“Just in time for the holiday season, the ugliest car in the United States has ended a cross-country journey right here in the Big Apple. The News caught up with this and several other ‘fishy’ rides in lower Manhattan, for an educational lesson in nutrition – and how to manage a fleet of veggie cars on the streets of NYC.
It’s not everyday you spot a large vegetable on the roof of a car.
“We’re here with the fishy food tour. We’re touring across the Western United States to call attention for the need for labeling genetically engineered foods also known as GMOs”
The vegetables represent the most common genetically modified crops.
“Labeling GMOs is important not only to the health of our families and farms but also for our food democracy.”
A battle that Rica Madrid says has been ongoing with global GMO producers Monsanto and Syngenta.
“Monsanto would have you believe that GMOs are nutritionally equivalent to any other food that farmers can produce.”
But Madrid begs to differ.
“GMOs are quite different from traditional farmers methods of selective breeding and hybridization. GMOs are created in a labratory by scientists who can turn genes on and off, but we have no idea what the long-term impact is going to be.”
And for that reason Madrid and the Fishy Fleet crew started their campaign in Seattle in August and will end up in New York City sometime in December, in hopes of spreading awareness about labeling GMOs.
Source: Roma Villavicencio, KOBI 5
Also see:
+ ArkLaTex: “Fishy Food Fleet” hits the streets
+ WWLP: “Fishy Food Fleet” hits the streets
Fishy Food Cars Announce 6,000 Mile Tri-Coastal Tour
Journey from Seattle to New York for GMO Labeling Begins November 7
WASHINGTON, DC – On November 7, GMO labeling activists will set out on a cross-country 6,083-mile journey from Seattle to New York City for the “Are We Eating Fishy Food? Tri-Coastal Tour.” The tour features five mutant GMO art cars fitted with 300 pound roof-mounted sculptures that call attention to the need for labeling genetically engineered (GMO) food. The tour begins two days after the world learns if voters in Washington state approved I-522 requiring labels for food that has been genetically engineered.
The food democracy activists hope their second cross country tour will further activate Americans on the need for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to label GMO food as is done in 64 other countries. A video with highlights from the first cross-country tour can be found at www.AreWeEatingFishyFood.com along with background on each of the art cars.
“The Fishy Food art car fleet’s cross-country swim from Seattle to New York will get people talking about the importance of GMO labeling,” says David Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, whose company supported the creation of the art cars.
The first tour visited thirteen states and nine state capitals in August in a 3,300-mile journey from Washington, DC, home of the fishy food cars, to Seattle to support Yes on 522 campaign. The new Tri-Coastal Tour will follow a complete schedule and can be found at www.AreWeEatingFishyFood.com/tour/
“People want healthier food than what GMO food has to offer,” says Rica Madrid, coordinator of the Are We Eating Fishy Food? Tour. “You can measure the impact these educational vehicles have by the reaction and excitement they generate and the large number of shares we see in social media,” says Madrid.
Since 2011 citizen activism has pushed for information about what’s in our food. That year, the Right to Know March for GMO labeling walked 313 miles from Brooklyn, NY to the gates of the White House in Washington, DC to demand President Obama act on his promise to label GMO food.
Genetic Engineering means more herbicide. Chemical companies genetically engineer DNA from bacteria into food crops to either produce or tolerate the chemicals they sell. No long-term independent safety studies have been performed on adverse health effects of GMO eating GMOs. Overuse of pesticide creates resistant superweeds and superbugs, which leads to increased chemical application. Now chemical companies like Monsanto and Dow are engineering resistance in food crops to much more toxic weed killers like Dicamba and 2,4 D, the main ingredient in Agent Orange.
Currently 64 countries—EU nations, China, Russia, Japan, Brazil, and South Africa included—require labeling of GMOs; US consumers can currently only rely on voluntary labeling to determine whether food products have been altered through genetic engineering.
Origins of the FishyFood Cars
The first car in the Fishy Food fleet was “Poppy,” aka the Fishy Corn Car. Created in September 2011 by César Maxit and the DC51 Artist Collective, Fishy Corn accompanied the Right2Know March, as a support vehicle carrying leaflets, organic snacks and water as it raised awareness with marchers. Fishy Corn then went to Monsanto headquarters in Creve Coeur, Missouri for the 2012 annual shareholder meeting with activist Adam Eidinger. He parked the car on the agribusiness giant’s campus and debated Monsanto’s CEO Hugh Grant on GMO labeling during the meeting. A secret video of the encounter went viral online shortly afterwards.
In January 2013, Maxit began building four more mutant cars using extensive volunteer labor from the Washington, DC artist community. Since then, Fishy Sugar Beet aka “Rooty,” Fishy Apple aka “Goldie,” Fishy Soybean aka “Soja Girl,” and, most recently, Fishy Tomato aka “K-Sup” have driven across America. Collectively, the cars have been driven over 120,000 miles.
Members of the media are encouraged to embed with the Are We Eating Fishy Food? fleet for some or all of the tour. Contact Adam Eidinger at 202-744-2671 or [email protected] to make arrangements.
The other day Fishy Corn & Fishy Apple were in Tacoma, Washington and had their photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Ted S. Warren. Here are some of the places the photograph has been used on-line:
Washington residents may notice two cars unlike any others. A wide-eyed tan and green fish/beet known as “Rooty” and a cherry red fish/tomato known as “K-Sup” smile down at spectators from the tops of two cars.
The cars were created for the Right2KnowMarch against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Washington D.C. this summer and were driven across the country to Washington state in mid-August.
Nancy Metcalf, a local anti-GMO activist, has been driving K-Sup since August.
“[My car] features what was known as the ‘flavor savor tomato,’” Metcalf said. “It was the first genetically engineered food available on the market to consumers, but it totally failed because people were not trustworthy of GMO food at that time.”
The red tomatoes were injected with flounder fish genes to help support America’s industrial food chain to keep tomatoes ripe on the vine longer during cold months, Metcalf said.
Except the GMO chemicals injected into the soil inhibit the plant from absorbing all the minerals it needs to be healthy, Metcalf said.
In return people who eat the plant are also mineral deficient, Metcalf said.
The car also captures the attention of many onlookers.
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“One day I went out to run errands and thought it would take me about an hour and a half, but it ended up taking me about four hours because I ended up chatting with so many people about the car and about GMOs,” Metcalf said.
Reactions to the cars have been almost entirely positive with people smiling and waving as it putters down the road.
“We’ve only had one person loud and proud flip us the bird,” Metcalf said.
At first, Metcalf said she was very cautious driving over 55 mph. On windy days she can feel K-Sup wiggling on top of the car.
The key is to accelerate and take corners slowly as well as give cars in front a comfortable distance, Metcalf said.
K-Sup has been driven back and forth to Washington multiple times in order to raise awareness for GMOs in support of Initiative Measure No. 522, which would require GMOs to be clearly labeled and is featured on the general election ballot in November.
The other cars feature fishy-wheat, fish-corn and fishy-apple, fishy-soybean and fishy-sugar beet. They will tour the country a second time back to their proper owners in Washington D.C. by New Year’s.
The cars were designed by César Maxit and built by fiberglass and welding specialist David Jackson from Washington D.C., with funding from Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, according to the Label GMO Food website.
The sculptures on the cars are reinforced with steel and the shape was molded with chicken wire and papier-mâché with a fiberglass glossy finish, Metcalf said.
Metcalf will continue to drive the cars until after the November election, she said.
We asked you to send us nominations for the ugliest cars in your neighborhood, and you sent us hundreds of nominees, each one stranger than the next.
After much staff nausea and vomiting, we narrowed it down to the Top 10 (or twelve, but who’s counting?) semi-finalists… and then we turned it back over to you.
Now, the people have spoken.
Which car will take honors in this race to the bottom?
The winner is . . . Drum roll please . . .
The Beet!
Congratulations to Steve who spotted this unique ride. You’ve Beet-en the competition!
In keeping with this competition, the staff at Car Talk Plaza has awarded Steve something really ugly: a Car Talk mug with Tom and Ray’s faces on it. And, a signed photo. More ugly!
As for the car, turns out this is one ugly ride with a not-so-ugly purpose: educating the public about GMO foods. You can read about it right here.
On August 5, 2013 a group of food labeling activists set out on a cross-country road trip from Washington, DC to deliver the fishiest cars in America to GMO labeling activists in Seattle, Washington. This video documents their epic 9 day, 3,000 mile journey across America.
Please help support GMO labeling in America by donating to the Yes on 522 Campaign.
Moms across America deserve to know what they are feeding their families. This mother spotted the Fishy Fleet while driving with her daughter last month. A big thanks goes out to mothers like her who have helped put Initiative 522 on the ballot in Washington state.
At the Seattle Justice Begins with Seeds Conference, Florence Vincent talks about the Yes On 522 campaign, shows a box of Kellogg’s cereal she purchased in the UK and driving grandmother, Label GMOs Initial Instigator and Chief Robble Rouser Pamm Larry around the state on her September Grassroots Speaking Tour.
