Does Your CTA Call for Agents of Change?

Does Your CTA Call for Agents of Change or Agents of Fear or Commerce?

“Buy Now” or “Buy Never” and “Donate Now” Are Not Call To Actions (CTAs) for Change

Imagine if you read this headline (thank you for indulging my Harry Potter reference):

DEMENTORS WERE FOUND IN EVERY SUNFLOWER WE TESTED . . .

Wow, you think, that sounds bad. I wonder what I should do? What is the CTA? Well, judging by the posts and reports I read, the most common CTAs are:

• Avoid sunflowers and tell your friends to avoid sunflowers. (Agent of Fear)
• Buy my book of homemade sunflower seed-based recipes. (Agent of Commerce)
• Donate now. (Agent of Commerce)

Don’t get me wrong, people should share information on toxins in food. And, I have no problem with people raising money for their nonprofit or selling cookbooks or products. After all, this movement can’t fund itself. And no one will besmirch you for eliminating toxic food from your life.

It’s fine and good to do those things, just don’t stop there. But let’s not confuse these actions with a CTA that resolves the underlying problem.

We have to fix the food system and each person is a critical part of this movement.

What is a CTA that aims more directly at making change?

Tell them what you want: Email brands you buy from and ask them to verify the purity of their products (i.e., leverage your power as a consumer to change the standards in the industry). Let’s get out of this never-ending loop of shocking reports about toxins in foods we already fed to our children.

Educate & Amplify: Share articles and comment on posts about BOTH the problems AND the solutions. You can help amplify the issue. But I beg you, please do not send out panicked posts. The problem is that the panic, even though you genuinely feel it, encourages people to become agents of fear instead of agents of change. 

Advocate & Ask: Email your Members of Congress and local and state legislators.

• Tell them you want them to support action that will minimize toxins on government property. If you ask them to remove only one chemical, even a bad one like glyphosate, you may win that battle but you’ll lose the war. New chemicals are invented every day. We know this isn’t happening anytime soon, but we should keep asking. The more local you work, the more likely you’ll be able to affect change.

• Tell them you want a consumer bill of rights that requires companies provide you with easily accessible information about toxic residue that is in products. This is similar to laws that require calorie counts on menus. They are far easier to get passed into law then bans or limits but they can have a faster, and yet very powerful effect.

• Also ask them to request CDC research these toxins and not rely on the FDA and the USDA. FDA has lost credibility due to the revolving door of chemical industry staff that have worked in it and USDA focuses on big agriculture, lending a lot of support to chemical companies. CDC is supposed to watch out for you and me and can do the kind of research that holds respect in the broad scientific community.

Communicate: Talk to people about how consumers should have the right to know if there is toxic residue in the food they buy. I know it sounds basic, but these conversations in small groups can be powerful to grow the movement organically.

Elevate: If you donate to a nonprofit for research, ask them to have some of their studies peer reviewed. It will help them build confidence in all their work.

So, do I want you to buy ZEGO products? Well, of course! We made them to provide you with clean solutions to support your and the planet’s wellness. We designed our company to have the purity transparency we want all companies to have.

But even if you don’t have a spare dime to buy ZEGO products, you can be part of this movement with one simple email.

Let’s advocate for change together.

Colleen
ZEGO Founder and CEO