07-12-15 Co-Host Teen Activist Rachel Parent Founder of Kids Right to Know
From a very young age, Rachel Parent has shown a true compassion for the protection of animals, the less fortunate, and elderly. She attended a small school that encouraged caring for others by sharing her innate talents for singing and the playing guitar with the York Region Police choir.
When Rachel was 12 years old, she received an assignment to give a speech for all the students at her School, on a topic that would be of interest to her. Rachel struggled to decide among the many topics that she was passionate about, ranging from GMOs and Animal Cruelty, to Poverty in Canada, and Global Deforestation. Eventually she decided on GMOs, as she felt it represented the most opportunity to change many lives, to better everyone’s health, and help improve our overburdened health care system.
During her research in preparation for her speech, Rachel came to understand how deeply GMOs are affecting the entire planet, from humans to bees, the earth, and kids’ futures. It was clear that the situation was urgent and needed immediate attention. She won a medal for her speech.
Not long after, when California began working on awareness in anticipation of their GMO Labeling Proposition 37, she recognized it as a perfect opportunity to not only offer support to California, but also to alert Canadian children about the urgency of the GMO problem here at home. This prompted her to organize a GMO Kids Right to Know rally in Toronto, where she gave a speech for a live audience that was documented in a video was posted to YouTube.
Since then, she has participated in various health and food-related events, travelled to Brazil’s Amazon forest and Northern areas of South America to witness the devastation to sensitive ecological areas caused by GM soy agriculture, presented to large audiences in company with the likes of Jeffrey Smith from the Institute for Responsible Technology, and even helped bake a massive 48” fresh apple pie (made without GMO Ingredients) which she brought to St. James Park to share with those less fortunate.
When not educating people about GMOs, Rachel volunteers in youth organizations around the world, works in her organic garden, enjoys horseback riding, formulating natural cosmetics, and working at an animal sanctuary rescue camp, where she helps take care of tigers, monkeys and lemurs. http://www.kidsrighttoknow.com/
