Is Monsanto Making You Sick?
Ronnie Cummins- Organic Consumers Assoc.
ESSAY OF THE WEEK
12-Step Program for Consumers?
For two decades, Monsanto has randomly inserted the genes of one species into a non-related species, or genetically “interfered” with the instructions of an organism’s RNA—using viruses, antibiotic-resistant genes and bacteria as vectors, markers and promoters—to create gene-spliced seeds and crops.
All the while, Monsanto and its industry-paid scientists have claimed that GMO crops and foods, and the chemicals that accompany them, are perfectly safe. And therefore need no labeling or independent safety-testing.
Self-appointed GMO labeling “leaders” such as Scott Faber, a former lobbyist for the pro-GMO Grocery Manufacturers Association and now executive director of the Just Label It campaign, need to stop repeating Monsanto and Big Food’s lies that there is no “evidence” that GMOs are dangerous for human health or the environment.
It simply isn’t true. Here’s why. Along with 12 ways consumers can drive these dangerous, pesticide-laden foods off the market.
TOP NEWSVermont Defends GMO Labeling Law in Court Is there value in a label stating that a food product “may contain” GMO ingredients? Particularly if consumers already know that nearly 90 percent of products containing corn and “large percentages” of other commodity crops in the U.S. originate from genetically engineered seeds? Clearly, more than 90 percent of consumers in the U.S. would answer “yes” to that question. As would the Vermont legislators who voted yes on H.112, Vermont’s GMO labeling law. But a judge in the federal court in Burlington, Vt., is now raising that question. After years of work by grassroots activists and Vermont state legislators to craft a solid mandatory GMO labeling law (H.112), the state went to court yesterday (January 7, 2015) to defend that law—thanks to a lawsuit filed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), the Snack Food Association and the National Association of Manufacturers. According to the Burlington Free Press, Judge Christina Reiss heard arguments from the state, including its motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and from the GMA regarding its request for the court to suspend the labeling law while considering whether the measure is “constitutional.” The consensus among many lawmakers is that Vermont’s GMO labeling law is absolutely constitutional, and the law should stand. The question now is, will Big Food, Big Biotech and Big Money convince a federal judge otherwise? More on the January 7 hearing here |
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MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTOWhat’s Your Story? Tell Monsanto!Hard to believe, but even a corporation like Monsanto, voted most the world’s most evil, is owned and operated by living, breathing human beings. People like you and me. People who have children. People who make choices about what to feed their families. It’s a wonder those people can sleep at night, given all the credible, scientific evidence that their products are poisoning the environment and making people sick. Maybe the fact that sales of Roundup topped $1.25 billion last year has something to do with it? On January 30, the OCA, Moms Across America and others will attend the Monsanto shareholders’ annual meeting. We’ll present both scientific evidence and mounting individual testimonies that glyphosate, the key active ingredient in Roundup, is making people sick. We're also collecting pictures of people whose health has been affected by GMO foods and/or Roundup. Do you have a story about the impact of glyphosate and/or GMO foods on your (or a member of your family’s) health? Send it to us, and we’ll deliver it to Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant on January 30. Want to join the Monsanto shareholders meeting protest? We'll gather at noon on January 30, at Monsanto World Headquarters, 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd, Creve Coeur, Missouri 63167. Details are still unfolding, but we plan to include at our rally physicians and scientists who will speak to the dangers of GMO foods and Roundup. For more information, or to send your photos, email alexis AT organicconsumers.org. (To send your written testimonial, please use the "Take Action" link below). Sign up to attend the January 30 rally at Monsanto headquarters |
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FROM OUR BLOGOrganic Valley Fires Back, Misses the Mark Should you buy your organic milk and other dairy products from a company that supports a lobbying group that is suing the state of Vermont in the hope of overturning Vermont’s GMO labeling law? You know where OCA stands on that issue, thanks to our campaign asking Organic Valley, Horizon Organic, and Aurora Organic Dairy to withdraw from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). Now, we also know where at least one organic dairy company stands. And it isn’t with us. According to Organic Valley: So the IDFA is imperfect. Just like most large, multi-faceted organizations. It is largely a conventional institution that has had a growing organic presence. Our companies have helped to grow the organic world by creating alliances, by helping to educate, and by being a part of the larger conversation. We understand that growing a new food system means continuing to work within the larger industry, and demonstrating to that industry the success and health of organic. Imperfect? In addition to supporting attempts to preempt states from passing GMO labeling laws, the IDFA's attempts to spike kids milk with aspartame is criminal, its support for banning sales of raw milk is unconstitutional, and its opposition to Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), is, well, not cool. TAKE ACTION: Tell these Organic Dairies: Support Consumers, not the IDFA! Post a comment on Organic Valley's Facebook page |
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MORE FROM OUR BLOGGet Real, Starbucks Starbucks is taking a lot of heat from consumers lately.
Multiple organizations, including OCA, have appealed to CEO Howard Schultz to switch to organic milk.
Recently, hundreds of thousands of consumers signed petitions, including ours, demanding Starbucks drop out of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), a lobbying group that is suing Vermont to overturn its GMO labeling law.
It’s no wonder Starbucks is looking for ways to polish its image. And it found one. By “updating” its Animal Welfare-Friendly Practices statement.
Too bad that statement doesn’t address the real issues.
If Starbucks wants consumers to believe the company cares about animal welfare, CEO Howard Schultz will transition the company to organic milk—instead of continuing to use milk from industrial dairy farms which pollute the environment, and where cows are fed GMO feed, and where animals suffer.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: Switch to Organic Milk!
Post your opinion on Starbucks Facebook page
Call Starbucks customer service 1 (800) 782-7282 |
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SUPPORT THE OCA & OCFHope Is Everywhere Thanks to you, our movement is stronger than ever.
You, and millions like you, across all generations, from all walks of life, regardless of religious or political affiliation, are rejecting the corporate and industrial agriculture giants and awakening to the fact that nature has provided us all of the tools and “technology” we need to grow healthy food, while at the same time protecting our ecosystem, our home.
Hope is everywhere.
But as we all know, hope alone will be no match for the continued onslaught of Monsanto’s well-funded, slick campaigns designed to portray us as ignorant, anti-science alarmists. Unless we take this movement to a whole new level.
In 2015, we pledge to fight back on a scale Monsanto has not yet seen. We are building an international coalition and communications team. We are investing in groundbreaking studies that we believe will prove, unequivocally, that Monsanto has been lying for decades. We are ratcheting up our fight against factory farms.
We promise to defend Vermont’s GMO labeling law in court, and to do everything in our power to prevent Congress from stripping states of the right to pass GMO labeling laws.
The science is on our side. The word is getting out. The corporate profiteers are running scared.
And thankfully, we have you. 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) |
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VIDEO OF THE WEEKWe Are All Seeds In her inspiring New Year's message, Vandana Shiva explains that while we face many crises—the crises of war and violence, of hunger and destruction, and of the destruction of our democracy—we also hold the solution to all of these crises.
The solutions, she says, can be found in the seed and in the soil. And in us, because we are all seeds. And we are on the verge of fulfilling our collective potential.
Where will those solutions not be found?
They won't be found by granting corporations rights that should belong only to human beings.
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NEW STUDY‘Junk Food’ ScienceWhat happens when you eat junk food? Your brain tells you to eat more junk food. So concluded scientists at the School of Medical Sciences at Australia’s University of New South Wales, after studying the habits of two groups of rats. One group was fed a healthy diet, the other was fed a diet of junk food. The rats who were fed cookies, cakes, biscuits, and other junk food wanted more—even when they had already just eaten their fill. Of course we know this behavior pattern has been studied—and exploited—by the junk food industry for years, thanks to the extensive research by Michael Moss, author of “Salt, Sugar, Fat.” We also know where all that junk food leads—to poor health. According to the World Health Organization, about 2.8 million people currently die annually from conditions strongly linked to overweight and obesity, such as coronary heart disease, ischemia (brain stroke), and diabetes. |
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LITTLE BYTESEssential Reading for the Week Monarchs May Win 'Endangered Species' Protection The Solution under Our Feet: How Regenerative Organic Agriculture Can Save the Planet How California's New Rules Are Scrambling the Egg Industry Monsanto’s BT-Toxins Found to Kill Human Embryo Cells Are You Trading Omega-3s for PCBs with Your Choice of Salmon? |
MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTOWhat’s Your Story? Tell Monsanto!Hard to believe, but even a corporation like Monsanto, voted most the world’s most evil, is owned and operated by living, breathing human beings. People like you and me. People who have children. People who make choices about what to feed their families. It’s a wonder those people can sleep at night, given all the credible, scientific evidence that their products are poisoning the environment and making people sick. Maybe the fact that sales of Roundup topped $1.25 billion last year has something to do with it? On January 30, the OCA, Moms Across America and others will attend the Monsanto shareholders’ annual meeting. We’ll present both scientific evidence and mounting individual testimonies that glyphosate, the key active ingredient in Roundup, is making people sick. We're also collecting pictures of people whose health has been affected by GMO foods and/or Roundup. Do you have a story about the impact of glyphosate and/or GMO foods on your (or a member of your family’s) health? Send it to us, and we’ll deliver it to Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant on January 30. Want to join the Monsanto shareholders meeting protest? We'll gather at noon on January 30, at Monsanto World Headquarters, 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd, Creve Coeur, Missouri 63167. Details are still unfolding, but we plan to include at our rally physicians and scientists who will speak to the dangers of GMO foods and Roundup. For more information, or to send your photos, email alexis AT organicconsumers.org. (To send your written testimonial, please use the "Take Action" link below). Sign up to attend the January 30 rally at Monsanto headquarters |
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FROM OUR BLOGOrganic Valley Fires Back, Misses the MarkShould you buy your organic milk and other dairy products from a company that supports a lobbying group that is suing the state of Vermont in the hope of overturning Vermont’s GMO labeling law? You know where OCA stands on that issue, thanks to our campaign asking Organic Valley, Horizon Organic, and Aurora Organic Dairy to withdraw from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). Now, we also know where at least one organic dairy company stands. And it isn’t with us. According to Organic Valley: So the IDFA is imperfect. Just like most large, multi-faceted organizations. It is largely a conventional institution that has had a growing organic presence. Our companies have helped to grow the organic world by creating alliances, by helping to educate, and by being a part of the larger conversation. We understand that growing a new food system means continuing to work within the larger industry, and demonstrating to that industry the success and health of organic. Imperfect? In addition to supporting attempts to preempt states from passing GMO labeling laws, the IDFA's attempts to spike kids milk with aspartame is criminal, its support for banning sales of raw milk is unconstitutional, and its opposition to Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), is, well, not cool. TAKE ACTION: Tell these Organic Dairies: Support Consumers, not the IDFA! Post a comment on Organic Valley's Facebook page |
|
||
MORE FROM OUR BLOGGet Real, StarbucksStarbucks is taking a lot of heat from consumers lately.
Multiple organizations, including OCA, have appealed to CEO Howard Schultz to switch to organic milk.
Recently, hundreds of thousands of consumers signed petitions, including ours, demanding Starbucks drop out of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), a lobbying group that is suing Vermont to overturn its GMO labeling law.
It’s no wonder Starbucks is looking for ways to polish its image. And it found one. By “updating” its Animal Welfare-Friendly Practices statement.
Too bad that statement doesn’t address the real issues.
If Starbucks wants consumers to believe the company cares about animal welfare, CEO Howard Schultz will transition the company to organic milk—instead of continuing to use milk from industrial dairy farms which pollute the environment, and where cows are fed GMO feed, and where animals suffer.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: Switch to Organic Milk!
Post your opinion on Starbucks Facebook page
Call Starbucks customer service 1 (800) 782-7282 |
|
||
SUPPORT THE OCA & OCFHope Is EverywhereThanks to you, our movement is stronger than ever.
You, and millions like you, across all generations, from all walks of life, regardless of religious or political affiliation, are rejecting the corporate and industrial agriculture giants and awakening to the fact that nature has provided us all of the tools and “technology” we need to grow healthy food, while at the same time protecting our ecosystem, our home.
Hope is everywhere.
But as we all know, hope alone will be no match for the continued onslaught of Monsanto’s well-funded, slick campaigns designed to portray us as ignorant, anti-science alarmists. Unless we take this movement to a whole new level.
In 2015, we pledge to fight back on a scale Monsanto has not yet seen. We are building an international coalition and communications team. We are investing in groundbreaking studies that we believe will prove, unequivocally, that Monsanto has been lying for decades. We are ratcheting up our fight against factory farms.
We promise to defend Vermont’s GMO labeling law in court, and to do everything in our power to prevent Congress from stripping states of the right to pass GMO labeling laws.
The science is on our side. The word is getting out. The corporate profiteers are running scared.
And thankfully, we have you. 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) |
|
||
VIDEO OF THE WEEKWe Are All SeedsIn her inspiring New Year's message, Vandana Shiva explains that while we face many crises—the crises of war and violence, of hunger and destruction, and of the destruction of our democracy—we also hold the solution to all of these crises.
The solutions, she says, can be found in the seed and in the soil. And in us, because we are all seeds. And we are on the verge of fulfilling our collective potential.
Where will those solutions not be found?
They won't be found by granting corporations rights that should belong only to human beings.
|
|
||
NEW STUDY‘Junk Food’ ScienceWhat happens when you eat junk food? Your brain tells you to eat more junk food. So concluded scientists at the School of Medical Sciences at Australia’s University of New South Wales, after studying the habits of two groups of rats. One group was fed a healthy diet, the other was fed a diet of junk food. The rats who were fed cookies, cakes, biscuits, and other junk food wanted more—even when they had already just eaten their fill. Of course we know this behavior pattern has been studied—and exploited—by the junk food industry for years, thanks to the extensive research by Michael Moss, author of “Salt, Sugar, Fat.” We also know where all that junk food leads—to poor health. According to the World Health Organization, about 2.8 million people currently die annually from conditions strongly linked to overweight and obesity, such as coronary heart disease, ischemia (brain stroke), and diabetes. |
|
||
LITTLE BYTESEssential Reading for the WeekMonarchs May Win 'Endangered Species' Protection The Solution under Our Feet: How Regenerative Organic Agriculture Can Save the Planet How California's New Rules Are Scrambling the Egg Industry Monsanto’s BT-Toxins Found to Kill Human Embryo Cells Are You Trading Omega-3s for PCBs with Your Choice of Salmon? |
MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTOWhat’s Your Story? Tell Monsanto!Hard to believe, but even a corporation like Monsanto, voted most the world’s most evil, is owned and operated by living, breathing human beings. People like you and me. People who have children. People who make choices about what to feed their families. It’s a wonder those people can sleep at night, given all the credible, scientific evidence that their products are poisoning the environment and making people sick. Maybe the fact that sales of Roundup topped $1.25 billion last year has something to do with it? On January 30, the OCA, Moms Across America and others will attend the Monsanto shareholders’ annual meeting. We’ll present both scientific evidence and mounting individual testimonies that glyphosate, the key active ingredient in Roundup, is making people sick. We're also collecting pictures of people whose health has been affected by GMO foods and/or Roundup. Do you have a story about the impact of glyphosate and/or GMO foods on your (or a member of your family’s) health? Send it to us, and we’ll deliver it to Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant on January 30. Want to join the Monsanto shareholders meeting protest? We'll gather at noon on January 30, at Monsanto World Headquarters, 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd, Creve Coeur, Missouri 63167. Details are still unfolding, but we plan to include at our rally physicians and scientists who will speak to the dangers of GMO foods and Roundup. For more information, or to send your photos, email alexis AT organicconsumers.org. (To send your written testimonial, please use the "Take Action" link below). Sign up to attend the January 30 rally at Monsanto headquarters |
|
||
FROM OUR BLOGOrganic Valley Fires Back, Misses the MarkShould you buy your organic milk and other dairy products from a company that supports a lobbying group that is suing the state of Vermont in the hope of overturning Vermont’s GMO labeling law? You know where OCA stands on that issue, thanks to our campaign asking Organic Valley, Horizon Organic, and Aurora Organic Dairy to withdraw from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). Now, we also know where at least one organic dairy company stands. And it isn’t with us. According to Organic Valley: So the IDFA is imperfect. Just like most large, multi-faceted organizations. It is largely a conventional institution that has had a growing organic presence. Our companies have helped to grow the organic world by creating alliances, by helping to educate, and by being a part of the larger conversation. We understand that growing a new food system means continuing to work within the larger industry, and demonstrating to that industry the success and health of organic. Imperfect? In addition to supporting attempts to preempt states from passing GMO labeling laws, the IDFA's attempts to spike kids milk with aspartame is criminal, its support for banning sales of raw milk is unconstitutional, and its opposition to Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), is, well, not cool. TAKE ACTION: Tell these Organic Dairies: Support Consumers, not the IDFA! Post a comment on Organic Valley's Facebook page |
|
||
MORE FROM OUR BLOGGet Real, StarbucksStarbucks is taking a lot of heat from consumers lately.
Multiple organizations, including OCA, have appealed to CEO Howard Schultz to switch to organic milk.
Recently, hundreds of thousands of consumers signed petitions, including ours, demanding Starbucks drop out of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), a lobbying group that is suing Vermont to overturn its GMO labeling law.
It’s no wonder Starbucks is looking for ways to polish its image. And it found one. By “updating” its Animal Welfare-Friendly Practices statement.
Too bad that statement doesn’t address the real issues.
If Starbucks wants consumers to believe the company cares about animal welfare, CEO Howard Schultz will transition the company to organic milk—instead of continuing to use milk from industrial dairy farms which pollute the environment, and where cows are fed GMO feed, and where animals suffer.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: Switch to Organic Milk!
Post your opinion on Starbucks Facebook page
Call Starbucks customer service 1 (800) 782-7282 |
|
||
SUPPORT THE OCA & OCFHope Is EverywhereThanks to you, our movement is stronger than ever.
You, and millions like you, across all generations, from all walks of life, regardless of religious or political affiliation, are rejecting the corporate and industrial agriculture giants and awakening to the fact that nature has provided us all of the tools and “technology” we need to grow healthy food, while at the same time protecting our ecosystem, our home.
Hope is everywhere.
But as we all know, hope alone will be no match for the continued onslaught of Monsanto’s well-funded, slick campaigns designed to portray us as ignorant, anti-science alarmists. Unless we take this movement to a whole new level.
In 2015, we pledge to fight back on a scale Monsanto has not yet seen. We are building an international coalition and communications team. We are investing in groundbreaking studies that we believe will prove, unequivocally, that Monsanto has been lying for decades. We are ratcheting up our fight against factory farms.
We promise to defend Vermont’s GMO labeling law in court, and to do everything in our power to prevent Congress from stripping states of the right to pass GMO labeling laws.
The science is on our side. The word is getting out. The corporate profiteers are running scared.
And thankfully, we have you. 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) |
|
||
VIDEO OF THE WEEKWe Are All SeedsIn her inspiring New Year's message, Vandana Shiva explains that while we face many crises—the crises of war and violence, of hunger and destruction, and of the destruction of our democracy—we also hold the solution to all of these crises.
The solutions, she says, can be found in the seed and in the soil. And in us, because we are all seeds. And we are on the verge of fulfilling our collective potential.
Where will those solutions not be found?
They won't be found by granting corporations rights that should belong only to human beings.
|
|
||
NEW STUDY‘Junk Food’ ScienceWhat happens when you eat junk food? Your brain tells you to eat more junk food. So concluded scientists at the School of Medical Sciences at Australia’s University of New South Wales, after studying the habits of two groups of rats. One group was fed a healthy diet, the other was fed a diet of junk food. The rats who were fed cookies, cakes, biscuits, and other junk food wanted more—even when they had already just eaten their fill. Of course we know this behavior pattern has been studied—and exploited—by the junk food industry for years, thanks to the extensive research by Michael Moss, author of “Salt, Sugar, Fat.” We also know where all that junk food leads—to poor health. According to the World Health Organization, about 2.8 million people currently die annually from conditions strongly linked to overweight and obesity, such as coronary heart disease, ischemia (brain stroke), and diabetes. |
|
||
LITTLE BYTESEssential Reading for the WeekMonarchs May Win 'Endangered Species' Protection The Solution under Our Feet: How Regenerative Organic Agriculture Can Save the Planet How California's New Rules Are Scrambling the Egg Industry Monsanto’s BT-Toxins Found to Kill Human Embryo Cells Are You Trading Omega-3s for PCBs with Your Choice of Salmon? |
ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org