“Water sustains all.” – Thales of Miletus (c. 624 – 546 B.C.), philosopher, mathematician, astronomer

Water. Without it, there would be no food.

Yet food production—that is, today’s industrial food production system—is degrading this essential natural resource faster than any other industry, depriving you of your right to clean water.

What do you get out of the deal?

Nutritionally inferior and contaminated food. Poor health.

Endless fields of of GMO monocrops, sprayed with millions of tons of glyphosate, to produce animal feed.

You also get the bill for cleaning up Big Ag’s mess.

As we approach World Water Day (Thursday, March 22)—and near the end of our spring fundraising campaign—I thought it fitting to say a few words about how your’re helping us bring down, and replace, America’s factory farms.

And why we your support is so critical.

Your donation will help fund a massive collaborative effort to build an alternative to Monsanto’s failing industrial, GMO-fueled factory farm agriculture model.  Please help us reach our quarterly fundraising goal by donating today online, by mail or by phone—details here.

The handful of corporations that control the industrial factory farm system would have you believe they are “feeding the world.”

We know better.

Factory farms produce nutritionally inferior meat and dairy products.

Factory farms create unfair and unhealthy working conditions.

Factory farms inflict horrendous suffering on animals.

Factory farms unapologetically dump nitrates, pesticides, organic matter, pathogens, antibiotics and growth hormones—into our waterways.

It’s estimated that in the U.S., tens of millions of acres of corn and soy fields, mostly in the Midwest, have been sprayed with Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller. And that’s just one contaminate on a long list that includes 2,4-D, atrazine and chlorpyrifos.

You would think that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would require corporations like Tyson and Cargill to clean up after themselves. Or better yet, not pollute our lakes and streams in the first place.

Sadly, not.

In fact, Trump’s EPA, led by Pruitt, is rolling back regulations on everything from banning Dow’s chlorpyrifos, which causes neurological damage in children, to the rule adopted in 2015 to implement the Clean Water Act, which was supposed to clarify legal protection for millions of acres of wetlands and thousands of streams across the country.

From our office in D.C., we continue to fight back against policies that give giant corporations a free pass to pollute our waters.

From our campaign office in Minnesota, we continue to rally consumers to boycott companies like Ben & Jerry’s, which supports an industrial factory farm dairy system that has all but ruined Vermont’s lakes.

We’ve also stepped up efforts to build a new organic and regenerative food and farming system, beginning in the Midwest. An agricultural system that not only produces clean food and inflicts no harm on our waterways, but actually helps clean our rivers and streams, and improve the soil’s ability to retain water during droughts.

Thanks to your support, we have been able to increase our staff on the ground in states like Nebraska and Minnesota and start building a 12-state alliance in the Midwest that will have the knowledge, the will and the resources to bring about an agricultural “regime change.”

As long as we—consumers, activists, voters—commit to supporting this growing alliance to build an economically viable alternative to factory farms, an alternative that not only grows food but creates health and well-being, we can end the rule of a few giant corporations.

This seems like a worthy goal as this week, the world celebrates water.

But we can’t do it without your help.

Please help us reach our spring fundraising goal? You can donate online, by mail or by phone—details here.

From all of us at OCA, thank you. And happy World Water Day.

In solidarity,

Ronnie Cummins
International Director

 

 

P.S. Organic Consumers Association is the major funder of Regeneration International (RI). Our partnership with RI is critical to our efforts to end factory farming and advance a new, regenerative food and farming system. We need your help. Please make a generous donation to our spring fundraising campaign today, details here.