Subscribe | Unsubscribe | View PDF | Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Donate

Frankenfish, Food Waste, & Geoengineering

#250, NOVEMBER 11, 2010

In this issue:

• Quote of the Week: End the War Against the Earth
• Alert of the Week: Something Fishy is Going On!
• Article of the Week: The 10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish
• Video of the Week: Farmed Salmon Exposed
• Little Bytes

Quote of the Week

End the War Against the Earth

"When we think of wars in our times, our minds turn to Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bigger war is the war against the planet. This war has its roots in an economy that fails to respect ecological and ethical limits - limits to inequality, limits to injustice, limits to greed and economic concentration.

"A handful of corporations and of powerful countries seeks to control the earth's resources and transform the planet into a supermarket in which everything is for sale. They want to sell our water, genes, cells, organs, knowledge, cultures and future.

"The continuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and onwards are not only about 'blood for oil'. As they unfold, we will see that they are about blood for food, blood for genes and biodiversity and blood for water."

-Vandana Shiva: Time to End the War Against the Earth, the Age, November 4, 2010

Read more

Alert of the Week

Something Fishy at the FDA!

The FDA is poised to approve the sale of genetically engineered salmon in U.S. supermarkets - even though scientists warn it could harm human health.

But there's something even fishier going on. The agency wants to put this salmon on the market without requiring labels that it is genetically engineered. That means you won't know the difference between a mutant salmon and one that grew up naturally - leaving you in the dark about exactly what it is you're eating.

Tell the FDA that you demand the right to know what's in your food! The agency is hiding behind technicalities in the labeling law, when it only has to declare that genetically engineered salmon is 'materially' different - and should be labeled as such.

Please tell the FDA that you want genetically engineered food labeled. Consumers have the right to know what they're buying - and eating!

Take action

Article of the Week

The 10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish

We have only until November 22, 2010, to generate the hundreds of thousands of comments that will be necessary to press President Obama and Food & Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to promise to label genetically modified salmon - if they decide to let this Frankenfish be sold in U.S. grocery stores and restaurants.

We need you to reach out to friends, family members and colleagues who don't yet know about the health and environmental risks associated with the production of genetically engineered animals for human food.

Please consider sharing our Huffington Post article, "10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish" with your contacts via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and your favorite social networking sites.

Spread the word

Please Donate

Support the OCA! Stop Frankenfoods and Geoengineering

We depend on your donations to preserve strict organic standards, to fight against Monsanto and GMOs, and to build a global climate justice movement based upon organic food and farming. Please send us a tax-deductible donation today and we'll send you a free "Millions Against Monsanto" bumper sticker so you can help spread the word in your community. Please be sure to put "sticker" in the comments field of your donation.

Please Donate

Video of the Week

Farmed Salmon Exposed

Our oceans are in trouble. Out-of-control, industrial scale fishing has brought many species to the brink of extinction, while pollution from farms, cities, and factories is making other commercially important seafood unsafe to eat.

The fishing industry claims that aquaculture fish farms can solve the crisis of overfishing and pollution. Yet, most industrial scale fish farms are neither sustainable nor healthy. OCA recommends that consumers boycott not only genetically modified salmon (if it's approved for sale by the FDA) but industrially farmed salmon as well, and to buy only wild caught salmon.

This film from the Pure Salmon Campaign exposes the problems with salmon farming.

Watch

Little Bytes

New Egg Recall Also Connected to DeCoster
READ MORE

Help the Planet: Stop Wasting Food
READ MORE

USDA Issues Draft Environmental Assessment of GM Sugar Beets
READ MORE

Reducing Urban Water Use Around the World with Compost Toilets
READ MORE

The Doomsday Machine and the Race to Save the World
READ MORE

LOCAL [[State]] NEWS OF THE WEEK

[[State]] - Get Involved Locally

• Learn more about OCA related action alerts and other news in [[State]] here.
• Join [[State]] discussion groups in our forum.
• Post events in [[State]] on our community calendar.

Message from our Sponsors

Eden Foods Offers OCA Customers 15% Discount

Eden Foods is one of the few national organic food producers who goes beyond the USDA Organic Standards. Although Eden Foods is USDA certified, their products do not bear the USDA seal, because they say the USDA standard really represents a "minimum standard" that Eden Foods goes far beyond.

As a subscriber to Organic Bytes, you can enjoy a 15% discount rate on any Eden Foods products by going here.

Learn More

Become an OCA Sponsor!

Every issue of Organic Bytes now goes to 250,000 organic consumers with a thousand new subscribers each week. Please help us and your business by letting our subscribers know who you are and that you support the work of the OCA. Please contact us if you want more information! (Note: select "Sponsorship Coordinator" from the dropdown menu)