Organic Bytes
Newsletter #847: OCA Takes Legal Action Against Foster Farms
 

THE MYTH OF NATURAL

Organic Consumers Association Takes Legal Action Against Foster Farms

By Alexis Baden-Mayer, Political Director at OCA:

Organic Consumers Association and Richman Law & Policy filed a complaint against Foster Farms on April 10, 2024, in the District of Columbia Superior Court. The complaint alleges that Foster Farms, in violation of the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act, deceptively markets its chicken products with claims concerning animal welfare.

Foster Farms, the complaint alleges, misleads consumers by claiming that, “The chickens we raise enjoy the five freedoms.” Organic Consumers Association challenges these freedoms Foster Farms claims its chickens have:

1. Freedom from discomfort;
2. Freedom from injury, pain, or disease; and
3. Freedom from fear and distress.

In addition, Foster Farms claims each of the chickens under its care “has the space to roam and act like a chicken” and has “enough room to run around, sit, scratch, roll around, scratch, and run some more.”

Multiple undercover investigations have revealed that the indoor space Foster Farms allocates to the chickens under its care is minimal—less than one square foot per bird, or, about the size of a sheet of standard printer paper—which does not give its chickens room to express their natural behaviors. And, in addition to this extreme confinement, Foster Farms facilities do not provide sufficient the outdoor access or indoor enrichments necessary for their chickens to forage, nest, peck or perch.

Read about how we are taking action against Foster farms for  using inhumane practices that subject those chickens to injury, pain, disease, fear, and distress

To view the complaint, follow this link

EARTH DAY RESOLUTION

Regenerating the Earth, Regenerating Our Health

By Navdanya International, Naturaleza de Derechos, PROBIOMA, SWISSAID, Semillas de Identidad, Organic Consumers Association, Regeneration International, and Vía Orgánica

A Call for Biodiversity!

The health of the planet and the health of the people are One, maintained through the cycle of food, the cycle of life, the cycle of regeneration. We are part of nature and of its complex living processes. The earth, food and our bodies are interconnected living systems.

Food is Medicine when it is part of the flow of life, from soil, to plants, to our gut . Biodiversity is food, biodiversity is health. Biodiversity grows biodiversity.

At the heart of an ecological future is a sustained continuum between eating and growing. When this delicate equilibrium is disrupted, the repercussions reverberate across all aspects of life.

Industrial food produced using fossil fuels and fossil chemicals is driving the biodiversity on the land and in our gut to extinction, diminishing our cultural and food diversity, creating hunger and chronic diseases.

Biodiversity stands as a cornerstone of climate resilience, a vital component at all levels of ecosystems that maintain balance and resilience. Health, too, must embrace diversity—the rich tapestry of life that sustains us. True sovereignty over our well-being can only be attained by regenerating and working in harmony with all the sources of our sustenance, from food, to water, to soil, to biodiversity.

Read the earth day resolution

PANDEMICS, SCAMDEMICS

The Bird Flu Food Crisis

By Alexis Baden-Mayer, Political Director at OCA:

Fill your freezer with regenerative organic meat. Buy eggs and milk, and get backyard chickens, while you can, because the bird flu food crisis has already begun.

Dairy herds in eight U.S. states have tested positive for the bird flu And, now 17 states are rejecting cattle from those states.

Blocking cattle from being moved across state lines means preventing cattle from being slaughtered.

Nebraska is the number-one state for beef slaughter. It processes 7.5 million carcasses each year. It’s also a top feedlot producer, with 1.8 million cows raised in the state. But that means 5.7 million cattle come from other states into Nebraska to be slaughtered each year. Where do they go if Nebraska won’t take them?

Blocking this flow of cattle will cause massive chaos and disruptions to the food supply.

We got a taste of this during COVID, but it was largely a false alarm. The dreaded bacopalypse did not come to pass. That didn’t stop bacon prices from hitting all-time highs. (As you recall, along with huge increases in poverty and food insecurity, COVID facilitated a massive transfer of wealth to the billionaires.)

Now, with bird flu pandemic hysteria cranking up a notch each day, we should brace ourselves for something even worse. It’s being rolled out from the get-go with the makings of a massive food crisis.

If you thought vaccine passports were bad, you’re going to love food rationing passports. Digital IDs are already being imposed on people turning to the government for food assistance. If bird flu policies cause food serious shortages and price hikes, that could be all of us.

There’s only one way to stop this: Buy your food in cash from local regenerative organic farmers!

Read more: Spending Millions of Dollars Killing Millions of Farm Animals Is Wrongheaded, Cruel and Could Cause the Food Crisis That Billionaires Will Use to Scare Us Into Digital Prisons

Regenerative Farm Map – Organic Consumers

Any questions or feedback? Contact us here.

Click here to read more about regenerative agriculture.

NATURAL HEALTH

Introducing Homeopathy, The Film

Do not miss this pivotal moment in Homeopathy’s history!

Through interviews with some of the leading minds in science, case studies of success stories, and explorations of the latest research, technology and state-of-the-art medicines, the new film Introducing Homeopathy reveals the true power of this extraordinary healing modality.

In the film you’ll meet Casey and learn how homeopathy helped her heal from severe hormonal imbalances, chronic pain, and difficulty conceiving.

You’ll also learn how our beloved animal companions demonstrate the power of homeopathy to facilitate our inherent capacity for healing.

This week, OCA political director Alexis Baden-Mayer interviewed Executive Producer Kim Elia live on OCA’s Facebook and YouTube channels to talk about the premier of the film at this weekend’s Joint American Homeopathic Conference (JAHC) in Reston, VA.

Watch the interview here

The film can also be seen online. Click here to purchase your tickets to watch Introducing Homeopathy in person on April 19 in Reston, VA, or online from anywhere virtually

FOOD AND HEALTH

Foods You Never Knew Could Help Your Sleep

By Meredith Cooper, Health Digest:

“How did you sleep last night? Did you drift off right away or toss and turn for a while? Did you stay asleep all night or go in and out of sleep? If you didn’t get that restful recharge you needed, you’re not alone.

Fortunately, there are simple lifestyle adjustments that can help, including adding certain foods to your diet both during the day and right before bedtime.

”

Checkout the benefits of peanut butter, eggs, tart cherry juice, broccoli and more foods that can help you get a good night’s sleep

COMING CLEAN

Most Effective and Safest Sunscreens

Environmental Working Group writes: 

“EWG published its first Guide to Sunscreens in 2007 to provide consumers with information about their sun protection products when the Food and Drug Administration failed to set modern safety standards for sunscreens. We created the guide so consumers wouldn’t have to sort through misleading market claims and complex ingredient lists to find products that provide the best protection and are free of concerning ingredients.

Through its research, EWG has discovered that products are not all the same when it comes to sun protection and ingredient health hazards. Some sunscreens have serious problems. We continue to voice our concerns to the FDA and push the agency to set standards that address these deficiencies. In the meantime,

EWG’s Guide to Sunscreens aims to help consumers make informed choices and avoid sun damage and cancer.”

Get EWG’s Guide to Safer Sunscreens!

SUPPORT OCA & RI

Truth-Telling

Regenerators, young and old, given our current situation, need to operate on the old adage that “the darkest hour is right before the dawn.” Instead of just dwelling on the negative, on the things that divide or frighten us, we need to search out and highlight today’s positive trends, best practices, and solutions. For the OCA and Regeneration International community this means not just focusing on the latest corruption and criminality of the ruling class and the technocrats, not just the delusions and self-destructive behavior of those brainwashed by the Establishment narrative, but on finding, highlighting, and scaling up real life regenerative alternatives.

A carefully deployed campaign of truth-telling and resistance will enable us to head off immediate disaster (“Biofascism”) and buy us the time we need to further spread our redemptive message. In our long march to restore community, health, environment, peace, solidarity, love, and compassion we will gradually gain the power to inspire and unite, across issues and borders, a critical mass of the global grassroots. This will not only regenerate our society, but our optimism and our consciousness as well.

For a full dose of positive information, go to the internal search engine on the upper right hand side of the OCA homepage and type in the words Regenerative Food and Farming.

And if you can, help us continue our work for an organic regenerative future, please make a donation today to OCA, or our sister organizations, Regeneration International and Via Organica.

Make a tax-deductible donation to Organic Consumers Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Make a tax-deductible donation to Regeneration International, our international sister organization

Click here for more ways to support our work

MENTAL HEALTH

The Vorfreude Secret: 30 Zero-Effort Ways to Fill Your Life With Joy

Rachel Dixon writes in The Guardian:

“Be honest: there are times when you have felt schadenfreude, or ‘delight in another’s misfortunes’ But what about vorfreude? I recently came across this lovely word, which my German-speaking friend translated as “the anticipation of joy”. It struck me as such a hopeful concept – surely we could all do with less schadenfreude and more vorfreude. So what exactly is anticipatory joy, how do we cultivate it and will it make us happier?

‘The idea is to find joy in the lead-up to an event,’ says Dr Sophie Mort, a clinical psychologist and mental health expert at the meditation and mindfulness app Headspace. “For example, we often feel joy and excitement when planning a trip, thinking about going on a date or anticipating a special meal.” It’s easy to look forward to holidays and special occasions, but a joy-filled life is also about everyday occurrences. Rory Platt, a writer at the personal development company The School of Life, says: ‘The trick lies in filling our calendar with lots of little moments to look forward to – like tiny baubles that, when seen from a distance, combine to make a more glittering future’.”

Read more about vorfreude

FOOD SAFETY

Toxins Found in General Mills ‘Loaded’ Cereal

Dr. Joseph Mercola writes:

* On February 1, 2024, General Mills launched “LOADED,” a new cereal line with enlarged squares of popular cereals filled with artificially flavored vanilla creme, but tests reveal alarming levels of heavy metals in Trix LOADED.

* Trix LOADED contains more than double the EPA’s allowable level for lead, 400% higher levels of cadmium, and up to 1,650% higher aluminum levels than EPA standards for drinking water.

* The European Food Safety Authority’s weekly aluminum intake limit is nearly reached by daily consumption of Trix LOADED, not accounting for other aluminum exposure sources. Glyphosate and eight pesticides were also detected.

* Processed cereals are major sources of linoleic acid (LA), which may impair mitochondrial function and contribute to chronic disease.

* Bone broth is a nutritious alternative to cereal. Bone broth contains important amino acids that few people get enough of, such as glycine and proline, which are important for longevity and overall health”.

Learn more: Toxins Found in General Mills ‘Loaded’ Cereal

PLASTIC BAN

Consumers Back Worldwide Single-Use Plastics Ban in New Survey

Packaging Europe writes:

“Over 430 million tonnes of virgin plastic are said to be produced every year. 60% of this figure is single-use, yet only 9% of that plastic is thought to be recycled worldwide. Now that such plastics are thought to constitute more than 70% of plastic pollution in the ocean, consumers are pushing for such plastics to be banned worldwide.

The results precede the fourth International Negotiation Committee meeting taking place in Ottowa, Canada, between 23rd and 29th April, wherein discussions around a Global Plastics Treaty will continue.

Another survey from Greenpeace has shed light on similar support for the eradication of single-use plastics. 82% of the consumers it surveyed, and 87% of those questioned by Ipsos, argue that the Treaty should ‘provide a clear pathway’ in the effort to drive down plastic production worldwide.

‘Now is the time for a legally binding treaty that delivers both what the people want, and what the planet desperately needs.’”



Read more: Consumers Back Worldwide Single-Use Plastics Ban in New Survey

Tell Your State Legislators to Ban Toxic PFAS

GMOs

Educate to Regenerate

Check out this informative website! 



GMO Science writes:

“Our children are under assault from a multitude of environmental toxicants. The leading cause is industrial food-like products, driven by industry, with a nod from government. In response to this onslaught, GMOScience is dedicated to providing solutions-based guidance informed by unbiased scientific inquiry.

GMOScience.org is an educational hub for articles, parent advice, videos, and podcasts, focusing on the impacts of genetically modified organisms with a lens on health and the environment.

We provide analyses based on unbiased scientific inquiry, providing solutions-based guidance regarding organic regenerative food for our well-being.

Our goals are:

* To reclaim real science for the benefit of humanity.

* Create solutions for chronic diseases in children and adults.

* Learn the risks of GMOs and the rapidly changing technology and what to do about it.

* Assess and discuss how to live in a world where genetic engineering is unavoidable.”

More here: Welcome to GMOScience