Blog
If you’re headed to Austin, Texas, next week to attend the “Southbites: Feed Your Mind” session during Austin’s South-by-Southwest (SXSW) Interactive, don’t expect to hear an honest debate on the health and safety of genetically engineered crops or food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs)—at least not if the biotech industry can help it.
According to Cathleen Enright, executive vice president Food & Agriculture, for the Biotech Industry Organization (BIO), there is nothing to debate. GMO agriculture is “sustainable” and GMO foods are “safe.” Anyone who says Read More
On Wednesday last week (February 25, 2015), the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, once again floated the idea of consumers using barcodes to identify foods that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as an alternative to requiring food manufacturers to put a label on products that contain GMOs.
Referring to the ongoing debate over GMO labeling laws, Vilsack (according to the Associated Press) told the House during a hearing on agriculture spending: “We could solve that issue in a heartbeat.”
Solve the issue for whom? Tot-Toting Moms with Read More
On Friday, February 13, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the first genetically engineered apple, despite hundreds of thousands of petitions asking the USDA to reject it.
According an article in Politico, the USDA said the GMO apple “doesn’t pose any harm to other plants or pests.”
Great. But what about potential harm to the humans who consume them?
The Arctic Apple (Golden Delicious and Granny varieties), Read More
Last week, I attended the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) conference in Boca Raton, Fla. I live in Maine so you might assume that I was overjoyed to be in the sunshine state while back-to-back blizzards crippled the frozen northeast.
But truth be told, I love snow. The bigger the storm, the higher the snowbanks, the more I am transported back to the place I grew up—a farm in Pittston, Maine. During the snowstorms of the early 1980s, my brother, sister and I would don our Moon Boots and play “king of the mountain” atop the monstrous snowbanks created when my father Read More
On January 30, OCA participated in a protest and confrontation at Monsanto’s annual shareholder meeting. The meeting was held at Monsanto corporate headquarters outside St. Louis, Mo., in a town called Creve Coeur—which in French means Broken Heart.
It’s a fitting name for the location of a company that has caused so much heartache with its toxic chemicals.
OCA’s mission on January 30 was to let Monsanto know, in no uncertain terms, that its so-called science—bought and paid for with dirty corporate money—is no match for the research being conducted by honest, independent Read More
When will Congress start connecting the dots? Between a toxic, industrial agriculture system and the decline not only of public health, but of our planet’s health?
In his SOTU address last night (Tuesday, January 20), on the topic of climate change, President Obama said:
“And no challenge—no challenge—poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.”
The President went on to point out that 2014 was the warmest year on record, and he voiced his support for the scientists sounding alarms.
But not once did Read More
Should you buy your organic milk and other dairy products from a company that supports a lobbying group that is suing the state of Vermont to overturn Vermont’s GMO labeling law?
You know where OCA stands on that issue, thanks to our campaign asking Organic Valley, Horizon Organic, and Aurora Organic Dairy to withdraw from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA).
Now, we also know where at least one organic dairy company stands. And it isn’t with us. Here’s what Organic Valley told us about why they won’t quit the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), even Read More
Looking for evidence that pesticides are dangerous? Look no further than these two sources.
A comprehensive report on several thousand studies of genetically engineered crops and foods, and the chemicals such as Monsanto's Roundup that are used with them, is provided by our colleagues at EarthOpenSource.org, in an article entitled "GMO Myths and Truths."
Also, André Leu, president of the International Federation of Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), published a book in 2014 that challenges the chemical-intensive agriculture industry’s claims that pesticides are “safe.” Leu Read More
In her inspiring New Year's message, Vandana Shiva explains that while we face many crises--the crises of war and violence, of hunger and destruction, and of the destruction of our democracy--we also hold the solution to all of these crises.
The solutions, she says, can be found in the seed and in the soil.
Where will those solutions not be found?
They won't be found by granting corporations rights that should belong only to human beings.
Her advice for 2015: "We must stay united. We must stay strong. We must stay joyful."Read More
Starbucks is taking a lot of heat from consumers lately.
Multiple organizations, including OCA, have appealed to CEO Howard Schultz to switch to organic milk.
And recently, hundreds of thousands of consumers signed petitions, including ours, demanding Starbucks drop out of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), a lobbying group that is suing Vermont to overturn its GMO labeling law.
It’s no wonder Starbucks is looking for ways to polish its image. And it found one. Problem is, it doesn't address the real issues.Read More