Blog
Saturday morning, July 19. Sitting here at the Netroots Nation conference in Austin, Texas with several thousand other online activists. Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Party Speaker of the House, the third most powerful politician in the United States, is up on the podium, doing her best to damp down the mounting criticism of the Democratic Party's shameful collaboration in funding the war and aiding and abetting the Bush administration's shredding of the Constitution. Before Pelosi speaks, an announcement is made from the podium that disruptions will not be tolerated--if we express our Read More
"MoveOn is not a movement although it wants to be perceived as one. It is a brilliant and effective fundraising and marketing machine, but 95% or more of their so-called members ignore any particular email appeal. These 3.2 million people on the MoveOn email list are the object of marketing and fundraising campaigns, but they have absolutely no meaningful or democratic control over the decisions of organization, there is no accountability from the leadership to the MoveOn list members, and those of us on the list are unable to organize and communicate amongst ourselves within the list Read More
Rising food prices and shortages have joined the energy and climate crisis, economic recession, and the war in Iraq, as headline news. While consumers struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table, Monsanto, Cargill, and Archer Daniels Midland rake in billions from taxpayer-subsidized biofuels. Monopolizing markets, polluting the environment with genetically modified organisms, and hoarding future reserves of crop seeds, wheat, rice, soy, corn, and other grains, the food and gene giants profit from global crisis and misery. Adding fuel to the fire, Wall Street speculators have Read More
The question about the real price of food should be rephrased: Is it worth sending cheap, poisonous food to the starving masses?
Sometimes shoppers are confused by the differences in price between food grown organically and food grown conventionally. Usually organic loses the price war argument in comparison to what is called "conventional" food. Of course, we are all mostly aware that organic means grown and processed without chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones, toxic pesticides, sewage sludge, irradiation and genetic manipulation.
But, what does "conventional" mean Read More
Testimony presented to USDA National Organic Program & National Organic Standards Board by Alexis Baden-Meyer, Organic Consumers Association, Washington, DC
May 22, 2008
I want to thank the members of the Nation Organic Standards Board, the representatives of the USDA National Organic Program and everyone in the room for being here together to further the organic movement. At a time when humanity faces a triple global crisis around energy, food and climate change, the organic movement is leading by example and providing solutions. Organic agriculture can simultaneously feed Read More
Progressive Malpractice [noun]: ignoring the fundamental economic and political roots of a crisis; taking a single-issue, band-aid approach in hopes of gaining mainstream support.
Libertarian Narcissism [noun]: promoting individual solutions for collective problems; believing that market pressure alone can bring out-of-control corporations under control; ignoring the plight of the poor; pretending major problems can be solved without serious grassroots organizing and government reform.
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Standing at the end of Avenida Madero (Madero Avenue) on the last day of January 2008, a stone throw from the Zocalo or City Center of Mexico City, I am swept along in a sea of thousands of farmers and laborers, carrying signs and banners. Streaming from the historic statue of the Angel of Independence, symbolically setting fire to a decrepit tractor, one hundred and fifty thousand small farmers, teachers, workers, and neighborhood activists are marching to repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and end the illegal "dumping' by Cargill, ADM, and Monsanto Read More
Case in point: synthetic hormones in milk. Fourteen years after a highly contentious Food and Drug Administration decision allowing milk and dairy products from cows injected with Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone -- often called rBGH, also recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST -- the controversy continues.
As scientists and consumer advocates warned at the start, revving up cows with a synthetic hormone to force Read More
FINLAND, Minn. — Health-minded consumers are increasingly vocal about their basic right to know what’s in their food — and with good reason.
Case in point: synthetic hormones in milk. Fourteen years after a highly contentious FDA decision allowing milk and dairy products from cows injected with Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone — often called rBGH — the controversy continues.
As scientists and consumer advocates warned at the start, revving up cows with a powerful synthetic hormone for no other reason than to force them to produce about 15 Read More
FINLAND, Minnesota - Health-minded consumers are increasingly vocal about their basic right to know what's in their food - and with good reason.
Case in point: synthetic hormones in milk. Fourteen years after a highly contentious FDA decision allowing milk and dairy products from cows injected with Monsanto's genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone - often called rBGH-- on the market, the controversy continues.
As scientists and consumer advocates warned at the start, revving up cows with a powerful synthetic hormone for no other reason than to force them to Read More
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