Taking Down Monsanto. And while We're at It, Dow, too.
Ronnie Cummins- Organic Consumers Assoc.
TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK
Don’t Cry for Monsanto
Things aren’t looking so good for Monsanto these days. A fourth-quarter loss of $156 million. A $90 million payout to a West Virginia town poisoned by a Monsanto factory. New reports coming out every day citing the health hazards of Monsanto’s Roundup, and blowing holes in the company’s lies about how it “helps” farmers, “protects” the environment and will feed the world.
But with your help, things will look much worse for the Biotech Bully on the morning of November 5—assuming we get enough Oregon voters to vote YES on 92, and maybe even get enough Colorado voters to vote YES on Prop 105.
Oregon’s Measure 92 and Colorado’s Prop 105 are citizen-led ballot initiatives that if passed, will require mandatory labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in both of those states.
As of today, the YES on 92 campaign is leading in the polls, 49 percent to 44 percent. But here’s the catch: 7 percent of Oregon voters are still undecided. If we want to win in Oregon, we need to get the majority of those undecided voters on our side.
That’s why OCA, through our 501(c) 4 lobbying arm, Organic Consumers Fund, has just pledged an additional $150,000 (upping our total contribution to $650,000) to the YES on 92 campaign, to fund more ads and reach more voters.
And why we hope you’ll help us meet that pledge by making a donation today.
We lost heartbreakingly close GMO labeling ballot initiatives in California (2012) and Washington State (2013). Those losses strengthened our resolve to keep the GMO labeling battle alive.
Now it’s time to win.
A win in Oregon will deliver a fatal blow to the campaign by the Gene and Junk Food giants to keep you in the dark about what’s in your food. A win on Colorado will be icing on the cake.
Monsanto has been forced to spend millions of dollars fighting our GMO labeling campaigns—on top of the millions it’s had to spend on public relations campaigns and lawsuit settlements.
Let’s not cry for Monsanto. Let’s just beat them.
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 legislative efforts in Oregon, Colorado and other states)
MORE NEWS
Dow’s Done Deal
It’s official.
Thanks to the folks at Dow Agrosciences, and their buddies at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dow now has permission to unleash up to 176 million more pounds (according to the USDA, though scientists predict much more) of 2,4-D into the environment.
Yesterday, the EPA removed the last hurdle in the race to rush Dow’s new Enlist-brand corn and soy crops to market, by approving Dow’s Enlist (Deadly) Duo herbicide (made from a highly toxic combination of 2,4-D, one of the toxic ingredients in Agent Orange, and Roundup, whose key active ingredient, glyphosate. The herbicide will be used, liberally, on Dow’s new GMO corn and soy crops.
And that will mean about another $1 billion in sales for the Gene Giant.
It’s enough to make you sick. Literally.
But it’s also reason to keep up the fight. The National Resources Defense Council immediately sued the EPA, and other groups have suggested they'll do the same.
ESSAY OF THE WEEK
Care What You Wear
You should feel good in your clothes. Good about the way your clothes were produced and made. Good about their effects on your health. Good about the way they make you feel.
Unfortunately, consumer culture is toxic in the way it encourages people to constantly buy and replace clothing produced with toxic chemicals, under unethical conditions. Clothing manufacturers entice us with “easy care,” “anti-wrinkle,” “odor-resistant,” “anti-microbial,” “stain-resistant” labels on garments. Those garments are made with nanoparticles, and saturated in toxic chemicals—chemicals like formaldehyde, triclosan and preflourinated chemicals, many of which are linked to cancer, skin ulcerations, heart palpitations, eczema, asthma and other health issues.
It may seem difficult at first to divorce yourself from this toxic culture, to establish your clothing choices outside of this pressure. But to not care about clothes is not the solution.
The solution is to care how fibers are produced and processed. To care about what’s in the garments you wear next to your skin, and ultimately, to care how you feel wearing them.
The solution is simple: Care what you wear. Here are ten reasons to do just that.
FAIR TRADE
Breaking the Chains
October is Fair Trade Month. A good time to remind ourselves of all the reasons to buy Local (if it’s organic), Organic, Fair Made and Fair Trade.
The quality and range of America's daily purchases are being dictated and degraded by a powerful network of Brand Name Bullies and Big Box chains. By "outsourcing" from sweatshops in the factories and fields, by cutting corners on public health and the environment, and by sucking up billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, business behemoths such as Walmart, Monsanto, Starbucks and others have constructed a vast global shopping mall of cheap goods and conveniences, reinforced by a non-stop, 24/7 glut of multi-media distractions.
Nowhere is that trend more apparent than in the apparel industry.
Cotton farmers in the Global South are some of the most marginalized farmers in the world. Impoverished cotton farmers in Mali, Benin, Burkino Faso and Chad have been recognized internationally as victims of trade injustice. According to the Environmental Working Group, U.S. cotton subsidies, which totaled $32.9 billion from 1995–2012, artificially enable American cotton farmers to undercut prices from the Global South.
That’s just one example of global policies working against small-scale farmers in more marginalized regions.
You can help “break the chains” that perpetuate exploitive work policies. By demanding better policies from governments and corporations—policies that factor in the entire supply chain.
Find Fair Trade clothing and home décor brands
TAKE ACTION: Buy Local, Organic, Fair Made and Fair Trade
ACTION ALERT
No GMO Livestock Vaccines in Organic!
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) aren’t allowed in organics because they fall into the “excluded methods” category—meaning things that are excluded from organics.
But there’s one exception to the “no GMOs in organics rule”—GMO vaccines for livestock.
Under current law, GMO vaccines are allowed in organic, but only after they’ve been reviewed and approved by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), and with the recommendation that they be approved only in cases where non-GMO vaccine alternatives don’t exist.
Unfortunately, the Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) hasn't been enforcing the law. The agency admits that GMO vaccines are used in organic, even though none have been approved. In fact, not a single GMO vaccine has even been submitted to the NOSB for review.
When the NOSB meets at the end of this month (October 28 - 30, 2014), the board is expected to vote on a proposal requesting the NOP to provide guidance on the use of GMO vaccines.
“Guidance” isn’t enough. It’s time for the NOSB to assert its authority to review, regulate and, when appropriate, prohibit genetically engineered vaccines. The NOSB should tell the NOP to enforce the law and get GMO vaccines, none of which have been reviewed or approved, out of organic!
TAKE ACTION! Get GMO Livestock Vaccines Out of Organic!
CAMPAIGN UPDATE
Dear Mr. Schultz . . .
Consumers were out in force recently, posting and tweeting their dissatisfaction that Starbucks hasn’t responded to the more than 150,000 petitions asking the company to switch to organic milk.
It was all part of the National Day of Action, an online protest organized by GMO Inside, and supported by OCA and other organizations. The protest stirred up some action on social media, thanks to some online trolls-for-hire.
But the only action we got out of Starbucks was this statement from a company spokesperson:
"We understand that organic dairy is an important issue for some of our customers and are constantly evaluating our sourcing options to ensure we are offering the highest quality products. In the meantime, we do provide customers the choice of organic soy milk in our stores, globally."
Unless “highest quality products” equals organic milk, Starbucks isn’t ensuring anything, except the security of an unsustainable, inhumane industrial dairy system.
The campaign to persuade the world’s largest retail coffee chain to go organic has only just begun. OCA International Director Ronnie Cummins has written a letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. We are anxiously awaiting Mr. Shultz’s response.
Read Ronnie’s letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz More here
TAKE ACTION: Tell Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: Switch to Organic Milk!
CAMPAIGN UPDATE
Treats, not Tricks
On Valentine’s Day, tens of thousands of moms, dads, kids, activists and consumers of all ages delivered “Give Bees Some Love” cards to the managers of Home Depot and Lowe’s stores all across the country.
The message? Stop selling pesticides containing neonicotinoids (neonics), and plants and seeds pre-treated with bee-killing neonics.
Since then, Home Depot has taken steps to prevent the sale of bee-killing plants and pesticides. BJ’s Wholesale Club, a store with over 200 stores in 15 states, has eliminated neonics from its stores. More than a dozen retailers across the country have acknowledged that neonics are a problem, and they’re doing their part to address it.
But Lowe’s? Nothing. Yet.
Friends of the Earth, along with other groups (including OCA), think it’s time to darken the doors at Lowe’s stores around the country, and let them know that we’re not letting up, until they listen up.
Please sign up to deliver a Halloween card to a Lowe’s store near you. We’ll send you a Halloween card and a step-by-step guide to participate in our Halloween “Give bees treats, not tricks,” campaign.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Robert Niblock, CEO of Lowe’s: Stop Selling Bee-Killing Plants and Pesticides!
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Monsters, Real and Imagined
Some people like to read. Others like to watch. For the watchers in Oregon and Colorado, the YES on 92 (Oregon) and YES on Prop 105 (Colorado) campaigns are circulating some powerful video messages.
A new YES on 105 video features moms who pledge to keep their babies and kids safe—from the big things we can all see, and from the little things too small for anybody to see.
From monsters, both real and imagined.
Meanwhile, the YES on 92 campaign released a new video that asks voters whether they want to eat corn grown from yellow (as nature created them) corn seeds—or corn grown from blue corn seeds, coated in five toxic chemicals.
If voters want to know which type of corn they’re eating, the former EPA scientist/campaign spokesman says, they should vote YES on 92.
Please share these videos far and wide—especially with friends and family in Colorado and Oregon.
Donate to help spread these video far and wide (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our legislative efforts in Oregon, Colorado and other states)
LITTLE BYTES
Essential Reading for the Week
Herbicide & Insecticide Use on GMO Crops Is Skyrocketing
Farmaceuticals: The Drugs Fed to Farm Animals
Perdue Forced to Remove “Humanely Raised” Labels from Chicken
Juicing: One of the Best Tools for Improving Your Health
Nurses Warn of 'System Failure' as Ebola Spreads to US Healthcare Worker