TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK

‘Until Victory, Always’

As the famous revolutionary, Che Guevara, once said, "Hasta la victoria siempre," or “Until victory, always.”This week, we celebrate a major victory. Monsanto and its minions in Congress failed to pass a bill aimed at, among other things, preempting Vermont’s GMO labeling law and forever sanctioning the ongoing deceit conducted by corporations who cowardly refuse to label the GMO ingredients in their products.Wednesday’s victory was huge. But it isnt permanent. At least not yet.Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Monsanto’s puppet in the U.S. Senate, will be back—probably right after the Easter recess. Meanwhile, he’ll work behind the scenes to broker a compromise, almost any compromise, that will keep Vermont’s mandatory GMO labeling law from being enacted on July 1.

To hear Roberts tell it, S. 2609, his version of the DARK Act, “gives consumers the information they want.” Except of course that it doesn’t. It lets food corporations hide behind a voluntary labeling scam that discriminates against the poor and the elderly who don’t have smart phones, as well as those living in rural areas where internet access is limited.

We will need to continue defending our right to GMO labels. The next battle will be no easier than the last. And there’s no guarantee we’ll win.

But as you have proven so brilliantly with this most recent victory, grassroots pressure works. We can't let up now. That said, even if we prevail again in the coming weeks, we will still have a long way to go before we win the larger war—a complete transformation from Monsanto’s degenerative “agribusiness” model to an organic, regenerative food and farming system that provides abundant, nutritious food, revives local economies, rebuilds soil fertility and biodiversity, and restores climate stability by returning carbon to the soil.

That will be the ultimate victory. Until then? Always!

Read the email we sent after the vote on Wednesday

TAKE ACTION: Find out how your Senator voted on the DARK Act. If your Senator voted ‘no,’ call to say ‘thank you, and please hold firm against any future compromise.’ If your Senator voted against your right to know, call to say how disappointed you are.

Donate to help fight the next version of the DARK Act

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

Don’t Ask, Won’t Tell

When we asked writer Martha Rosenberg to wade into the issue of drugs in our drinking water, we weren’t sure what she’d find out.Turns out, it isn’t pretty.Thanks to the chemical, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries, and America’s antiquated water systems, you may be imbibing a witch's brew of drugs and chemicals. And you don’t even realize it.

How do all those chemicals get in your water? Via human drug waste in sewage, medicines flushed down toilets, agricultural runoff and the wide use of endocrine disruptors like pesticides, flame retardants and plastic-related compounds like phthalates and BPA.

Naturally, both the drug industry and water treatment “experts” say traces of toxic chemicals are so small they “probably pose no public health risk.” Yet they alsoadmit that testing has begun so recently that no one really knows the long-term effects.

From Mary Buzby, director of environmental technology for that beyond-reproach pharmaceutical giant, Merck:

"There's no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they're at, could be causing impacts to human health or to aquatic organisms."

We suggest all those folks who continue to tell us not to worry our pretty little heads read “The Myths of Safe Pesticides,” a book that outlines why no amount of toxic chemicals, including and especially tiny amounts, are “safe.”

Read Martha's essay

ACTION ALERT

Monsanto's 'Smoking Gun'

On February 11, the U.S. joined 11 other nations in signing the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a disastrous international trade deal, negotiated in secret, by some of the most corrupt and polluting corporations in the world. 

The deal undermines local, state and federal food safety and labeling laws, environmental laws and a host of other consumer rights and safety regulations.

Last year, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)blasted what he called the “Monsanto Provision” hidden (in plain view) in the TPP:

“Call it the smoking gun. Proof that fast track and massive free trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership are written by and for multinational corporations such as agriculture giant Monsanto. Instead of using trade deals as an opportunity to protect and strengthen consumer rights by joining the countries which require genetically engineered food to be labeled, this administration wants to benefit wealthy corporations at the expense of the public.”

To make matters worse, Congress granted President Obama something called “trade promotion authority,” also known as “fast track,” which means Congress can’t amend or even debate the deal—all they can do is vote “yes” or “no.”

As of yet, Congress doesn’t have the votes to pass the TPP. One person who could help keep it that way is Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chair of the Democratic National Committee. Although the two democratic candidates for president have said that they would oppose the TPP (Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has always opposed it; Hillary Clinton previously supported it but has recently flipped), Schultz has not publicly come out against the deal.

OCA has joined with other organizations to pressure Schultz to take a stand for consumers and democracy, by taking a stand against the TPP.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Oppose the TPP!

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

Sweet! But Short.

This week's victory in the Senate was sweet. If only we had time to savor it. But as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, the DARK Act will rear its ugly head again—and soon.Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) has vowed to bring back his bill to kill GMO labeling laws. His "DARK Act, Part II" will likely include some sort of compromise aimed at enticing a few more Senators to vote his way.Thanks to you, we the people struck enough fear into the hearts of enough Senators that they actually voted with us this time, instead of Monsanto.With your help, we will do it again.Thank you, to all of you who helped raise the money for this fight, who made phone calls and wrote letters and emails, who knocked on the doors of your Senators' offices in D.C. and in their home districts. You are amazing. We couldn't ask for better allies. But wemust ask for you to help us see this through to a final victory.

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)

OCA IN MEXICO

Adiós, Monsanto!

While you were helping us slay the GMO dragons in the U.S. Senate, OCA’s Mexico team, aided by loyal south-of-the-border consumers, scored a major victory of their own.On March 8, 2016, Mexican farmers, consumers and activists won a federal appeals court ruling to prevent genetically engineered corn from being grown in Mexico until a class action lawsuit, filed by scientists, consumers, small farmers and activists has been resolved.The March 8 ruling allows the biotech industry to continue experimental trials of GM corn, but with a new twist—the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) will now require regular assessments of the impact of the of the test crops on neighboring non-GM fields and human health.This recent victory follows a seven-year battle that has drawn together a broad coalition of ndividuals and civil society organizations, including scientists, farming groups, beekeepers, indigenous groups, environmental groups, human rights groups and artists bound together by a single mission: to protect the integrity of Mexico’s most popular agricultural crop.

OCA’s Mexico-based team, working through our sister organizations, Vía Orgánicaand Asociación de Consumidores Orgánicos, is proud to have played a role in achieving this victory. We also know that this is just the first of many legal hurdles we will have to overcome in our continued battle to defend the integrity and diversity of Mexico’s corn and its connection with an entire culture. So far, OCA has contributed $30,000 to this critical legal battle.

Read the first-hand account from our Mexico team

Donate to OCA’s campaign to keep Monsanto’s corn out of Mexico

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Fertile Farming

Farming is a labor of love—and unpredictability. It’s a battle of survival, says the owner of Ranchito del Mar Farm in San Pancho, Mexico.One way to reduce the risk is to adopt organic regenerative farming practices. Across the world, people are embracing the concept that regenerative agriculture can restore ecosystems, produce abundant and healthy food, and reverse global warming. OCA has teamed up with “Over Grow The System” to learn why some farmers are pursuing regenerative agriculture, and what they are doing to build a brighter future for all of us. 

Join us to explore these “Stories from a Fertile Earth” 

Watch the segment on Ranchito del Mar

NEW STUDY

Phony

Bill Gates loves to talk about solving the hunger problem in Africa, mostly by forcing the failed U.S. GMO-intensive agribusiness model on a country that doesn’t want it.

Yet according to a recent in-depth analysisby Grain, a mere 4 percent of the $40-billion foundation’s grants have so far gone to NGOs in Africa.

Who’s reaping the bulk of the Gates Foundation’s funding? U.S. organizations, which have received about 75 percent of the foundations grants so far.

As if that weren’t phony enough, the foundation claims that “Listening to farmers and addressing their specific needs” is its “first guiding principle” when it comes to its work in agriculture.

Not so, says the Grain report:

Listening to someone, if it has any real significance, should also include the intent to learn. But nowhere in the programmes funded by the Gates Foundation is there any indication that it believes that Africa's small farmers have anything to teach, that they have anything to contribute to research, development and policy agendas. The continent's farmers are always cast as the recipients, the consumers of knowledge and technology from others. In practice, the foundation's first guiding principle appears to be a marketing exercise to sell its technologies to farmers. In that, it looks, not surprisingly, a lot like Microsoft.

Maybe that “marketing exercise” has something to do with the $23 million Bill and Melinda have invested in Monsanto?

Read the full report 

Learn more

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) - Monsanto's Toxic Chemicals

Vermont's GMO Addiction – with or without a Label

Big Food Found Guilty in Multimillion Dollar Cover up in GMO Labeling Fight

Why Is the Media so Afraid of This Woman's Work?

Regenerative Agriculture Solution

7 Domestic Factors That Can Make or Break Your Health

PR Firm Attacks Organic Food, Then Pitches Itself to Organic Companies