Reality? Check!
Ronnie Cummings, Organic Consumers Association
ESSAY OF THE WEEK
Reality? Check! Glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, has the dual and dubious distinction of being the most used—and most maligned—herbicide in the world. Glyphosate is everywhere. It’s a danger to your health. It degrades your soil and pollutes your water. But this toxic chemical’s days are numbered—as long as we keep up the pressure on its manufacturer (Monsanto is now owned by Bayer), on regulatory agencies and on the media. Well-meaning members of the media advise consumers to protect themselves from the health hazards of glyphosate by washing their fruits and vegetables—ignoring the fact that much of the water in the U.S. is also contaminated with glyphosate. The consumer action we most need, the real solution, has nothing to do with kitchen hygiene—and everything to do with demanding a better food and farming system. Read ‘Life After Glyphosate—Let’s Make It a Reality’ |
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ACTION ALERTWhat's Your Story? If ever there were a time to beat down the doors at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that time is now. Every 15 years, the EPA is supposed to review the latest science on glyphosate, then issue a determination on whether this toxic chemical should be re-approved for another 15 years. The last deadline for a new review of glyphosate was December 2015. Three-and-a-half years past the deadline, the agency that’s supposed to protect your health came out with its bogus review, claiming that glyphosate poses “no risk to public health." Now we have until July 5 to tell the EPA what we think of its review, and why we believe glyphosate should be banned. As we wrote last week, we probably can’t stop Trump’s EPA from re-approving glyphosate—and for sure we can’t do it with just “comments.” But we’re sure as hell going to try, anyway. We and some of our allies are planning a major event in Washington, D.C., for later this month. We’re working with Roundup-exposed cancer victims, successful farmers and ranchers who are living proof that we don’t need Roundup weedkiller to grow food, and local leaders across the country who have banned glyphosate from their cities to tell the EPA, the media and Congress why they must ban this carcinogen, for good. Stay tuned for more details. And if you can, please donate to our summer fundraising campaign to help fund our “Storm the EPA” event. In the meantime, please tell the EPA why you believe glyphosate should be banned, by submitting your comments here. Be sure to tell your personal story, especially if you or someone you know has cancer or another illness due to exposure to Monsanto-Bayer’s glyphosate-based herbicides. You can attach photos to your submission. Comments aren’t enough, and with your help, we plan to do more. But all the same, it would be powerful if the EPA received tens of thousands of individual comments from people like you, who care. TAKE ACTION: Submit your personal story about Monsanto’s glyphosate to the EPA |
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A Win for Organics
It’s bad enough that the National Organic Program (NOP) decided to allow fruits and vegetables grown in water—not soil—to be certified organic. But allowing hydroponic growers to spray glyphosate on the soil under their hydroponic pots? Just days before the growing season?
In March, organic farmer and executive director of the Real Organic Project, Dave Chapman, asked an NOP official how hydroponic growers could be certified organic without having to follow U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic regulations requiring three years of no herbicide use?
In April, Chapman wrote about his confrontation with NOP’s Jennifer Tucker.
Last week, the USDA finally cracked down on the illegal use of glyphosate and other herbicides among hydroponic berry growers. Chapman called the USDA’s response a victory, in the sense that “real” organic farmers united to put pressure on the USDA:
We stopped them from allowing glyphosate and insecticides for hydro berry operations. That means there will be a little less Roundup sprayed in America next year.
But the fact remains: Under USDA organic regulations, organic producers are required to improve soil matter—that means hydroponically grown fruits and vegetables shouldn’t be allowed to be certified organic. Period.
Yet they are—and with no requirement that they be labeled “hydroponically grown.”
The NOP's failure on the hydroponic issue is just one more reason to buy local, from farmers you know and trust.
TAKE ACTION: Sign the ‘Protect Organic—Prohibit Hydroponics’ petition
Down on the Farm
People who make fake meat inside Silicon Valley labs shouldn’t cast stones at farmers and ranchers who raise real livestock for real food.
But that’s what the folks at Impossible Burger did this week, when they published a litany of unfounded claims about regenerative grazing.
In response, regenerative rancher and fourth-generation farmer Will Harris publicly invited Impossible Burger CEO Pat Brown to visit his ranch in Bluffton, Georgia, and see for himself how regenerative grazing actually works—to revive local communities, clean up the environment, promote biodiversity and combat global warming.
Impossible Burgers latest impossibly ridiculous claims follow on the heels of a previous article where Brown announced that his company would start using GMO soy, because it’s so “safe and environmentally responsible.”
We followed with an article citing six reasons Brown was wrong. So instead of attacking industrial factory farms, the real culprit in beef production, Impossible Burger decided to come after regenerative ranchers.
We hope Brown takes Harris up on his offer to get out of the lab and down on the farm. Stay tuned.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown: GMO Soy Is Bad for Consumers, Bad for the Planet
Tweet this message to Impossible Burger CEO Pat Brown
Hardcore
Could you survive a year (or even a week) with no grocery store, no restaurant—not even a “nibble” from a friend’s pantry?
Rob Greenfield is on a mission to do just that. In this video, he talks about his year-long project to grow or forage 100 percent of his food by transforming the yards of six community members into gardens.
We’re guessing not many of you will want to take growing your own food to the same extreme as Greenfield—who even presses his own coconut oil and boils ocean water for his own sea salt.
But the other part of Greenfield’s mission is to inspire and help others grow at least some of their own food, through initiatives like his Gardens for Single Moms, Community Fruit Trees and Free Seed Project—and by documenting his experiment.
Watch ‘Growing and Foraging 100% of My Food—Day 111 Update
Essential Reading
New Study: United States Uses 85 Pesticides Outlawed in Other Countries
Gardening is Good for Your Health in Many Ways
How Factory Farms Could Trigger a Antibiotic Crisis — and What We Can Do to Stop It
Can Chicken Fight Climate Change? Blue Apron Founder's New Company Bets on Carbon-Friendly Chicken
Study Claims Alzheimer's Disease is a Double-Prion Disorder
Organic Consumers Association <ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org>