TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK
‘Scaring’ Up the Votes
As we reported on Tuesday (March 1, 2016), 14 of the 20 members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture confirmed that they work for Monsanto, not you, when they passed a bill (S. 2609) intended to will wipe out Vermont’s hard-won and rightfully passed GMO labeling law and permanently preserve Monsanto’s “right” to deceive consumers.
TAKE ACTION: Please help us raise $250,000 to stop Monsanto’s wrecking ball! You can donate online, by mail or by phone, details here. If we raise $250,000 by midnight March 15, Mercola.com will match your donation dollar for dollar.
You can count on us to continue to oppose any federal law that doesn’t meet or exceed the standards set by Vermont’s mandatory labeling law, set to take effect July 1. Period.
But as has been the case for years now, Monsanto and friends, including the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) representing the worst of the worst junk food companies—Coca-Cola, Pepsi, General Mills, Nestle, Unilever, to name a few—are continuing their all-out assault on not only Vermont’s law, states’ rights and consumer rights—but on the truth.
While you’ve been calling your Senators asking them to vote with the 90 percent of Americans who want mandatory labeling laws, Monsanto and the GMA have been making robocalls all over the country, trying to scare up—literally—votes for Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) new DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act.
Monsanto robocallers are spreading old and new lies, including the one that requiring labels will add an extra $1,000 a year to your food bill. Not true, either theoretically or practically speaking, as Campbell’s Soup Co. has confirmed.
But the biggest lie of all, as we all know, is the lie that millions of acres of monoculture crops, sprayed in toxic Roundup or worse, pose no harm to your health or safety. This week, Roberts told Food Navigator: “It’s clear that what we’re facing today is not a safety or health issue. It is a market issue.”
We know otherwise. The list of threats posed by Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops and “commodity” foods is long, and growing every day. As we go to press today, a critical debate about the “safety” of glyphosate is taking place in Brussels. Some of the world’s leading scientists are outlining, point by point, why Monsanto’s glyphosate is making people sick.
And yet, your elected officials continue to side with Monsanto, not you.
In July, 275 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sold you down the river. This week, 14 Senators on the Senate Ag Committee said screw you, we’re voting for Monsanto. (You can find the list of Senate Ag Committee members here. All of the Republicans on this list voted against you, as did three Democrats: Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). Others, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) continue to look for a “compromise,” one that will delay or preempt Vermont’s law, and possibly call for QR codes, not labels.
Roberts’ bill could move to the Senate floor any day now. Senators looking to get enough votes to pass the bill, while still cow towing to Monsanto, will likely introduce amendments—all aimed at preempting Vermont’s law.
TAKE ACTION: Call your Senators today! Tell them no compromise on GMO labeling!
Text ‘Senator’ to 97779 to join OCA’s mobile network and take action!
Use these links to Tweet these six Democrats: Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.),Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr (D-Pa.)
TAKE ACTION: Please help us raise $250,000 to stop Monsanto’s wrecking ball! You can donate online, by mail or by phone, details here. If we raise $250,000 bymidnight March 15, Mercola.com will match your donation dollar for dollar.
ESSAY OF THE WEEK
C’est Magnifique!
That’s the day the French government launched the 4 per 1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security and Climate, a plan to fight climate change with soil carbon. The initiative’s goal is this: to increase global soil carbon stocks by 0.4 percent per year by drawing down atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) via the increased photosynthesis of regenerative farming and land use.
In this original essay Courtney White, author, activist and archeologist, reflects on the significance of what happened at the COP 21 Climate Summit in Paris, and what it means for the future of agriculture and climate activism.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
#MonsantoTribunal
TAKE ACTION: Donate to support the Monsanto Tribunal
GET EDUCATED
Homegrown Education!
And because Ronnie is one of the 30 experts presenting at the summit, OCA can offer free tickets (sign up here).
The Home Grown Food Summit takes place over seven days and includes 50-plus hours of video interviews with the "who's who" of the sustainable food and medicine movement.
In addition to Ronnie, speakers will include Geoff Lawton, The Livestock Conservancy, Justin Rhodes, Loretta Craig, Kari Spencer, Susan Weed, David Goodman, Susan Weed, and many more. They'll cover topics like:
• How organic gardeners produce 2X to 10X greater yields
• How to spend $0 feeding your chickens
• Natural beekeeping... how to do without chemicals!
• Guide to making $80 worth of compost per week
• Legally keeping chickens and goats in the city
• Raising superior eggs, milk, and meat in your backyard.
REGENERATION INTERNATIONAL
Join Us in D.C. on March 9!
During the COP21 Paris Climate Summit in December (2015), Stéphane Le Foll, France’s minister of agriculture, introduced something called the 4 per 1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security and Climate. The premise of the Initiative is this: If we were to increase, on a global scale, the soil organic carbon (SOC) content of the world’s soils by 0.4 percent (or, as the French say, “4 pour 1000”) each year for the next 25 years, we could draw down enough excess CO2 from the atmosphere to reverse global warming.
We believe this Initiative has huge potential, which is why OCA and our ally, IFOAM Organics International, as well as a number of steering committee members of Regeneration International, a project of OCA, wasted no time signing on to the Initiative.
But here’s the thing. For this Initiative to work, we need massive buy-in from countries all over the world—including the U.S. So to help get the word out, and provide the public and the media with access to the experts on soil health and climate change, we will hold an event at the National Press Club on March 9, beginning at 8 a.m.
Our opening speaker will be Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, director general for Economic and Environmental Performance of Enterprises, French Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. She will be followed by André Leu, president of IFOAM Organics International, who will be followed by four of the leading U.S. soil scientists.
Want the real dirt on how to avert a climate disaster? Join us on March 9.
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Details here
TAKE ACTION: President Obama: Sign on to France’s 4 per 1000 Regenerative Ag Climate Solution! Or text "Obama" to 97779 to sign the petition.
Click here to Tweet President Obama using hashtags #RegenerativeAg? ?#Paris2015? #COP21 #4p1000?????
Post on President Obama’s Facebook page
TRAVEL WITH OCA
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LITTLE BYTES
Essential Reading for the Week
Monsanto Given Legal Shield in a Chemical Safety Bill
German Beer Industry in Shock over Glyphosate Contamination
Monsanto Feels the Bern as Sanders Turns Focus to GMO Labeling
Pro-GMO Train Running off Its Track
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