‘New MacDonald’ Video Goes Viral: Children Share Their Views On GMOs
The “New MacDonald” video has gone viral. A group of children got creative and developed a new take on “Old McDonald Had a Farm” to highlight what they feel are the dangers of GMOs and other industrialized agriculture tactics.
The New Macdonald Movement was sponsored by Only Organic. The groups worked in conjunction with a children’s drama troupe to make the viral video. In the video, Old MacDonald sprays his crops with all types of chemical pesticides and herbicides, while keeping his livestock in small containment areas. New MacDonald never uses “toxic chemical fertilizers” and allows his livestock spacious pastures to roam.
The message being shared by the New MacDonald Movement appears to coincide, in large part, with a current Center for Food Safety initiative. The group is urging Wyoming Governor Mead to veto the “ag-gag” bill S.F. 12. The legislation would make it illegal to document the day-to-day activities on factory farms. Such record keeping and video footage has often been used to unearth allegations of animal welfare crimes and food safety issues.
The so-called ag-gag bill was approved by the Wyoming legislature and was placed on Governor Mead’s desk to sign. The governor has only until Friday to make a decision about the agriculture legislation.
“We are urgently calling on Governor Mead to veto S.F. 12 in order to protect human health and transparency in our food system,” said Paige Tomaselli, senior attorney at Center for Food Safety. “Ag-gag laws take our food system in the wrong direction. Allowing laws that reduce the accountability of food producers only further degrades our relationship with the land and our food. These laws work to criminalize speech intended to improve our food system and keep our food production behind closed doors. Without the ability to witness, expose, and critique some of the nation’s most powerful industries, we are all vulnerable,” Tomaselli added.
American consumers have been urging both state and federal lawmakers to label GMO and demanding increased transparency in the farm to table food supply process in the United States. Last March, a group of animal welfare activists, environmentalists, and labor rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit to overturn a similar ag-gag law in Idaho. The Center for Food Safety was a party to the ag-gag legislation lawsuit.
“The Ag-gag laws present a threat to food safety by seeking to stop investigative activities that could keep contaminated food off the market,” according to the Center for Food Safety. “The welfare of animals raised and slaughtered in animal factories has a direct correlation with the safety of the U.S. food supply.”
What do you think about the New MacDonald Movement and the ag-gag legislation in Wyoming?
