Transcripts For CSPAN3 Politics Public Policy Today 2014100

operating system that currently talks to any software, whether it be epic, and it now is running 3 million cancer lives for the past three years, across the pathways, across the delivery system and we know in real time. we have built a software system that actually takes 10,000 cancer protocols and provides for the doctor in real time the knowledge of which cancer protocol to give to the patient in real time. it's now in 8,000 oncology practices. with regard to technology, it is the job, actually for us is to actually make this health care system, where he makes money where patients don't come into the hospital, where we actually have patients at home, i call this icu at home, which means, -- eye see you at home. you need icus at home. and then this whole world of machine to machine technology is upon us. it's right here. so i partner with verizon and at&t and i built an electronics company that could have boxes that could talk to each other. blood pressure machine, pulse monitors, scale, we have now adopted this and now we went into every hospital that has 6,000 medical devices. went into the hospital connection box. if you got an icu in the hospital and you got the same box in the home, which is called the health box, you can then create an icu at home, we have patients, the patient that you spoke about, this elderlily day, you're absolutely right. we can put a pulse scale on at home and know what's going on with her in real time and we have created a telemedicine device on the internet where you can have four or five way videoconferencing, so if you look at this from a systems perspective, if you now can manage a patient from the home, the clinic, hospital, and through a supercomputer do the genomic analysis, we do 1,000 genomes a month. you then have an engineered system for the nation, which then says, frankly, you have the ability to create what i call norads of health care. you now have the capability to create a building with three cardiologists, ten oncologists, one pediatrician. you can manage an entire city. >> so is this going to happen anyway, or is there something we should change about the laws to make it happen faster? >> so what's preventing these fee for service. so the issue is to actually create what i call outcomes based, value based care and change the payment system. we created the co council, bank of america, mckinzie, and the single largest barrier now is the disincentivizing care. vis-a-vis fee for service actually, ironically. so if you can then say your job, mr. provider is to keep this person healthy, we can measure the outcomes in real time. if you keep this patient healthy, this is your payment per month, and at the end of the year, if this patient's healthy, here's your bonus. and whether the patient's in the hospital, in fact you don't want the patient in the hospital, the patient is at home, and that's where we need to change the providers of this nation and that's what we'll be announcing after this event, this cancer collaborative, with the nations of the world, we have the unions also with us, and we he have the united food workers union who's also participating in the audience with us. this is what this nation's going to need and this is what we think is -- the potential is not the potential. we're actually doing it. the opportunity is not to opportunity we're actually doing it. the obstacle is the payment system. ironically, medicare advantage was the best system you had. it is a system that's being penalized because they don't understand the actual system. [ applause ]. >> well, there are -- it's interesting. we're doing more and more of this, paying to keep people healthy instead of paying for procedures. but there are -- and there are incentives in this health care law to do it, but there's no mandated pace to get to everybody doing it. i don't think it makes sense to pay for anything else really unless you have some hugely expensive thing that can't be covered by the size of the pool people are involved in. no question, in a much more mundane world than the one you just painted for us, it also works. it works everywhere, not paying for procedure but paying for people to be healthy. do you agree with that? >> yeah, i would agree. i think we are in a -- i will speak from a very practical point of view. we're actually on the ground treating thousands of patients a day, millions of patients per year. we're in a period of transition from the fee for service environment which is absolutely pervasive throughout physicians' offices and imaging centers and kind of every health care node that you can think of in the system toward a system where there is accountable care and payment for health, but it's going to take a very long time. we all need to be realistic about this. the conditions have to exist in a particular community in order to enable that. now, we have some examples in our own organization where this has been very effective. so, in northern california in a farming and light industrial community in modesto, california, we've actually been running an accountable care organization now for over two years. it's been very successful. actually reduced the incidence of the hospitalization of the population there that has 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. although the interoperability 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 performance for health care, then 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 record 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, you hear directly the incentives are 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 actionable knowledge if real time,ny www.any time, and it 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 real time can you actually tell who is accountable for that patient? the im has shown 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 real time, how can you know whether you're giving value-based care and you have no idea about the cost in real time. so we have now built a system that can measure outcomes in real time 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, what it is costing him. so, if you can measure outcomes in real time and cost in in real time and cost in real time, 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 framework 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 bpc 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 cancer patients whether in south central l.a. or beverly hills, and these 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 foundation's involved in is this remarkable effort the rwandan government has 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 ethiopia, 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. there is nobody that 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 fine. but out in the bush, there are still people who are dying alone. im. >> i'm working with the global health initiative 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 if he have ramps or checking in 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 fee for 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 at ge surround some of these activities that you're talking about. we should be able to do those fairly quickly in some of these developing countries. >> in fact, you are. in bangladesh and. ge is there with the hand-held ultrasound. 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 the morbidity 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 break through. 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. way we're addressing, mr. president, is we're going state by state. i'm working with the governors, so we're going through this, 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 85% markup that was legal that wouldn't send you to jail. over time, the providers got better and better at keeping people well so the reimbursement rate could get both lower and closer to the cost of providing the preventative 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. we're out of time, but 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 humana 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 conveyor 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 genome in a hurry and find the one miracle cure out of 5 million options that will make me 20 again. and healthy. 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 blobs on a conveyor belt. our responsibility 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 than i am, but look how healthy he is. he has not lived his life as a conveyor belt. 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 health institutions and the coachella valley. 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 get off the conveyor belt message to america. [ applause ] >> anybody want to say anything else? >> 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 ] show go to studentcam.org. grab a camera and get started today.go to studentcam.org. grab a camera and get started today. with live coverage of the u.s. house on c-span and the senate on c-span2, here on c-span3 we complement that coverage by showing you the most relevant congressional hearings and public affairs events. then on weekends, c-span3 is the home to american history tv with programs that tell our nation's story, including six unique series. the civil war's 150th aen vesry. visiting battlefields and key events. american artifacts. touring museums and historic sites to discover what artifacts reveal about america's fast. history bookshelf with the best known american history writers. the presidency, looking at policies and legacies of our nation's commanders in chief. lectures in history with top college professors delving into america's past. real america featuring archival and educational films from the '30s through the '70s. c-span3 created by the cable tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. now a look at how genetically modified foods and pesticides are raising health concerns. a group of women food activists and women filmmakers took part in this discussion hosted by the commonwealth club of california. it is a little over an hour. hello and welcome to tonight's program from the commonwealth club. i'm your host for tonight. our program tonight, foot fights for the 21st century, women's voices driving change. our panelists are deborah coons garcia. zen honeycutt. judy shields. and our host and moderator tonight is christie-dames. ceo of tech talk studio and director of moms determined. now i'll turn the program over to christie. >> 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 activis 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 filmmaker for a long time. how did you arrive at food? >> yeah. well, in 1970 when i was if 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. why people should really demand a healthier food system and healthier food because 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 by monsanto. patenting. and all that stuff was really under the radar 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. people would buy 200 copies and give it to all their friends. so after four years of that i decided to go more deeply into that same realm and so i made the film symphony 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 then soil 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 honeycutt who is up here from southern california. zen is a mom, executive director and founder of moms across america. there's even a moms across the globe that's taken off. every year, fourth of july, there are 172 parades that happening a part of the fourth of july celebration. as part of moms across america. 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 carrageenan. the dairy wheat gluten and nuts allergies, i had about those. the carrageenan, it's like a karen what-in? when i researched it, i found it's a seaweed food thickener that is in everything that kids like. hot dogs, ice creep, sauces, even organic food, unfortunately. when i found out about this that carrageenan 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 inc. that was the first movie i watched about food. i watched robin o'brien on ted talk and found out that gmos are genetically modified organisms are foreign proteins. i just knew that instinctively had had something to do with my children's health. 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. i thought, well, 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 to our local fourth of july parades the permits the port potties and police are already set up. they're waiting for you. and the media cannot ignore you. right? they're televised, a lot of them. 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 director of teens turning green. she is a mom, the mother of aaron, who is a voice all around the world as a young woman. 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. marin city, which is in marin county, and that we were going to set criteria that wouldn't waver. 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 open a lot of doors with purveyors and farmers. and we started on august 28th. against all odds, 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 motto is dream and do. 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 when 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. but now if 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 microoshg nymphs in the soil break that down and return those nutrients to the soil that then feed the plant that grows. 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 be selling it afterwards. but i've shown it's now being sold at whole foods. i've shown it at film, food, farming festivals. communities use it. 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 conversation service, which are the soil scientists of our government, part of the department of agriculture, they've bought copies for their centers around the country to show farmers to help them do things like even small steps like cover crops. sip pal. 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 you know, 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 food 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 and khaki pants. they're like totally wonderful people. 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. i teach soil science in university down there 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 i said yes. she said 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 withstand pesticides. it's either is a pesticide the pesticide is inside of the food itself or it's genetically engineered to withstand 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 glyphosate. talk about taking, taking, taking, it actually takes from the soil. 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 essentially. 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 glyphosate is being used to the tune of 132 million pounds a year in the united states. 500 million pounds around the world. it has 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 in your hummus. i'm sorry. it's on your tea. it's on your stevia. the levels that are allowed 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 bacterias in chicken. scientifically proven. we allow on our food, the epa allows three parts per millen on sweet potatoes. five parts per million on regular potatoes. 40 parts per million on the canola oils that they cook with in the restaurants. 400 parts per million on the grains that the animals eat thatby consume. so the soil is getting inundated on this soil. 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 1 out of 2 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 glyphosate use and autism. and she has a chart that shows exactly one-on-one exactly the use of that. >> 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 gmos when her son was 11. went organic. he was severely autistic. 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 asthma, with autism, with allergies, with autoimmune issues. all kinds of health issues across the board. one mom the astigmatism in his eye went away. he no longer needs glasses. the doctor said must be because there was some form of inflammation. she said i know what the inflammation was. it was gmos and glyphosate. we 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? >> i think just sitting and listening to you allows me to even know more why we're doing what we're doing. if you think about, moms can take care of their children when they're home. they can attempt to take care of their children when they're not 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 possibly 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, soy, canola and transitioning it to what it needs to be which is non-gmo. that's simple and 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's taken care of. and i think 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 judi 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, judi, and to make 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 bayside mlk academy is the first school to be gmo free. 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 perish. 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 the 17th top, most 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? an and then you were asked to go there. >> right. so what we did was we were fed up with this glyphosate issue possibly affecting our kids with autism and allergies and autoimmune. 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 glyphosate testing in america. we asked our mom friends to send in their urine, their water and they breast milk. and we found glyphosate in breast milk at levels 760 to 1600 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. okay, 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 and they said it would not accumulate in the body, it would pass harmlessly through the urine, regardless of the toxicity issue. so it accumulated in the seemingly accumulating in breast milk, right? so it should be recalled. the epa did not respond. the five-day campaign. and 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. and they said, well we'd prefer to meet with principles in d.c. so we've gone and we've met with them. they've made some promises, but you know, 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 we can on their way in and we're going to offer them free glyphosate testing. so we'll see. and we're going to continue to demand to recall roundup. >> i just wanted to add one thing that actually could be in the soil. dr. warren porter who is at the university of wisconsin who researchers pesticides and the effect on people, is that one of the -- he says one of the things that glyphosate does is it basically ties your hand behind your back so the other chemicals, the 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 that monsanto brought out was roundup because roundup was going off patent. so 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 weed 1,000 acres by spraying round joup. 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. >> and by the way it's patent as an antibiotic with the uspto. it is a known -- antibiotics destroy gut bacteria. it's also acknowledged by the epa to be an endocrine disruptor. that means it causes birth defects, miscarriages, infertility and sterility. so there's many things about glyphosate that a lot of people don't know. >> so i'm sitting here watching the faces of the young women that i live with and work with every day and i'm thinking about this is the next face of young women. we're not talking about little children that are being impacted we're talking about young women that are going to be giving birth at some point in the not too distant future and who knows what that's going to look like. we're talking about students that want to make different choices but in their schools it's not happening. i think, you know, like between moms and the armies of students, the thousands and thousands of students on campuses all over the country, we have to be so loud. oh, yeah. >> and this is interesting too, deborah, i wanted to talk to you about being a filmmaker. about the power of 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. and that's fine. i have been making films for a lot of years. and the art institute. 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 transforms them so they want to make changes. there's all kinds of films. there are some films that are so simple, just press a button. but what they're filming is so powerful they move people. i love making films. i love the challenge of taking soil, which is dark and inert, and film which is about light and movement and bringing them together 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 youtube. 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, short films, 10 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 that everyone who makes a film should get an award. it's challenging to make something that people will sit through. even if it's a simple film. it's a real challenge. so 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 a gmo movie night at your home and you have just ten moms there, i figured out if those ten moms share with only five moms, which they won't, it will be like 500, but let's just say they only share with five moms and those five share with five and those five share with five then you've educated 1,270 people in your community. and i figured out if they just switch to organic food, maybe $200 a week that's $13 million of food, maybe even local, right, organic food in your community. so one movie night can make a huge difference and that is a wonderful way to take on -- some movies i want to plug are "gmo omg." if you haven't seen that one, it's wonderful. "unacceptable levels." a fantastic, we have the producer here. "unacceptable levels" is a fantastic movie and there's going to be a new movie coming out called "a new resistant" which will be about roundup. >> 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. she'd never done it before. 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. and to talk to all of their friends and their families and really 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 sit and we'll come up with an idea about a project that we want to do and ten minutes later it's done and it's out the door. and it's rippling all over the world. because everybody's telling their friends. all of our collective opportunities to tell the stories that we need to tell, and to engage the people and the power that we need to engage, i mean, perfect example, 10,000 moms called the epa and they say stop, show up, we'll talk to you. we have to use every tool we have and every arsenal we have and the world's going to look a lot different. >> and at the same time one of the campaign managers from washington state when they did the gmo labeling up there said 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 saying everything about gmos and gliek sate. you can get them for free on moms across america. you can get a banner for free. join in and let people know about it. you will alter their life when you give a mom a flyer about gmos and glyphosate when they're child has autism. you will alter their life if their parent has alzheimer's and you hand them this flyer. we like to encourage you to be the one. i like to say 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 food fight. thank you, i would like to remind our audience at home this is the commonwealth club. of california. my name is kevin o'malley. i'm chairman of the business leadership forum here at the club and your host for tonight. our program tonight is "food fights for the 21st century." women's voices driving change. our panelists are judi shils, zen honeycutt, deborah coons garcia and our moderator christie dames. we're 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. deborah i'm going to ask the first question that a lot of people, if you have -- you had a fairly famous husband, who was -- is an important part of your life, as well. people wanted to know, 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 was very hard to eat well back then. especially if you're a vegetarian or trying to eat healthy food if you're on the road a lot. by the '90s, things got a lot better. as i was telling them before we had, you know, when you're a rock star you can do whatever you want. so we had a private chef travel with the band and get whatever food we wanted in hotels, we had a special grateful dead menu that was organic and super healthy and all that stuff. it was so far out if i 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. one of the reasons is whole foods and this whole thing, people are demanding it, and you can find that in these places. where before i would go to these health food stores and see these apples that looked like they were ten years old. so i'm for that. whole foods, big corporation. 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. we have to realize 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. >> a quick aside. we spend a chung of time doing a conscious college road tour and we go to cities, states, and towns. you've never heard of. i live by the light of whole foods, but there aren't whole foods every place and green grossers every place. and what we found was the pro-live igs 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 suddenly farms are transitioning from conventional to organic. i think the more of this we see, the more we can really tell that the change is happening and coming. >> we interviewed a restaurant owner in dallas, patrick stark, who said he switched over to 98% non-gmo food, and one year later his sales had increased $10,000 a week. because of the longevity of the oils is longer. just people want healthy, clean, pesticide free non-gmo food. and we will pay for it. because when it gets down to it, when you get autism or cancer, you're going to be spending $1,000 to $10,000 a month more. that's what it's going to cost either you or our society as a whole. diabetes. by the way, glyphosate destroys the body's ability to make tryptophan. without tryptophan we can't make serotonin which causes diabetes. diabetes costs $13 billion a year. in 13 years, we will not have any money left for anything else except for diabetes. so this is a crisis, a health crisis which needs to be attended to now. the more of us that buy organic the cheaper it will become. the more plentiful it will become and the people who, you know, can't even afford it, at least the gmos will not be in the food anymore. at least the pesticides when we get it banned won't be in that food anymore. so that's where we're going. >> 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. bayer, dow, monsanto's parent company used to be pfizer. there's many parent companies that make chemicals and also 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, deborah, zen, judi, thank you so much for this wonderful program. >> 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 have done in the past heirloom seeds, we have been given seeds. we put on the back stop spraying round up, it's killing our bees. we have 60% loss of our bees. every third bite of food is affected by -- is created by bees. so we have these little seed packets and you can go around neighbor to neighbor and just say here's a free gift for you. please stop spraying roundup. do you know it's been found in breast milk, in urine, in water. people start to actually think about it when you have a one-on-one conversation. and i really mean that every single person's voice, every single person's vote, every single person's phone call, you know, bigger than monsanto. we are 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 absolutely not true. all you need to do -- i had a cultured food party. if you go to culturedfoodlife.com. she tells you how cultured food 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. pam was about 63 62 years old when the prop 37 buzz started to happen. she drove her car around to every county in california and mobilized the team that fought the fight to get prop 37 passed in every single county in california. and she was one woman. she'd never done anything like 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 the people fighting the fight for us. our communities are. our community leaders have to listen. they're close to home, they know you, they live down the street. their kids go to school with your kids. i think if we each take something on, every one of us, i think everybody sitting at this table and probably many of you sitting 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 roundup, like with the future of food, because it was the first one about genetic engineering and all that, and then the alternatives to that. and my best friend growing up saw it in cincinnati and she said we need a farmer's market here. we started a farmers market. now it's amazing, a big success. they close down the square. where it is. people, everybody comes there, they have bands there. you know. all of these people are growing organically because now they've got the market and she teaches people in other suburbs how they can start farmer's markets and it's really was because she saw this film and said i want that, too. i think when you try to say to people who are not from where we are and aren't so food conscious 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 laden, 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 food system and that's where organic is the fastest growing part of the food system and why so many farmers are going organic because that's what people want and that's what they're choosing. and it drives the whole industry crazy. no one is buying their propaganda anymore. they want what they want and we cannot wait for the government to do it. indeed, we should get these things banned and all that stuff. but we can't wait for them to do it. we just have to do it and they will follow. we have to do it and they will like whoa, i guess we're going to have to go this way. so i just think, even people that are more -- that aren't 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 and it goes on and on. they become -- they become activists. yeah, they become fanatics and 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. well, clearly there is autism in your family. i say no. there isn't. my own personal journey started unlocking these canaries in the coal mine, these children, who are absolutely screaming with medically -- medical illness that is coming from food and toxins and chemicals and all kinds of assaults on these children. that i was so moved that 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 autism and you're involved here"? they say i will forever be grateful and love you for this. because these voices are not being heard. and they're very powerful. there's a group the thinking mom's revolution. they are 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 for answers. alzheimer's looking at autism for answers. because it's all connected. that was the most powerful thing. for me it was taking on something that isn't me or isn't in my world, that's 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. because we really have to do more. and i admire that you all for everything you're doing. the fact is we lost prop 37. >> right. >> and we lost 522 in washington more recently. these are the two blue states. and so i guess the question is, 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 also the grocery manufacturers who is leading the charge to file suit against vermont that just passed a labeling initiative there. we might start with safeway and every grocery store that's a member of the grocery manufacturers and say, if you're a member of this group, we're not shopping here. because, you know, 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. one of the things that the propaganda is we need gmos to feed the world. you know, that's what they say. and all the liberals say, oh, well 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. >> they also say that labeling will increase -- >> they also say labeling will increase cost of food which is complete nonsense. the other thing is, i think we should label it because it will save the world and feed the world, then the people who actually 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. that's why they don't want it. they don't want these -- you know, 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, keep at it, and also be more forceful in busting these things. especially these liberal, you know, liberal in quotations, sacred cows like we need it to feed the world and if you don't want genetic engineering you're an elitist snob who can only afford the most expensive food and eat only at places like chez panise. and you go bull shit let's really look at what's going on here and we need to stop subsidizing corn. we need to stop subsidizing food that makes us sick and we need to start subsidizing, if you're going to subsidize anything, we need to subsidize the programs you're doing 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 name, but i heard him speak recently, and he said when he first started dealing with people in the organic food arena, he first started talking monsanto they were so arrogant. like we are the top cat. he said now, they're worried. they're worried. like yay, they're worried. i think that's only because they're getting pressure from every possible side. every possible stop. >> and they said that monsanto, the biotech industry has a woman problem. there are mom bloggers. there are women saying their kids get better when they get off gmo food and they don't have any medical records, by the way we are gathering medical records, and so you know, that's part of the issue. but we are not giving up. and to answer the gentleman's question, california is not giving up. we have sb 1040 right now. we need you to call your senators and representatives today. they're voting on it on thursday. so we're not giving up. we are going forward to get -- we have a legislative initiative to get gmos labeled. there is 27 states not giving up. this is not going away. there was a recent poll that said 92% of the people strongly feel that gmos should be labeled. so there's no giving up. >> if you look back historically there are a lot of fights that have been fought long and hard. i think that i totally agree. we have a lot of younger people now that are able to help fight these fights on their smartphones and really get the word out and they're all of voting age. and i think for us, part of the reason that we aim all of our efforts at college campuses is they are the next global leaders. if we can teach them well, and if they can support things that have to change in our world, then, good for us. >> as we know the great thing about food is we can do something about it. you can eat this food rather than that food. whereas some of these other problems like energy or nuclear or all these other things, it's like what can we do about that? well, we can do something about food. that's why i think it's such a popular movement. and 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 never happens. people only go the other way. they only get more and more insistent on what they really 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 organ is just becoming more watered down. like how do we prevent them from like you were saying earlier, how they just upped the amount of glyphosates they will allow on the plants. what's going to stop them from allowing more harsher chemicals getting into all of our organic food that we're spending, you know, a lot more money buying? >> so your involvement with the national organic standards board would help. they have a board every six months, they convene, and they decide what is going to be in organic foods or not. and they have been historically allowing more and more other things like carrageenan, and other -- just other types of things in organic food. what it doesn't allow is glyphosate or roundup. so organic food is not genetically modified and it does not allow toxic chemicals. toxic pesticides. there are some chemicals that are allowed but they have not been named toxic. our involvement in this cause is what's going to make the difference. the calls to the national organic standard board, showing up. you can show up and say whatever you want. everybody gets time. you can show up at your school board. you get three minutes. they have to let you talk. you can say whatever you want. you can show up at your city councils and say i don't want -- i want organic food in my schools. in my hospitals. in my child care centers. but the takes individuals, people like you, and me, that went and said these are the standards that we want for organic food and it must be protected. >> there's some really good organizations, organic consumers association, there's a center for food safety is another one, and i'm on, you know, i get their e-mails every day and if there's some issue coming up about weakening the organic standards you know, i always sign those petitions. it's something. and then i know what's going on and they have representatives that go and i think the last organic standards meeting one woman was arrested because she was protesting something. >> alex otherwise -- >> she was arrested. >> she's a mom. >> get out there. but i think that it's really good to support these organizations that are working on this full time and have lawyers, and file lawsuits and all that stuff. because that's really what it comes down to. they really, we need to use courts, we need to use public pressure and i think also supporting, you know, places like whole foods, whatever, or the good earth in fairfax and really supporting people. 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 that go in there and like, you're not doing that. so i think it is individuals and also great to ally ourselves with these organizations that have some chops that they can bring to the table. >> unfortunately we have reached that point in our program where we have time for only one more question and then we'll turn it back to our moderator and panelist for a closing statement. this is the commonwealth club of california. my name is kevin o'malley i'm chairman of the business and leadership forum here at the club. our program tonight is food fights for the 21st century, women's voices driving charge. our candidates are deborah coons garcia, zen honeycutt, judi shils and christie dames. i'm going to turn it over to our last question. >> thank you ladies for all your activism for all of us. the question i have you pertains to coexistence. oregon is trying to map out where all the organic fields are and where all the gmo fields are, but the biotech industry is pushing back. they say they want coexistence. can we have coexistence and really have truly organic foods? >> of course not. it's absurd, you can't have coexistence. it's ridiculous. because the gmo pollen, or the gmo seeds will float across, and 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. so i said, you've allowed gmo alfalfa, it's a perennial, they didn't used to spray it, and now you know, it can contaminate non-gmo how can you justify your actions? he says well we all have to get along. we have -- i have two sons. i love them both equally. which is organic and industrial. and so i said with all due respect, sir, one of your sons is a bully and he goes oh! and then he said, he said, we can all -- he said we can get along. we can live together. we just need to get in a room and work it out. i said gmos can contaminate organic. organic can't contaminate gmos. and he was like what? but i think that -- but i know a person that met with from a seed company that met with monsanto many, you know like 15 years ago, when this was starting. tand they were promoting coexistence. and he said there really is no such thing as coexistence they'll just contaminate your way into every field. and he said the guy looked at him and smiled and said, i know. now he told me that story and it was a totally private, you know, not recorded, and i just thought, ew, man. that -- that is their strategy. is to promote this false -- you know, this false ideal of coexistence, which anybody but a moron would know is absolutely unnatural and impossible to do. and then gradually just have gmo creep, and then it's game over. very dangerous. coexistence, that whole idea should be completely busted. and make people in the united states -- do you understand how plants grow? do you understand what seeds are? you know. because really, literally, only an incredibly stupid person would even believe that. and that's why they're saying it. people think that sounds stupid to me but maybe i don't know how it works or else i would -- no. >> animals eat the seed and they very easily deposit it somewhere in fertilizer somewhere else. there's no way you can coexist. >> and it blows. >> in the wind. >> yeah, so in addition to that, dr. lauren payne had a homeland security man visit him after 9/11 talking about food safety. and the homeland security man himself, you can see this video on our website, under "about," the homeland security man said oh, yeah i agree, gmo crops, you know, the monocultures these are the most dangerous things of all. and he was very confused. he said why? he said because when a plague or pest hits a monocrop then it wipes the whole thing out. then we're all endangered. he said can i quote you on this? why do we have this in the united states then? he said well you don't understand. we need to have our enemies, you know, china and india have this so that we can control the food supply. he said then why do we need to have it? he said we need to prove that it's safe so that they'll have it. >> those countries don't want it. >> no, they're clueing in, china does buy 50% of the gmo soy and corn. but they're learning. they don't have it in their food supply, just as oils and they just feed it to their animals, so -- but they are wising up to this. and they are starting to cancel shichlts. they know that 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 be tweeted right now, what 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 that one thought. but it really is that we can make -- every single one of us can make a difference. you just pick that one thing. you start just with one thing, one somewhere, and 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, visit, and do it. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> so i would like to ask our 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, educate her, and let her help you. find that mom. because these moms are absolutely taking it on. and so find those moms because they're nourishing all of us. and it -- and mom in the greater sense of the word, right? the 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 tonight here at the commonwealth club of california tonight. our program has been food fights for the 21st century, women's voices driving change. our panelists are judi shills, zen honeycutt, deborah coons garcia and christie dames. my name is kevin o'malley. thank you all for being here tonight. and with this i would like to close this program of the commonwealth club of california, celebrating over 125 years of enlightened public discussion. live coverage today across the c-span networks, at noon eastern on c-span2 the cato institute hosts a discussion looking at the president's constitutional authority to use military force against isis without congressional approval. and at 1:00 eastern on c-span, a panel discussion examining the political debate about the legal approval process of keystone xl pipeline. that's hosted by the wilson center. and c-span's campaign 2014 coverage continues tonight here on c-span3. with a governor's debate in massachusetts. five candidates battling for the open seat including democratic state attorney general martha coakley. republican politician and businessman charlie baker. independent candidates evan falkhuk, jeff mccormick and scott lively. live coverage at 7:00 eastern on c-span3. we'll also bring you tonight's north carolina senate debate between democratic incumbent kay hagan, and republican state representative thom tillis. we'll have that over on c-span at 9:00 eastern. here's a look at some of the recent television ads being relaced by the candidates in the race. >> i'm kay hagan and you've seen a lot about me lately. out-of-state special interests are spending millions distorting my record. i approved this message because i am tough enough to keep taking the punches. but you deserve to hear what i'm really about. fighting to create jobs and build an economy that works for everyone. standing up for our troops and veterans. and protecting medicare and social security. so the next time you see those false attack ads, ask yourself, whose side are they on? >> my first job, a paper route. at 15 i was a short order cook. instead of college i went to work. got my degree two decades later. 25 years in business, partner at ibm. my story is not special. in america, it happens all the time. but the train wreck in washington puts all that at risk. i'm thom tillis. i approve this message. washington has it wrong but americans can make it right. >> tell us your name. >> i'm anna. education was my way out. but i worry it won't be for my kids. under thom tillis' leadership they've cut textbook funding so much that i can't help my son with his homework. i think it's clear that thom tillis wants only a certain class of people to have opportunities. i'm a middle-class mom. his agenda is tax cuts for the wealthy. and that's not working for my family. >> i'm kay hagan and i approved this message. >> seen those ads attack being thom tillis? they're false. tillis fired the staffers. know who's paying for those sleazy ads? it's harry reid. reid is trying to fool republican voters meddling in our primary to get a vote for kay hagan. the press says the democrats fear tillis the most. he brought a conservative testify lugs to raleigh. that's why we need him in raleigh. don't be fooled by harry reid. >> i'm thom tillis and i approve this message. >> we spoke with a reporter covering that north carolina senate race for a preview of tonight's debate. >> the latest nbc news and maris college poll shows in north carolina incumbent democratic senator kay hagan with a slight lead over thom tillis her republican challenger, 44% to 40%. joining us on the phone is renny schoof following this as the washington correspondent for the raleigh north carolina news and observer. thanks very much for being with us. >> how. >> this is the latest poll that shows the incumbent senator a democrat slightly ahead of her republican challenger. what's happening? >> well, actually, we've been noticing in polls for the last month senator hagan has been ahead. at least a little bit. the race is still very much a toss-up. it's too close to call. but, at least half a dozen polls in the past month have shown her ahead. >> why? >> well, that's a good question. the race has been tight, north carolina is very closely divided between democrats and republicans. senator hagan has been making this as much as she can a vote about what her opponent, house speaker thom tillis, has done in state legislature. his record. the legislature has taken the state quite a bit to the right, and has made some reductions in education spending, compared to what growth would require. so that is her main talking point in the campaign. >> in fact, a number of ads she's been quick to point out that she has been the independent voice for north carolina in the u.s. senate. how does the tillis campaign respond to that? >> well, the tillis campaign all along has been saying that senator hagan is too closely aligned with president obama. and they point to some policies that are unpopular with a large segment of the population there, particularly the health care law. >> as you look at the upcoming debate between these two candidates courtesy of wral-tv, what are you looking for? >> well, again, as in all of these debates it's a chance for the candidates to show voters directly how they're different from one another. some experts think perhaps they will bring up things that didn't come up in the first debate on september 3rd. that might be issues like voting rights and gun control. it's also possible that something could have been in the news in the past few weeks like the ebola virus and the fight against the terrorists in iraq and syria will come up. speaker tillis has been trying to use some foreign policy issues to show his strength and also to criticize senator hagan. >> renee, can you give our audience a sense of the ground game? what does the tillis campaign have on the ground in north carolina, and conversely from the hagan campaign's perspective? >> both parties are working really hard to turn out voters. you know, it's more complicated than a midterm election and there's no presidential race, and so both parties have people knocking on doors every weekend. all the time. as much as they can. and they also have groups that support them doing the same thing. >> we're a month away before the midterm elections. where this campaign is right now, the hagan campaign and the tillis campaign, has it surprised you or is it what you expected? >> well, it's so close and everyone all along said it would be very close. so i guess we can't say we're too surprised about that. it's still a toss-up, remains to be seen. >> the latest on the north carolina senate race, renee schoof is washington correspondent for the raleigh north carolina news and observers, one of the mcclatchy newspapers. thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you. >> you can watch that north carolina senate debate tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. and also live coverage of two other senate debates before then tonight west virginia secretary of state natalie tenet, and congresswoman shelly more capito face off for the open seat of retiring senator jay rockefeller live at 7:00 p.m. over on c-span. also at 7:00 on c-span2 virginia's senate debate between incumbent democrat mark warner and his republican challenger former rnc chair ed gillispy. >> c-span's 2015 student cam competition is under way. this nationwide competition for middle and high school students will award 150 prizes totalling $100,000. create a five to seven minute documentary on the topic "the three branches and you." videos need to include v pan programmi programming, show varying points of view, and must be submitted by january 20th, 2015. go to studentcam.org for more information. grab a camera and get started today. next a group of health care professionals discussed their work in developing countries on issues ranging there repreductive health services, hiv/aids prevention and diagnosing infectious diseases. the event is about an hour long and begins with introductory remarks by barbara bush, daughter of former president george w. bush as well as the co-founder of the group global health corp. >> thank you. and i am so excited to welcome everyone here. as josh said i work with an organization called global health corp and what we do is bring new talented to the field of global health. and we work with amazing young leaders who every day we need to remind to them that as leaders they need to bring their voices to the issues that they care about. which is why i love the aspen new voices fellowship because it's specifically ensuring that we have diverse thinkers raising their voices to effect social change. so tonight i am really excited that we will all have the opportunity to listen to ten great stories. and meet the ten great innovators who will bring them to life for us. as we all know storytelling is a powerful tool. and any great storyteller is really a great teacher. which is something that i knew growing up. i had a mother who was both a teacher and a librarian. and as you can imagine, sometimes the fun seemed like it would never stop with a mother who was a librarian. but my mother knew the powers that stories had to open the world to my sister and me. and i think my mother also realized that stories could open our world to her. every day when we got home from school instead of my mother saying how was your day, she would say, tell me a story. and we would just talk away. and that's the way that we learned to communicate in our family. and now that i work in the field of global health, my world is dominated by numbers. we look at databases, and spreadsheets, we read percentages of stock outs and i think the biggest lesson that i've seen in global health is that for us numbers don't inspire people to act. stories do. and if you work in global health, you have to remember every single day that statistics aren't just a random number. they are actually representing the people and the families that we are trying to serve and those people's stories who desperately want to be heard. and so, with that, i am really excited to turn the microphone over to two people that have been enormous supporters of aspen new voices 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 coordinating for this evening. 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." [ applause ] good evening, everyone. it is fantastic to see so many people here. to share in the stories that our aspen new voices are about to bring to the stage. courtney and i are partners in life and in work. we work with the aspen institute and with ted and several other entities to help people tell their story. it is amazing work. the best part is sitting right where you are to watch people share their lives and they have the most incredible tales to tell. 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 -- their training was the most amazing thing. these are extraordinary individuals. they all have very unique and humanizing stories. we are just so delighted to be able to share them with you today. >> 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 from the panel experience you are having today. 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. tonight you are getting three very personal stories. 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 rows of beds, eight to ten on each side 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 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 sheltered 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 -- preventable situation. because i came to realize that what is driving this is the underlying injustices and vulnerabilities. when i was born, it was such a 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.

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