ESSAY OF THE WEEK
The Long March
It was a long road that led to the Monsanto Tribunal and People’s Assembly in The Hague last week (October 14 – 16). So what's next?
In his recap of this historic international citizens’ initiative, OCA’s Ronnie Cummins reports that a critical mass of us are ready to embark on a “Long March” of resistance, movement-building and regeneration.
The Monsanto People’s Assembly and Tribunal gave birth to a new resolve among activists all over the world to move beyond language and cultural barriers, beyond national and continental borders, beyond single-issue campaigning, and to begin building a new 21st Century activism model based on mutual solidarity and concrete cooperation in globally coordinated campaigns.
Ronnie writes:
Given the catastrophic consequences of “business as usual,” and continued domination by the global “1 percent,” we can no longer afford to operate as separate movements—the anti-GMO movement, the organic movement, the Fair Trade movement, the economic justice movement, the climate movement, the forest movement, the ocean movement, and the anti-war movement. Nor can we operate as regional or national movements of farmers, workers, students and consumers.
We must connect the dots between interrelated issues and we must work together, from the local to the international level, with fellow leaders of the global grassroots who see the “big picture.” Harnessing the enormous power of the global grassroots, we can build a new diverse Regenerative Movement strong enough and inspirational enough to overturn the dictatorship of Monsanto and the global elite. Coming out of Monsanto Tribunal and People’s Assembly at The Hague there is a new sense of urgency and determination. A critical mass of us are ready to embark on this Long March of resistance, movement-building and regeneration.
ACTION ALERT
No Joke
As former White House Chef and President Obama’s Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy, Sam Kass made a name for himself purporting to be a believer in, and promoter of healthy food.
Now that he’s teamed up with Campbell’s Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB), and wears thetitle "chief consumer experience officer" for a food data technology start-up, Kass is claiming that “people would die” if we tear down and replace the trillion-dollar food industry, and that the idea that Big Food is evil and should simply go away is “a joke.”
Politico reported this week that during a recent debate with Richard McCarthy, executive director of Slow Food USA, Kass said that the “trillion-dollar food industry is here to stay.” Kass also said that “good food” leaders haven’t created a “real political movement.”
But his best line was the one that “people would die” if Big Food goes away.
We’ve got news for Kass. People are dying now—from GMO, pesticide-laden, hormone- and antibiotic-ridden food, from nutrient-deficient food grown in dead soils, from drinking water poisoned by agricultural chemicals, and from global warming—the largest cause of which is industrial agriculture, the mainstay of “Big Food.”
We agree with Kass on one point—that the industrial food system needs to “change in a big way.” But not the way Kass is suggesting—by selling consumers on high-priced gadgets and fancy technologies the average American can’t afford to buy.
The Innit website says: "The Future of Food Is Now Connected." We say: "The Future of Food is Regenerative."
TAKE ACTION: Tell Former White House Chef Sam Kass: No Joke. Toxic Junk Food Is Killing Us!
Call Kass at 650-437-7253.
Tweet: @chefsamkass #NoJoke #ToxicJunkFood is killing us! http://orgcns.org/2epTalB
OCA IN MEXICO
¡Es oficial!
OCA has been working in Mexico for more than a decade. Through our sister organization, Vía Orgánica we’ve established a successful organic market and restaurant, a thriving organic and regenerative teaching farm and conference center—and we offereco-tours of all of the above, and more.
For the past few years, we’ve also waded into the world of activism and consumer campaigns. Our Mexico City-based team hasdefended Mexico’s long tradition of growing corn, successfully working with a national coalition of 300 organizations (“Sin Maiz, No Hay Pais," Without Corn There is No Country) to block commercial planting of Monsanto’s GMO corn, and fought with indigenous beekeepers and Greenpeace Mexico in the Yucatan to stop the planting of Monsanto’s genetically engineered soybeans.
This week we officially we launch La Asociación de Consumidores Orgánicos (ACO), a Spanish-language online and grassroots public interest network focused on the rights of Mexico’s consumers and farmers. ACO will operate as a project of the Organic Consumers Association.
Mexico ranks third in the world in the number of organic farmers. These farmers are threatened by Monsanto and other transnational corporations intent on destroying Mexico’s rich and diverse history of corn cultivation. Transnational junk food companies threaten Mexico’s consumers, whose obesity rates have surpassed those in the U.S., and whose health is threatened by a near-epidemic of diabetes.
La Asociación de Consumidores Orgánicos represents the formalization of our work in Mexico, which is part of our larger international strategy to protect the interest of consumers and local farmers from the promotion of junk food and factory farms, and combat global warming through regenerative farming and land-use practices.
Read the press release in English
Visit La Asociación de Consumidores Orgánicos (ACO)
Read the press release in Spanish
MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTO
Empowered!
“You’ve empowered many victims that shall build on this Tribunal’s work in their local struggles.” – Olivier De Schutter, chair of the Monsanto Tribunal legal team and former UN special rapporteur on the right to food, October 17, 2016
One by one, they stepped up to the podium. Reading from documents they’d spent months, in some cases years, researching and preparing, they stood before a panel of judges to tell their stories.
Farmers who had taken a stand against, and in some cases lost to, Monsanto in court, after their fields were contaminated by GMO seeds. Mothers whose children were born with birth defects caused by Monsanto’s poisons. Journalists and scientists whose work was viciously attacked and discredited by Monsanto.
They were prepared. Dignified. Determined.
Across town, hundreds of activists, young and old, listened to speakers, participated in workshops, viewed films and broke bread at the People’s Assembly. And they planned for a better future.
It will be awhile before the International Monsanto Tribunal judges issue their advisory opinions on the six frames of reference. We will bring you that news when it happens.
As soon as they can, the Tribunal organizers will post written and video testimony from the witnesses, and video of the People’s Assembly workshops on the official Monsanto Tribunal website.
For now, we can tell you that by any measure, the Monsanto Tribunal was a success. And as Vandana Shiva said in her closing speech at the People’s Assembly—a sentiment echoed by many over the three days of planning and discussion—“This does not end here.”
Read the People’s Assembly Summary
Video: Tribunal Ambassador Nnimmo Bassey at the Monsanto Tribunal opening press conference
Video: Vandana Shiva at the People’s Assembly
Video: Ronnie Cummins at the People's Assembly
More video coverage on Monsanto Tribunal Facebook
SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF
Behaving Badly?
“The nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.” – Theodore Roosevelt
You’ve heard us say it many times. We have to connect the dots. Before it’s too late.
We can have healthy people only if we have healthy food. We can have healthy food only if we have healthy soil. We can have healthy soil, but not if we destroy—with chemical fertilizers and pesticides—the soil’s capacity to conserve water, to retain nutrients, to draw down and sequester carbon.
Our entire ecosystem—on which we humans depend for our very survival—is threatened when we ignore the health of our soils.
Roosevelt was right that “a nation behaves well” when we leave our natural resources to the next generation “increased in value.” And as a nation, as an entire world, we (thanks in large part to corrupt corporations and their servants in governments and courts) have been behaving badly
It's time to think more expansively. We’ve reached the point where one nation behaving well isn’t enough—we need to work across borders, across cultures.
We’ve got a global problem. We actually have a global solution. It’s called regeneration.
All we need now is 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 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)
ONLINE LEARNING
Halloween Treat?
Want to transform your yard into an edible landscape? Or learn how to grow 75 percent of your food in less than 10 hours a week?
Maybe you’re interested in medicinal plants?
Beginning Monday, October 31, you can treat yourself to a free, seven-day online summit on homesteading. You’ll hear from 35 experts on a wide range of topics, including:
• How to stop predators from killing and eating your livestock
• 5 ways to achieve food abundance in small urban spaces.
• Lazy backyard chicken farming secrets
• Whip up delicious, slow-cooked meals using the sun
• Rainwater harvesting
The online summit on modern homesteading is sponsored by Mother Earth News and will be hosted by Marjory Wildcraft, founder of the Grow Network. Your free ticket gives you full access to all seven days of expert presentations.
Register for the Mother Earth News online homesteading summit
LITTLE BYTES
Essential Reading for the Week
Study: ADHD Drugs Fail to Help Kids Complete Homework
You Don't Want to Know Where This Pig Poop Is Washing Up
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the Mentality of Propaganda Control
Farming Mega-Mergers Threaten Food Security, Say Campaigners
Pesticide Experts Release Shocking Review of Global Glyphosate Damage
Millions Spent, No One Served: Who Is to Blame for the Failure of GMO Golden Rice?
Comments