The series of three PSA style video bintang Mark Valley (Human Target, Harry's Law), Jillian bel, bell (Workaholics, Partners), Vanessa sinar, ray (Pretty Little Liars), Amir Arison (Vamps, The Visitor) and project creator Sarah Gaboury herself among the many talented actors enlisted for the project. The tongue-and-cheek approach to this serious issue includes the titles “GMOs and the Right NOT to Know,” “GMOs: Trust Corporations to Decide What's Best” and the soon to be released “Who is Against prop 37 and Labeling GMO’s?”
We recently caught up with creator Sarah Gaboury to gain a little lebih insight into why this matter is important and how she and Matt hope to increase public awareness for this issue.
HOLLY: For those not familiar with it, can anda tell us a bit about California Proposition 37?
SARAH GABOURY: Proposition 37 will require all foods that have GMOs in them (meaning genetically modified organisms engineered to withstand large amounts of pesticides) to be labeled. California would be the first state in the nation to label all foods that have GMOs in them.
HOLLY: Give us an overview of your humorous but insightful campaign in support of prop 37.
SARAH GABOURY: We have been big "real food" advocates for years now, but when this proposition got put on the ballot, we noticed the scene started getting a little ugly. People were hearing a lot of scary things about GMOs for the first time and realizing they were consuming them without knowing it. Plus, there has been a lot of misinformation from the opposing side. So, we decided to bring a little humor into the mix to see of we could educate, spread the word and penetrate different circles with a slightly different approach.
HOLLY: What made anda want to get involved in this issue?
SARAH GABOURY: This is a very interesting time (as Michael Pollan discusses in a NYT article) because this proposition could change the politics of food not only in California, but for the rest of the nation. We believe very strongly that people have the right to know what is in their food, which is what this prop is all about and why we wanted to help it get passed. Plus, after watching documentaries like “Genetic Roulette,” “The Idiot Cycle” and “Seeds of Freedom” we just felt propelled to drop everything else we were doing and plunge in.
HOLLY: We know anda turned to Hollywood for help, who and how were anda able to recruit these Hollywood stars?
SARAH GABOURY: The support from these super talented folks actually came very easily. We have personal relationships with all of them and they all felt compelled to be apart of it. It was especially cool to have my (non-theatre) directorial debut and get to play around all hari with some of my favorit people. What a joy to combine craft and friends with something we are so deeply passionate about.
HOLLY: What do anda hope the public will gain from watching your online campaign? And, is this an issue only affecting California?
SARAH GABOURY: We hope people will realize all this prop is asking for is labels -- that's it! Labels so people can make an educated decision about what goes into their bodies. We hope people will feel compelled to vote ‘yes’ on 37. And if it passes, it could definitely have a chain reaction in the rest of the nation. At the very least, it’s getting a much needed conversation started. And maybe people will start to pertanyaan their opinion of Big food and Ag and that might not be such a bad thing.
Thanks, Sarah for bringing some much needed humor to worthy cause. And, good luck on Election Day!
To view the series of three videos:
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