Yay! Change is Easy!

OK... not totally easy. But I've got an amazing anecdote to share. So, I'm just a blogger. A very enthusiastic, somewhat knowledgeable blogger, but really - just a blogger. And, really, anyone can be a blogger. All you need is an internet connection and a working knowledge of the English language and voila! You're a blogger, if you want to be.

Maybe I'm not "just a blogger." Maybe I'm "just a blogger with a lot of chutzpah." Because one thing I've never hesitated about is approaching "big names" and introducing myself as a blogger (and often, a fan). That's how I've met the authors of most of my favorite books about sustainable food. Sometimes they blow you off, but often they are nice. Sometimes I've stayed in contact with them via email. So now, three years after I started blogging, I'm a blogger with a lot of connections and a book that's about to be published. But I still think anyone can do it. It just takes an internet connection and some chutzpah.

That said, being a blogger can give you a LOT of power. A few weeks ago, a grad student in DC read my blog and contacted me via email. We started chatting on gmail, and she told me she was attending a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing the next morning. It was about global hunger. So I decided to watch it via webcast. And... I was horrified. It was a bunch of people cheerleading pesticides, fertilizers, and every other unsustainable agricultural technique - and planning to export those practices to the developing world to "help" the starving people. Yikes!

So, being a blogger, I blogged about it. A friend (who I also met through blogging) emailed me about the hearing. She didn't know about it ahead of time, so she missed it. I emailed her my notes on it, and she forwarded them to a sustainable food listserv. Their group put out a press release on the hearing & the bill that it was about (S.384). I figured I'd keep it on my radar, but I hadn't read the bill and wasn't in too big a hurry.

Then the bill passed out of committee. That same friend told me about it. And sent me enough information to blog some more about it. Other bloggers read my blog and they blogged about it. But - best of all? I was on Twitter yesterday when I saw a tweet from someone saying "The Real Monsanto Bill: S.384 The Global Food Security Act." I was THRILLED that the bad bill (which mandates GMO research as a part of our aid to developing nations) was getting attention. So I clicked on the link.

And what was at the link? It was an Organic Consumers Association action alert, citing my blog posts as well as the press release my friend's group put out. Wow!!!!

So the bill's not dead. Far from it. But if Organic Consumers has a link up, that means it's going to get some attention. Not just from me and the people who read my blog and this blog, but from the hundreds of thousands of people who are on their email list. It means that perhaps as many as 10,000 letters will go to Congress expressing outrage over the bill.

The point of the story is that any one of us, by being just a blogger, can make quite a ripple and perhaps really make change happen. It takes time and determination, but it's possible. Oh, and please click the Organic Consumers link above and take action. This bill is bad news.