FourWinds10.com - Delivering Truth Around the World
Custom Search

A 'Lively' Day at Monsanto

Ronnie Cummins- Organic Consumers Assoc.

Smaller Font Larger Font RSS 2.0

Feb. 8, 2015

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

Cleaning Up after Big Ag

Factory Farms Pollute Water

A “Cow Palace” in Washington State that threatens public health with its acres of untreated animal waste. A city in Iowa spending $1 million a year to keep illness-causing nitrates from farm runoff out of public drinking water.

And who can forget the plight of Toledo, Ohio, residents whose water last summer was so contaminated by farm runoff that they couldn’t even bathe in it, much less drink it?

For decades, America’s chemical-intensive, industrial farming operations have spewed nitrates and other toxic chemicals, animal waste, ammonia, antibiotics, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane gases into public air, waterways and communities.

How do they get away with it? Largely because lobbyists have seen to it that Big Ag is exempt from many of the rules and regulations that other industries, and even municipalities, are required to follow under laws such as the Clean Air Act (comments on exemptions here), the Clean Water Act (comments on exemptions here) and the Resource and Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA).

Concerned about the growing threat to public health, and tired of picking up the tab for cleaning up the mess, citizens and local and state governments are turning to the courts for help.

In some cases, they’re winning. But the real win will come when the conversation turns from mitigating pollution, to preventing it, by transitioning to pesticide-free, chemical-free, non-GMO organic regenerative agriculture.

Read the essay

TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA: Please Protect U.S. Waters from Factory Farm Pollution!

 

BLOG POST OF THE WEEK

Cowbells for #milktruth?

Milk Truth Cowbell Charlotte

Last week, OCA’s political and media consultant, Charlotte Warren, attended the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) conference in Boca Raton, Fla. There she learned that Big Dairy is feeling “under attack” by consumers who, well, simply want to know what’s in their milk and cheese, how factory farm dairies treat their animals, and by the way just how much pollution are those farms unleashing into U.S. waterways?

But instead of focusing on addressing consumers’ legitimate concerns, Warren learned, Big Dairy has hired public relations firms and a team of young social media wizkids to post and tweet about the wonderful wholesomeness of milk (produced in unwholesome conditions using unwholesome practices).

Conference sessions included, “Partnering across the Dairy Industry to Better Understand Consumers,” “Top Hot Button Issues Keeping Dairy Executives Up at Night,” and “The Food Dialogues: Animal Care and Consumers’ Emerging Expectations.”

But the best session of all was “Telling the Milk Story: Safeguarding Consumer Confidence in Milk’s Goodness,” which included the launch of the “Get Real” social media campaign, complete with hashtag (#MilkTruth). And cowbells.

Yes, cowbells.

Read the blog post

 

 

ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org