Cross-country Drive Aims to Show There’s Something ‘fishy’ About GMOs

Apparently, there's no real trick to driving with a 4-foot-tall apple-fish on your roof. Just be wary of drive-by photographers.

August 13, 2013 | Source: The Salt Lake Tribune | by Matthew Piper

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Apparently, there’s no real trick to driving with a 4-foot-tall apple-fish on your roof. Just be wary of drive-by photographers.

Activist Nikolas Schiller drives Goldie, a Ford coupe that carries piggyback a cartoon sculpture made from welded steel, chicken wire, paper, fiberglass and glaze. The extra weight restricts gas mileage, but Schiller says Goldie‘s got a bigger problem than her road readiness. Goldie is “fishy,” like the genetically manipulated “Arctic Apple” that never browns and is currently awaiting USDA approval.

Nineteen activists who oppose genetically engineered (GMO) foods brought their Fishy Food fleet to Library Square on Tuesday morning, drawing a handful of local activists and curious looks from passersby. The group, formerly known as Occupy Monsanto, is on a 3,300-mile cross-country tour from Washington, D.C., to Seattle to deliver the cars at Seattle Hempfest and support Washington state’s Initiative 522 to mandate labeling of GMOs.

GMOs have become an increasingly hot-button issue, even though the federal government and many scientists have found no evidence that the technology is unsafe.

Occupy’s previous demonstrations against Monsanto include a 2011 march from New York to Washington and civil disobedience. Fishy Food is an attempt to cultivate a more likable popular image. The five cars feature child-friendly structures designed by former architect Cesar Maxit and a variety of grass-roots volunteers – besides Goldie, there is Poppy, the corn; Rooty, the sugar beet; Soja Girl, the soy bean; and K-Sup, the tomato. DaVeat, a genetically modified bagel-fish (in “poop brown and fuchsia”) is in production.