Ronnie's Blog
“Cook Organic, not the Planet.” - Banner of the Organic Consumers Association at the mass climate march in New York City, September 21, 2014.
Before we talk about the future of food and farming and the crisis of organic standards, here’s some good news: Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), a leading contender for the White House in 2020, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and several other presidential candidates have just come out strongly against Monsanto and factory farming and in favor of fundamental change in our agricultural policies. (Sign this petition to thank Sanders and Warren for taking on Big Ag).
Sanders and more than 100 members of Congress, supported by millions of Americans--including leading farmers and ranchers— are now calling for a Green New Deal that encompasses both urban and rural America. A Green New Deal that will scale up fundamental change, not only in our energy and economic policies, but also in the food and farming policies that have devastated our landscape, public health and rural communities.
"Because of the Green New Deal, entirely new thinkers are now at the policy table instead of just Big Ag and Monsanto writing our public policy for us—from regenerative agriculture experts and family farmers, to indigenous leaders with intergenerational knowledge." - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Instagram post April 7, 2019
The audacious, game-changing Green New Deal (GND) Resolution, backed by the youth-powered Sunrise Movement, introduced in Congress on February 7, by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), has ignited a long-overdue debate on federal policy, including fundamental energy, infrastructure, food, farming and land-management policies.
Forty-nine years ago today, nearly 20 million people in cities across the U.S. poured out into the streets to demand that Congress put the issue of environmental protection on the national political agenda.
It was April 22, 1970, the first designated “Earth Day.”
Today, on Earth Day 2019, I’m writing to ask you, and the millions of consumers in our networks, to let Congress know that you want them to act more decisively, more radically, more urgently— and on a massive scale—to protect and restore Earth’s precious resources.
TAKE ACTION: Sign the Green Consumers for a Green New Deal petition
After years of battling Monsanto, of working to expose the lies about glyphosate and Roundup weedkiller, we’re seeing glimmers of hope.
But this fight is far from over. And we desperately need your help to keep it going.
We’ve extended our spring fundraising campaign because we simply must reach our goal. Can you make a donation today? Every donation, small, large and in-between, will help fund our work to get pesticides out of your food. You can donate online, by mail or by phone, details here.
Mere days after a jury unanimously concluded that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller caused Edwin Hardeman’s cancer, Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with this headline: “Let’s talk about Roundup® herbicides.”
As you might expect, Bayer’s ad wasn’t intended to discuss the truth about Roundup—it was intended to spread the same old lies.
The fact that Bayer was willing to splurge for an ad (the going rate for a WaPo full-page ad is $163,422) to try to convince the public that Roundup is safe, speaks volumes.
We can’t spend that kind of money on mainstream media advertising to counter the multitude of lies by companies like Monsanto and Bayer.
Instead, we’ve always relied on people like you to spread the truth by sharing our emails, and promoting our messages on social media.
That is, until now. But now our message is under attack.
As I write this today, many of our friends in Midwest farming communities are reeling—record catastrophic flooding is threatening their livelihoods and lives.
It’s the last straw for many farmers who were already struggling financially. As one of them told a New York Times reporter, “It’s probably over for us.”
If we want to secure the safety and security of our food system, it’s time we revolutionize how farmlands are managed and how food is produced. Please pitch in today to help us take on the corporations that are destroying our food and health. Donate online, by mail or by phone, details here.
The GND twin resolutions were unveiled yesterday. Already, some lawmakers and media outlets are calling the GND “unrealistic” and “unaffordable,” despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Powerful corporations—especially the fossil fuel, agribusiness, chemical and pharmaceutical industries—want to kill the GND before it can get off the ground.
The only way the GND will fly, is if we build a powerful social movement to lift it up.
So far criticism of the GND has focused not on whether we need a GND to head off our climate crisis, but whether it’s possible to do what global scientists agree we must do to avoid catastrophe: reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 45-percent within 12 years, and by 100-percent by 2050. Some critics don't think we can do it.
Those critics are right—if all we focus on is reducing emissions.
That’s why it’s critical, especially in this early stage, to get the word out that in addition to reducing emissions, we must draw down and sequester the carbon already in the atmosphere.
Want to know what all the #GreenNewDeal (GND) buzz is about?
Want to know why we’re mobilizing the food and farming movement to support the GND—and how you can help?
Find out by watching the GND livestream on February 5, and by reading my message below.
Leaders of the Sunrise Movement are asking people to attend or host a livestream watch party on February 5. OCA staff members have all signed up—and we hope you will, too!
Sign up to attend a watch party.
Sign up to host a watch party. It’s easy to do. There’s even a step-by-step guide. You can choose to make your party public so others can join, or private with just your friends.
Let us know if you plan to host or attend a watch party. We’ll email you additional materials about why the GND matters to the food & farming movement.
The final months of 2018 will likely be remembered as the decisive moment when the global grassroots awakened to the life-or-death threat posed by global warming. With violent weather and climate disasters becoming the norm, and international scientists finally shedding their customary caution to report that we must drastically slash (by at least 45 percent) global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, hundreds of millions of ordinary people across the world seemed to simultaneously wake up.
Young climate activists under the banner of the Sunrise Movement in the U.S. and the Extinction Rebellion in the UK and other countries, sat in at politicians’ offices. They blocked streets and roadways. They emanded immediate and bold action.
“New models are emerging today . . . from the longing in many hearts, the genius of many minds, the effort of many hands to build what we know instinctively that we need.” - Marjorie Kelly, “Owning our Future.”
Last week, the USDA released its final rules for GMO labeling. As predicted, the federal law is full of loopholes. So full of them, that the law can easily be summed up in two words: a joke.
Now, with a roster of newly elected members of Congress who understand that we must connect the dots between food, farming, environmental, climate and economic justice policies, we’re standing on the brink of an unprecedented opportunity to transform our food and farming system.
We need your help to make the most of this opportunity.
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