0:00:11.501,0:00:16.283
I'm such an unlikely crusader[br]for cleaning up the food supply.

0:00:16.285,0:00:18.808
I grew up in Texas,

0:00:18.809,0:00:22.390
eating my fair share[br]of Doritos and Ding Dongs.

0:00:22.391,0:00:23.963
(Laughter)

0:00:23.964,0:00:25.778
I wasn't a foodie.

0:00:25.779,0:00:29.158
What I was, was the oldest of four kids[br]and like you often hear about,

0:00:29.159,0:00:34.475
I inherited absolutely every single one[br]of those Type A overachieving genes

0:00:34.476,0:00:37.495
that you read about[br]in first born children.

0:00:37.496,0:00:40.637
Thankfully, I learned how to[br]channel that into academics,

0:00:40.638,0:00:43.278
and I received a full scholarship[br]to business school

0:00:43.279,0:00:46.590
before graduating[br]as the top one in my class.

0:00:46.591,0:00:50.693
I then went on to work[br]as a food industry analyst

0:00:50.694,0:00:54.219
and when the management teams[br]of places like Whole Foods and Wild Oats

0:00:54.220,0:00:57.485
would come to our offices,[br]we just kind of thought it was

0:00:57.486,0:01:01.790
"lifestyle of the rich and famous"[br]or some hippie thing.

0:01:01.791,0:01:04.275
We didn't really get it.

0:01:04.277,0:01:08.297
After doing that for a while,[br]my husband and I decided to have kids,

0:01:08.298,0:01:11.232
so I traded the brief case[br]for a diaper bag.

0:01:11.233,0:01:13.804
Using all of that Type A energy,

0:01:13.805,0:01:15.844
I had four kids

0:01:15.845,0:01:17.737
in just over five years.

0:01:17.738,0:01:19.807
(Laughter)

0:01:21.237,0:01:24.429
Up until that point, I really[br]hadn't given a whole lot of thought

0:01:24.430,0:01:27.100
about what was in the food supply.

0:01:27.101,0:01:30.371
I figured if it was on grocery store[br]shelves, it was safe.

0:01:30.372,0:01:32.213
Please don't tell me what to eat,

0:01:32.214,0:01:35.811
and don't tell me what to feed my kids.

0:01:36.801,0:01:41.552
Then one morning,[br]over breakfast, life changed.

0:01:42.522,0:01:44.497
And in all candor, that morning,

0:01:44.497,0:01:47.702
that breakfast was[br]L'Eggo My Eggo waffles,

0:01:47.703,0:01:49.679
tubes of blue yoghurt,

0:01:49.680,0:01:51.569
and scrambled eggs.

0:01:52.489,0:01:56.697
Our youngest child started[br]to have an allergic reaction.

0:01:56.698,0:01:59.490
As her face started to swell shut,

0:01:59.491,0:02:02.628
I was so unfamiliar with[br]what a food allergy actually looked like,

0:02:02.629,0:02:07.026
that I looked at my older three and said,[br]"What did you put in her face?"

0:02:08.515,0:02:12.954
They all gave me[br]those blank little kid stares.

0:02:12.955,0:02:14.786
And I got really scared.

0:02:14.787,0:02:17.550
So I raced her to the[br]paediatrician's office and she said,

0:02:17.551,0:02:19.887
"Robyn, what did you[br]feed the kids for breakfast?

0:02:19.888,0:02:22.376
It looks like she is having[br]this allergic reaction."

0:02:22.377,0:02:26.109
I said,"I fed them L'Eggo My Eggo waffles,[br]blue yoghurt, and scrambled eggs."

0:02:26.110,0:02:29.182
And she says, "Well, those are[br]three of the top beta allergens",

0:02:29.183,0:02:33.573
and she starts rattling off all[br]of these statistics about food allergies,

0:02:33.574,0:02:36.057
and how food could kill a kid.

0:02:37.327,0:02:40.685
All I could think was, since when?

0:02:40.686,0:02:44.054
Since when has food become so dangerous?

0:02:45.104,0:02:47.674
As we got everything under control,[br]we got back home,

0:02:47.675,0:02:50.158
and I put all the kids down for a nap,

0:02:50.159,0:02:54.792
every single analytical gene[br]in my body went off.

0:02:54.793,0:02:57.747
I wanted to dig into that data.

0:02:57.748,0:03:03.077
Because I hadn't known anybody[br]that had a food allergy when I was a kid.

0:03:03.078,0:03:06.838
As I turned to the research,[br]I learned that morning:

0:03:06.839,0:03:12.217
from 1997 until 2002, there had been[br]a doubling of the peanut allergy.

0:03:12.218,0:03:15.168
I also learned that one out of 17 kids[br]under the age of three

0:03:15.169,0:03:17.103
now has a food allergy.

0:03:17.104,0:03:19.539
Then I learned from[br]the Centers for Disease Control

0:03:19.540,0:03:22.900
that there had been a 265% increase

0:03:22.918,0:03:27.963
in the rate of hospitalization[br]related to food allergic reactions.

0:03:27.964,0:03:33.701
That was doctors checking people into ER,[br]that wasn't moms diagnosing it.

0:03:33.702,0:03:36.962
So I wanted to know,[br]what is a food allergy?

0:03:38.272,0:03:43.640
A food allergy is when your body[br]sees food proteins as foreign.

0:03:43.641,0:03:46.496
It basically launches[br]this inflammatory response

0:03:46.497,0:03:50.053
to drive out that foreign invader.

0:03:50.054,0:03:52.499
It just begged the question to me:

0:03:52.500,0:03:57.449
Is there something foreign in our food[br]that wasn't there when we were kids?

0:03:59.469,0:04:03.308
Again, I turned to the data and I'd heard[br]from the Wall Street Journal and CNN

0:04:03.309,0:04:07.064
that milk allergy is the most[br]common allergy here in the US.

0:04:08.494,0:04:11.987
I learned from[br]the US Department of Agriculture

0:04:11.988,0:04:14.451
that beginning in the 1990s,

0:04:14.452,0:04:19.747
we began to engineer new proteins[br]into our food supply.

0:04:19.748,0:04:22.678
And it started in our milk.

0:04:22.679,0:04:27.390
In 1994, in order to drive profitability[br]for the dairy industry,

0:04:27.391,0:04:29.475
scientists, using this new technology,

0:04:29.476,0:04:32.000
were able to genetically[br]engineer new proteins.

0:04:32.001,0:04:35.606
It was a synthetic growth hormone.[br]and it's injected into dairy cows,

0:04:35.607,0:04:37.690
and it helps them make more milk.

0:04:37.691,0:04:40.496
Now, the analyst in me,[br]that made absolutely perfect sense,

0:04:40.497,0:04:42.254
it was a brilliant business model

0:04:42.255,0:04:45.437
that could help drive profitability[br]for the dairy industry.

0:04:46.587,0:04:52.564
But at the same time, no human trials[br]had ever been conducted on that.

0:04:54.134,0:04:58.328
Animal studies were showing[br]that it increased rates of mastitis,

0:04:58.329,0:05:03.967
ovarian cysts, lameness,[br]skin disorders that resulted

0:05:03.968,0:05:07.349
in an increased antibiotic use.

0:05:07.350,0:05:12.853
For that reason, governments[br]around the world said,

0:05:12.854,0:05:15.225
"This hasn't yet been proven safe."

0:05:15.226,0:05:19.923
So Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand,

0:05:19.924,0:05:24.394
Japan, all 27 countries in Europe,

0:05:24.416,0:05:27.666
they didn't allow it[br]into their food supply.

0:05:27.667,0:05:31.152
On top of that, studies started[br]to come out that showed

0:05:31.153,0:05:35.743
that this synthetic growth hormone,[br]elevated hormone levels

0:05:35.744,0:05:40.086
that were linked to breast,[br]prostate, and colon cancer.

0:05:41.376,0:05:44.956
When I learned that, I wanted to know:

0:05:46.196,0:05:48.792
what are the rates[br]of cancer here in the US

0:05:48.793,0:05:54.124
versus these other countries[br]that didn't accept this growth hormone?

0:05:54.125,0:05:56.542
So I turned to incredible organizations

0:05:56.543,0:05:59.834
like the American Cancer Society[br]and Livestrong.

0:06:00.986,0:06:05.322
I learned that the US has[br]one of the highest rates of cancer

0:06:05.323,0:06:08.399
of any country on the planet.

0:06:08.400,0:06:11.272
And that migration studies show[br]that if you were to move here

0:06:11.273,0:06:12.860
from somewhere like Japan,

0:06:12.861,0:06:16.130
your likelihood of developing cancer[br]increases fourfold.

0:06:17.250,0:06:20.781
I also learned that one out of two men[br]and one out of three American women

0:06:20.782,0:06:25.275
are expected to get cancer[br]in their lifetime.

0:06:25.276,0:06:29.612
I then went on to learn[br]from the Centers for Disease Control

0:06:29.613,0:06:34.924
that cancer is the leading cause[br]of death by disease

0:06:34.925,0:06:38.303
for children under the age of 15.

0:06:40.243,0:06:42.580
Correlation isn't causation.

0:06:43.860,0:06:47.541
So I wanted to look[br]at some of these other allergens.

0:06:47.542,0:06:49.341
I turned to soy because I had learned

0:06:49.342,0:06:54.055
that soy had recently become[br]one of the top eight allergens.

0:06:54.056,0:06:58.985
According to the US Department[br]of Agriculture, in 1996,

0:06:58.986,0:07:01.581
in order to drive profitability[br]for the soy industry,

0:07:01.582,0:07:05.446
because it's primarily used[br]to fed livestock,

0:07:05.447,0:07:08.789
a new protein was introduced[br]into the soy bean.

0:07:08.790,0:07:12.463
Again, as an analyst,[br]it made perfect sense.

0:07:12.464,0:07:14.410
The soy bean was engineered

0:07:14.411,0:07:18.599
to withstand increasing doses[br]of wheat killer.

0:07:18.600,0:07:23.864
So it drove profitability for the industry[br]by increasing sales with that wheat killer

0:07:23.865,0:07:28.988
and then on top of that, you were[br]patenting something new in that protein

0:07:28.989,0:07:32.393
that you could then license,[br]and charge royalty fees,

0:07:32.394,0:07:35.831
and trade fees, and licensing fees for.

0:07:37.681,0:07:42.568
And again, because no human trials[br]had been conducted,

0:07:42.569,0:07:45.947
and the one human trial[br]that had been conducted

0:07:45.948,0:07:50.913
showed a 50% increase[br]in the rate of soy allergies,

0:07:50.914,0:07:53.214
governments around the world said,

0:07:53.215,0:07:55.540
"We're going to exercise precaution.

0:07:55.541,0:07:58.490
We're not going to allow this[br]into our food supply

0:07:58.491,0:08:01.729
because it hasn't yet been proven safe."

0:08:01.730,0:08:06.349
And yet, here we said,[br]"It hasn't yet been proven dangerous."

0:08:06.350,0:08:08.493
And we allowed it.

0:08:09.923,0:08:12.661
As I kept looking, I wanted to know:

0:08:12.662,0:08:16.670
Were there other new proteins in our food?

0:08:16.671,0:08:18.617
I learned that a few years later,

0:08:18.618,0:08:20.327
through the growing concern

0:08:20.328,0:08:22.828
of the spraying of insecticides[br]over corn fields,

0:08:22.829,0:08:25.828
scientists using this new technology

0:08:25.829,0:08:31.288
were able to engineer that insecticidal[br]protein into the seed of a corn plant.

0:08:31.289,0:08:35.529
So that as it grows,[br]it releases its own insecticide.

0:08:37.419,0:08:39.881
Again, because no[br]human studies had been done,

0:08:39.881,0:08:41.777
governments around the world said,

0:08:42.886,0:08:45.905
"We're not going to introduce this[br]into our food supply.

0:08:45.918,0:08:48.836
Or if we do, we are going[br]to insist on labeling

0:08:48.837,0:08:52.848
so that consumers[br]can make an informed choice."

0:08:52.849,0:08:56.288
In some countries, they didn't want it[br]fed to their livestock.

0:08:56.289,0:08:59.115
In some countries,[br]like in France, in New Zealand,

0:08:59.116,0:09:03.700
they were so concerned,[br]they didn't want it planted in their soil.

0:09:05.970,0:09:10.703
As you can imagine,[br]upon learning all of this,

0:09:10.704,0:09:14.589
there were some pretty[br]dark nights in our house.

0:09:16.059,0:09:22.094
When I thought, "How many bowls[br]of cereal have I poured this milk on

0:09:22.095,0:09:26.900
not knowing that it contained[br]this synthetic growth hormone?

0:09:26.901,0:09:31.633
How much of the soy have I fed my family

0:09:31.634,0:09:34.907
not knowing that consumers[br]in other countries

0:09:34.908,0:09:37.867
were able to make an informed choice?"

0:09:39.347,0:09:46.046
As I sat down with my husband, I said,[br]"I cannot unlearn this information.

0:09:47.446,0:09:52.487
I have to do everything I can[br]to try to teach other people about this.

0:09:53.337,0:09:56.282
I don't know what they will say."

0:09:57.992,0:10:00.655
Together, the next morning,

0:10:00.656,0:10:04.734
we sat the kids down[br]at the breakfast table and I said,

0:10:05.974,0:10:09.335
"You know how mom has learned[br]some pretty tough stuff

0:10:09.336,0:10:11.974
about what's going on in our food?

0:10:11.975,0:10:14.867
It's not in food in other countries,

0:10:14.868,0:10:18.273
and it's especially[br]not in food fed to kids.

0:10:20.193,0:10:23.090
I'm going to have to do[br]something about it."

0:10:24.280,0:10:27.357
One of the boys looked[br]at me, and he said,

0:10:27.358,0:10:31.695
"Mom, how many people are on your team?"

0:10:32.795,0:10:34.462
(Laughter)

0:10:35.742,0:10:40.179
I said, "Well, it's you four. And daddy."

0:10:40.180,0:10:41.732
(Laughter)

0:10:43.012,0:10:46.190
And he said, "Mom,[br]you need a bigger team."

0:10:46.191,0:10:47.810
(Laughter)

0:10:48.990,0:10:52.075
He was absolutely right.

0:10:52.083,0:10:56.665
At that point, people were saying,[br]"You should reach out to Erin Brockovich,

0:10:56.666,0:10:59.480
you should really reach out[br]to Erin Brockovich."

0:10:59.481,0:11:02.512
All I kept thinking was, "Who am I?

0:11:02.513,0:11:05.759
Who am I to reach out to Erin Brockovich?"

0:11:05.760,0:11:07.033
But at the same time,

0:11:07.034,0:11:10.092
I thought maybe if I could get through[br]to somebody like that,

0:11:10.093,0:11:13.092
we could start to create this change.

0:11:13.093,0:11:18.347
Truly harnessing every single one[br]of those Type A genes,

0:11:18.348,0:11:23.470
I spent two weeks crafting[br]a four sentence e-mail to Erin Brockovich.

0:11:23.471,0:11:25.762
(Laughter)

0:11:26.892,0:11:31.596
When I fired it off, I don't know[br]if I ever really expected her to reply.

0:11:31.597,0:11:34.532
But when she did, I suddenly thought,

0:11:34.533,0:11:39.071
maybe one person really can[br]make a difference.

0:11:40.351,0:11:42.849
As I continued to look into this research

0:11:44.029,0:11:48.012
and the research that was[br]being presented by the industry

0:11:48.013,0:11:52.354
about how we needed this new[br]operating system on our food supply,

0:11:52.355,0:11:55.341
that we needed these[br]genetically engineered proteins,

0:11:55.342,0:11:58.318
and all the chemicals that went with it,

0:11:58.319,0:12:02.167
I realised that they had done[br]an incredible job manufacturing demand

0:12:02.168,0:12:04.269
by creating this fear of scarcity

0:12:04.270,0:12:07.283
that we needed this technology[br]to feed the world.

0:12:08.683,0:12:12.933
But at the same time,[br]the USDA was reporting

0:12:12.934,0:12:18.712
that the US was throwing away[br]96 billion pounds of food, every year.

0:12:20.192,0:12:26.233
27% of the food that we were producing[br]wasn't even making it to our plates.

0:12:27.713,0:12:31.286
So I realised while it was[br]in the interest of industry

0:12:31.287,0:12:36.293
to drive a need for increased production,[br]this was also a distribution issue.

0:12:37.593,0:12:41.043
On top of that, reports were[br]coming out of the United Nations,

0:12:41.044,0:12:43.683
they were saying[br]that conventional agriculture,

0:12:43.684,0:12:46.601
without the use of all[br]these synthetic chemicals,

0:12:46.602,0:12:51.259
was actually doing an incredible job[br]of meeting this demand.

0:12:52.459,0:12:57.843
As I stepped back from that I thought,[br]"How can we eat this way here?

0:12:58.943,0:13:00.869
Without all of these synthetic chemicals

0:13:00.870,0:13:03.602
and without all of these[br]newly introduced proteins

0:13:03.603,0:13:06.748
for which no human trials[br]had been conducted?"

0:13:06.749,0:13:09.370
I kept coming back to organics.

0:13:09.371,0:13:13.505
In all candor, it was[br]driving me absolutely nuts

0:13:13.506,0:13:17.031
because of the high price for those foods.

0:13:17.032,0:13:20.171
So I looked into the business model there.

0:13:20.172,0:13:25.142
I learned that as a national family,[br]sitting down to our national dinner table,

0:13:25.143,0:13:31.375
with our national budget, our resources[br]are used to subsidize the growing of food

0:13:32.496,0:13:37.877
with all of these genetically engineered[br]proteins and all of these chemicals.

0:13:37.878,0:13:42.480
And at the same time, the farmers[br]that are growing things organically,

0:13:42.481,0:13:45.992
which by law means without the use[br]of these synthetic chemicals

0:13:45.993,0:13:49.562
and without the use[br]of these genetically engineered proteins,

0:13:49.563,0:13:53.935
these guys are charged fees[br]to prove that their stuff is safe.

0:13:53.936,0:13:58.212
On top of that, they're charged fees[br]to then label it, and then on top of that,

0:13:58.213,0:14:01.972
they don't get the same crop insurance[br]and marketing assistance programs

0:14:01.973,0:14:05.289
that these guys get over here.

0:14:05.290,0:14:10.850
So I reached out to these farmers that had[br]adopted this new operating system.

0:14:10.851,0:14:13.216
That's when I learned that the farmers

0:14:13.217,0:14:17.095
that had been feeding[br]our country for generations,

0:14:17.096,0:14:21.621
are suddenly having to pay new costs[br]with these new technologies

0:14:21.622,0:14:25.828
because of the patents in those seeds,[br]they can no longer store seeds

0:14:25.829,0:14:29.988
as their grandfathers did[br]and their great grandfathers did.

0:14:29.989,0:14:34.227
But rather, they've got to license[br]the use of that technology

0:14:34.228,0:14:38.749
and pay royalty fees,[br]and trade fees, and licensing fees

0:14:38.751,0:14:43.085
for the privatization of these profits[br]to these shareholders.

0:14:45.047,0:14:50.409
As I reflected on the fact that the US[br]was one of the few countries in the world

0:14:50.410,0:14:54.651
to have so boldly adopted[br]this new technology,

0:14:54.667,0:14:57.959
and all of these chemicals[br]that it was dependent upon,

0:14:57.960,0:14:59.505
I wanted to know,

0:14:59.506,0:15:04.247
"What are our rates of disease here[br]versus the rest of the world?"

0:15:06.797,0:15:10.027
I learned that the US[br]spends more on health care

0:15:10.028,0:15:13.494
than any other country on the planet.

0:15:13.495,0:15:20.011
That 16 cents of every dollar we spend[br]is spent managing disease.

0:15:21.911,0:15:25.153
As an analyst, I reflected[br]on that. and I thought,

0:15:26.383,0:15:30.983
we can't drive our profitability[br]towards our core competencies

0:15:30.984,0:15:35.856
at the corporate level[br]because we're busy managing disease.

0:15:36.846,0:15:41.814
Our global competitiveness[br]could very well be at stake.

0:15:44.204,0:15:49.314
So as I stood in my kitchen,[br]having learned all of this,

0:15:49.315,0:15:54.350
looking in my cabinets and realizing[br]that these synthetic ingredients

0:15:54.351,0:15:59.376
and these genetically engineered proteins[br]were in just about everything.

0:16:00.436,0:16:03.558
I turned to the Grocery[br]Manufacturers Association

0:16:04.558,0:16:07.015
to learn how I could avoid them.

0:16:08.515,0:16:11.821
I learned that 80% of our processed foods

0:16:11.822,0:16:15.382
contain these genetically[br]engineered ingredients.

0:16:15.383,0:16:21.626
But at the same time, I learned[br]that Kraft and Kellogg and Coca Cola

0:16:23.036,0:16:27.587
aren't using them in the products[br]that they formulate in other countries.

0:16:32.027,0:16:35.549
When I first learned that,[br]it was kind of depressing.

0:16:36.499,0:16:38.234
But then I thought,

0:16:38.235,0:16:41.544
We're not asking them[br]to reinvent the wheel.

0:16:41.545,0:16:47.992
We haven't called upon them together[br]to exercise the same level of precaution

0:16:47.993,0:16:52.318
and to either label these ingredients[br]so that we can make an informed choice

0:16:52.319,0:16:55.916
or remove them from the products[br]that they sell here in the US,

0:16:55.917,0:16:59.628
and place the same value on the lives[br]of the American eaters

0:16:59.629,0:17:03.949
that they've already placed on the lives[br]of eaters in other countries.

0:17:05.519,0:17:09.123
In all candor, that day,[br]standing in the kitchen,

0:17:09.124,0:17:12.065
we simply began to make changes

0:17:12.066,0:17:15.935
by trying to eat[br]a little bit less processed food.

0:17:16.815,0:17:21.709
Because it wasn't about the perfect[br]being the enemy of the good.

0:17:22.469,0:17:25.929
It was about progress, not perfection.

0:17:27.459,0:17:33.705
What I came to realise is that each[br]and every single one of us

0:17:34.545,0:17:38.287
has something that we're uniquely good at.

0:17:39.547,0:17:44.167
When you leverage that with something[br]that you're passionate about,

0:17:45.177,0:17:51.451
it can serve as a rocket fuel[br]to create extraordinary change.

0:17:52.811,0:17:58.785
The bottom line is[br]that our country was founded

0:17:58.786,0:18:03.503
by courageous and creative entrepreneurs.

0:18:04.793,0:18:10.338
So I invite you to lend[br]your talent so that together,

0:18:10.339,0:18:15.410
as a nation of 300 million Americans,

0:18:15.411,0:18:19.340
can create the change that we want[br]to see in the health of our families,

0:18:19.341,0:18:22.855
in the health of our food system,[br]and in the health of our country.

0:18:23.565,0:18:24.772
Thank you.

0:18:24.773,0:18:26.140
(Applause)