The Big Picture

Humanity has a lot of problems these days. Climate change, increasing economic inequality, crashing biodiversity, political polarization, and a global debt bubble are just a few of our worries. None of these trends can continue indefinitely without leading to a serious failure of our civilization’s ability to maintain itself.

December 17, 2018 | Source: Resilience | by Richard Heinberg

Serious discontinuities tend to disrupt the timelines of all complex societies (another name for civilizations—that is, societies with cities, writing, money, and full-time division of labor). The ancient Roman, Egyptian, and Mayan civilizations all collapsed. Archaeologists, historians, and systems thinkers have spent decades seeking an explanation for this pattern of failure—a general unified theory of civilizational collapse, if you will. One of the most promising concepts that could serve as the basis for such a theory comes from resilience science, a branch of ecology (the study of the relationship between organisms and their environments).

The Big Picture

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Cook Organic Not the Planet | Regenerative Agriculture

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"All over the world, food systems are being rebuilt from the bottom up, often on a small, city-wide scale. That’s food democracy, which should be promoted just as in the early 20th century people dreamt of workplace democracy." – Olivier de Schutter, United Nations special rapporteur on the Right to Food, as quoted in the New York Times.

Why does it matter that one small state, Vermont, has finally passed a GMO labeling law? Or that voters in two small counties in Oregon organized citizen ballot initiatives to ban the growing of GMO crops’and won?

Because those battles are part of the big picture. Those wins are proof that if we persist, we will one day overcome the vast spending power of corporations, and the corrupt workings of our political system.

County by county, state by state. One win at a time.
Yesterday, the California legislature shot down another GMO labeling law. By two votes. The grassroots team behind that legislation is not defeated’it’s invigorated. Activists will regroup, and make another run at lawmakers next year.

Because that’s how bottom-up democracy works.

In November, voters in Oregon will decide on a statewide citizens’ initiative to label GMOs. Their battle is our battle. A loss there is a loss for all of us.

But a win in Oregon in November is a win for every consumer, everywhere.

Banning GMO crops in a couple of little counties in one state seems like a drop in the bucket when it comes to ridding the world of Monsanto’s poisons.

But make no mistake. Those are critical, Big-Picture wins.
Please help us make our $500,000 commitment to Oregon’s GMO labeling initiative. Together, we can build a safe, healthy, sustainable and democratic food system. Thank you!
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 legislative efforts in Oregon, Vermont and other states)