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- [00:00]
Christine Koh
The agrochemical companies have their tentacles so freaking deep in our government that it does not matter if a Democrat or a Republican is in office. We shouldn't all be having to live in a world where we have to be so incredibly mindful about everything we put in our bodies. We should just be able to go to the grocery store and buy food that's not poisoned. These chemicals are showing up in over 80% of Americans. Urine. We're finding glyphosate and these other farming chemicals in human breast milk, in babies, placentas, in our blood, in our rainwater, in our drinking water, on our food, in men's balls. Oh, yeah, we're finding him everywhere. Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. Today I am joined by my husband Hector, and we have a really awesome, super important episode for you. We were recording and ask me anything and Hector asked me about what's happening with glyphosate, with the executive order that Trump signed. What is happening with the rally in April in Washington D.C. stay tuned and listen to find out all the details and where you can find us us Also check out the show notes too. We didn't say this in the asking me anything, but check out the show notes. There's a website that we have, the people versus the poison where you can actually sign up and let us know RSVP that you're going to be there. Because we just kind of want to understand how many people are actually showing up and we would love your support. We would love for you to come. The more people that are there, the bigger splash we can make with media and maybe actually have an opportunity to reverse this horrific executive order that's happening right now and also the Supreme Court case that's happening. So I just believe in power to people, power, power to the numbers. And this is an episode all about everything going on right now with Glyphosate. What is going on? What the f is going on with Trump and this executive order? My thoughts on it. And we just have a really awesome conversation around it. So please join us. Check out the link, make sure that you rsvp. The more people, the better. Bring your parents, bring your kiddos. It's going to be a kid friendly rally and it's going to be a fun time. We'll see you in D.C. i'm going to be doing a speech. I'm also going to be. Wait, Hector, I haven't told you this. I did the math. The rally is happening basically like the last week that I'm allowed to fly. So we are really cutting it close here with this pregnancy. Um, it's fine. I don't say that to scare you. We'll be fine.
- [02:28]
Hector
We'll be fine. We're good.
- [02:29]
Christine Koh
But we're just really. We're really cutting it close there. And I think I'm giving a speech. I just need to make sure that I'm. I'm gonna be so pregnant.
- [02:37]
Hector
You're gonna be seven. Seven months pregnant, right?
- [02:40]
Christine Koh
Yeah, I'm gonna be like 34 weeks, I think. Yeah, 33 weeks, something like that. So. But I will be there, hopefully giving a speech, and I hope to see you there. Check out the show notes. Make sure to rsvp. Also, if you're loving the episode, if you will tag me, post about it. Post about the rally on your Instagram. We need to get as many people there as possible. We the people versus the agrochemical companies. We got this. It's bipartisan too, so love you all. Thanks for listening. And if you could take a moment to rate and read the podcast. It means so much and it really helps the show. Thank you, guys. Love you.
- [03:23]
Hector
So you have a rally coming up, right? April 27th. April 27th in D.C. what is going on there? Can you tell me a little bit more information about what the rally's about, what you guys are protesting, what's happening?
- [03:38]
Christine Koh
Yeah, so, like two years ago, we did a rally in Battlefield, Michigan for Kellogg's to remove their food dyes. And we got an amazing response from that. We got media coverage. We had over a thousand people show up. We had 400,000 signatures for that. And I believe, and the people that I'm planning this with all believe that this is going to be so much bigger, and it should be, because this is a much bigger issue that we're fighting right now than just the food dyes in the food, which the food dye should have never been in there in the first place. But glyphosate is a whole other beast. So what is happening is on April 27, so why that date? The Supreme Court has decided to take up the case with Monsanto. Bayer. Monsanto was bought out by Bayer a couple years ago, so it's technically Bayer. And they are the largest producers of a glyphosate. Well, they are the producers of a glyphosate based herbicide called Roundup that's being sprayed not only on our lawns, but also it's being sprayed heavily on our crops and it's ending up in our rainwater. It's ending up in our drinking water. It's ending up on all of our farmland. It's destroying the soil, and hence it's destroying the nutrient density in our food, because we are destroying the amazing ecosystem that lives in the soil that's actually creating the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that our produce needs in order to create vitamins, minerals, and nutrients for us. It's a really big problem. We do know that glyphosate causes cancer. The World Health Organization named it a probable human carcinogen back in 2015. And that means that back then we knew that it was probably most likely causing cancer. And they said probable human carcinogen, just simply because at the time, they didn't have the full data to say that they fully believe it is. But probable means that they're like, we're pretty positive that this causes cancer. Since then, Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 and has since since been absolutely pummeled with litigations from farmers and everyday Americans that have claimed that they have gotten cancer from using their product. And they have paid over $10 billion now to people that have gotten cancer. And now this is really important to note, they have spent over $10 billion paying these people out, because in the court of law, they have found that there was evidence that these people got cancer from glyphosate. So that's incredibly important. In the court of law, they have found that these people are getting cancer from glyphosate. And a lot of them are farmers because a lot of them are using glyphosate on their crops. And so that's how they're getting exposed to it. But the problem is that over 80% of Americans are now finding glyphosate in their urine. I'm incredibly mindful of the food that I put in my body and what I eat and how I eat in my diet. And I eat all organic. And if I have glyphosate in my body, it makes me incredibly concerned for all the people that are not as mindful and aren't paying attention to their diets. And I don't say that with judgment. I say that with compassion, that we shouldn't all be having to live in a world where we have to be so incredibly mindful about everything we put in our bodies. We should just be able to go to the grocery store and buy food that's not poisoned. And so we are meeting to have this rally because the Supreme Court has decided to take up this case with Monsanto, Bayer. I know I kind of went on a tangent There. But it's important to know all this information because what's happening right now is because Bayer has spent over $10 billion paying out people that have gotten cancer from their products. Instead of changing their formulation or getting rid of this hero product of theirs that makes them a lot of money, they have now decided to go to daddy government, to the federal government and ask for immunity protection.
- [07:45]
Hector
Of course.
- [07:46]
Christine Koh
Yeah. So instead of taking accountability and going,
- [07:48]
Hector
huh, maybe we should, maybe, maybe we're
- [07:51]
Christine Koh
the problem, maybe we're the problem. No, they are begging the federal government for immunity. You may remember that there is the very famous immunity shield, the 1986 vaccine immunity shield that was passed to protect vaccine companies from any sort of liability. So if you or your child gets harmed from a vaccine, you actually can't hold the company liable, you can't sue them. And this is not about getting. Well, it is about getting justice and money. But more so than that, when you take a company's liability away, you take away the business protections that we have in place for every single company that exists on this planet that holds them accountable in order, it holds them accountable for creating healthy, safe products. That's what the problem is, is that now if they have an immunity shield, if it actually goes through which the Supreme Court has decided to take up the case and see Monsanto Bayer Bayer again. But we just keep calling them Monsanto Bayer because Bayer bought Monsanto. But if, and it's our concern is that now that the Supreme Court is taking up this case, the judge that is on this case very notoriously sides with big, big agrochemical companies. The lawyer that they have for Bayer is also a very well known litigator that wins a lot of these cases. And we're pretty positive that they're probably, the government's probably going to side with Monsanto Bayer.
- [09:21]
Hector
Wow.
- [09:22]
Christine Koh
So we are f. I mean it's a really bizarre.
- [09:27]
Hector
I really just, I don't understand. It's just, it's uncomprehensible.
- [09:33]
Christine Koh
Well, let's talk about what the agrochemical companies are claiming that a lot of people are falling for. So Monsanto Bayer. I'm going to outline all this for you. It's also beautifully outlined in the film Common Ground. I highly recommend watching that. It's on Amazon Prime. Okay, so they are a large agrochemical company that create a lot of agrochemical products for, for our farming. Now about 90% of our farmers rely on these chemicals in order to grow our food, which is a really big problem. This is not a problem. That we can fix overnight. I've seen several people come out in defense of Trump's executive order saying that if we pulled glyphosate out tomorrow, it would cause a national food security crisis. They're not wrong. They're not wrong.
- [10:23]
Hector
Something real quick. So how do they rely on it? Is it because their crops are so big they, they need them to, to spray on their entire life cycle for them to, to grow efficiently?
- [10:36]
Christine Koh
Well, because, yeah, because, so Monsanto, Monsanto, Bayer and a lot of these other sagenta, kimchina, they're all paying grants to the agrochemical or sorry, to the agro universities. So they're paying grants to these universities in order to sway the curriculum that these farmers are taught in school. And by the way, I want to be very, very clear here. This is not, I'm criticizing the system. I am not criticizing the farmers. I love farmers, of course, love farmers.
- [11:09]
Hector
Yeah, of course.
- [11:10]
Christine Koh
I'm, I'm in support of farmers. I'm on your side. I'm criticizing the system. I just want to be very, very clear because I'm not criticizing the farmers here. But what happens when they go to these agro universities? They're getting taught a curriculum that is largely bought and paid for by these agrochemical companies. And so these farmers leave the universities thinking that the only way, the only option that they have for farming is using these chemical inputs. Now, what we've learned in various studies, there's one, there's the Rodal Institute where they have done a side by side 40 year study where they do organic farming next to conventional farming. They found that organic farming actually produces the same amount of food, it produces the same amount of yield as the conventional farming does. Which completely goes against what these farmers are being taught in school by the agrochemical companies. Because the agrochemical companies are telling them, they're telling the farmers that if you want to be able to grow enough crops and have enough yield in order to feed, feed enough people and also be able to afford it, you have to have these chemical inputs. Now, I'm not saying that it's easy to farm without these chemicals. It is hard. Pests are a big problem. And it's why a lot of these farmers rely really heavily on things like glyphosate because they get rid of the weeds. So they're, they're herbicides. So they get rid of, you know, the weeds, the herbs, and then they use fungicides to get rid of like a lot of the fungus and then they use pesticides to get rid of the bugs and the pests, which I'm not saying are not a problem and that it's really, really easy to do it, do it organically. But we have a lot of evidence showing in Common Ground also in the film Kiss the Ground that there's another way to do this so we can actually farm regeneratively. And what happens is not only is it creating about the same amount of yield as conventional, it's also setting us up for a lifetime of being able to actually have plantable healthy soil. Part of the problem that we're dealing with right now, I mentioned the nutri density earlier. When we're spraying these chemical inputs on the land, it's killing the good healthy soil. It's killing the really amazing ecosystem that lives in the soil. Think about our guts and we have how we have a microbiome that drives our immune system, it drives our overall health. It does so much for our bodies. This ecosystem that we have living in our bodies of good and bad bacteria that live in this synergistic environment together that really run our health. The soil has a very similar situation where it has this ecosystem of bugs that lives in there, that creates the food that our plants then eat. And that's what gives our plants vitamins, minerals and nutrients. But when we're killing off that ecosystem in the soil with all of these harsh chemicals, we're destroying the ecosystem in the soil and we're making the soil unplanned, plantable. If you know me or have been listening to the show for a while, you know that I'm really mindful about what I bring into my home, especially when it comes to products that we use every single day. One of those is cleaning products. And conventional cleaning products can actually be some of the most toxic things in the house. This is why I switched to branch Basics around probably. It's probably been about 10 years now and honestly it's been become a permanent part of my cleaning routine. I love that their products are plant and mineral based, they're fragrance free and they're also made safe, certified. So I feel really good about using them around my home, especially with my dogs, and especially now that I'm going to have a new baby around. One thing that really surprised me is how simple it is. Everything is built around their concentrate, which you dilute for basically everything. Kitchen counters, bathrooms, laundry floors, even produce. I've been using it constantly and it's replaced so many different cleaners under my sink. It's just such a better feeling knowing that I'm cleaning my home without bringing a bunch of mystery chemicals into it. And here's the good news. Branch Basics is now available everywhere you shop. Target target.com Amazon and of course branch basics.com tossing the toxins has never been more convenient. And for anyone grabbing the premium starter kit, you can get 15% off@branch basics.com with our code Real Foodology. Just use code code Real Foodology for 15 off the premium starter kit at branch basics.com again that's 15% off the premium starter kit at branchbasics.com with code real Foodology. And after you purchase, when they ask where you heard about them, make sure you mention my show. So what's incredibly concerning is that we're creating all this dead soil that we're no longer going to be able to plant in. And so, and then we have these agrochemical companies saying, well, this is the only way that we're going to be able to feed the world. World. Actually, if you look at it from a long term lens, there's a lot of ecologists that are theorizing now. Not theorizing. They are not theorizing. What's the word? What's the word? I don't have the word for it, but they're essentially, they're saying that we have about, God, it's got to be about 45 harvests left now, meaning that if we continue down this path where we're just continuing to kill our soil and it's dead, it's becoming dead, then they're having to move to other places to plant because you can no longer plant in this soil. And if we keep doing that, we're going to run out of soil that's habitable and that can create living life in it because we're killing it all. And they're saying we have about 45 years left if we keep going down this path. So not only are we making the soil unlivable for plants to grow in, it's also decreasing the nutrient density of the soil for the plants. So they're not getting the food that they need. And then what are we seeing in the news all the time? We're talking about how our vegetables that we buy at the grocery store have, I don't know the exact stats, but let's say a third of the nutrients of what our grandparents ate and the vegetables that they were getting back then because they weren't spraying their soil soil like they are now. So we have created a generation of farmers that are completely dependent on these fertilizers, pesticides They've also, it's very expensive to farm. They buy these really expensive machines that are over a million dollars that they use to spray with all the pesticides. So then they're in debt. A lot of them get loans out with the federal government in order to afford all of the farming machinery that they need. A lot of them are in debt with Monsanto Bayers. There was, I got, I Remember back in 2018, so many farmers coming out actually against this because they felt like they were essentially on welfare with these large agrochemical companies because they would. In order to plant their genetically modified seeds. So the, the corn, the wheat that we see a lot in our ultra. Sorry, not the wheat, sorry, the corn and the soy that we're seeing in a lot of our ultra processed foods. In order to grow those, they have to have a contract with, like Monsanto, Bayer, for example, because they create the GMO patent seed. And what we were finding is these conventional farmers that have this contract, they would plant these seeds and then the seeds would blow over to an organic farm. And then Monsanto would come in and they would sue the organic farm because they'd say, you have our, you have our products, you have our product. No, give us money. And so they're also taking out the good guys. I'm not pitting farmers against each other, but just like taking out the farmers that were genuinely trying to do better help by creating organic food. So these agrochemical companies are these giant monolith companies that have so much money. If you think big Pharma is scary
- [18:46]
Hector
and intimidating and has all this money and power, the agriculture, agricultural companies probably have equal or greater than power.
- [18:58]
Christine Koh
And think about it from this.
- [19:00]
Hector
So they own, they own the education, they own the school curriculum, they own
- [19:05]
Christine Koh
the product, they own the farmers.
- [19:06]
Hector
They own the farmers, they own the politicians defending them. Wow.
- [19:13]
Christine Koh
Well, and think about it like this. So Big Pharma has done a great job of convincing most of us that we cannot live without pharmaceuticals. And most people are on you know, on average a couple pharmaceutical drugs each. But think about 50 food. Humans can't live or survive without food. Every single one of us. It is. We have to rely on our food system. That alone is such a large money maker. When they have a corner of the market, they own these agrochemical companies own a large majority of our food system through these seeds and through the chemicals that they're spraying on our food. Because of how ubiquitous, they have intertwined themselves in creating this whole system that is reliant on them.
- [19:59]
Hector
Wow. This is bullshit.
- [20:00]
Christine Koh
It isn't major bullshit.
- [20:02]
Hector
Okay. That's wild. And then they cause cancer to these farmers, and then don't they own the solution to the problem that they've caused as well? Don't they own cancer drugs? Drugs?
- [20:13]
Christine Koh
So Bayer bought Monsanto, like I said, in 2018. Bayer, before that was just known as a. I don't know if you'd call them a farm. I guess it would be a pharmaceutical company. But, you know, they're well known for, like their aspirin, for example. It's a German company. They bought out Monsanto in 2018 and so bought their whole agrochemical business. And so now Bayer is in the medicine and the agrochemical business. Meaning that when a farmer gets cancer from using their products like glyphosate, then they get cancer and then they get put on chemo. Guess who creates the chemo drugs too. Bear. So it is a full circle. You create the problem and then you sell them the solution. Create the problem, Sell them the solution. It's a great business.
- [20:57]
Hector
Yeah, I. It's brilliant on their part.
- [20:59]
Christine Koh
Yeah. We are the ones that get.
- [21:01]
Hector
They're the God f these people. That's insane. And it's just all very confusing too, because that executive order I was really confused about.
- [21:11]
Christine Koh
Let me be very clear. I'm not a fan of this executive order. In fact, I was incredibly pissed. And I feel. Yeah, I just. I feel very blindsided by this. The reason why people are coming out and saying and why Trump did this executive order is because it is true that if we were to pull glyphosate out tomorrow, we would actually, we would have a national security food crisis on our hands because so many farmers depend on glyphosate. So this is not something that we could pull out tomorrow. And the reason that Trump support sign that executive order is because his thinking is one, that if we get rid of the glyphosate, we're going to have a national food crisis on our hands. And then also we get a lot of these chemicals from China, which could be considered an act of bioterrorism if you think about it. I mean, they're poisoning the people and they're poisoning them at the very source. So his executive order, from what I understand, is also making it to where they are promising that they're going to create more of these chemicals in America. All of this is bullshit, by the way, and I do not support it in any way. What he is saying is true, and those are all facts. However. However, what we should be doing and that we're not doing is we should be also creating an off ramp to get our farmers off these chemicals so that they're not so dependent on the chemicals. Yeah, we cannot do this tomorrow. We wouldn't be able to pull the rug out from under them. But what we need to be doing is we need to start funding regenerative farming education in school so that farmers come out of school knowing how to do it. We need to give them resources, we need to give them money to get them off the chemicals so they're not dependent on these chemicals. So they start farming regeneratively. Start putting money and resources and education into the farmers to teach them how to do it another way and start moving our whole system over to another system that's not so dependent on chemicals. And if there was a promise, if there was an executive order where that was put in place and said like, okay, we recognize we can't get them off the chemicals tomorrow. Yes, that's true. And we're also adding money into all this to get these farmers that to be not so dependent on these chemicals. That would be the perfect solution. But just writing this executive order and then just saying we need the chemicals, we're dependent on them. Sorry, there's no other solution is bullshit. And all it's doing is creating a protection for the agrochemical companies. Yeah.
- [23:33]
Hector
And it's also creating mass confusion and chaos for us, the consumers and supporters of Maha as well.
- [23:40]
Christine Koh
Yeah. It's incredibly confusing and it feels, I know a lot of people. It'll be really interesting to see what happens in midterms because a lot of people feel very snubbed by this. And this is a big deal.
- [23:50]
Hector
It's a huge deal.
- [23:51]
Christine Koh
This is probably the biggest deal that we, that we have when it comes to Maha and the health of our country. Because this is the source. Like I said earlier, Americans have to eat every single day. It is a non negotiable. We can't get around it. This isn't something that we can avoid. And if it's happening on such a level with our food, we can only avoid it so much. You can only buy and afford so much organic. And it's even showing up in organic food because it's so ubiquitous.
- [24:17]
Hector
It's crazy. They also have us so hooked on their product that if we stop using the product, we will all die from starvation.
- [24:26]
Christine Koh
I know, I know. We've created a crisis.
- [24:29]
Hector
So does China spray with, with their own products on their, on their farming?
- [24:33]
Christine Koh
They do. I know that they Use glyphosate. But this is a great question, actually. So paraquat. And I believe it's diquat too. Let me just double check. So I get this correct. Are banned in China, but Kim China sells them to us and we use them on our farmland here.
- [24:50]
Hector
Classic. That is bananas.
- [24:53]
Christine Koh
So it is. It's a form of bioterrorism. Yep. So China banned the sale and use of Paraquat in 2017. And Paraquat is another one that's incredibly consistent. Concerning. It's up there with glyphosate. And let me see.
- [25:05]
Hector
And I believe same companies is.
- [25:08]
Christine Koh
I believe daiquat is also banned in China and we use that a lot too. Oh, I'm sorry. I stand corrected. So diquat's not banned in China, but paraquat is. Okay, but paraquat is similar to glyphosate where it's wreaking havoc on our hormones, causing infertility, it's causing cancer, and it's created by. By Kim China. And they sell it to us and we spray it on our food here.
- [25:34]
Hector
Oh, boy. Okay. Yeah.
- [25:38]
Christine Koh
I mean, I'm laughing because what else can you do? I mean, it's just so.
- [25:41]
Hector
It's a really important rally on April 27th at 9. 00am 9:00am tell your boss just, hey, I want to go. I want to go protest against these evil corporations. They will understand. They will let you leave work to go protest. I guarantee it.
- [26:00]
Christine Koh
Well, I hope so. Or maybe just take a day off.
- [26:03]
Hector
A sick day.
- [26:04]
Christine Koh
Yeah, take a sick day. I'm sick from the glyphosate. I have to take a day off. And then your boss sees you at the rally in photos. Oops. Yeah, no. This is going to be incredibly important. The more support we can get out there, the better. The Kellogg's rally, part of the reason why it got so much media attention is because we had over a thousand people. People show up. And we are hoping for tens of thousands of people to show up.
- [26:28]
Hector
That would be awesome. That would be great.
- [26:30]
Christine Koh
At that point, the media can't ignore us. And this is part of the problem too is the media is largely ignoring this conversation. They're talking about it a little bit, but you know, these companies fund these networks too. And so there's only so much that their bosses allow them to say. But the louder that we get, the less that they can actually ignore us.
- [26:50]
Hector
Exactly.
- [26:51]
Christine Koh
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- [28:14]
Hector
I mean, what it was probably like a couple weeks ago was all over social media, it was all over X, all over Instagram, it was Glyphosate, everything. Which is awesome.
- [28:23]
Christine Koh
People are finally waking up to it. And there's one more thing I want to say because this is I have been very frustrated about how the conversation has been going online about this. As someone who, if you're a new listener to the podcast, you may not be aware of how long I've been fighting this, but I have been fighting this fight since 2011 alongside people like Vani Hari, the food babe. I don't say that. That's not like a. I'm not trying to brag. I just want to give you context is what I'm trying to give you is like a timeline, right? So in 2011, when, when was Obama and I just want to make sure that I get the timeline right. When did Obama get voted in? Because I think that and I'm bringing this up because it's not to make excuses for people that are in power right now. I am fucking pissed off about what's happening right now and I am not giving anybody an excuse for who's in power right now, the only reason why I continue to bring this up is because people need to understand that this is not a situation that we can outvote ourselves. I fell for that trap. I thought that we could vote our way out of this depending on who we voted for. And I have been on both sides of the aisle where I have voted for both people. I voted for Obama twice because Obama was talking about GMOs, and he said that he was going to address this. What symbol are you making right now?
- [29:48]
Hector
I'm just playing with my fingers.
- [29:53]
Christine Koh
Okay. Are you flagging some symbols there? Okay, sorry. I voted for Obama twice because he promised that he was going to do something about Monsanto. Because back then, there was a small subset of activists that were really. We. We were starting to get a lot of traction, and we were all learning about glyphosate and how it was being sprayed on our food. And we all were promised that Obama was going to address GMOs. And GMOs and glyphosate are very intricately connected. And he did the exact opposite. He signed the Monsanto act, which only protected Monsanto further. And the reason, again, that I'm bringing this up is not to make excuses for the current administration. What I'm trying to paint a picture for everybody to understand is that this is not something that I'm seeing all these posts online that are like, oh, you did this. I can't believe that you voted for the people. The administration that's doing this to us, y'.
- [30:56]
Hector
All. It's been going on for so long.
- [30:58]
Christine Koh
It has been going on for so
- [31:00]
Hector
long, and it's so entrenched with the swamp.
- [31:04]
Christine Koh
It is so. The agrochemical companies have their tentacles so freaking deep in our government that it does not matter if a Democrat or a Republican is in office. This was happening under Obama both times. Yes. It happened under Trump under the first administration. It was happening under Biden. Kamala's campaign manager was an ex Monsanto lobbyist, you guys. So even if we had voted Kamala in here, it just would have been status quo. Honestly, you just would not have been hearing about it. The only reason that it's glaringly in our face right now and why the agrochemical companies are kicking and screaming and looking for immunity right now is because this is the first time they've actually really been challenged. They've never been challenged under the other administrations because it was just status quo. People didn't know enough about it, so there wasn't enough of a public uproar. About it. Even though people like myself feel like we have been screaming into a void since 2011, and many people before me, many years before me, but we were screaming into a void for so long and the general public was not aware of it and making a big deal out of it. And then we also didn't have somebody like Bobby Kennedy on stage saying, we're going to attack the chemicals in our air, food and water. Trump even said it, you know, on camera. He said, we're going to get rid of the chemicals in our air, food, and our water, and we're going to make America healthy again. This is why the agrochemical companies are coming out in full force right now asking for immunity. Yes, if Kamala had won, they would not be asking for immunity because they wouldn't need it just would have been a status quo. It would have been business as usual. They would have been spraying more chemicals on us. It would have gone under the radar. Nobody would be fighting about it publicly besides, like a small subset of activists. But it's become the forefront of the conversation because so many people are aware of it now, because people like Bobby Kennedy had a stage and a platform to talk about it. And now these agrochemical companies are feeling incredibly threatened and like, they are pushed into a corner, which, when you think about it from that regard, I guess it's a. It's a good thing in the sense that we are shining a light on the true evil and darkness in this country, and it's finally coming to light. And they're thrashing and screaming and they are throwing everything they possibly can at it right now. They are going state by state right now trying to get this immunity bill passed, meaning that, like, if each state were to pass it, then eventually it will. It will make it much easier to make it into a federal bill, a federal law, eventually. They're also trying to slide it into our farm bill right now, which they have had some success on. And then they're also doing this, this case with the Supreme Court. So they are trying every angle they possibly can to get this voted in and to try to get this immunity. And the only reason they need the immunity is because we finally are aware of it and people are. Are fighting back. Otherwise it just would have been status quo. So it's the only reason I bring that up, because I think Americans need to know this, that this is not a left versus right issue. This is an American people versus the agrochemical companies situation. And this is not something that we would have outvoted.
- [34:08]
Hector
You nailed that.
- [34:10]
Christine Koh
Thank you.
- [34:11]
Hector
It was a great monologue. Court. Good job.
- [34:12]
Christine Koh
Thank you.
- [34:13]
Hector
Seriously, that was incredible. Yeah.
- [34:14]
Christine Koh
I'm so passionate about it.
- [34:15]
Hector
You're so right, man. This is. It's hard to come. Like, hard to comprehend. And you feel so powerless against these. These companies. Right? They are so rich, they are so powerful. How do you even. How do you even start? I mean, it's. It's incredible work with you and Alex Clark are doing. Alexandra, Kelly Ryerson, Bonnie Hari, thank you all for standing up and speaking the truth on this. This is incredible, what you all are doing.
- [34:46]
Christine Koh
Thank you. It's. I'm exhausted, y'. All. I've been doing this for a long time. I'm exhausted, and I'm bummed. I have to be honest.
- [34:56]
Hector
I'm bummed. It's a big bummer to fight against this. And then. And then POTUS to. To not just say something about it, but sign an executive order against. Did hurt.
- [35:08]
Christine Koh
It did hurt.
- [35:09]
Hector
It was a little confusing, too. So I get the part where you have, you know, if we got off this product, we stopped spraying, we would be in some serious. In a really tough position overnight. Right. If we stopped using glyphosate. What I don't understand is why are they trying to give them an immunity from. Are they trying to slide that in as part of, like, their package that they're negotiating? So if, you know, hey, you can stop using the product, but if you get poison. If you get poisoned from it and you get cancer, you still also can't sue us, why are they trying to slide that in there? Because they're sick of being sued.
- [35:46]
Christine Koh
Yeah, well, so they're making the same argument that the vaccine companies made in 1986. So when they made the case for their argument for the vaccine shield. And the reason I'm comparing this is because it's the only other example we've ever seen in play. And the vaccine liability shield actually got passed. And the reason why was because the vaccines were causing a significant amount of harm. We were actually seeing a lot of side effects and a lot of harm. And the companies were getting sued, and essentially they went to the federal government and they just said, look, these vaccines are life saving, and if we don't get some sort of protection from the federal government, then we're gonna. We're not gonna be able to stay business, and we're gonna have to stop making these vaccines. So we need protection, which is so fucked up, because why didn't they go back to the drawing board and go, huh? How can we make these safer so that we're not harming so many people. As we look back at like the. I talked about this on the podcast with Aaron Seri and I think we also talked about it with Del bigtree, where the DTaP vaccine was notoriously causing so much harm that they had to redo it. They reformulated it so that it wasn't causing so much harm. But again, instead of just going to the drawing board and going back to the drawing board and reformulating it so they didn't cause so much harm, they went to the federal government and they just said, hey, we need to keep making these vaccines and if you don't protect us from being sued, then we're going to be sued to oblivion and we're not going to have the money to make these life saving vaccines anymore. Okay, sounds good in theory, right?
- [37:25]
Hector
Yep. By the way.
- [37:26]
Christine Koh
But what's up is that then you are not, you're taking away the guardrails that every company should be required to have in order to hold them accountable to create safe and healthy products for people. Because when you, when you take that immunity, when you give them that immunity, then they have no reason.
- [37:48]
Hector
Yeah, they start a little sloppy on their product. They start adding sketchy ingredients. They don't have as much.
- [37:54]
Christine Koh
There's nothing holding them accountable.
- [37:55]
Hector
Exactly.
- [37:57]
Christine Koh
They don't have any reason to create anything else other than they can just look at their spreadsheets and go, wow, we're making a killing money. Vioxx is a perfect example of that. Vioxx killed over 50,000 people, gave them heart attacks. It said in the emails they knew that it was going to cause side effects, but they knew they were going to make so much money that they were, they were willing to have that be a business cost. Of course, that was just calculated in
- [38:20]
Hector
part of the investment. If you're going to make $50 billion, what it's going to cost you $10 billion to do it? You're doing that all day.
- [38:28]
Christine Koh
It's so sick.
- [38:29]
Hector
It is sick.
- [38:30]
Christine Koh
So that's what's happening with the agrochemical companies is they are going to the federal government and they're saying, look, their case is that we can't feed the world, we can't continue to farm and we can't continue to create food for Americans if we get sued to high hell and we lose money because we can't keep functioning as a business. So once again, I'm going to say, instead of them going back to the drawing board and going, huh, how could we actually make this product safer so that it's not killing so many people. They're factoring this into their overall business model, which is we're willing to have X amount of harm in order to continue using this product, moving forward with it. And so instead of trying to reformulate making it safer or just using a different product or, I mean, look, these agrochemical companies, maybe there's a time and a place a little bit here and there in certain situations and scenarios. And I would love to talk to Will Harris about this, a farmer, but in my understanding and extensive research that I've done on regenerative farming, there's very little situations that you actually truly need these chemical inputs. And think about how crazy and hubris this is on. On these humans part that decided to start spraying these chemicals on our food. Some of these chemicals are very similar in chemical makeup to what they were using as Nazi nerve agents in World War II. And they were also using them in the. The chambers, the gas chambers, which is incredibly heartbreaking. They're very similar in chemical composition. And they had so much of these chemicals left over after the war that they needed somewhere to place them and they started spraying them on our food.
- [40:10]
Hector
Oh, naturally. Let's just put them on our corn and our fruit. Thank you.
- [40:15]
Christine Koh
Let's put this on stuff that we're going to consume and eat.
- [40:18]
Hector
Right. Great idea.
- [40:19]
Christine Koh
Respectfully, what the fuck? Literally, what the fuck.
- [40:23]
Hector
Yeah.
- [40:24]
Christine Koh
So when you think about it like that, why did we think that it was smart to spray these chemicals on things that we were going to be eating? And now we're in a situation where, yes, we rely so heavily on these chemicals, but we know that these chemicals are causing severe harm. Birth defects, endocrine disruption. What are we seeing that so many people are struggling with now, even younger and younger and younger? Infertility. Infertility is intricately. It's intricately connected to our endocrine systems which create our hormones and regulate our hormones. We are absolutely seeing a infertility crisis. We're seeing a cancer crisis. And I think that it is pregnancy. Brain is so crazy. I'm losing so many words and I'm forgetting so many words. I think that it's multifaceted is the word that I was looking for. I'm not saying it's only the chemicals, but I think it's an assault in many different areas, and one of them being that we can no longer avoid these chemicals. These chemicals are showing up in over 80% of Americans urine. We're finding glyphosate and These other farming chemicals in human breast milk, we're finding it in babies, placentas. We're finding it in men's balls. We're finding it. What? Oh, yeah. We're finding them everywhere. We're finding these chemicals everywhere. We're finding it in our urine, in our blood, we're finding it in our rainwater, we're finding it in our drinking water, we're finding it on our food. This is not of. Oh, the dose makes the poison. Good luck avoiding any of those things.
- [41:59]
Hector
Yeah, it's impossible.
- [42:00]
Christine Koh
It's impossible.
- [42:02]
Hector
Yeah.
- [42:02]
Christine Koh
It's no longer dose makes the poison kind of situation, because we can't avoid them, so.
- [42:08]
Hector
Oh, this is crazy. This stuff makes me so depressed. Let's talk about something fun.
- [42:12]
Christine Koh
I know. I'm really sorry.
- [42:13]
Hector
Are we vaccinating our kids? I'm just kidding. Just kidding.
- [42:18]
Christine Koh
I feel like I kept going on tangents, and there were a couple things that I wanted to say, and I can't remember. Did I. Hopefully I wrapped up all of it.
- [42:25]
Hector
Yeah. Yeah, you did. Yeah. It's. It's going to be interesting how this plays out here in the next, what, few months with. With the Supreme Court in Monsanto Bay and all that stuff going on. I think it's going to be a huge, pivotal part of Maha right before the midterms.
- [42:42]
Christine Koh
Oh, yeah.
- [42:43]
Hector
So let's. I mean, so they have a good plan for us and things work out, because now we're gonna be pissed.
- [42:50]
Christine Koh
We are pissed.
- [42:51]
Hector
Yeah.
- [42:51]
Christine Koh
People are pissed.
- [42:51]
Hector
Yeah.
- [42:55]
Christine Koh
And I just don't want to vote anymore. Honestly, I'm over it. I just want to wrap this up really quickly because you said something that I always like to speak to, because I get that this is all really heavy, and it makes people feel scared. It makes people feel depressed. Look, I know all of this, and I have made it my life's mission to fight this. I really feel like this fight is one of the main reasons that I'm here on Earth at this very time. I just can feel it because this is a fight that I'm not willing to give up. And for some reason, I just feel like I was given the tools to fight it and not let it depress me. And. And it pisses me off, but the anger actually fuels me, and it doesn't scare me. But I understand that it is very scary for a lot of people to hear this, and I think it makes people want to put their head in the sand and just put their hands up in the air and say, fuck it. Like, we're being poisoned. There's nothing we can do about it. Look, there's a lot of hope in the world. There's a lot of. I really believe that we're also living in a time of truth. I think a lot of why all of this is being put so much in the forefront and we're all being bombarded with it, is because we're meant to see it. The truth is meant to come and rise to the surface. We're shining light on the darkest parts of society and of the world. And if you can hang on, I really believe there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I do believe that this is gonna be resolved. I pray that it's gonna happen in our lifetime and our kids. We owe this to our kids to fight this fight. Yes, it's scary, but there is also a component where I have resolved in myself that there's only so much that I can do. You buy organic. You're very mindful. But this is why a lot of my page and my message is around empowering and empowering you to make good choices with the food and the things that you buy and bring into your home. The things that you put on your body where you're eating out. It has never been more important to be mindful of these things. And not from a place of fear, but from a place of empowerment where you are making decisions that you feel good about that make you feel good in your body. You know, sauna, exercise, make sure that you're sweating, take something to support your liver health, take something like body biopc that will help your body get some of the glyphosate out. And then you just have to pray and give the rest to God because there is really only so much control that we have. And there are certain things that we can do, and then there are certain things that are out of our control. And the way that I make peace with it in my mind is I feel as though I'm doing the absolute best that I can and I'm giving the rest to God and that's it. Like, there's only so much we can do and we can't live in fear because living in fear and anxiety is also not good for you. And I get questions from people all the time or judgments. I'll see all these comments that are like, oh, like you live in fear all the time. And, you know, must suck to be scared all the time. I don't. I don't. I know all this.
- [46:01]
Hector
Obviously you don't.
- [46:02]
Christine Koh
I'm able to metabolize it and like live and, and move on with my life. I just am very cognizant and aware of it and I take the right steps in order to protect myself the way that I think is gonna have the biggest impact. And then I give the rest to God, truly. So we don't have to live in fear. And it's not good for you to live in fear.
- [46:22]
Hector
We control the things that we can control. There's a lot of things out of our control, but we're going to do the little things daily that are within. Within our control. Right?
- [46:32]
Christine Koh
Yeah, exactly. So I just wanted to say that because it is not my intention to cause fear in people. It's just incredibly important that we're aware of all this because the more people that stand up and speak out, the better opportunity we have to actually fight this. And I'm still hopeful. I haven't lost hope yet, even though it feels like it is the biggest uphill battle. That's so freaking annoying. But we're fighting the good fight. And I'm a true believer that in the end the truth prevails, good prevails evil. And I'm gonna hold on to that. So preach.
- [47:05]
Hector
Amen.
- [47:07]
Christine Koh
Hallelujah. Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson. Theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the first the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. And if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com see you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. Are you overwhelmed by the shoulds? Do you want to simplify your life to better align with your values? Do you want to create space in your schedule so you have room for the good stuff, play, joy, relationships, creativity and more? Check out Edit yout Life, a podcast to help you edit the unnecessary from your life so you have more room to enjoy the awesome. Through episodes with me, Christine Koh and a range of smart, compassionate guests, you will come away with insights and tactics to help you simplify and declutter your home time, mental space and more.