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One of the largest farm businesses in the state expanded its operation and constructed a manure pit in Franklin County last summer — without a permit or state oversight.
The state has now retroactively required a permit for the farm expansion.
But an advocate who discovered it while investigating farm pollution is now citing the case as evidence of lax state enforcement over large scale dairy farming.
Pleasant Valley Farms built one of the state’s largest farming operations last year, in one of Vermont’s most polluted watersheds, without a permit, according to documents obtained by VTDigger.
A big “thank you” this week to the Tucson, Arizona, Organic Consumers Association members who convinced their local co-op, Food Conspiracy, to stop selling Ben & Jerry’s.
Several of our supporters emailed Food Conspiracy’s store manager and its board of directors. Within hours, the co-op posted a message on Facebook that they would be discontinuing the brand in their store.
Food Conspiracy joins other co-ops who are listening to their owner/customers, including Moscow Food Co-Op in Moscow, Idaho; New Pioneer Food Co-Op in Coralville, Iowa; and Ypsilanti Food Co-Op and River Street Bakery in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
What’s Ben & Jerry’s been up to while consumers have been working hard to get Ben & Jerry’s off store shelves?
Vermonters are, literally, swimming in a toxic soup of glyphosate (Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller), atrazine, 2,4-D and other pesticides.
The use of glyphosate alone—just on Vermont dairy farms—jumped 27 percent between 2014 – 2017, according to new data released last month by Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets.
The “toxic stew” of pesticides polluting Vermont’s waterways includes 34 different products. In 2016, the most heavily used was glyphosate—62,458 pounds. That’s more than double the amount used in 2014.
That’s a lot of Monsanto Roundup weedkiller dumped in a state that ranks 43rd in size. It makes for one “dirty dairy” industry.
And Ben & Jerry’s—owned by the international consumer products conglomerate, Unilever—is one of, if not the biggest player in that industry.
How do you build a business that lasts 100 years? For dairy farmer Robert Manning, owner of the Manning Farm in Swanton, it’s about family support and playing an active role in the community too. “Farmers have deep roots and are invested in the long-term vision of the town they live in,” said Robert Manning. “It means a lot to me to see 100 years of what we’ve accomplished, especially with how much it’s changed since the farm was started.”
Corporate-run agricultural co-ops are squeezing the very farmers they’re supposed to protect. Making them work again could help revive the heartland.
We love natural food co-ops.
Natural food co-ops usually do a good job of stocking organic and avoiding GMO, pesticide-drenched and factory-farm food.
So, we were surprised to learn that, even after we revealed that Ben & Jerry’s contained potentially dangerous levels of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer, there were still a significant number of natural food co-ops selling Ben & Jerry’s.
TAKE ACTION! Tell the National Co-Op Grocers to #DumpBenandJerrys!
Our world is in a bit of an uproar these days. Never before have we seen so many challenges come to the fore simultaneously. Here in Vermont, we are very fortunate to live in a rather civil society, especially when we consider the toxic political environment that we see on the national level. We still have plenty to worry about right here in our own state, however. Hardly a day goes by without some mention of water quality and environmental pollution in the news. This past August we saw some of the worst-ever blue green algae blooms in lakes Champlain, Carmi and Memphremagog. Fingers were pointed, and the usual blame game transpired.
By now, most conscious consumers know that Unilever-owned Ben & Jerry’s has been scamming consumers with its claims of caring about the environment and getting money out of politics.
Unfortunately, a lot of retail stores—including natural health stores and food co-ops—are still buying, and selling, Ben & Jerry’s.
That’s why we’ve been asking consumers to ask their favorite stores to dump Ben & Jerry’s until the Unilever-owned brand commits to going 100% organic.
Want to help? It’s easy. Check out this list of natural food stores and co-ops. If your local store is listed, please deliver this letter to the store asking it to dump Ben & Jerry’s! Then if you can, please fill out this form to let us know what the store said.
Your local natural health food store could never get away with stocking its shelves with Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller. Toxins that cause cancer and birth defects don’t belong in “health” food stores.
So how do some of these stores get away with stocking Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, when our testing revealed that ten of 11 flavors contain glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup?
This week, we called 290 of the best natural health food stores and co-ops nationwide to find out which ones sell Ben & Jerry’s.
We’re relieved to report that most—198—don’t. But unfortunately, 92 (31 percent) do. Here’s the list of natural health food stores and co-ops that sell glyphosate-contaminated Ben & Jerry’s. If your store is on this list please take this letter to the store manager and ask him or her to stop selling Ben & Jerry's. After your visit, fill out this form to let us know what happened.
Most of the stores that sell Ben & Jerry's display it right next to the organic brands they sell—a move that misleads consumers into thinking Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is organic, too.
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