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Monsanto Argues Roundup Cancer Victim Should Receive Less Money Because of Imminent Death
Grass-fed or Lab-fed—Which is Better for Your Health and the Environment?
The EPA Is Meant to Protect Us. The Monsanto Trials Suggest It Isn’t Doing That
Once Doomed, America’s Recovering Bison Are Saving US Ecosystems
Seafood Without the Sea: Will Lab-Grown Fish Hook Consumers?
In North Carolina, people recall being sprayed with liquid manure when giant hog farms move in next door. In Arizona, residents struggle to breathe outside their homes because of fumes emitted from massive barns housing 4 million laying hens. In Wisconsin, where large dairy operations abound, wells are contaminated with rotovirus and salmonella. (Article in Civil Eats).
That’s what people who live near factory farms—or as the industry prefers to call them, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)—have to put up with. Because all 50 states have some form of “Right to Farm” law in place that make it nearly impossible for people who live near factory farms to hold agribusiness corporations responsible for fouling their neighbors’ air and water, and destroying their property values and quality of life.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are 15,500 CAFOs in the U.S. Just one of those can produce as much feces and urine as a small city—much of which ends up being spread directly onto farm fields and ultimately contaminating groundwater.
“Right to Harm” is a new documentary that details this “brutal reality” experienced by people who live near these wretched CAFOs.
Read ‘New Film Captures the Brutal Reality of Living Near Factory Farms’
A domestic policy adviser at the White House said, for instance: “We have Monsanto’s back on pesticides regulation. We are prepared to go toe-to-toe on any disputes they may have with, for example, the EU. Monsanto need not fear any additional regulation from this administration.” – July 2018 email to Monsanto’s Todd Rands from Hakluyt & Company, a British strategic intelligence and advisory firm
If you read the latest article by U.S. Right to Know’s Carey Gillam, any glimmer of hope that U.S. regulatory agencies are looking out for your health was likely extinguished.
Citing recently filed court documents, Gillam shines a light on a report by a UK-based corporate intelligence group on just how loyal the White House, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are to Bayer-owned Monsanto.
All the more reason why last month’s statement by the EPA that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, is “safe” should come as no surprise.
Read ‘White House Has Monsanto’s Back on Pesticides, Newly Revealed Document Says
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress: Ban Monsanto-Bayer’s Cancer-Causing Roundup Weedkiller!
Help us support U.S. Right to Know with your tax-deductible donation
In the last two months, two presidential candidates—Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—have floated proposals to take on Big Agribusiness and start rallying support for America’s small family farmers.
You don’t have to support, or even like, Sens. Warren or Sanders. (As a nonprofit organization, we don’t endorse candidates—but we do support or oppose their positions on the issues we care about).
But if you care about a clean environment, pesticide-free food, and your local organic farmer, you’ve got to like what these two candidates are saying. And if we let these candidates know we support their plans to take on Big Ag, who knows how many more candidates will finally see the light?
Read Sanders’ plan to reform ag policy
In December 1997, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) launched a nationwide grassroots campaign called Save Organic Standards (SOS). Over the course of the next six months, OCA and our allies in the organic community successfully mobilized hundreds of thousands of organic consumers, farmers and retailers to stop the Clinton administration, Monsanto and corporate agribusiness from degrading organic standards and allowing GMOs, irradiated food and sewage sludge to be used in organic farming.
Since the first SOS battle, despite pro-agribusiness, pro-GMO, pro-factory farm policies and appointments by corporate Democrats (Clinton and Obama) and reactionary Republicans alike (Bush Sr., Bush Jr. and Trump), the U.S. market for certified organic food has grown from a $3-billion niche market in 1997 to a $50-billion-plus powerhouse today.
Still, federal policies that consistently favor and subsidize Big Ag continue to hamper organic farmers. And the desire of Big Food companies to grab a slice of the $50-billion organic market pie threatens to erode organic standards.
We could give up. We could think small. We could fight one small battle at a time.
Or, as Ronnie suggests in this week’s essay, we—food and farming, climate, natural health, animal welfare, social and economic justice activists—can join forces to fight for a Green New Deal that takes on all of the issues we all care about.
We didn’t know what to expect. After losing the GMO labeling battle this summer, after a bitter, divisive and exhausting presidential campaign, we approached end-of-year fundraising with equal parts hope and uncertainty.
Hope won out.
Once again, you showed us that we aren’t alone in the belief that this work is important. And that you’re willing to support it.
Thank you, to each and every one of you who pitched in to help us reach our goal. And to all of you who support OCA’s work in other, equally important ways.
Many challenges lie ahead as we find ourselves up against a cast of corrupt corporate cronies intent on rolling back, instead of improving, policies that already fall far short of protecting our health and our environment.
Thanks to you, and with you, we will face those challenges head on. Here’s to the #ConsumerRevolution2017!
Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)
Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our GMO labeling legislative efforts)
Support OCA's Regeneration International Project (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic, regenerative agriculture and climate change)
The evidence against neonicotinoid pesticides keeps piling up. But will it be enough to get the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to act in time?
Friends of the Earth (FOE) yesterday (June 25, 2014) released results of a second study on so-called ‘bee-friendly’ garden plants sold at Home Depot, Lowe’s and Walmart stores. According to the report, more than half of the plant samples tested in 18 U.S. cities contained neonic pesticides at levels that could harm or kill bees.
How would gardeners know that? They wouldn’t. Because there’s no mention of the pesticide on the plant’s label.
The FOE report followed on the heels of a new (June 24, 2014) meta-analysis of 800 peer-reviewed studies released this week by the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides, a global group of independent scientists. The report confirms that neonics are a key factor in bee declines.
The Task Force called for immediate regulatory action to restrict neonics.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S., in response to National Pollinator Week, (which was hijacked by the chemical companies that sell the poisons that kill the bees), the Obama Administration has come up with a weak, at best, plan that caters to the pesticide industry by spreading around the blame for Colony Collapse Disorder, instead of taking immediate action to ban neonics.
Consumers, however, aren’t waiting around. Tens of thousands of people have signed petitions, sent letters and taken to the streets asking retailers, including Home Depot and Lowe’s, to stop selling neonic pesticides. So far, nearly a dozen landscaping companies and retailers are taking steps to eliminate neonic pesticides from their garden plants and stores, including BJ’s Wholesale Club, with more than 200 stores in 15 states.
We’re still waiting for Home Depot and Lowe’s to follow suit.
The OCA organized a media event in Portland, Maine, one of the 18 cities where bee-friendly plants were tested. Events also took place in Detroit, St. Augustine, Fla., Boulder, Colo., New York, Raleigh, N.C., Austin, Texas and Eugene, Ore.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Home Depot and Lowe’s to Stop Selling Bee-Killing Plants!