American Academy of Pediatrics Gives Monsanto the Boot After Meeting with Concerned Mothers
By Nick Meyer
In today’s social media dominated world, one well-placed infographic can practically start a revolution.
With Facebook pages and Instagram accounts feeding highly precise and sometimes juicy tidbits of previously hidden information to the masses at a rate of millions per week, it’s easy to see how we can create change faster than ever before.
In the case of one particular website, a social media savvy organization and community of mothers named Mamavation, that change was achieved quicker than anyone could have predicted.
And it all came about thanks to the help of an awareness campaign over a shocking conflict of interest involving Monsanto, Coca Cola, and one of the country’s most important organizations for protecting the health of children.
Group Meets with Pediatricians, Creates Change
Mamavation turned plenty of heads recently when it posted an infographic relaying a shocking fact to its 100,000+ Facebook fans: that the American Academy of Pediatrics was actually sponsored by both the Monsanto Company and Coca Cola, two of the worst health offenders on the planet.
They shared the information with an infographic detailing the relationship and continued to share. As time went on, more and more Facebook pages picked it up and began sharing as well.
All of a sudden, a well-hidden fact that nobody was supposed to know about began coming to the forefront of the public consciousness.
The group seized momentum and was able to set up numerous with the academy, according to its Facebook page. From there, they began explaining the true history of the Monsanto Company to the organization’s public affairs team, with whom they had the meeting.
“We explained to them who Monsanto represented to moms and why they are an inappropriate sponsor for pediatricians…and after they met about it, they agreed,” the Mamavation Facebook page said on September 28.
Mamavation could not hide their enthusiasm for the change on social media.
“So we are proud to announce that Monsanto, the makers of PCBs, DDT and GMOs has been kicked to the curb!!!!” their Facebook page said.
The group also thanked its fans for spreading the word and exposing the situation to their friends and family on Facebook.
“And this is all because of you! Keep speaking up for the future of our kids. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop!”
Sponsorships for the Academy are up at the end of the year according to Mamavation, and the group also said that Coca Cola, another dubious sponsor of the Academy, will likely be kicked to the curb at the end of the year.
According to the AAP’s website, the organization is comprised of “64,000 pediatricians committed to the optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.”
Needless to say, Monsanto and its history of causing serious health problems and environmental destruction should have nothing to do with such an organization, which may have realized that being associated with them could lead to a PR nightmare down the line.
Of course another question might be, why was a chemical giant (along with a massive soda conglomerate in the midst of an ongoing childhood diabetes epidemic) sponsoring a children’s health organization in the first place, anyway?
The Power of Grassroots Activism
The incredible success of Mamavation on this issue is just another testament to the power of social media for creating change.
Monsanto and other similar companies like Dow and DuPont have long thrived on deception, but now they’re being exposed day-by-day, week-by-week and year-by-year.
With so many people fired up about real, organic food and the GMO Free movement, the only question left is to decide what the next order of business should be.
At any rate, as Mamavation and its readers proved recently, the truth will come to light. And when it does, Monsanto and co. are not going to prepared for what happens next.
Nick Meyer is a longtime journalist who’s been published in the Detroit Free Press, Dallas Morning News and several other outlets. He founded AltHealthWORKS in 2012 to showcase extraordinary stories of healing and the power of organic living, stories the mainstream media always seemed to miss. You can sign up for updates (and receive his free ‘Healing Secrets of the Amazon’ eBook) by clicking here. Like on Facebook