if they did not trust their instincts, if they fed the tribe rotten meat or poison or questionable berries, then their entire lineage would parish.

so mothers have been able to trust their instincts up until about 20 years ago, which is when they introduced pesticides into the food and gmos into the food without labelling it. mothers have not known. and therefore, this attributes to the decline of the american health in our population. we are now 17th on the list, the bottom of 17th topmost developed countries. we have, you know, rates across the board as we said, 1 out of 2 of our children have some form of chronic illness. our babies are dying at astronomical rates. i'm very sorry to say this. we are number one in the world, the usa, for infant death on day one. we have 50% more babies that die on day one than 50% of the industrialized world combined. so mothers are noticing -- we have so many friends with miscarriages, with birth defects, with this happening in the world and we are standing up and we are saying something about it. and i believe that the world is

starting to take notice. and we're not going to stop because the love for our children will never end. >> and two weeks ago you just had -- how many thousands of women call the epa? >> right. so what we did was we were fed up with this guy foe sate issue possibly affecting our kids and we asked doctors to test and they didn't have any testing. but i got after them and eventually we found one lab that would do the first gliofoe sate testing. we asked our mom friends to send in their urine, their water and they breast milk. and we found it in breast milk at levels 760 to 1,600 times higher that which is allowed in the drinking water in europe. astronomical levels. and these are higher than the levels that were shown to destroy gut bacteria in chickens and a chicken is about the same size as an infant. soek, so this is not okay with us. we sent the report to the epa. they did not get back to us for a month. so we did a five-day call the

epa campaign to recall roundup. because when a product doesn't do what it says it's going to do they said it would not accumulate in the body, it would pass harmlessly in the urine, regardless of the toxicity issue. it is seemingly accumulating in breast milk, right, so it should be recalled. the epa did not respond. we did the five day campaign. by wednesday, they said can you please stop. 10,000 women have called. and by friday, they said, please, we've got to do our job. i said, well your job is to recall roundup. we would prefer to meet with principals in d.c. they made some promises but it's -- they're not following through so we're going to go back next week and we're going to stand outside the epa, meet with whoever they can on their way in and offer them free gliofoe sate testing. and we're going to continue to demand to recall roundup. >> dr. warren porter who

researches pesticides and the effect on people is -- he says that one of the things that gliofoe sate does is it basically ties your hand behind your back so the other chemicals that pesticides that are in your food become more and more powerful. so there's a really nasty synergy going on between roundup and all these other chemicals that are in the soil. and roundup, there was a certain level of roundup they allowed on food and because of gmos which is basically genetically engineer something so it can be poisoned and not die. kills everything green. so it kills everything but the thing that's genetically engineered to with stand poison. they had to up the amount of that they would allow on -- in -- on plants because they were spraying so much roundup that they were exceeding the original standards. >> that does not wash off. >> it's just a racket.

>> it didn't cook off either. >> the reason why the first genetically engineered product was roundup because roundup was going off pat tent. they had to figure out a way to continue their monopoly on roundup, which was very popular because it was supposed to be so harmless, which wasn't obviously wasn't true. so they decided to have some -- create seeds that were -- that they would -- you would have by contract have to use roundup on these seeds so that it makes it easy to weed so you can weed 1,000 acres one person on a tractor can swede. so they did it specifically to extend -- be able to manipulate and make people continuing to buy specifically roundup rather than just the generic brand. >> yeah. and by the way, it's patented as an antibiotic with the uspto. so antibiotic. it is a known antibiotic.

it destroyed gut bacteria. so that means it causes birth defects, miscarriages, infertility. so there is many things that a lot of people don't know. >> i'm sitting here watching the faces of the young women they live with and work with every day and i'm thinking about, you know, this is the next face of young women. we're not talking about little children, we're talking about young women that will be giving birth at some point in the not so distant future, and who knows what that will look like. we're talking about students that want to make different choices but in their schools it's not happening. between moms and the armies of students on campuses all over the country, we have to be so loud. >> and this is interesting too, debra, i wanted to talk to you about being a filmmaker and what

that means. today so many people have access to equipment, digital everything to be able to make films. so are we diluting our power through film? are we gaining our power through film? how is that today? >> well, film is obviously a very powerful medium. because of technology now, film making has become like writing was a couple hundred years ago. everybody could write but not everyone could make a living as a professional writer. i have been making films for a lot of years. i love the craft of film. my films are highly crafted and beautiful and i see it as an emotional medium. they're informational but they impact people emotionally so it tran transforms them so they want to make changes. there are so films that are so simple, just press the button

but what they're filming is so powerful they move people. i love the challenge of taking soil, which is dark and inert, and light and movement in a film that people like seeing. i think film is a powerful medium. i also think i'm an older generation person, so i like getting information by reading it. i don't necessarily want to watch an video interview, i would rather skim through it myself. i also like long form documentaries because you can go deeply into things, but i know now there's a lot of short things on you tube. i didn't even take them seriously and someone asked me to make a short film for their nonprofit big night, and so i made it and i was like short films? yeah, ten minutes, 12 minutes, yeah i can do that. it's a very powerful medium that

affects people in different ways. the great thing is if you have an audience that wants information you can get it to them so immediately now it's like magic and they can just get it right on their computer and watch it. i know that my work, one of the things i like is the community screenings that people do. they pay a fee, and they show the film, and they bring their community together and so they can all discover this information together, and they meet each other, they network, they have food afterwards or before, and so making a film is a way, and having the film seen rather than just on the internet is a way to bring people together so they know who else is interested in these issues. they can make alliances and get all head up about things and start changing things. i think there is a lot of ways that films can be useful and there is a lot of kinds of films and i think everyone that makes a film should get an award.

it's challenging to make something that people will sit through. >> good luck, girls. >> let's talk to that point about education. how you all are educating women, moms, families, communities, all of you. >> the first thing that i suggest is to have a movie night. if you have just ten moms there, if they share with only five moms with which they won't, but say they share with five moms and they share with fei and those five share with five, i figured out if they just switch to organic food, that's $13 million of food, local organic food in your community. one movie night can make a huge difference and that is a wonderful way to take on -- some movies i want to plug are "g "gmo omg."

"unacceptable levels." that is fantastic, and there is a new movie coming out called "a new resistance" that is about round up. >> so i have been watching the past few days, we have 26 interns working with us this summer and we're changing the world. and to watch them use the mediums they're using, whether it is social, we put out 100 days to an event we have coming up, one of the kids make a stop action animation in a few hours. so i'm watching the power of youth and the power and opportunity they have to not only change the world, but to change the minds of everybody they live with on a daily basis. talk to their friends and families and have that ripple impact again go far fast. i think the opportunity to educate now is so quick. these guys can say whatever they want to whomever they want like

that. we'll have a project like that and ten minutes later it's done and out the door. it's rippling out the door. all of our collective opportunities we need to tell the stories, to engage the people, perfect example, 10,000 moms say stop, show up, we'll talk to you. we have to use every tool and arsenal we have and the world will look a lot different. >> and one of the campaign managers from washington state said that 60% of the people still don't use facebook regularly. we need to get out in person. we need to be connecting locally. so that's one reason why we're promoting the parades. when you get in a fourth of july parade, three people deep for three miles is 49,000 people. person to person, mom to mom, right? you're handing them a flier that says everything about gmos, and you can get them for free on

mom's across america right now. you will alter their life when you give a mom a flier about gmos and their child has autism. you will altar their life if their parents have alzheimer's. we like to encourage you to be the one. be the weird one that brings organic food to the picnic. be the one that brings integrity to the table. the one that speaks truth and brings truth to the conversation. be the light in this foot fight. thank you, i would like to remind our audience at home this is the commonwealth club. our program tonight is "food fights for the 21st century." we are going to turn it over to audience questions now.

if you are here, if you would not going around the back and coming up the hall way so we don't have you on camera. i'm going to ask the first question. you had a fairly famous husband who is an important part of your life as well. what did jerry think about organic foods and eating right? >> well, yeah. when i first met him 40 years ago, they were not really into organic food, but i was so i was pushing, a health fanatic and stuff. but it's very hard to eat well back then, especially if you were a vegetarian or trying to eat healthy food. by the '90s, things got a lot better. when you're a rock star you can do whatever you want, so a private chef travelled with the band, and we got the food they

wanted, and the hotels had a healthy menu, but i'll say it again. jerry with his eating was like a lot of aspects, when he was good he was very good, and when he was bad, he was horrid. he should have been good more often and he would still be here. it is very hard when you're working a lot and there is a lot of demands on you. it's much easier now to be able to find organic healthy food. people are demanding it and you can find it in these places. in the organic health food stores the apples looked ten years old. whole foods, thank god for whole foods. you can go there and choose what you want and if you eat in season, and you eat simply, you can -- it's not that much more expensive. so yeah, that's -- we had the best food in the world in the

bay area. so it was always great being at home because we can eat -- grow stuff in our gardens year round. not everybody has that ability, but we do, so we need to celebrate it and i think support it as we all do which is why people look to us here to see what's going to be happening. >> we spend a chunk of time doing a conscious college road tour and we go to cities, states, and towns. i live by whole foods, and there are not green grocers, and we found the proliferation of farm to table restaurants. chefs are changing their world because of what they put on the menu. because they're buying from farms and demanding organic farms are transitioning from conventional to organic. the more of this we see, the

more we can tell that change is happening and coming. >> we interviewed a restaurant owner in dallas that said he switched over to 98% nongmo food. one year later his sales increased $10,000 a week. because of the longevity of the oils, people want healthy, clean, pesticide free nongmo food and we will pay for it. when you get autism or cancer, you're spending $1,000 to $10,000 a month more. that's what it will cost you or our society as a whole. diabetic. by the way, they can stop the ability of the o body to create -- we will not have any money left for anything left except for diabetes. so this is a crisis.

a health crisis that needs to be attended to now. the more of us that buy organic the cheap ter will become, the more plentiful it will become, and the people that can afford it, at least the gmos will not be in the food any more, the pesticides will not be in the food any more. that's where we're going for. >> i have two questions. one is, is anybody -- any of you ladies, anyone working the church circle? you could reach a lot of people through churches. >> especially the future of food was shown a lot by evangelical christian churches, they would get the screening rights and show it because they thought it was a bad idea. the previous pope called it an abomination. right on! so i agree with you, i have had

my films shown at some churches and i think it is important because it has to do with respect for life. >> i'm not big on that, but i think that is an excellent avenue for you. the other question is do you realize that america's economy is based on killing people slowly? and that's what you're fighting? >> thank you. >> i guess what he means by that is that when our people get sick, it is by the chemical companies who not only make the chemicals, but the pharmaceuticals to make us feel better. there is a perfect profit circle. this is many chemical companies that make chemicals and the pharmaceuticals to make us feel better. that's not a profit circle that we want to support. >> i want to start by saying

nutrition is the upstream medicine. christie, debra, jen, judy, thank you so much for this wonderful program. [ applause ] >> when i sit in the audience you bring tears to my eyes. thank you, tell us as an audience what are some of the things that we can be doing to be activists in our own local community? >> number one, if you don't mind if i go first, number one you can march in your parades, right? that is just around the corner. you can have movie night, number three we have things like we were given speeds, and we put on the back stop spraying round up, it's killing our bees.

we have seed packets and you can go around and say here is a free gift of you. please stop spaying round up and people start to think about it. when you have a one on one conversation, and i really mean that, every single person's voice, every person's vote, every person's phone call, you know bigger than monsanto, we're up against the resignation and doubt of the american people. too many of us think that we don't matter, that we don't count, that our phone call won't make a difference, our letter won't make a difference and it's not true. all you need to do -- i had a cultured food party. if you go to cultured food life.com. it heals your gut. have your friends over, make some cultured food, it's fun, it really is. >> you might have some ideas. >> i think that you need to pick

a passion. you need to really figure out what matters to you in your community and find out what's going on around it. earlier, we mentioned a woman by the name of pam laurie. she was about 67 when the prop 37 buzz started to happen. she drove her car around to every county in california and mobilized the team that fought to get it passed every county in california. and she was one woman. she never did anything about this in her life but she cared that much. i think if we look at the communities, if we look at the kids, get involved in your kids school and change the way they're being fed. start a community garden. think about what you care about and then find your avenue for making the change in your communities. it's taking us -- our feds could care less. they're not fighting the fight for us but our communities are. they're close to home, they know you, their kids go to school with your kids.

i think if we each take something on, i think everyone sitting at this table, and many of you in the audience, are one person that fought the fight that we believed was worth fighting. i think for me that's the best answer. >> i think that, i know with my films, i try to, by the end of the film, people say i want to -- i won't use round up, or with the future of food, it was the first about genetic engineering, and then my best friend saw that and she said we need a farmers market here. we started a farmers market. now it's amazing, a big success. they close down the square. they have bands there. all of these people are growing organically, she saw the film and said i want that too. i think when you try to say to

people who are not from where we are, really think about the consequences of your food choices. if you buy this, or eat this rather than that, what are the consequences of it? you know, this, pesticide laiden, comes from god knows where. supports god knows what, this, local, organic, healthy, yummy, feels good, helping farmers. so when people become conscious of it and realize that the smallest thing they do, even deciding where they will have lunch, or what kind of milk to buy, that ripples through the system. people are going organic because that's what people want and what they're choosing and it drives the industry crazy. no one is buying their propaganda anymore. we should get these things bands and all of that stuff, but you can't wait for them to do it.

we just have to do it and they will follow. just do it and they will say whoa, i guess we have to go this way. even people that are not aware that may eat junky food, just to say why don't you try eating another way for awhile and see how you feel, see if you feel better. just try it. then they can feel good about themselves. they want to do more, it goes on and on and they become activist, fanatics, activists and take it on. >> it's perfect because it is about that -- pick that thing, pick that thing that is so important to you that has to deal with food. for me, i'm working on a project called the mom's determined project. we have a film, mom's determined, and i interview 25 mothers of autistic children. and for three days we were locked in these rooms and it was the most amazing experience. when people see the teaser and they ask me clearly you must

have an autistic child, i say no. clearly there is autism in your family, i say no. my personal journey started unlocking these canaries in the coal mine, screaming with illness that comes from toxic foods and chemicals. i was so moved that story had to be told. my own personal journey led me to open my eyes to what was happening there. that was very powerful for me and these moms say to me "you don't have any connection to e autism and you're involved here"? these voices will be heard, they're powerful and they're teaching people, and educating, and conferences like autism one. they're happening everywhere. people looking at long term

chronic illness are looking at autism for answer. alzheimer's, looking a autism for answers. it's all connected. that was the most powerful thing. for me it was taking on something that is not me or not in my world that is not affecting me but the impact of it is enormous. >> this is a follow up to both of the last to questioners and i like the idea of reaching out to churches and faith based people. i admire you all for everything you're doing. the fact is we lost prop 37. and we lost 522 in washington more recently. how do we get that critical mass to get more people as part of this who understand this message? we're up against millions and millions of dollars from monsanto and the grocery manufacturers leading the charge to file a suit against vermont.

we might start with every grocery start members of the grocery manufacturers. remember this group, we're not shopping here because we're losing. how do we start that? >> one of the things about gmos because i have been dealing with this for maybe 15 years now. we need gmos to feed the world. that's what they say and all of the lip rals say we need to feed the world. i want to feed the world so i want gmos. case closed, they don't have to think about it anymore. the labelling will increase -- they say labelling will increase across the food which is nonsense. the other thing is, i think we should label it because it will save the world and feed the world and the people who believe you can seek those out and eat them. so what are you afraid of. we know what they're afraid of. once we know who is eating it

and who is not, the people eating it have more illness and then we can start tracing it. they don't want these -- they don't want it to be traced. that's the problem. but i think, if you just have to -- we have to keep at it, keep at it, and be more forceful in busting these things. especially these liberal sacred cows who think that if you don't want it you're an elitist snob. and you say no, let's look at what's going on here and we need to stop subsidizing corn. we need to stop subsidizing food that makes us sick. we need to start subsidizing the kind of programs in the schools. i think we need today be more pointed with people and not let them get that upper hand of

putting the guilt trip on us. they are the guilty ones. they're the ones doing harm and they need to be held to account. i think the tide is turning and we have to keep at it because they're scared. there is a very influential person that i will not say his day, but when he started working in the organic food arena, he said that were so confident. and now they're worried. i think they're getting pressure from every possible side. >> and they said that monsanto, the biotech industries that a mom problem. they say their kids are better when they're off gmo food. that's part of the issue. we're not giving up, and to the answer of the gentleman's

question, california is not giving up. we have sb 1040 right now. we need you to call your senators and representative the today, they're voting on it on thursday. we're not giving up, we're going toward. we have a legislative initiative. there is 27 states not giving up. this is not going away. 92% of the feel feel that gmos should be labelled. >> if you look back historically, there is a lot of fights fought long and hard. we have a lot of younger people now that are able to help fight these fights on their smart phones and really get the word out and they're all of voting age, and i think for us, part of the reason we aim all of our efforts at college campuses is they're the next global leaders. they can support things that we

need to change our world. >> as we know the great thing about food is we can do something about it. you can eat this food rather than that food. some of the problems like energy or nuclear, it's like what can we do about that? we can do something about food. that's why i think it's such a popular movement. once you know the right thing to do you can't not know. you can't go back. once you understand that organic and healthy food is the way you can't pretend it doesn't matter. that's not what happens. people don't go the other way. they get more and more insistent on what they want. >> next question? >> i had a question about organic. basically i was thinking that with the revolving doors and the fda and monsanto, i feel like it's becoming more watered down, how do we prevent them from, how they just amount they allow on

the plapts, what will stop them from allowing more harsh chemicals in the plants that we're involving. >> the national standards board. they decide what will be in organic foods or not, and they have been allowing more and more things historically. and just other types of things. organic food is not genetically modified and it is not toxic chemicals. our involvement in this cause will make the difference. the calls to the national organic standard board. you can show up and say whatever you want. you can show up your school board, you have three minutes and they have to let you talk.

you can show up the city councils and say i want organic food in my hospitals, schools, and care centers. it takes people saying these are the standards that we want for organic food and it must be protected. >> there is organic consumer association, i know you work with them, center for food safety is another one. i get their e-mails every day. if there is an issue coming up about weakening the organic standards, i always sign those petitions. it is something. and then i know what's going on and they have representatives that go. i think in the last meeting she was arrested because she was protesting something. >> yes. she was arrested, alexis, get out there. i think it is really good to support these organizations that are working on this full time.

that's really what it comes down to. they really, we need to use courts, public pressure, and supporting places like whole foods, or the good earth, we need teeth, organic has teeth now because it's big money. so i'm for that. i want them to have teeth. and i'm going to support those organizations saying you're not doing that. so i think it is individuals and it's great to align ourselves with organizations that have some chops they can bring to the table. >> unfortunately we have only time for one more question. i would like to tell everyone listening at home this is the commonweal commonwealth commerce of california. our panelists are here with us.

and i'm going to turn it over to our last question for the evening. >> thank you. thank you ladies for all of your activism for all of us. the question i have you pertains to coexistence. oregon is trying to map out where all of the fields are, but the industry is pushing back and they're saying they want coexistence. >> of course not. it's absurd, you can't have coexistence. the gmo pollen or the seeds will float across. i have something i'm very proud of, i was able to question tom vilsack at a conference i was at a couple years ago, i said you allowed gmo alphafa.

he says we all have to get along, we -- i have two sons, and i love them both equally, which is organic and industrial. >> i said with all due respect, one of your sons is a bully, and he said we can all, you know, we can get along and live together, we just need to work it out. >> i said gmos can contaminate organic but organic can't contaminate gmos. but i know a person that i met with from a seed company that met with mon tanto like 156 years ago. they were promoting coexistence. they say there is no such thing, you will control your way into contaminating every field, and the guy smiled and said i know. he told me that story and it was totally private, not recorded,

and i just thought oh, man. that is their strategy, promote this false ideal of coexistence that anyone but a moron would know is unnatural and impossible to do, and gradually have gmo creep, and then it's game over. very dangerous. coexistence, that whole idea should be completely busted. do you understand how plants grow, how seeds are. really, literally, only a stupid person would believe that. maybe i don't know how it works or i would -- no. >> animals eat the seed, and they very easily deposit it somewhere in fertilizer enter else. there is no way you can coexist. >> and it blows. >> yeah, so in addition to that, dr. lauren payne had a homeland

security man visit him after 9/11 talking about food safety. you can see this video on our website. he said gmo crops, these are the most dangerous things of all. he was confuse p. >> and he said when a plague or a pest hits a mono crop, it wipes the whole thing out, and he said can i quote you on this why do we have this in the united states? he said we need to have our enemies so we can control the food supply. >> he said why do we need to have it and he said we need to prove it's safe. >> those countries don't want it. >> no, they're clueing in, china buys 50% of the gmo soy and corn. they don't have it in their food supply, just as oils and they just feed it to their animals, but they're wising up to this and they're starting to cancel

shipments. they know it contaminates. thank you. well thank you very much. on closing tonight, i would like to ask for your twitter comment, if we were going to tweet right now, what it, just in a short sentence or few sentences what you really want to leave an entire world audience with tonight that is most important for you to get across. what is the most important thing you need to leave here tonight? >> i would say, because i turned into a soil freak, i would say healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy people, healthy planet. that's it. >> i would say that -- sorry i'm losing my one thought. it's that we can make -- every

single one of us can make a difference. you pick one thing, start with just one thing, somewhere, and just start. just start. you don't have to know how to do it, just do it and make a difference. >> i would follow that i would just say dream it, envision it, and do it. >> thank you. >> so i would like to ask our m moderator for your closing remarks as well. >> find a mom who is a neighbor, your mom, you're going to be a mom, find that mom and help her, educator, and let her help you. find that mom, these moms are absolutely taking it on. and so find those moms because they're nourishing all of us. and mom, in the greater sense of the world, right? planet, the earth, mom, whatever

mom is for you today, find that mom and help her. i would like to thank all of our panelists here. our program was "food fights for the 21st century." women making a change. i'm kevin o'malley, thank you for being here tonight. with this i would like to close this program of the commonwealth club of california celebrating over 125 years of enlightened public discussion. [ cheers and applause ] the 2014 coverage recently

included the race for north carolina's second district. here is a look at the candidates in their first debate. we never ended the war on terror. this is just an extension of it. >> can you end it? >> that's the question. we're talking about radical islam. we're talking about those that believe this is the plan for the future. it has been in place since, you know, the beginning. we have to make sure that we're doing everything we can to keep our allies safe, working with our allies, working with those countries to make sure that we have a presence there. when we leave, when we draw down, when we say we're victorious in a land that we are not, that's when these groups emerge. and we have to end that.

to the point of the president, yes, we will be doing everything in we can to support the president on this issue but he has to stop telling our enmys what we will do and what we will not do. it is just simply not a plan for strategy. >> there is several things that concern me. first, a few weeks ago she said she is not in support of sending ground troops to the region, and just a few days ago, speaker of the house john bayer in changed course and said he believes it was important, now we hear the congresswoman saying she would. the men and women in our military should be protecting the united states and our soil. to hear her change her tune because the party leader changed his tune that is concerning. she went on the record saying that john boehner is her boss

and she does not want to upset her boss. but the people of the second district should be her boss. i am not going to change my tune. i said that i don't believe we need to sen them into another land where there is a threat. when we have seen that it is not a credible threat, we'll reconsider it, but simply going in and sending our men and women into harm's way because of the party leader telling us, this is not a viable region. >> can we depend on our arab allies? >> john boehner be the speaker of the house, but the people of

district two are my boss, that's why we're here i'm reapplying for this job. what i want to clarify and this is one of the things that maybe as an entertainer you're not aware of. these things are fluid. when the president asked for support he asked for it in a certain way and we gave him that support. i think there was much debate and consider that there was not enough done. we voted, we came together to support the president on this initiative. i do believe that there will be much more than we need to do. >> our coverage continues with a week full of debates. live coverage of the west virginia senate debate will be on tuesday at 7:00 p.m.

also, the virginia senate debate. at the same time on cspan 3, live coverage of the massachusetts governor's debate with all five candidates. then at 9:00 p.m. earn on cspan, the north carolina u.s. senate debate with kate hagan and the state's speaker of the house thon tilis. at 7:00, a debate between tom corbett and tom wolf. and at 7:30, live coverage of the illinois u.s. house debate for the 17th district. . and later at nine, live coverage of the illinois governor's debate. friday night live at 8:00

eastern, the wisconsin governor's debate between scott walker and mary burke. sad night on cspan at eight eastern. sunday, live at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the michigan governor's debate between rick snyder. more than 100 debates for the control of congress. now health care professionals discuss their work in developing countries. this was part of the annual aspen ideas festival in colorado, it's an hour. >> thank you, i'm so excited to

talk to everyone here. we bring new talent to the field of global health. . we work with amazing young leaders that as leaders they need to bring their voices to the issues they care about. that's why i love the aspen new voices fellowship because it's ensuring that we have diverse thinkers. i'm excited that we'll have the opportunity to listen to ten great stories and listen to the ten great innovators that will bring them to life for us. story telling is a powerful tool and any great story teller is really a great teacher. that is something that i knew giving up. i had a mother that was a teacher and librarian. and sometimes it seemed like the fun would never stop. but my mother knew the power that stories had to open the world to my sister and me. i think my mother also realized

that stories could also open our world to her. every day when we got home from school, instead of her saying how was your day, she would say tell me a story and we would talk away. that's how we learned to communicate. we look at databases and spread sheets. i think the biggest thing that i have seen is that for us numbers don't inspire people to act. you have to remember that statistics are not just a number. they are representing the people that we're trying to serve. so with that, i am really excited to turn the microphone over to two people that have been enormous supporters of aspen new voices fellowship. that is john and courtney. i know that tonight many of us

will never have the opportunity to visit some of these places, but we can bear witness to the courage they brought to their work, and glimpse the moments they experience every day. i wanted to end with a quote they read this week as courtney and i were reading. i think it is a perfect quote for tonight. that is "engrave this upon your heart, there isn't anyone you couldn't love once you heard their story." good evening, everyone. it is fantastic to see so many people here. there are so many new voices.

we're partners in life and in work. we work with the aspen institute and with ted entities to help people tell their story. you can sit right where you are and watch people share their lives. when courtney and i were reflecting back on the year that we had previously, toward the end of 2013, both of us, without reservation, said meeting the new voices fellows in johannesburg for they're training was the most amazing thing. these are extraordinary individuals. they all have very unique and humanizing stories. >> here is a little about the structure of the event. we wanted to keep it fast, surprising, something that would

be a real fresh shift. so this will be very unlike anything else that happened today. we'll have three minute stories. three minutes and each fellow is answering the question why do you do what you do through a story. why do you do what you do through a story. and importantly, one image. so you're going to see one image up here and hear one three minute story. what i want to emphasize is all of these fellows, and you're not hearing from all of them, there are even more if you can believe it. all of them are policy experts, essentially. they could stand up here and do the data thing, and do the policy thing, and give you a systemic analysis and all of them are deep experts in their fields. so if any of you are media looking for experts, funders looking for really amazing organizations, all of them have them. tonight you will not hear that side of them for a very specific reason. we wanted to bring that story

element. i wanted to say that very clearly. there's a lot more where that came from. i want you to just be there with them. they're often sharing very vulnerable things. the best thing you can do as an audience is receive that gift and return it with your warmth and attention. turn off your cell phones, it means being present here and receiving the gift that you are about to receive. the best couple years of my life has been working with this crew of people. people who are warm and kind, making a shift in the world. i'm going to welcome our first speaker. she is the country director from ingender health. she loves homecooked meals but hates cooking.

[ applause ] >> thank you. it was back in 1989 after five years of going through intensive medical education at the university medical faculty that i became one of the few medical interns. wearing my gown and hanging my stethoscope around my neck like most senior doctors do, i felt so proud of myself. i felt so enthusiastic. it seems as if my addition to the pool of medical doctors would change the landscape of health and disease. and when i was first assigned as

an intern to the gynecological world, i met with a senior gynecologist and the residents, and we went to the room labelled abortion. as we entered the world, i saw rowed of beds, and on each side was a girl fighting for her life. a girl that had under gone through abortion, and arriving at the hospital losing so much blood and having serious infections. the fragile bodies of these girls laying on the beds, ivs in thaer a

their arms, masks on their mouths, fighting for her life. parents and relatives in the back crying and chanting prayers. these tragic -- this tragic situation changed me deeply at my core. for the first time in my life i felt guilty. i felt guilty because of the shattered life i had enjoyed. and i was oblivious to the untold sufferings. my community, my peers were undergoing. i felt angry at the same time. because these were a terrible situation. because i came to realize that what is driving this is the under lying injustices and

vulnerabas a rule -- vulnerabilities. when i was born, it was such a joint ventu joyful occasion in my family. but for so many girls it was the beginning of discrimination because girls are unfairly discriminated. when i was six years of age i was in grade one having lots of fun, playing high jump with my friends. who are girls at that age. in the rural communities, girls are taking care of other siblings. when i was age 15, i was already deep into my studies and in high school. many girls in my own community are forced to drop out of school

and to get married to a man they have never seen before. and their first sexual experience is a coerced experience. and these girls have to travel several kilometers on foot to fetch water and firewood. and they work from dawn to dusk. and when i was 23 years old, i was already an intern. and looking for what could make a good life. why girls, as i told you, are already in the end of their life. too young to die. and the loss of so much talent. i chose to marry my husband and

went to marry him. i chose when to get pregnant. and decided the number of children i wanted to have. i chose and decided the type of contraceptives i wanted to use. and i strongly believe that these choices, this critical decisions, should be made available to all girls and women. and that is why i work in women's health and that is why i'm committed to represent the choices of those girls in the gynecology world, and i'm committed to do it until the time when sexual and reproductive health, quality services are available to each girl and to each woman and their

rights is protected, respects, and fulfilled. i thank you. [ applause ] >> wow, thank you so much. our next fellow is a doctor who is a research associate with the university of michigan school of public health. you can see him wearing michigan apparel every single minute of the day. right now it's closest to his ankles, he is sporting some michigan socks. most other times it's more at eye level. he says i blink three times when i feel a sense of danger, and i strongly believe that it keeps me and my family safe.

i remember this as if it was yesterday. i walked about a mile to fetch drinking water. at the time i was asked what i would be when i grew up. without thinking, i said i would be a medical doctor. and i knew that i was a kid from a poor neighborhood, and that dream was real to me. my dad taught me to believe in myself, and i believed they could conquer any obstacle for my dream to make the world a better place. as i travelled 12 hours on a bus, within weeks it became

real. my dream died and it became real. headaches, fevers, but i went to class. at any cost i want today be in medical school. but i died. i was in a coma for two weeks. when i came back to life, i lost my hearing to complications of meningitis. meningitis is common in northern nigeria. this climate zone extends from the shores of senegal to the east, going over west africa. in this region every year thousands of young adults get ill with meningitis.

10% of them die. i'm one of the few that survived. and for that anyone, i was lucky. i had never been to the north of my country, but when i travelled, it was unusual and the climate changed. i wondered if it extended to the south of our country, is that why i got meningitis? now i dream. i dream again of things to stop this from happening. because i have returned to medical school, i became a physician, and i'm now a researcher. in reality it still goes on. this year i will speak. nigeria is battling the worst

outbreak of meningitis this year. like i said, i dream. i now walk at the intersection because i always wonder what is the connection between climate change and human health. and my work is now very fulfilling. that's why i dream. i dream of a day when tapping our resources does not hurt human health. i dream of a day when everyone has access to health. in my country, poverty, lack of education, lack of -- and we know that extremism has impeded good health care. but i still dream. and and i know if we walk together,

this dream will come true. thank you. [ applause ] next up, the executive director of psi haiti. i like that she says, i like to sing in the shower but make up songs with the statistics that i have to remember before making a presentation or speech. thankfully she was just belting out whatever song she wanted for this. because there are no statistics involved. [ applause ] . >> i always knew i wanted to change the world. i wanted to change my country. haiti. here i am doing it every single day in and out. i was working with youth. i was working with women.

and hiv prevention and family planning. i was going all over around the country talking to them, reaching them, providing services and activities. i would actually change their lives and have an impact and help them change their behaviors. the more i started working, the more i started having responsibilities, the more i became frustrated. because with responsibility i started to understand the bureaucracy around our work. i started to understand the donors and their priorities and priorities that did not always meet the priorities of the people. i started to see programs that had a huge impact on the population and these programs closing and not able to continue because of lack of funding. and worst of all, i started to see my people, the ones we wanted to help, sitting around and waiting for ngos, waiting for the international communities to come and help them.

i was mad. my optimism was diminishing. i was actually asking myself, is this the life i want to have. do i want to continue doing this work. is it worth it? then, on january 12, 2010, the unbelievable happened in my country. i was at home with my husband and my children. and the ground started to shake beneath us. we had no idea what was going on. we were not prepared for this. we had not talked about that. i was scared. we were -- it was unbelievable. the four of us were fine, but what about my friends. what about my family. what about my city? at that time, all we could hear were the screams. all you could see was the smoke coming from the city. i felt powerless. here i was, wanting to change my country, and i couldn't do anything. my government was on the floor. i felt i was shaken to my core.

the next morning, at sun rise, we woke up go see what was going on, to go find my family, to go see the city. as i drove, i was speechless. there are no words to describe what i was seeing. the city was destroyed. there was so much fear, so much pain, so much suffering. we had no idea how we would stand up, rise and be able to continue as a country. then, in the middle of all this, i saw something unbelievable, i saw something unexpected. i saw courage in people's eyes. i saw a man pick up rocks to clear rubble of a house where a stranger was stranded. ai saw a baker open up his store to give bread to people who have been there all night long. i saw people with their own personal problems be there to help others. i want haitians wanting to be

there for each other and be a solution instead of having to wait for the international community to come do the work. i saw that light in their eyes. i saw that possibility, that possibility that together we could come as one to be able to help each other. in the middle of the chaos, i was asking, did i want to take my children and leave the country, leave the disaster, because there was no way this could get bet atebetter. there was no way haiti could stand up again. my answer was no. because i saw that light in their eyees. that light that shows me that we as a people can come together and make this country together. thank you. [ applause ] .

>> thank you, anick. our next fellow and next speaker is mary anika sando. dr. mary sando. she is a health specialist with unicef. and if you're impressed by that, you will be more impressed to know that she loves to sing and she can do a mean imitation of celine dion. mary. [ applause ] >> the happiest day of my life was in 2009 and 2010. when i gave birth to my two children at a hospital. but as much as i felt the joy and dignity of having survived twfe