Shameless
Ronnie Cummins- Organic Consumers Assoc.
TOP NEWS OF THE WEEKLegislation by Blackmail?
According to reports, Monsanto has convinced Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) to push for a rider to the end-of-year appropriations bill. The rider would keep corporations from having to label GMOs. We also learned this week that the FDA has approved GMO salmon. Alaska is the only state that has a law in place to require labels on GMO salmon. Sen. Stabenow's rider may not (though we don't know yet for certain) preempt labels on GMO salmon because it's an animal, not a plant. But the rider will make it impossible for states or the FDA to require labels on foods containing GMOs derived from plants. We will do everything in our power to stop this rider, or any last-ditch effort to stomp out GMO labeling laws. If we fail, we will ramp up the largest Big Food Boycott in history. Sources told PoliticoPro that Stabenow wants to preempt states from enacting their own GMO labeling laws, before Vermont's law takes effect in July. Under her plan, according to PoliticoPro, Stabenow's bill would "sunset" after an unspecified period of time, unless corporations come up with a voluntary, not mandatory, labeling scheme.
How will Sen. Stabenow convince her fellow Senators to pass a law that is opposed by 90 percent of Americans? By forcing Congress, and the President, to either support the legislation—or risk shutting down the government.
It's blackmail, pure and simple. Brought to you by Monsanto, Big Food and the politicians who represent their interests, not yours. Please donate today to keep Monsanto and Sen. Debbie Stabenow from blackmailing Congress into taking away your right to GMO labels on your food, and to help us prepare a massive Big Food Boycott. 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) |
BLOG POST OF THE WEEK
The Whole Toxic Enchilada
Last week, while we waited for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to announce whether or not the agency will give Monsanto’s Roundup a free pass by green lighting the use of glyphosate for another 15 years, the EPA’s counterpart in the EU made its own big announcement.
Glyphosate is “unlikely to cause cancer” said the authors of the new report by the European Union Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
That headline, music to Monsanto’s ears, seemed to fly in the face of the findings published earlier this year by the World Health Organization (WHO). After extensive review of the evidence, all 17 of WHO’s leading cancer experts said glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen.”
Sustainable Pulse (SP), publisher of global news on GMOs and other food-related issues, quickly reported the glaring omission made by the majority of news sources reporting on EFSA’s findings.
According to SP, what EFSA really concluded is this: Glyphosate by itself doesn’t cause cancer (a fact other scientists dispute). But products like Monsanto’s Roundup, which contain glyphosate and other additives and chemicals that are essential to making the herbicide work? That’s another, or in this case, the rest of the story.
ACTION ALERTShameless
You would think that even the smallest bit of evidence suggesting a pesticide causes birth defects, brain damage and mental disorders in children would be enough for our government to ban the use of that toxin on our food. And yet, it’s taken nearly a decade—and a court ordered mandate—to get the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to propose banning Dow’s child-poisoning chlorpyrifos from our food system. Chlorpyrifos, better known as Dursban and Lorsban, is a neurotoxic organophosphate. Here’s how Beyond Pesticides describes it: Chlorpyrifos is highly neurotoxic. It is a cholinesterase inhibitor, which means that it can bind irreversibly to acetylcholine esterase (AchE), an essential enzyme for normal nerve impulse transmission, inactivating the enzyme. Studies have documented that exposure to even low levels of organophosphates like chlorpyrifos during pregnancy can impair learning, change brain function, and alter thyroid levels of offspring into adulthood. The evidence of the neurotoxic dangers associated with chlorpyrifos’ exposure is extensive and consistent. See the Pesticide Induced-Disease Database (PIDD) for more information. The EPA currently allows low-level residues of chlorpyrifos on food, in spite of recent studies which suggest that low levels of chlorpyrifos and other endocrine disrupters may actually be more toxic than higher levels.
TAKE ACTION! Tell the EPA to Ban Dow’s Child-Poisoning Chlorpyrifos! Or you can text "EPA" to 97779 to sign the petition |
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OCA On The HillHear, Hear!
On Tuesday, November 17, OCA and Citizens for GMO Labeling, representing millions of consumers, brought this message to the U.S. Senate: Consumers demand mandatory, on-package labeling of GMOs—and any compromise, including a voluntary labeling QR code scheme, is unacceptable. We delivered our message at a briefing on Capitol Hill, attended by legislative aides representing dozens of U.S. Senators. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Connecticut State Senate President Pro Tempore Don Williams, the lead sponsor of the first-in-the-nation GMO labeling law, and Tara Cook-Littman, also from Connecticut, who led the grassroots charge to pass Connecticuts' law addressed the packed hearing. Blumenthal had this to say: "Part of my role as a Senator is to stop bad things from happening. The DARK Act is one of the worst things that could happen." Activists and/or lawmakers from Vermont, Massachusetts and New York also addressed Senate staffers. Did their arguments win new friends in the Senate? Let's hope so. |
NEW REPORT20 Years of Failure
The bigger the failures, the bigger the promises. A new Greenpeace report exposes the dismal failure of GMO crops to live up to their promises. The report also debunks every one of those promises. According to the report: 1) there are no GM crops designed to deliver high yields; 2) GM crops do not hold the key to climate resilience; 3) there is no scientific consensus that GM crops are safe for humans and the environment; 4) GM crops do not simplify crop protection—weeds and pests evolve to resist “crop protection” chemicals, creating worse problems; 5) GM crops are not economically viable for farmers; 6) GM crops cannot coexist with other agricultural systems without causing contamination of non-GM crops; 7) Genetic engineering is not the most promising pathway of innovation for food systems. As we’ve known all along, Monsanto’s seeds are engineered for the sole purpose of selling dangerous pesticides. “Over the past 20 years, GM technology has only been taken up by a handful of countries for a handful of crops, so no wonder two thirds of Europe have decided to ban it. Where GM crops are grown, they lead to increased pesticide use and the entrenchment of industrial farming systems that in turn exacerbate hunger, malnutrition and climate change.” - Franziska Achterberg, Greenpeace EU food policy director |
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VIDEO OF THE WEEKMaking the Switch
It was easy for the owners of Eldredge Hardware to banish neonicotinoid pesticides from their stores’ shelves. The bee-killing pesticides are “totally incompatible” with organic methods—or with “any common sense,” for that matter, they said. Consumer response to Eldredge Hardware’s switch to organic-only products has been overwhelmingly positive, say the owners. Once consumers understand that soil is a finely balanced system, that you can’t just throw down one product and expect it to solve all your plant problems, they understand why Eldredge ditched the synthetics and switched to organics. |
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LITTLE BYTESEssential Reading for the Week
Genetically Engineered Salmon Approved for Consumption Monsanto Pesticides: Annual Rubber Dodo Award Winner
Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change
Climate Change Could Push over 100 Million into Extreme Poverty by 2030: World Bank
Soil Regeneration and Clean Water Touted as Foundation for Healthy Food
Climate Justice Advocates Say COP21 Mobilization in Paris More Important Than Ever
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ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org <ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org>