Giving Away the Farm & No Twinkies for Vermont?

[Cassandra Lista]

TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK

Giving Away the Farm

This morning (June 25, 2015), a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture is hearing from Monsanto’s hired guns who are rattling off a litany of excuses for why state and local governments shouldn’t be allowed to pass GMO labeling laws or crop bans, why the FDA shouldn’t conduct pre-market safety testing on GMO foods, and why food manufacturers shouldn’t even be allowed to voluntarily label their products GMO-Free.

Today is the second hearing on Rep. Mike Pompeo’s H.R. 1599. Once referred to by critics as the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, the latest draft of H.R. 1599 now reads more like the “Mother of All Monsanto Protection Acts.”

You might think H.R. 1599 is too outrageous to be taken seriously by any Congress member who believes in Democracy. But you’d be wrong.

After all, on Tuesday (June 23, 2015), the U.S. Senate handed over authority to President Obama to “fast track” secretly negotiated, back-room international trade deals that give corporations unprecedented powers, including the right to sue governments in international tribunals, in order to override GMO labeling laws, fracking bans and a host of other laws intended to protect public health and safety.

How could so many members of Congress vote against your best interests? Money could have something to do with it (surprise!). Turns out corporations bought key "fast track" votes, for about $200 million.

It has become painfully clear, that when it comes to pandering to Monsanto and Big Business, our fearless leaders in Washington D.C. are only too happy to give away the farm.

Who will save our farms? And our soil, our health, our waterways, our local communities and economies­from toxic chemicals and a toxic democracy?

It’s up to us.

We will do everything in our power to stop the Mother of All Monsanto Protection Acts. ( More info here on how you can help). But given the rampant corruption in our political system, we also need a Plan B­a plan that includes exposing the damage corporations like Monsanto are inflicting on our health and our environment and our society­through comprehensive testing that reveals the truth about their products and their toxic industrial agriculture system.

Learn more

Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our GMO labeling legislative efforts)

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

Soil: A Matter of Life or Death

“If there were a United Federation of Organisms, humans would be voted off the planet.” – Paul Stamets

Without soil, we could not survive. Soil is the mother of nearly all plant life, and ultimately all animal life on Earth. It’s the interface between biology and geology, the living skin of our planet.

Soil is quite literally a matter of life or death­our life or death. India calls its soil “Sacred Mother” because it’s the source of all fertility.

But have you ever thought about the economic, social and political impact of soil?

Unfortunately, because soil has to share the planet with humans, it’s become a candidate for the endangered species list, thanks to greed, ignorance and lack of respect for the earth.

We’ve lost one-third of our topsoil over the last century as a result of industrialized agriculture, mono-cropping, erosion, and deforestation. Each year, 100 million trees are turned into 20 billion mail-order catalogs.

It’s time to stop narrowing our focus on soil to merely growing food. Healthy soil is a requirement for so much more.

Read the article

MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTO

Let There Be Light

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and his gang of pro-Monsanto, pro-GMO lawless-makers are pushing hard to keep you in the dark about what’s in your food.

But OCA staff and volunteers, along with our friends at Food & Water Watch, are working just as hard to shed some light on who plans to vote for Pompeo’s DARK Act (H.R. 1599), and who doesn’t. They’ve been traveling from state to state, meeting with staff who represent members of the House Energy & Commerce. And soon, they’ll be meeting with members of the House Committee on Agriculture’s Biotech Subcommittee. Those are the two committees that have held (or will hold) hearings on H.R. 1599, and whose members will be the first to vote on it.

We still need help organizing state meetings. If you can pitch in, please email camp...@organicconsumers.org.

Meanwhile, we’ve written up a summary of who’s said what, so far. And we’ve included names and phone numbers to call, if you live in key districts­please take a minute to find out if you can help by making a phone call, or attending or organizing a meeting.

Find out where your Congress member stands on the DARK Act

GMO LABELING CAMPAIGN

No Twinkies for Vermont?

Photo Credit: mediageek via Compfight cc

Big Food (which according to the June 2015 issue of Fortune magazine, lost $4 billion in market share in 2014) is hopping mad about Vermont’s GMO labeling law. So mad, the junk food makers are threatening to pull their Twinkies from Vermont grocery shelves.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) recently sent a letter to Vermont Gov. Pete Shumlin, complaining about Vermont’s GMO labeling law, and exaggerating the potential financial burden the law will impose on poor companies like Coca-Cola and Kellogg’s.

The letter fails to mention that companies change labels all the time, at little or no cost to the manufacturers or consumers, or that independent studies support the fact that requiring GMO labels will cost next to nothing­or that these companies either label, or reformulate their products, in 64 other countries.

So far, Vermont is the only state that has passed a strong, stand-alone GMO labeling law. Maine and Connecticut have passed laws, but they are ineffective, as they require four or five additional (and in the case of Maine, contiguous) New England states to pass similar laws in order for theirs to take effect.

Of course, the GMA is suing Vermont to overturn its law. But so far, the courts have affirmed the constitutionality of Vermont’s law.

Polls show that more than 90 percent of U.S. consumers want labels on GMO foods­yet Vermont lawmakers, and their Governor, are the only ones who have had the courage to take on Monsanto and Big Food. Let’s counter the GMA’s attack on Gov. Shumlin by saying “thank you”!

TAKE ACTION: Tell Vermont Gov. Shumlin: Thank You for Standing Up to Monsanto!

Post a “Thank You” on Gov. Shumlin’s Facebook page

Read the press release

Read the GMA’s letter

SAVE ORGANIC STANDARDS

'Incensed and Insulted'

Responsible organic farmers are up in arms over Whole Foods Market’s new “Responsibly Grown” rating system.

According to Cornucopia Institute, five of the most respected and influential, veteran Certified Organic farmers in the nation, “incensed and insulted” by the new WFM program, authored a letter to WFM CEO John Mackey calling the company’s new “Responsibly Grown” produce marketing scheme “onerous and expensive” and arguing that it devalues the Certified Organic label.

The farmers wrote:

Furthermore, our greatest concern is the devaluation of the organic label in Whole Foods Market stores. The “Responsibly Grown” program allows conventional farmers utilizing lower-cost management techniques, still incorporating toxic inputs, to unfairly compete with Certified Organic produce in your stores on a level footing with­or even rated better than­organic farmers. Growing ecologically produced food isn’t cheap. And to that we must add the considerable cost of organic certification. Whole Foods has done so much to help educate its customers about the advantages of eating an organic diet. This new rating program undermines, to a great degree, those efforts.

Growers are required to pay­up to $20,000­to participate in the rating system, which identifies fruits and vegetables as “Good,” “Better,” and “Best.” Mark A. Kastel, senior farm policy analyst at the Cornucopia Institute, called the program “Robin Hood in reverse:”

“Although their market capitalization has taken quite a hit recently, at over $14 billion, Whole Foods remains one of the wealthiest grocers in the United States. In an effort to enhance their image, they are asking modestly scaled family farmers to pick up the tab for a program whose benefits will almost exclusively accrue to the corporation.”

Let WFM know you support small-scale organic farmers who say the new "Responsibly Grown" rating system is unfair to farmers and misleading to consumers.

More here

Read the letter to Whole Foods

Post your support for organic farmers on WFM Facebook Page

Contact WFM via email

Call WFM 512-477-4455

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

A Love Song to Coffee

Morning coffee. We take it for granted. But it’s a time-and-labor-intensive process to get coffee beans from the regions where they grow, to your favorite mug.

Unlike most coffee growing regions of the world, in Ethiopia the folks who grow the coffee also drink the product. Long considered the birthplace of the beverage, Ethiopia produces some of the best.

This little film is a love song to coffee, the grueling work that goes into producing it and the importance of small farms and cooperation in that process.

Watch the video

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Raw Organic Nuts May Help You Live Longer

WHO Classifies 2,4-D, Lindane and DDT Herbicides as Cancer Hazards

‘Laudato Si’ – a 21st Century Manifesto for Earth Democracy

Kashi Agrees to Pay up to $3.99m to Settle 'All-Natural' Lawsuit; Campbell Soup under Fire over Prego Labels

What's Killing the Babies of Vernal, Utah? A Fracking Boomtown

Government Removed Vaccine Injury Court Statistics from Website

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