MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Rev. Bill Talen leads a protest at Monsanto world headquarters on Thanksgiving (Photo:Erik McGregor)

Led by the indefatigable minister of anti-consumerism Billy Talen, protesters assembled at the Monsanto world headquarters in St. Louis on Thanksgiving.

Talen pointed out that Monsanto represents ruinous global domination of agricultural toxic chemicals and products that contribute to global warming. It is a company that symbolizes what people in the US and around the world should not be thankful for, according to a news release by Talen and his Stop Shopping Choir:

Known by millions as the most environmentally destructive corporation on the planet, Monsanto, for nearly two decades, has been controlling political campaigns and affecting the regulatory process of agricultural systems all over the world. In the U.S. alone, more than 90 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn are grown with seeds containing Monsanto-patented genetics.

"Monsanto must be stopped," said Reverend Billy, who has been jailed more than 50 times protesting social and environmental injustices. "Monsanto is the devil and what better day than Thanksgiving to remind the world that eating local, organic food is one way to stop this profit-mongering, biodiversity-destroying monopoly."

Industrial agriculture and the entire globalized food system, which is becoming more large-scale and centralized every day, destroys biodiversity, soils and local food systems, and is responsible for accelerating climate change by contributing more than 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The protesters, many dressed as Pilgrims, partook of an organic meal near the Monsanto complex. Additional non-GMO food was prepared to share with community members in nearby Ferguson, where Michael Brown was killed by police officer Darren Wilson (now resigned). Joining Talen and his followers at Monsanto were the Organic Consumers Association, GMO Free Midwest, Gateway Garlic Farms and The Greenhorns, among other opponents of the company's policies of environmental destruction, toxic products and thuggish efforts to privatize seeds.

Talen, who occasionally writes commentaries for BuzzFlash at Truthout, understands the importance of highlighting the values that benefit humans as a community through the use of spectacle. There is an inherent irony in his creation of an anti-consumer and anti-predatory corporation movement that mimics an evangelical church model, right down to the rousing choir.

It was refreshing and inspiring that on a day most people in the US obliviously feasted on corporate agricultural food and watched football, Rev. Billy donned his pastoral white collar to minister the gospel of a nation and planet where people and the environment - not noxious corporations - come first.

Talen has created a secular "religion" worth believing in. As he said after the Monsanto protesters joined with residents of Ferguson for a joint Thanksgiving celebration: "The conversations there brought human rights and earth rights together in such a groundbreaking way. Our social movements become a revolution from what we put into our bodies. Earthalujah!"

In the midst of an avalanche of dreadful news, Talen gives us all something to celebrate and enjoy.

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