My favorite morning routine includes hopping on the treadmill and watching a half hour or so of Ted talks or interviews between smart people. Today I watched this gem, Alex Bogusky talking Truth with Robyn O’Brien, whom I met a year ago when she was at SFC Farmers’ Market Downtown signing copies of her best seller, The Unhealthy Truth. Alex Bogusky I knew of from my NYC ad agency days; he of hotshot agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky “Subservient Chicken” fame. This man has had a long journey from creating Burger King ads to finding the Truth, and I’m grateful to my friend Marty Butler for bringing Alex’s story to my attention as a fellow agency defector. The credo for his blog, posterous, reads:
Fear is the mortal enemy of creativity, innovation and happiness
His interview with Robyn goes through dark, frightening territory. Both of their young children had life-threatening food allergies and conditions they are now certain were caused by synthetic proteins in our food system. Robyn cites 1994 as the year Pandora’s box was opened and biologically engineered food was launched into the US food supply. Europe, having noted the ill effects to animals – and I’m not talking about lab rats; these were large scale studies on cows and pigs – banned GMOs until harm could be ruled out. Whereas, America’s decision makers decided, we’ll release this exciting new technology into the food system until proven harmful. The Obama Administration has just reprised this logic in its decision to allow farmers to plant GMO alfalfa. Those who continue to question the USDA ruling are repeatedly marginalized and treated as a fringe cell. Hippies out of our minds.
“In our country you have this choice between Orthorexia and Obesity.” Adds Alex, “If you’re obese, they say you have great mental health. But if you’ve opted out [of the conventional food system], you’re orthorexic. That’s a GREAT term, well done. Whomever the folks were who came up with orthorexia, this compulsion to eat better as a medical condition – SO GOOD. BRAVO.”
If you read this blog regularly, you know I’m a fan of people who aren’t afraid of popping the hood on Big Ag – and in particular, those who go after its marketers. Alex and Robyn are certainly in the hall of fame for me.
Best quotation of the interview is from Alex, in closing, with regard to traits being engineered into our food supply: “God had some great ideas, but he just wasn’t a good capitalist…You don’t have to pay Him anything. You just take stuff.”
