Birke Baehr is 11, but he has the wisdom of someone five times his age. Birke is on a mission at the TEDx Next Generation Asheville conference, to persuade people to eat organic, say no to GMOs and shop at local farmers markets. He explains what GMOs are in a confident and entertaining way. “They might put the DNA of a fish into the DNA of a tomato,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong, I like fish and tomatoes, but this is just creepy.”
“I wanted to be in the NFL”, Birke says. “Now I want to be an organic farmer.” The audience applaud. Birke’s speech is short but full of passion and very entertaining. He covers a lot of ground in just a few minutes, from the contamination of the water supply to GMO cancer cases in animals, false advertising and lies about happy farms with green rolling hills. He also dispels the myth that organic food is expensive, in his own unique way: “Put it this way, we can pay the farmer, or we can pay the hospital.” Well said, Birke. What a bright kid. Did we mention he’s home-schooled?
