Katherine's Blog
Ben & Jerry’s will no longer state on its packaging that the milk and cream used in its ice cream comes from “happy cows.”
That’s (a little) good news for consumers who have been misled for years into thinking that all of the milk and cream in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream comes from dairy farms where cows contentedly frolic outdoors. It doesn’t. In fact, Ben & Jerry's uses milk from conventional, industrial factory farm-style farms.
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream packaging will continue to use the brand’s cartoon image of a cow—depicted outdoors, on a green pasture, under a big blue sky. According to the lawyers representing Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, the cows “did not look happy to begin with.”
We’ll let you be the judge of whether or not Ben & Jerry’s cartoon cows look “happy.” But to be clear—no matter how much fun the media is having with this happy cow narrative—Ben & Jerry’s deceptive marketing tactics are serious business.
Dirt matters.
So says a growing body of scientific evidence pointing to the link between healthy soil, healthy humans and a healthy ecosystem.
According to a recent article in Force of Nature:
The complexity of the soil microbiome, and the way it affects the health of all other creatures in the ecosystem and the food chain, is simply stunning.
The authors of the article argue that though “the health of most of the planet’s soil is currently in dire straits,” there’s an obvious solution:
Only by changing our agricultural system, by reverting to a system in which all organisms in an ecosystem—a diversity of plants, animals, insects, and microorganisms—are recognized as crucial to the survival of the ecosystem, can we ensure that our soil, crops, animals, and even our digestive health, will thrive.
It’s been more than a year since we sued Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s for misrepresenting its ice cream brand as “humanely sourced” and “environmentally responsible.”
The lawsuit followed our announcement—more than two years ago—that many popular Ben & Jerry’s flavors tested positive for residues of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller.
What’s happened since? Through our attorneys, we’ve continued to push for Ben & Jerry’s to stop misleading consumers.
Two important articles about pesticides, food and health were published this week.
One highlights the insanity of allowing the unleashing of billions of pounds of glyphosate into our environment and food systems every year.
The other raises this question: Who’s the real Public Enemy No. 1?
Is it Monsanto (now owned by Bayer)?
Or is it the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) which defends the use of Roundup weedkiller and other toxic chemicals on our food?
October 16 was World Food Day. So we thought it fitting to remind consumers why it’s critical to boycott industrially produced meat, and why we should never give up the battle to end factory farming, once and for all.
This week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue threw small and mid-sized independent family farmers under the bus. Perdue and his U.S. Department of Agriculture want to support Big Ag, Big Food, and Big Farms, not Farmers like Phillip and Dorathy Barker who farmed for 40 years in North Carolina.
Think consumers don’t have much power? Think again.
It may have taken a few years, but consumers can take the lion’s share of credit for bringing down Big Food’s $2-billion lobbying group.
Back in the day before Congress killed consumers’ right to know about GMOs, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) spent millions of dollars in California to defeat a citizen ballot initiative in 2012 that would have required labels on GMO foods.
That made the GMA and its members—including organic and natural brands owned by Big Food corporations—favorite targets of pro-labeling consumers.
Brands weren’t too happy about that. So when a similar initiative came on the ballot in Washington, the GMA tried to protect Big Brands by illegally laundering donations to the anti-labeling campaign.
From then on, it was all downhill for Monsanto’s Evil Twin.
From the “Department of Here We Go Again,” the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) needs our help—again—to remind the Trump administration that all forms of genetic engineering must be excluded from organic production.
We have only until midnight EST October 3 to flood the NOSB with comments.
Last week, Organic Consumers Association (OCA), joined Regeneration International (an organization we helped co-found and continue to support) and the Sunrise Movement to officially launch the national coalition of U.S. Farmers & Ranchers for a Green New Deal.
Five members of Congress joined us in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., to call for a Green New Deal for farmers and ranchers.
Earlier in the day, we delivered a letter to every member of Congress, signed by more than 500 individual farms, and 50 organizations representing more than 10,000 farmers and ranchers, asking Congress to support the Green New Deal Resolution.
Representatives of the Women, Food & Agriculture Network, Indiana Farmers Union and American Sustainable Business Council joined in the press conference, which was covered by multiple media outlets, including Politico, The Hill, Civil Eats and FERN AgInsider.
Why is a consumer and environmental advocacy group like OCA so invested in this new coalition of farmers and ranchers—?
Because we’re facing a food crisis. A soil crisis. A water crisis. And a climate crisis. And there’s just no way we solve these interconnected issues without “linking arms” and working together.
Just when you thought you’d heard the worst about Monsanto, comes this: Monsanto executives and paid shills for the company argued “to beat the shit” out of moms who criticized Roundup weedkiller.
They also declared “organic” to be the “enemy.”
As Monsanto’s new owner, Bayer, gears up to face another round of trials from plaintiffs alleging that exposure to Roundup caused them to get non-Hodgkin lymphoma, more revealing and disturbing internal emails and other documents are surfacing.
They’re ugly. They shed more light on Monsanto’s sinister tactics. And they target you.
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