200: The Unstoppable Power of Moms: Transforming America’s Toxic Food Supply with Zen Honeycutt

Zen: 0:00

Like 85 to 90 to 100% of our crops in America now are GMO the corn, soy and sugar beets and so 80% of them are genetically engineered to withstand glyphosate-based herbicides like Roundup and Ranger Pro, and that means that the weeds will die when the entire crop is sprayed, but the crop will not. The crop will continue to live.

Camille: 0:27

So you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business, sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know this is Call Me CEO. Welcome back everyone to Call Me CEO.

Camille: 0:50

This is your host, Camille Walker, and today we are talking about making positive change in America, and I don't know about you, but I am really concerned about where our food is coming from, what is being put into our foods pesticides and GMOs and what they're spraying on the fields that are stripping our nutrients.

Camille: 1:11

It's really concerning.

Camille: 1:12

I actually got together with one of my best girlfriends from high school this last week and she is becoming a homesteader.

Camille: 1:19

She just bought a property with 20 acres and they are growing their own crops and fields and they have orchard trees that are already existing there and it's so much work but also so incredible and I, because of her background, she has quite a bit of understanding about what is going on with the soil and she said if you're actually treating the plant, you're not doing it right.

Camille: 1:43

You're supposed to be treating the soil to get healthy food to grow, and I learned so much from her and came home and took a good look at what was in my pantry and in my fridge and thought I need to look into this a little bit more and visit my farmer's market, which, thank goodness, here in Utah. It is spring and things are starting to grow and look green again. So today we have our expert, who knows more about this than anyone else I've talked to, which is Zen Honeycutt. She is the owner of Moms Across America, who is creating so much more awareness about the GMOs in our food and what we can do to make a positive change. So, zen, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Zen: 2:25

Thank you so much for having me, camille, and thank you to all your listeners. I really appreciate you listening and sharing this podcast.

Camille: 2:31

Yeah, well, gosh, this is a huge topic that I think I don't know enough about, and you've made such an impactful movement with your nonprofit. Please tell us how this started and how you were able to make such a change.

Zen: 2:47

Well, thank you for the opportunity. I was a stay-at-home mom at the time. I was a former business owner. I was a fashion designer and an entrepreneur for my own natural wellness company for seven years and I got to the point where I was just overwhelmed with the sicknesses my children had. I had three boys at the time. I owned my own business and I decided to close that business and really focus on my kids' health and not get into all kinds of debt for the business. I just wanted to segue away from that. I'd been doing it for seven years and it was the natural wellness products and I looked at what was going on in the food supply, because somebody shared Robin O'Brien's TED talk Patriotism on a Plate all about what was going on with the food supply and how it's a patriotic thing to actually take action and to look at what you're eating and look at the GMOs and the food supply.

Zen: 3:37

And genetically modified organisms really had not been on my radar. I mean, mainstream media wasn't talking about them, doctors weren't talking about them, and when I realized that they're a foreign protein and that they could cause resistance and inflammation in the gut, I thought, gee, maybe this has something to do with my children's allergies, which was exactly what Robin O'Brien came to the conclusion for, and Jeffrey Smith as well, who made the movie Genetic Roulette. So I watched that movie, I read Robin O'Brien's book. I read a whole bunch of other books Compromised Generation by Beth Lambert and, you know, learned about the GAPS diet and all of a sudden just started paying attention to what was going on with my children and took about, you know, good several months just reading every book I could get my hands on. I have a stack of books that's, you know, I consumed. And then Prop 37 happened and I got involved in raising awareness about GMOs to have them labeled in California.

Zen: 4:38

And when that initiative failed, in that night in November, my son and I were in the parking lot and the whole family was in the parking lot in a car and I was crying because I had just learned that that initiative had failed. And my son said well, you know, mom, even Star Wars took six episodes and I was like, yeah, and they had Yoda. You know, they had a magical being. And I was like right, and I realized maybe it's just time for a new episode. You know, I had helped out, I'd passed out flyers, but I hadn't taken on leadership.

Zen: 5:10

So I thought what if I took on leadership? What if I said I'm the one to transform the food industry. I'm not waiting for Jeffrey Smith or Robin O'Brien to do it. I'm not waiting for somebody else to do this, else to do this. It's not, you know, it's not an ego thing, it's I'm going to take on responsibility for this.

Zen: 5:27

So I did that and I thought you know what would I do? And I said well, if I were to be really efficient, you know cause? I also had seven summers of being a waitress, you know you've got to make the rounds on those six tables and you know a quick amount of time and be efficient. Also, being a mom of three boys, you've got to be efficient. So I thought what could I do that would make the greatest difference in the shortest amount of time, reach the greatest number of people?

Zen: 5:51

And I thought of 4th of July parades, because they're local, they're accessible, they're easy, they're affordable. You just slap some red, white and blue on and join into a pre-existing event. Our moms did not have to organize, it was already there and they could reach anywhere from 5,000 to 200,000 people just being in the parade. So I used my fashion design skills from before and had a designer, or you know, create t-shirts and buttons and flyers and stickers and banners, and we created a store and a website and a Facebook page and invited people to join in to 4th of July parades with banners that said Moms Across America March to label GMOs. And during this time, by the way, I saw my son's health get better. Within four months of going GMO free, his allergies, which were life-threatening, were dramatically reduced, and so I knew that this was going to help other people, and so we put the word out that this was going to help other people, and so we put the word out, and within three months this was in July of 2013, three months we launched the website in February. End of February, we had a reach on Facebook of over 300,000 a week and we had 179 groups of moms and families join into 4th of July parades in 37 states, and we reached thousands locally and millions nationally in a single day. And after that, 600 leaders in the next five years created over a thousand events in all 50 states. So we have continued.

Zen: 7:13

I realized it didn't. It shouldn't be just a one-time event. Right, it needed to be a nonprofit. So we created it to be a nonprofit. I have a team, some people. Now they've been working with me for seven years.

Zen: 7:22

We've been around for 12 years and we have logged in the past seven years which, when we were that's when we started recording our social media reach We've reached during that time we reached 78 million. So we guess that over the past 12 years we've reached 120 million at least. And that does not include the dozen documentaries that we've been in the book and that does not include the dozen documentaries that we've been in the book that I've published in the US and Japan. It doesn't include podcasts and radio shows and TV spots and all of that stuff. Those numbers are just social media. So we estimate hundreds of millions of people and this is exciting for us because moms are the ones that buy 85% of the food, women make 90% of the household purchasing choices and people trust moms. That's just, you know. People trust moms.

Zen: 8:13

And when we ask legislators, would it make a difference for moms to be marching in these 4th of July parades? Because again, I want to be efficient, I don't want to do anything to waste anybody's time and the legislator that I spoke to directly said oh yeah, legislators are more afraid of moms than any other grassroots. Yeah, I believe it, because we're unstoppable and we will do as. There's one saying that says that a worried mom does better research than the FBI. We will do that research. We will get to the nitty gritty and then we will share with everybody what we've learned. And you can't stop us. We will get to the nitty gritty and then we will share with everybody what we've learned, and you can't stop us. We will talk in the preschool parking lots. We will talk at backyard barbecues, we will talk as we run around the lake. There's nobody that can stop us from sharing solutions. So I'm very excited about how we started. It all came from love and passion. I was volunteer for, you know, for very, very many years.

Camille: 9:15

Now it is a full time job for me and and I'm proud that we, you know, can support other people to do this type of work and get the word out there to transform the food supply and health in America and beyond is so impactful on such a small scale in our very own homes.

Camille: 9:25

But it's also a national and probably international too. I mean, I don't know, but the reach of the work that you're doing is making a difference and I, watching the allergies that have increased and the gluten intolerances that are astronomical and the peanut allergy and everything else that's happening with our food, it feels insurmountable. And so the fact that you saw that and said I can make this difference and I'm going to do this thing is so inspiring to me, and I'm sure others listening are feeling that same way. And I want to take a few steps back with what GMO is and what foods we should watch for with it. You know, because I'll see GMO free, but I don't entirely know what foods to be watching for, whether it could be introduced into that product or not. Could you give us a little bit of background with starting there?

Zen: 10:22

Absolutely, and for people who don't know, it's not your fault. They do not label GMOs Right now. They just say bioengineered, and it's a euphemism for the words genetically modified organisms or genetically engineered, because activists like me and moms have raised awareness enough about it so that the companies don't want to admit that there are genetically modified organisms in their product. And so there's three types of GMOs okay, genetically modified organisms that are genetically engineered in a lab. They are not hybrid. These are not things that would naturally happen in nature. Okay, for instance, one type of GMO is called a BT toxin GMO, and that stands for Bacteriotherogenesis, and this is a very large portion of the corn that is out there and it's what it is. It's genetically modified to be a pesticide. That means every part of that plant the root, the stalk, the fruit, all of it.

Zen: 11:19

If a rootworm comes along and eats any part of that plant, the BT toxin that has been genetically modified to be in that plant, every cell of the plant, will constantly reproduce more toxins and it will explode the stomach of the bug that eats it, and so that bug will die. Now, doesn't that sound an awful lot like gut dysbiosis that's happening in America today. We had. My child's doctor told us that pretty much every child in America has holes in their small intestines, gut dysbiosis, and these holes in the small intestines let the food out, the undigested food out, and then the body recognizes it as an allergy. So this is what's happening in America and Robin O'Brien. One of the first things she stated was that there was a 400% increase of ER visits by children to hospitals when, after GMOs were put into the food supply.

Zen: 12:09

Wow, and so there's a reason for these allergies, right? Yeah, I mean, there's other causes too, but that that is, I believe, definitely one of them. And so that type of GMO is genetically engineered to be a pesticide, and that could most is mostly corn. Now the next type of GMO corn, soy, canola, sugar beets. You know all types of um, there are several different vegetables. Uh or no, those are the commodity crops. Those are genetically engineered to resist an herbicide. They're called HT or herbicide tolerant and mostly Roundup ready.

Zen: 12:46

80% of GMOs are genetically engineered to withstand Roundup, and Roundup is you know what people have been spraying in their backyards and thinking it's safe, that it will biodegrade and it's not cancerous and all of that. And that simply is not true. This Roundup product is sprayed on GMO crops corn, soy. Like 85 to 90 to 100% of our crops in America now are GMO the corn, soy and sugar beets, and many canola crops as well, and so they're genetically engineered. 80% of them are genetically engineered to withstand glyphosate based herbicides like Roundup and Ranger Pro, and that means that the weeds will die when the entire crop is sprayed, but the crop will not. The crop will continue to live. The problem with that is that the residue gets on the crop and we consume it and we are not Roundup ready. So GMO genetically engineered to be a pesticide, another GMO that's genetically engineered to resist herbicides, therefore being a conduit for the consumption of these herbicides right, we do consume them.

Zen: 13:50

And then the third type of GMO I call DT, which is desired trait and that encompasses gene editing and CRISPR and all of that, where they genetically engineer the RNA of that plant mostly to or fruit to have a desired trait, such as a potato that won't brown or won't. They claim it's not rotting, but it is rotting and you can smell it rotting, you just don't see the browning. So there are French fries in restaurants in America today that are made from GMO potatoes it's called Simplot potatoes, they just don't advertise it. And there are apples like the Arctic apple green apple is genetically engineered not to brown. There's a rice that's genetically engineered to have more vitamin A that has made its way, I believe, in the Philippines, and fish in Canada has been allowed to grow four times fatter, four times faster and be sterile Salmon.

Zen: 14:48

I'm simply just not interested in feeding my children these things, because what they have shown is that this desired trait, genetic manipulation, produces thousands of off-target mutations, meaning there are unintended consequences that happen elsewhere in the organism, the bottom, the body of the organism. It's not like Legos, where you can line up a whole bunch of green Legos, take one out and put a red Lego in and expect everything to remain where it is. No, we are holistic human beings and organisms. You put something in the rest of the body will like, scar up, or it will fight it or it will try to expel it. And along the way, things in the rest of the body will like scar up, or it will fight it or it will try to expel it. Right, and along the way, things in the body will change.

Zen: 15:30

And that's what happens in these GMOs, for instance, alfalfa that the farmers fought and tried very hard to to stop alfalfa, because it's perennial, which is, you know, spread everywhere, gmo alfalfa. What they, when they tested and found that the GMO alfalfa actually had lower protein and higher fiber content. And if you think about it, when you genetically manipulate something, it's going to try to get tougher to like. You know, it's like a scar to to like resist that change. And in the alfalfa plant that meant more fiber and less protein. And that's the exact opposite of what farmers want. They want more protein to fatten up the cows. They you know what I mean. So so there's a lot of ways in which these GMOs are not intentionally. Uh, there's a lot of results that these GMOs are producing that are not intentional, but that doesn't mean that the GMO producers shouldn't be mindful and responsible Responsible for that?

Camille: 16:28

Yeah, accountable for it. So I'm curious listening to this gosh. There are so many different types and you're an expert for sure. I mean, you've already taught me things I've never even heard of. Is there a list of companies or foods that is not safe, that you have that as a resource that we could go to to know what companies to support and what maybe what foods to avoid, or is there a resource like that?

Zen: 16:55

The easiest thing to do is to buy organic as much as possible. Usda organic does not allow GMOs and does not allow glyphosate and other toxic chemicals. Could there be some contamination? Yes, is the USDA doing as good a job as they could be in regulating this? Absolutely not right. There are big players that are infiltrating. However, the thousands of tests that we have seen have shown that organic food has been less toxic by the thousands of percent you know and also does not contain GMOs.

Zen: 17:27

We have not found that the organic products contain GMOs. Now there's another label coming out in the market called Regenerative Organic Certified. If you're lucky enough to have any of that in your grocery store, we do recommend that, because it actually focuses more than organic on regenerating the quality of the soil and building organic matter, and they do this through cover crops and animal grazing, and it actually regenerates the soil to have to be more nutrient dense and therefore what we have found from preliminary testing is that the food that's going with regenerative organic agriculture has higher nutrients and you really are, you know. So you're getting more for your money when you buy regenerative organic certified if you can. It's just not as readily available right now, but if you can, that is that, and biodynamic as well, we believe, also is higher nutrients. But more testing needs to be done, and that's probably what Moms Across America is doing is raising funds. We just need a million dollars a year to get.

Camille: 18:27

Yeah, that's all. Just give us a million.

Zen: 18:31

Yeah, we can expose what's going on in the food supply, hold people to account and also not just hold people to account but discover where the contamination is happening of our food supply. You know where is the, where's the heavy metals coming from? That's contaminating organic. Frankly, organic potatoes and sweet potatoes I would not feed them to my child right now. If I had a baby, I would not feed them from the store, bought from the store. You know, a little baby that could be exposed from to heavy metals. It's very challenging for little babies to get that. Now, older children am I going to not eat potatoes and sweet potatoes ever? No, but I also have my older children on.

Zen: 19:05

We do regular detox, you know things. I also have my older children on. We do regular detox, you know things. Saunas, bentonite, clay, charcoal you know activated charcoal, things like that. Primary detox is something that we sell on our website as a detox product that's very tastes, very good and on a daily basis that is something that's advisable to get rid of heavy metals. But those types of things need to be determined, because it's not all organic sweet potatoes and potatoes, right, it's just some of them that we have tested, have found or other people have tested have found higher levels. So we need to suss out where's that coming from? Is it coming from the manure? Is it coming from fish emulsion? You know where is that coming from and how can we, you know, support farmers and communicate and raise awareness to stop that from happening. To have a cleaner, safer, non-toxic, nutrient-dense food supply. That's our goal for everyone. Access to everyone, not just to the elite who can afford organic.

Camille: 19:59

Right, because organic is so expensive I mean food in general is so expensive right now. It's incredible. I don't know. I worry about how my kids are going to afford. Your children Are they going into young adulthood now?

Zen: 20:12

They are, they're 21, 18 and 15. Okay, so, yeah, I'm like how are you going to afford?

Camille: 20:18

Yeah, and I feel like there is a movement happening and, depending on where you live, this is more or less viable.

Camille: 20:25

But you know, planting your own food, which I more and more I'm thinking gosh, we need to invest time into getting our garden going again.

Camille: 20:34

And after it's funny to talk to you so soon after seeing my one of my best friends that she was teaching me about feeding the soil and how important it is, and the quality of our food, and now hearing you explain it this way, it's really bringing to the forefront of what an epidemic this is. So I'm curious, shifting a little bit, because we thank you so much for all of that information and, of course, we will link to all of this below for her website so you can see the detoxification and all of that and how you can get involved. I'm curious about how you have done such a fantastic job, especially as a nonprofit, right off the ground, to get such a massive surge of support from the get. Those numbers that you shared, even from the first few months, is amazing. What are some of those best practices, especially for people who have a nonprofit or want to start one, to get that kind of a reach and support? Great, well.

Zen: 21:34

I'm happy to share and I really hope it does support not just people who are nonprofits or for-profits, or mothers or family members. I'd like you to think of it around like what I'm about to say in the context of whatever is important to you, right, even if it's just your relationship with your child. So I'm going to, I'm going to share a story and from that I'm going to extract the success of cause. I told you about the success of our nonprofit, but I'm gonna share a story that's more closer to home as far as my child, and that is my nine-year-old son.

Zen: 22:08

Ben was sitting at the breakfast table and he had this red rash around his mouth. He had had these allergy on and off for seven months. It looked like his lips had been sucked on by a vacuum cleaner and his lips were red and swollen and flaky and even bleeding and he had to go to school like that. I mean, it was, I would think, highly embarrassing, or you know, I'd be very self-conscious, but he was doing it. But he looks was sitting there one day and he looked at me forlornly and he said, mom, I wish all my allergies would go away. And I was like me too, buddy, and I said, but in in my head I was thinking that's never going to happen. That's what the voice was saying, because the doctors had told me that his allergies were only going to get worse. In fact, his nut allergies were life-threatening. The more that he got exposed, the more likely he could die from eating food, you know, like a cookie at a friend's birthday party. It was terrifying. Social events were like minefields to me. I was very serious, not warm, not friendly, you know. It was just a very serious situation. And so I but I warm, not friendly, it was just a very serious situation. But I heard that voice in my head and I thought, wait a second, saying that that's never going to happen. That's not empowering, that's not what I'm committed to. I'm committed to being courageous, creative and a huge contribution to the world. That's just something, personally, I had created for myself. I'd done a program called Landmark. It was all about creating in the world.

Zen: 23:30

And so I realized what I was saying and I realized that I was being resigned and doubtful that my son it was always going to be like that he had just been avoiding foods, and that resignation and doubt was seeing my son as small and it was seeing me as small, I thought what if something else was possible and if I came from being courageous and creative and a huge contribution, what could I create? So I remembered my cousin, sarah had gone gluten-free for a year and she was then able to eat a slice of pizza at a birthday party or a piece of cake at a wedding, you know now and then, and didn't have severe reactions. So I asked Ben, what, if or no? I said actually, I remind him of that story. And I said would you like to someday, maybe a year from now, be able to eat a slice of pizza at a birthday party? And his eyes got big and he was like, yes, because the currently wasn't happening. We had to bring everything to a birthday party. I would make the pizza and make the cupcakes ahead of time, and I would say we're going to celebrate, johnny, not the food we're going to eat, the food we bring. And so he said yes, that he would want to do that. And I said well then would you be my partner in your health? Would you do whatever it takes? Would you drink green drinks, smoothies, acupuncture, whatever? And he was nine years old, but he thought very seriously about it and he said yes, and then I put my hand out, I shook his hand and I said then I promise you, buddy, you will get better. And it was one of those white light moments where I was like what the heck did? I just say Cause I didn't know how to do that. But what I did know is that if I make a promise, especially to my son, if I make a promise to somebody, I am going to step up and take actions that I normally would never have taken. And I did.

Zen: 25:12

And we learned about GMOs. We watched movies together, we switched out his food, we had certain supplements, he did acupuncture, all the Chinese herbs and within four months that red line around his mouth that was swollen when he was exposed to his allergens, which we also found out through you know, alternative medicine, that he was allergic to carangin, which is a food thickener in um, it's a seaweed processed seaweed food thickener that goes in hot dogs and ice cream and you know lunch meats and so when we realized that he was exposed again by accident and he only got a faint pink line and only lasted for two days and his mouth did not swell up at all. So within four months of going GMO free, he was dramatically better. And then when his other brother got autism symptoms and had the level of glyphosate in his urine of a farmer, we went a hundred percent organic because we realized that glyphosate is sprayed as a drying agent on wheat and peas and beans and legumes and his middle brother was eating wheat. The other two were not. They had a gluten intolerance. So his, his younger brothers the middle one had high levels of glyphosate and that was because he was eating, you know, burger buns and tortilla wraps and cookies and things, cause he wasn't, didn't show to have a gluten intolerance and that resulted in um, autism symptoms because of the inflammation in his gut and his brain and very erratic behavior grades dropping all of that. So we went a hundred percent organic at that time and within six weeks my middle son's glyphosate levels were no longer detectable. We tested him again and his, his autism symptoms were gone and only came back when he ate, you know, really, junk food.

Zen: 26:54

And during that time of going organic, the first son, the elder son, his allergies went from a 19, which is life-threatening, to nuts down to 0.2, no longer life-threatening. So we have peace of mind now and and honestly, he doesn't want to eat the slice of pizza at a birthday party anymore. He knows too much about food, so he either brings his own he still, he brings his own food or he makes a salad ahead of time. He is an organic, whole food, plant-based diet advocate and he has not had to go to a doctor for any reason other than a sports checkup for 10 years. Wow, we've saved thousands and thousands of dollars a year on. You know doctor's appointments for him and for other children. So for me, we can't afford to not go organic, okay, and that result is irrefutable for us.

Zen: 27:44

So what is? How does this relate to the success of our nonprofit? If you break it down and look at it, what I did was, first of all, what happened first was my son wanted things to change. He had gotten to a point in his life where he was like I want this to change. He was tired of how it had been. Some people are not ready for change. Some people still want things to go the way they're going.

Zen: 28:09

So, number one are you ready for change? Right, do you want something to shift? And then, number two, like and are you willing to acknowledge that? Right? And number two, do you have a clear vision of where you're going. For me it was health and freedom, right. And then number three are you willing to do whatever it takes to get there? Are you willing to take actions and that means consistent actions, every day, type of actions, and we'll so. Will you agree, right, to take those actions and then actually do that, follow through and will you have partnership around it? Will you create a partnership with someone else to hold you accountable and will you make a promise, really hold yourself accountable and then again follow up on those actions? Have your clear vision.

Zen: 28:55

Just keep coming back to what is your vision. What are the actions you're going to take around that? Are you following through? If you don't acknowledge it and make a new promise? That's it. Don't make yourself bad and wrong. Don't make yourself stop, you know. Don't like. You know, make other people wrong. Just be like okay, this happened, we didn't meet our goal. What's next? What are we going to accomplish? What's our new promise? And then go, take that action and get there. It's not like I didn't have tons of breakdowns along the way, but whenever something wasn't working, I acknowledged it and then you know, made a new promise, a new goal, you know a new pathway, to find another way, and that has worked time and time again to create new strategies whenever we came up against a wall which was a lot came up against a lot of walls.

Camille: 29:40

Yeah.

Camille: 29:41

Ooh, I love that formula that is so impactful, and to have such a monumental moment between the two of you and then be able to repeat that same commitment is so impactful, and to have such a monumental moment between the two of you and then be able to repeat that same commitment is so impactful. I'm curious when you said that you had a son who was displaying those symptoms of autism and you were testing the urine. How did you even know to do that? And if a parent was considering, you know, looking into having a better understanding of what their child's allergies might be? I've never tested my child's urine for anything. I wouldn't even know where to go to do that.

Zen: 30:15

Well, that's the number one thing to do. If you notice behavioral issues. Please do not think, oh, it's just a phase, or my kid is being a bad kid, or he's she's being a brat and she needs to sit in the court like, see what's going on. That behavior, especially rashes, are the body's red lights. It's a signal to say there's something going on in the gut. And you know, as Hippocrates says, all disease starts in the gut. So what's in the gut is going to be in the urine and the feces. Okay, so testing the urine and the feces for bad bacteria pathogens, that's the first thing I would recommend for every parent to do. Also, test for heavy metals, for pesticides.

Camille: 30:50

Get that testing done, test where are you getting this testing done?

Zen: 30:55

So at the time I just want to share that at the time that was not available, but because I took on, you know being unstoppable about it, and the idea that I got was when I watched the opposition had a panel about pro GMO panel. It's called the Heritage Foundation, and I was advised to study the enemy, which I didn't want to think of as the enemy because I wanted to think I'm creating healthy communities, right, I'm not fighting. It's not moms against Monsanto, it's, you know, it's moms across America. It's moms for healthy communities. But I was advised that we were actually fighting one of the largest corporations and powers in the world and we were going up against them. And if we were going to do that, we should be smart and read the book the Art of War by Sun Tzu, and in the Art of War they say study your enemy, study them very closely, watch them. And so I watched a panel and this is great in business to study your competitors, right. And and so I watched a panel from the Heritage Foundation and a woman on that panel was saying our biggest problem are these mom bloggers that are saying their kids are getting better when they get off GMOs and eat organic. And they have no evidence they're perpetrating fraud on the American people. And when I heard the word evidence I went ding I have to get evidence. So I used what they said against them right To. It inspired I don't want to say against them, but it inspired me to get evidence.

Zen: 32:25

So I bugged a farmer friend to find a lab that would test. And there were. I had asked six different doctors in different labs to test for glyphosate, which is, you know, again, the number one used herbicide in the world. 80% of GMOs are engineered to withstand it and I didn't know how to test for GMOs, but I knew that somebody out there should be able to test for a pesticide, right, just like you can test for contaminants, for lead, for heavy metals. So I had asked labs but they were like no, it's considered safe. And I'm like well, lead and mercury were considered safe at one point. There's got to be a way to test for it.

Zen: 32:57

So eventually this farmer friend of mine found a lab owner that used to work at Monsanto, the maker of glyphosate herbicides, but had left and started his own lab. And glyphosate herbicides, but had left and started his own lab and he knew the methodology. He was around when the methodology wasn't created to test for glyphosate. So I put the word out hey, we've got somebody who can test for urine in your urine and your tap water and your breast milk for glyphosate and we had, you know, 40 something. People send in their samples on their own dime. They mailed their own samples in, they paid for them to be tested. I just put the word out.

Zen: 33:32

And that's when we found 70 to 90% of the urine and the tap water samples were positive for glyphosate, some at levels that were very concerning and some at levels, you know, hundreds, if not thousands of times higher than what's allowed in Europe. And we also found glyphosate in breast milk 3000 times higher than has been shown to cause sex hormone changes and liver and kidney damage in rats that ate very 1.1 parts per billion of glyphosate. You know we we found levels that were 3000 times higher that in in breast milk, levels that were 3000 times higher that in breast milk. So you know people wondering about why we might have reproductive issues and you know sexual identity issues and you know issues with the inability to reproduce. It is, I believe it is strongly connected to the chemicals that are in the food supply.

Zen: 34:27

And so we went on. You know, we tested, we released that information in 2014. And the glyphosate and breast milk issue. We were told, when it was translated into seven different languages in Europe, that that information sparked many different countries. 60 different countries now revoke or restrict the use of glyphosate on farming, especially as a drying agent. So this is why you can go to Europe and eat the bread there and not gain as much weight and not have rashes because they don't not hear, it's still not happening here here they still spray it as a drying agent.

Zen: 35:01

Yeah, we've been testing. We just tested school lunches, we tested fast food. We found glyphosate in um, let's see the school lunches like, why do I keep forgetting this number? But we found a glyphosate in 100 of the fast food samples and we found glyphosate in 93 of the school lunch samples and, uh, you know, at very at levels that have been shown, you know, to cause sex hormone changes and liver and kidney damage and it's also a neurotoxin. Glyphosate is a neurotoxin. It causes nervous system damage, it is our carcinogen, it is an endocrine disruptor, it causes sperm damage and it causes the androgenization of baby girls. They have studied mothers that are pregnant with girls and when they're, the higher the level of exposure that's tested in the mothers, you know, in their urine with to glyphosate, the higher likely they have the chance of the anal genital distance being lengthened in a baby girl, which is a sign of masculinity. So they have connected the exposure to glyphosate to being correlated to a, you know, a masculinization of baby girls. Goodness knows what else it's doing.

Camille: 36:13

Right. So if this finding was happening and it's being shared to European countries and they're like all right, get it out.

Zen: 36:29

Why is America not doing that? That's a great question. That is because corporations are funding our politicians and our politicians are making policies that protect the profits of the corporations and not the health and safety of our people.

Camille: 36:37

Okay, well, I can tell you right now I'm signing up to support this, to get it out. I'm sure many of our listeners, too, are thinking the same thing. So what is it that needs to happen for more people to be aware of this?

Zen: 36:52

Well, we need to get the word out in a bigger, better way. Podcasts like yours are great. I'm happy to go on podcasts. I'm happy to speak publicly. You just can contact us at info at momsacrossamericaorg. I am happy to connect with people on Moms Connect calls. On Monday nights we hold a call. It's a Zoom, it's a discussion, it's not a show, and you can join us at 7 pm Eastern time. You get the invitation to that every Monday around lunchtime. We send it out and that's a special link. You just sign up for it's free and I can get my book and that is called Unstoppable. It's available on Amazon and you can also contact your senators and representatives.

Zen: 37:33

There are a lot of senators and representatives now I believe it's about a dozen that are putting forth bills to protect the food supply. California just passed one to get red food dyes out of their food at school lunches, and other states are doing that as well, and these are food dyes that are banned in Europe, right? So there's a lot of things that you can do. That was your original question, right? What can you do? Okay, and you can also buy organic as much as possible.

Zen: 38:01

Buy the foods that you purchase the most Like, if you always have a certain kind of bread in your house, you always have certain pastas, you always have certain rice or beans. Buy those organic first. It's the foods that you don't eat as often. You know that really aren't, you know aren't a priority in the first place, but the foods you eat the most often should be organic, especially your eggs. We found very high levels of the FDA actually found very high levels of glyphosate in eggs, and that's because the chickens eat grains that are sprayed with glyphosate, right, and that gets into their eggs.

Zen: 38:33

So you want to eat um you know the eggs especially, and dairy and wheat anything wheat or chickpeas, like hummus. So if you're eating pita bread for lunch with hummus and it's not organic, you're exposing yourself to some of the highest levels of glyphosate that you could. If you're eating oatmeal for breakfast and it's not organic very high levels of glyphosate really. It's unconscionable and there are actually old rules that now refuse to accept oats that are sprayed with glyphosate. So there is change that is happening. If you eat pasta for dinner or pizza or beans for dinner and they're not organic, you could again be exposing yourself to high levels of glyphosate. And you know the 80-20 rule. I understand. For a lot of people that feels comfortable. They want to do that and they want to have cheat days and all that. But if you have a child with gut issues, like autism symptoms, like I had in my son if you have a child with severe allergies just think about the fact that you can't expect to put out a campfire with a teaspoon of fuel. You have to stop putting fuel on it altogether. It has to be a hundred percent organic, and I mean a hundred percent organic. If you're buying canned chicken and you don't know that it's organic, don't buy it If you're buying bread or butter or whatever it. Just try it for two weeks by only organic and what I venture that you will see is your children start to sleep better, your rashes start to go away, you have more energy and you will want to extend that way of eating and the food tastes better, frankly. And you can do this by doing things like we have blogs on our website, like if you just cut out soda and candy bars and chips like there's a certain we broke down the numbers If you just cut those out, you'll have the money for organic bread. You'll have the money for organic pasta. You just take care of your budget, like the businesswomen that are watching this or people that are watching this. When you need something in your business, when you need marketing, and you say, okay, I'm going to spend 10% on marketing, you create a budget for that and that's it right. You allow money for that. That's what we need to do for organic food, and we need to cut out things like buying expensive retail clothing. I'm sorry, it is not necessary. You can buy consignment. You can buy. You know, it doesn't have to be designer, that's all just a looking good thing, and you don't look good if you don't feel good. So let's focus on feeling good first and just adjust your budget for the clothing and whatever else that's expensive sneakers or shoes or whatever it is. Shift some of that money over to organic food and you will feel better and then you will look better, I promise you, and you'll think better and you'll get your jobs done better and you'll be more productive and you'll be happier in your relationships, because, I promise you, I have seen couples whose marriages have declined and I've also seen that, especially the women there are a lot more women that have gluten intolerances.

Zen: 41:39

There's something about that. Women, there are a lot more women that have gluten intolerances. There's something about that. Women eating breads, pastas, gluten products and then within 20 minutes they are being very, very crabby to their husbands. Very degrading, very emasculating, very edgy and over the years, that does not bode well for a marriage. You know we've got over 50% of marriages now getting divorced.

Zen: 42:06

I myself, you know, recently got divorced. I figured out I needed to be gluten free a long time ago, so there were other issues going on. But I have seen women become just so unpleasant after eating gluten and they have no idea and it really is important to look at. Why are you behaving a certain way? Why is your child behaving a certain way? Could adjusting your food be part of the problem? And I know for sure it was part of my problem. I became very tired, I had rashes and I was extremely cranky after eating glyphosate and I'm sure it did nothing good for my marriage.

Zen: 42:44

So I would urge people to also, if you need to switch to gluten-free, but as much as possible, switch to organic gluten-free, because otherwise the ingredients in that gluten-free food which we are looking at right now and testing, we suspect may be high in glyphosate. Because of the type of crop it is, it could be being sprayed with glyphosate as a drying agent. We hope not. We hope to come back with glowing results, that we didn't find anything, you know. But we're concerned because we have many friends who have been eating gluten-free for a long time and have gut dysbiosis, they have anxiety, they have a lot of health problems that they're like. I don't understand why. You know I've I've been eating this very strict diet and you know vegetarians and vegans eating a lot of vegetables, eating a lot of fruits, but if they're not organic, you are exposing yourself to some of the highest levels of pesticides and glyphosate that you could possibly be exposing yourself.

Camille: 43:37

Wow. Well, I feel like we need a part two, because we haven't even talked about how you've grown this amazing nonprofit. This has been so helpful. I feel like I've learned so much. I'm going to look at my pantry and my fridge a little more closely. Please tell us what you are reading, watching or listening to.

Zen: 43:57

Awesome. Well, right now I'm listening to every morning positive affirmations. I think that starting your day with news is just a really not a positive way to start the day, so I get my news and other sources by email. I no to positive affirmations in the morning and I listen to lovely music, and I do have a task assignment to read this book called disconnect by Debra Davis, and she's an expert, a scientist, for solutions for safer technology, and I have a son who is electromagnetic sensitive and I believe it's because of the chemical exposure and all of that it is more sensitive to electromagnetic. You know Wi-Fi and 5G and all that, and so I'm learning more about what's happening with that. And we are, you know we.

Zen: 44:50

Our house is hardwired, but a lot of the schools are not, and they have, you know well, none of them are actually, and they have wireless access points that are inundating our children with wireless radiation, and this is a topic for a whole nother show, but it is something that can really impact a person's mood and create circular thinking, depression, aggression, behavioral issues, and so that's another thing. If you don't feel your best, put your phone on airplane mode, do not plug it in and charge it by your head at night. Do not leave it on by your head at night, and if you can get a router that turns off the wifi at night, at least I don't have wifi on it all at my house. We have all hardwired and we use our my cell phones on data, but reducing your exposure to electromagnetic sensitivities will greatly improve your sleep quality, sleep quality and your body's ability to heal. So that's what I'm reading more about Awesome.

Camille: 45:50

Well, thank you so much, and please remind our audience one more time where they can find you online and support and join in the movement of Moms Across America.

Zen: 45:59

Sure, you can go to momsacrossamericaorg it's what we also havecom and you can click on connect and sign up for our newsletter and join us in our Moms Connect call. You can also donate and we have a health solution store and on that link we also have a free ebook that you can sign up and get and get a mini version of my book Unstoppable, and we would love to hear from you If you have ideas on. You know we have guests in our Moms Connect calls. If there's things that you want us to test, if you want to donate, we really encourage you to reach out and connect with us.

Camille: 46:32

Awesome. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in today. If you found this helpful, please leave a rating or review. Make sure that you're subscribed and never miss an episode by connecting with the link below so you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter, where I will keep you updated on all of our amazing guests and how you can be more involved in our community. Thank you so much for tuning in. Hey CEOs, thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment. In a five-star review, you could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram at callmeceopodcast, and remember you are the boss.