BLOG POST OF THE WEEK

Looming Deadline

Oh, to be a fly on the wall inside the offices of the top lobbyists for the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA).So close to the July 1 deadline for complying with Vermont’s GMO labeling law, and still no court ruling to overturn Vermont’s law. Still no federal legislation to preempt Vermont’s law.Hundreds of millions of dollars spent to keep labels off GMO ingredients. Lawsuits, dirty tricks, shady schemes—all, so far, for naught.

Meanwhile, food corporations are labeling, or announcing plans to label, and preparing to implement those plans. Others, including Dannon, will remove GMO ingredients from their products.

Is victory really within our grasp this time?

The closer we get to July 1, the closer we are to winning the battle of all labeling battles. But we’re not there yet. Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) are still trying to get traction for a federal preemption bill. While in Vermont, the food industry is angling for longer deadlines and exemptions.

Thanks to your relentless pressure on Congress, things aren’t looking great right now for Monsanto and Big Food. But it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Read the blog post

TAKE ACTION: Stop the DARK Act Comeback! Tell your Senators: Protect Vermont’s GMO labeling law. 

Dial 888-897-0174 to tell your Senators to vote against any compromise that would block or delay Vermont's bill from taking effect.

Help us protect Vermont’s GMO labeling law

TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK

Trust Issues

Chances are, if you choose an “organic” infant formula for your baby or toddler, you do it because you want to feed your baby something wholesome, healthy and safe—and free of ingredients that don’t pass that test.You rightfully expect to be able to trust the USDA organic seal. But what happens when you can’t?

OCA is suing two makers of popular infant formula brands—Hain Celestial Group (Earth’s Best) and The Honest Co.—because these two corporations are flat-out lying to consumers when they label their products as “organic.”

Of all the food products out there in the market, the products parents choose to feed infants and toddlers, whose brains are still developing, and whose immune systems are still fragile, are the products we should hold to the highest of standards.

That’s why the deceptive labeling practices of Honest and Hain Celestial are so, well, egregious.

We’ll keep you up to date on these lawsuits, which are intended to force Honest and Earth’s Best to remove the organic seal from their products—unless of course they want to remove the offending ingredients. Stay tuned.

Read the press release

More here

Read the complaint against Hain Celestial (Earth’s Best)

Read the complaint against The Honest Co.

Post on Earth’s Best Facebook page

Post on Honest Co. Facebook page

What Does ‘Organic’ Mean for Baby Formula?

ACTION ALERT

Star Power

Actor Robert De Niro (rightfully) took some heat for allowing the Tribeca Film Festival to censor the film "VAXXED—From Cover-Up to Catastrophe" after initially supporting the films' screening.

But in an April 13 interview with the "Today Show," De Niro stood up for the film, telling the interviewers "Let's find out the truth." De Niro, whose 18-year-old son is autistic, also did interviews with FOX News and NBC, in which reporters tried to discredit the film and downplay the risks of vaccines. But each time, De Niro stood up for the film and urged people to watch it.

“VAXXED” is a documentary film based on claims by Dr. William Thompson that he and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lied about the results of their own study, a study showing a link between the MMR vaccine and the rise of autism in African American boys.

The film, directed by Andrew Wakefield and produced by Del Bigtree, features journalistBen Swann who examines Thompson’s claims through interviews he conducts with doctors, journalists, authors and former CDC specialists.

De Niro is right to defend “VAXXED.” The science on vaccines and autism is far from settled. Last year, researchers discovered the brain is directly connected to the immune system via previously unknown vessels — a discovery that could have significant implications for autism.

Please urge De Niro to use his star power to keep this issue front and center in the media.

More on vaccines and autism

Watch De Niro on the "Today Show"

TAKE ACTION: Tell Robert De Niro: Please Keep Seeking the Truth about Vaccines!

Text "VAXXED" to 97779 to sign the petition

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

'Extreme Transition'

“But the responsibility does not lie with big thinkers and media personalities alone. Each of us must also step up and know that our individual actions do matter.”- Daniel Pinchbeck, Schuyler BrownYou’ve heard us say it many times.It’s time for a transformation. A new paradigm. For agriculture, yes. But there’s so much more than just our toxic industrial agriculture system that needs changing.We need to change the way we look at local and global economies. The way we look at capitalism, at “growth,” at economic, environmental and climate justice.We need a new world view. We need to adjust our moral compass. We need a full-on revolution.Or, as writers Daniel Pinchbeck and Schuyler Brown outlined in a recent article, we need an “extreme transition.”We know what we need to do. Now we just have to do it.

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)

Donate to OCA’s Regeneration International Project (tax-deductible, helps support our work on organic regenerative agriculture and climate change)

MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTO

The People vs. Monsanto

World governments have shown a stunning lack of will to stop Monsanto from poisoning our food and our planet—much less hold the agribusiness giant accountable for its crimes.So it’s up to us.OCA is part of a committee organizing a Citizens’ Tribunal. The tribunal will take place October 15 and 16 (World Food Day), in The Hague, Netherlands. Prior to the start of the tribunal, on October 14, we will hold a People’s Assembly, complete with workshops, films and international speakers. During the two-day tribunal, judges and lawyers experienced in international law will hear testimony from witnesses from multiple countries, who have suffered harm from Monsanto’s poisons.Citizens’ Tribunals have a long history of drawing global attention to corporate crimes. While the opinions handed down by the judges aren’t enforceable, they often—and in this case, will—lay the foundation for future legal cases where judgments will be enforceable.The power of this tribunal will depend a lot on how much global attention we can draw to it. That’s why we’re coordinating with March against Monsanto to publicize the tribunal during May 21 global marches, and use the May 21 marches to begin organizing the largest yet global March against Monsanto for October 16, 2016—the day the tribunal wraps up in The Hague.We’ll have much more to report on the tribunal, as judges are named, legal memos are published and witnesses are chosen. But for now, we need your help to kick off a massive publicity effort, beginning May 21.

Find a May 21 march near you

Register your March Against Monsanto event: email addmymarch@gmail.com

Email campaigns@organicconsumers.org for help organizing an event in your city

Sign up to receive a Monsanto Tribunal leaflet and other materials

Monsanto Tribunal on Facebook

Download a poster for May 21

Download a Monsanto Tribunal leaflet

TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA: Ban Monsanto’s Cancer-Causing Roundup Herbicide

REGENERATION INTERNATIONAL

'Til We Meet Again

Consumer and climate activists in Mexico face the same challenges we face here in the U.S. when it comes to government support of degenerative, rather than regenerative, agriculture policies and practices.And just like us, they’re doing something about it.

On April 18 (2016), Regeneration International (RI), a project of OCA, and the Asociación de Consumidores Orgánicos (OCA in Mexico) along with other groups organized a meeting in Mexico City to introduce France’s 4 per 1000 initiative to government officials, including representatives of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), Mexico’s equivalent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). France's 4 per 1000 Initiative, introduced at the Paris Climate Summit in December and so far endorsed by 26 nations, is a regenerative agriculture and land use plan to draw down and sequester in the soil as much CO2 (10 billion tons of carbon per year) as is presently being emitted by fossil fuel use and deforestation.

The meeting brought together representatives from consumer and civil society groups, the French Embassy and French research institutions, regenerative producers and organic producers and certifiers to talk about agriculture and climate, how they are related, and what needs to be done support organic regenerative agriculture in Mexico.

Sadly, some of the officials representing SAGARPA had no interest in discussing the elephant in the room—Monsanto and GMO monoculture crops, and the policies and subsidies that support degenerative agriculture practices in Mexico.

Following the meeting, RI and Mexico OCA followed up with a “Declaration” challenging the Mexican government to “restore Mexican land.” From the declaration:

We consider this issue fundamental in defending food sovereignty and security, and therefore consider essential the immediate organization and promotion of coordinated and transparent actions and public policies promoting regenerative practices in Mexico that will guarantee small producers' basic rights, ensure the return of carbon to the soil, increase soil fertility, restore Mexican land and contribute to a safe, healthy, and high quality food system.

This was just the first of many meetings to come, as we continue our work to support an organic regenerative future for Mexico.

Read the declaration

Support OCA’s Regeneration International Project

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

What Are They Hiding?

Pilgrim’s Pride sent a letter to its contract farmers warning them that they could be fired if they allowed any “non-essential” people into their chicken houses.Two of the company’s contract farmers risked their jobs to let activists from Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) come inside and see the ugly truth and film a story of filth, disease and misery.

And that's not all the second-largest chicken producer in the U.S. is hiding. The Greeley, Colo.-based company that claims to produce "healthy, high-quality food products" is recalling more than 4.5 million pounds of chicken that might be contaminated with plastic, wood, rubber and metal, according to an April 26 announcement by the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Watch the video

Read the Pilgrim's Pride product recall notice

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

List of Most Pesticide-Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

The True Costs of Industrial Agriculture

This Bill Could Make More Kids Obese—and No One Is Talking About It

Socialist MEPs Reject European Commission Proposal for Glyphosate Re-Approval

Nation’s Leading Yogurt Maker Will Remove GMO Ingredients and Source Milk From Non-GMO Fed Cows

The World In a State of Extreme Transition

Fast Food - Significant Source of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals?