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In the tumultuous week following the 2016 elections, Monsanto and its minions moved fast to tighten their control over our food and farming system. Emboldened by the prospect of another pro-industrial-agriculture administration, they’re plowing ahead. With total disregard for public health. And blanket dismissal of the warnings pouring in from independent scientists.
Politico, which obtained a list of Trump’s talking points on agriculture, said it includes a “sweeping promise” to "defend American agriculture against its critics, particularly those who have never grown or produced Read More
The best thing about the 2016 election, a contest between two of the most unpopular candidates in history, is that it’s over.
Now, we get back to work. Back to our radical roots (it’s never been lost on me that the word radical originates from the Latin word for root).
With this divisive and toxic election behind us, we can now get back to the grassroots work of regenerating our food and farming system, our health—even our democracy. Assuming, that is, we can set aside our differences long enough to focus on the root of our problems—corporate control over every aspect of our Read More
On October 29 (2016), the New York Times ran a piece on how the biotech industry has failed to deliver on its promises for GMO crops. The article followed less than a month after the biotech industry asked congressional leaders for $3 million in taxpayer-provided funding to “educate” the public about biotechnology and agricultural production.
Congress should turn down this request for two reasons. First, the biotech and food industries should spend their own money to market their products.
Second, Congress shouldn’t use taxpayer money to promote what scientists and Read More
OCA and our allies at Beyond Pesticides sued the maker of Sue Bee and Aunt Sue’s honey brands for labeling their products “Pure” and “100% Pure” when in fact those products test positive for glyphosate, the active (and ubiquitous) ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.
We know what you’re thinking. Honey comes from bees, and beekeepers don’t spray their hives with Roundup—so how did glyphosate end up in honey?
As organic farmers have been alleging for years, glyphosate doesn’t just land where it’s sprayed, end of story. It drifts—into places where it’s not wanted. Read More
Sunday, October 16, is World Food Day. It’s also the day that the International Monsanto Tribunal will conclude, in The Hague, Netherlands—and mark the beginning of justice for Earth and its inhabitants.
Monsanto and its friends in the pesticide industry will try to characterize this historic citizens’ initiative as a “kangaroo court.”
But those of us who are already here, preparing for the opening of the People’s Assembly (October 14), and the formal Tribunal (October 15-16), can attest to the fact that there are no kangaroos in sight. There are only distinguished Read More
On Sunday, September 25, OCA activists joined Greenpeace teams in the U.S. and Mexico to participate in Bimbo’s Global Energy Race. We dressed as bees and crossed the finish lines in Long Beach, Calif., Mexico City and Philadelphia with banners that read: “Bimbo, Cut the Pesticides!”
If we had been protesting a Monsanto or Bayer event, people immediately would have understood the bee costumes. Most people who have paid attention to the news about disappearing bees know that pesticides manufactured by these agro-chemical companies are contributing to bee deaths.
But we were Read More
It’s been about a week since Monsanto and Bayer confirmed their intention to say “I do”—ample time for media, lawmakers, consumer and farmer advocacy groups, and of course the happy couple themselves, to weigh in on the pros and cons.
Reactions poured in from all the usual suspects.
Groups like the Farmers Union, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth and others didn’t mince words when it came to condemning the deal. (Organic Consumers Association tagged it a “Marriage Made in Hell” back in May, pre-announcement, when the two mega-corporations were still doing their Read More
Bayer and Monsanto finally agreed to say “I do” yesterday (September 14), striking a $66-billion deal that Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant tried to sell as a move to improve “the lives of growers and people around the world.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Jacob Bunge painted the news in a different light. Bunge implied that behind the Bayer-Monsanto buyout, a similar proposed merger between Dow and Dupont, and the recently approved ChemChina-Syngenta deal, runs the story of an industry in trouble.
“The dominance of genetically modified crops is under threat,” wrote Bunge on Read More
“This is one celebration you don’t want to miss!”
That’s the message leaders of the Organic Trade Association (aka the Organic “Traitors” Association) sent their members recently, in an email inviting them to the OTA’s 2016 Leadership Awards Celebration at Expo East in Baltimore.
Here’s one thing that OCA and organic consumers will not be celebrating—the fact that the OTA’s “Organic Elite” conspired with Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) to overturn Vermont’s mandatory GMO labeling law, and ensure that food companies will never be required to reveal Read More
Stephen Colbert made it popular, but the word “truthiness” has been around for a long time.
Webster’s provides a list of definitions for "truthiness," including this one: (noun) : truth level of a statement; and this one: (noun) : The quality of stating what one wishes or feels to be true instead of what is actually true.
Tom’s of Maine, or more accurately, the brand’s majority owner, Colgate-Palmolive, was clearly guilty of “truthiness” when it created a webpage titled “How to Identify Organic Toothpaste.”
On that page, intended primarily to promote Read More
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