Biotech Bullies Now Rule
Organic Lifestyle Comments (0)
The election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States doesn’t bode well for America and the world in many ways. In the following essay, Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association goes over what the election might mean for us in the organic community.
Monsanto and its minions are rushing to tighten their control over our food and farming system. Emboldened by the prospect of another pro-industrial-agriculture administration, they’re plowing ahead—with total disregard for public health, and blanket dismissal of the warnings pouring in from independent scientists.
Politico, which obtained a list of Trump’s talking points on agriculture, reports that the list includes a “sweeping promise” to “defend American agriculture against its critics, particularly those who have never grown or produced anything beyond a backyard tomato plant.” From Politico:
The document . . . offers a host of policy pledges—from suggesting a shift back to conventional agriculture, to promises for the Trump White House to be an “active participant” in writing the next Farm Bill, to fighting the so-called good food movement and undoing Obama-era agricultural and environmental policies.
Pair that news with Trump’s EPA transition team pick, climate-denier Myron Ebell who says “pesticides aren’t bad for you,” and the future for organic regenerative agriculture—and your health—looks bleak.
We don’t need to guess or wonder. The incoming Trump administration will not be a friend to those of us committed to a healthy, pollution-free, regenerative, climate-friendly future.
Where does that leave us? Working at the state and local level to elect candidates and to pass public health and climate policies in line with the obvious truth, which is that we can’t go on poisoning ourselves and our ecosystem—and still go on.
It also will require that we expand food testing, and expose the long list of the dangerous chemicals in our food so we can put our consumer power to good use. Once a critical mass of consumers knows exactly what kinds of—and how much—poison we’re being fed, we will force Big Food to clean up its act, or go broke. At which point, it won’t much matter what Monsanto’s minions are up to in Congress. Because the market for their products will shrivel up faster than a glyphosate-drenched weed.
***
TRUMP’S AG ADVISORY COMMITTEE: WHO’S WHO OF AGRIBUSINESS
Donald J. Trump has announced his new Agricultural Advisory Committee. It press release states, “The men and women on the committee will provide pioneering new ideas to strengthen our nation’s agricultural industry as well as provide support to our rural communities. Mr. Trump understands the critical role our nation’s agricultural community plays in feeding not only our country, but the world, and how important these Americans are to powering our nation’s economy.
“The formation of the board represents Donald J. Trump’s endorsement of these individuals’ diverse skill sets and ideas that can improve the lives of those in agricultural communities. Mr. Trump has received widespread support from voters who understand he is the only candidate with the best interests of the agricultural community at the heart of his policies.
“Mr. Trump said, ‘The members of my agricultural advisory committee represent the best that America can offer to help serve agricultural communities. Many of these officials have been elected by their communities to solve the issues that impact our rural areas every day. I’m very proud to stand with these men and women, and look forward to serving those who serve all Americans from the White House.’”
Executive board members will convene on a regular basis. The more than 60 advisory board members include:
Charles Herbster–National Chairman of the Agricultural and Rural Advisory Committee for the Donald J. Trump Campaign for President.
Sam Clovis– National Chief Policy Advisor for the Donald J. Trump Campaign for President.
Rebeckah Adcock–CropLife, Senior Director, Government Affairs.
Robert Aderholt–Congressman from Alabama; Chairman, Subcommittee on Agriculture.
Jay Armstrong–Kansas Wheat Commission; Chairman, Farm Foundation.
Gary Black– Commissioner of Agriculture, Georgia.
John Block– Former Secretary of Agriculture.
Mike Brandenburg–State Legislator, North Dakota.
Terry Branstad–Governor of Iowa.
Sam Brownback–Governor of Kansas.
Chuck Conner–CEO, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.
Mike Conaway–House Agriculture Committee Chairman.
Jack Dalrymple–Governor of North Dakota.
Dennis Daugaard–Governor of South Dakota.
Rodney Davis–Congressman from Illinois; House Agriculture Committee and Subcommittee Chair of Bio Tech.
Mary Fallin–Governor of Oklahoma.
Eddie Fields–Senator, Oklahoma; Chair Senate Ag and Rural Development.
Steve Foglesong–Former President National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Jim Gilmore–Former Governor Virginia; Chairman of Report on Terrorism and Agro-Terrorism.
Bob Goodale–Former CEO of Harris Teeter.
Bob Goodlatte–Congressman, Virginia; Former Chairman House Agriculture Committee.
Ron Heck–Iowa farmer and Past President of the American Soybean Assn.
Mike McCloskey CEO Fair Oaks Farms- one of largest dairies in U.S.
Beau McCoy State Senator; Nebraska Nat. Chr. Council State Govts
Ted McKinney Former Director of Global Corp. Affairs for Elanco Animal Health
Sid Miller Commissioner of Agriculture, Texas
Jim Moseley Former consultant on agriculture at EPA; Former Deputy Secretary of USDA
Garry Niemeyer–Former President National Corn Growers.
Sonny Perdue–Former Gov. Georgia.
Rick Perry–Former Gov. Texas.
Pat Roberts–U.S. Senator Kansas.
Marcus Rust–CEO Rose Acre Farms, second largest egg producer in U.S.
Kip Tom–CEO, Tom Farms LLC, largest agri-business farm operator in Indiana; Operates farms in South America.
Johnny Trotter–CEO of BarG, 125,000 head of cattle feedlot operation and farms 10,000 acres in TX.
Steve Wellman–Former President of the American Soybean Association.
***
REPORT SHOWS U.S. FOOD SUPPLY CONTAMINATED WITH GLYPHOSATE
Food Democracy Now! and the Detox Project are releasing a 26-page report that shows that America’s food supply is contaminated with alarming levels of glyphosate residues.
As the main active ingredient in Monsanto’s bestselling weedkiller, Roundup, both Roundup and glyphosate have been linked to a host of negative health impacts, including birth defects, reproductive problems, lowered immune response, irritable bowel syndrome, harmful imbalances in gut microflora, and cancer.
The report details the latest independent peer reviewed science that conclusively shows that Roundup and glyphosate are significantly more harmful at much lower levels than previously thought and outlines the significant flaws in the U.S. regulatory system that has left the American public exposed to high levels of a toxic chemical, which last year the World Health Organization linked to cancer.
Food Democracy Now! and the Detox Project are demanding that the EPA Inspector General’s office launch a non-partisan investigation into glyphosate’s likely negative human health impacts reviewing the latest scientific research; halt the use of Roundup on important food crops, and uncover possible misconduct between U.S. regulators and the chemical industry they are supposed to regulate.
Using an independent FDA-registered laboratory, scientists found alarming levels of glyphosate residues in many popular American food products, including General Mills’ Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran, Special K and Frosted Flakes, and PepsiCo’s Doritos, Ritz Crackers and Stacy’s Simply Naked Pita Chips, as part of a unique testing project designed to reveal pesticide exposure at real world levels.
Even more disturbing is that the highest glyphosate levels were found in General Mills’ Cheerios, one of the first foods that American mothers commonly feed their young children when they begin eating solid foods. Glyphosate residues for Cheerios, measured at 1,125.3 parts per billion (ppb), were simply off the chart and much higher than the 28 other food products tested.
New scientific evidence shows that possible harm from glyphosate can begin at much lower levels, even as low as 0.1 ppb. Credible independent peer reviewed studies published in 2014 and 2015 found that rats exposed to 0.1 ppb of Roundup and 0.05 ppb of glyphosate could cause severe organ damage and alter gene function of over 4,000 genes in the livers and kidneys of rats. These new findings should be a wake-up call for all Americans regarding unacceptable levels of pesticide residues in our nation’s food.
This report comes after more than a year and a half investigation into the massive U.S. regulatory failures that have left the American public not only in the dark about glyphosate contamination in our food supply, but also regularly exposed to levels of this toxic weedkiller that emerging science is now demonstrating to be more hazardous to human health than previously thought.
New independent research shows that harm from Monsanto’s Roundup and glyphosate-based herbicides can begin at much lower levels than previously thought. The new research shows that endocrine disrupting chemicals can disrupt basic hormone functions at ultra-low levels. U.S. regulations must reflect latest scientific research to protect our health and that of our children.
In addition, glyphosate is also patented as an antimicrobial agent. This has raised alarm among scientists who believe that low level exposure to glyphosate can negatively disrupt beneficial bacteria in the gut biome the way it does in the soil, leading to whole host of human health problems that doctors are just beginning to understand.
For the past 20 plus years, U.S. regulators have refused to test for glyphosate residues even though it’s the most widely used weedkiller in the U.S. and its use has exploded in the past two decades due to the widespread adoption of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO crops. Today more than 300 million pounds of glyphosate-based weedkillers are sprayed across U.S. farmland, public parks and lawns and home gardens. Use of Roundup has become so pervasive that 75 percent of rainwater samples in the Midwest tested positive for glyphosate, according to Food Democracy Now!
On March 20, 2015, 17 leading scientific experts from the World Health
Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared glyphosate “probably carcinogenic to humans,” which should have served as a call-to-action for U.S. regulators. Instead, the U.S. EPA issued a final report that agreed with Monsanto’s rebuttal, which called the IARC’s report “junk science.” This is why Food Democracy Now! is calling for an investigation of possible regulatory misconduct at the EPA by the EPA’s inspector general.
Currently, U.S. regulators allow what is considered a very high level of daily glyphosate residue in America’s food. In the U.S., the EPA set the daily acceptable intake (ADI) limit at 1.75 parts per million (ppm) per kilogram of bodyweight per day in the U.S., versus a more responsible level at 0.3 ppm in the European Union based on their review of the same studies submitted to the EPA. That’s six times the European level now allowed in the U.S. food supply.
The U.S. government’s continued reliance on Monsanto-funded science and their refusal to consider the most current independent peer reviewed scientific research is alarming, especially considering the fact that the regulators at the FDA are currently reviewing a 15-year re-approval of Monsanto’s Roundup and glyphosate-based herbicides based on out-of-date science.
You can share this report by following this link: http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/2047?t=15&akid=1946.101853._11J9w
What else you’ll find in the report:
- Levels of glyphosate residues found in popular American foods.
- A summary of what the latest independent scientific research says about the safety of Roundup and glyphosate.
- A detailed analysis of why the current U.S. EPA’s acceptable daily intake (ADI) is much too high.
- Evidence that regulators in Europe considered the U.S. ADI to be “very high” and “far outside the range” of what chemical companies other than Monsanto submitted for safety approvals.
- Scientific evidence that refutes Monsanto’s claim that glyphosate does not accumulate in the human body.
- A call to action-–to investigate regulatory collusion at the EPA, end the practice of pre-harvest spraying of Roundup on food crop, and a call to release all the scientific data submitted by Monsanto for safety assessments.
Editor’s addendum: I don’t want to sound defeatist, but with Trump’s climate change denier Myron Ebell set to head up the EPA, I think there’s not much chance that glyphosate poisoning will be remediated so long as agribiz and biotech rules in Washington. The answer, of course, is to eat organic food. –J.C.
###
Biotech Bullies Rule
Organic Lifestyle Comments (0)
The election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States doesn’t bode well for America and the world in many ways. In the following essay, Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association goes over what the election might mean for us in the organic community.
Monsanto and its minions are rushing to tighten their control over our food and farming system. Emboldened by the prospect of another pro-industrial-agriculture administration, they’re plowing ahead—with total disregard for public health, and blanket dismissal of the warnings pouring in from independent scientists.
Politico, which obtained a list of Trump’s talking points on agriculture, reports that the list includes a “sweeping promise” to “defend American agriculture against its critics, particularly those who have never grown or produced anything beyond a backyard tomato plant.” From Politico:
The document . . . offers a host of policy pledges—from suggesting a shift back to conventional agriculture, to promises for the Trump White House to be an “active participant” in writing the next Farm Bill, to fighting the so-called good food movement and undoing Obama-era agricultural and environmental policies.
Pair that news with Trump’s EPA transition team pick, climate-denier Myron Ebell who says “pesticides aren’t bad for you,” and the future for organic regenerative agriculture—and your health—looks bleak.
We don’t need to guess or wonder. The incoming Trump administration will not be a friend to those of us committed to a healthy, pollution-free, regenerative, climate-friendly future.
Where does that leave us? Working at the state and local level to elect candidates and to pass public health and climate policies in line with the obvious truth, which is that we can’t go on poisoning ourselves and our ecosystem—and still go on.
It also will require that we expand food testing, and expose the long list of the dangerous chemicals in our food so we can put our consumer power to good use. Once a critical mass of consumers knows exactly what kinds of—and how much—poison we’re being fed, we will force Big Food to clean up its act, or go broke. At which point, it won’t much matter what Monsanto’s minions are up to in Congress. Because the market for their products will shrivel up faster than a glyphosate-drenched weed.
***
TRUMP’S AG ADVISORY COMMITTEE: WHO’S WHO OF AGRIBUSINESS
Donald J. Trump has announced his new Agricultural Advisory Committee. Its press release states, “The men and women on the committee will provide pioneering new ideas to strengthen our nation’s agricultural industry as well as provide support to our rural communities. Mr. Trump understands the critical role our nation’s agricultural community plays in feeding not only our country, but the world, and how important these Americans are to powering our nation’s economy.
“The formation of the board represents Donald J. Trump’s endorsement of these individuals’ diverse skill sets and ideas that can improve the lives of those in agricultural communities. Mr. Trump has received widespread support from voters who understand he is the only candidate with the best interests of the agricultural community at the heart of his policies.
“Mr. Trump said, ‘The members of my agricultural advisory committee represent the best that America can offer to help serve agricultural communities. Many of these officials have been elected by their communities to solve the issues that impact our rural areas every day. I’m very proud to stand with these men and women, and look forward to serving those who serve all Americans from the White House.’”
Executive board members will convene on a regular basis. The more than 60 advisory board members include:
Charles Herbster–National Chairman of the Agricultural and Rural Advisory Committee for the Donald J. Trump Campaign for President.
Sam Clovis– National Chief Policy Advisor for the Donald J. Trump Campaign for President.
Rebeckah Adcock–CropLife, Senior Director, Government Affairs.
Robert Aderholt–Congressman from Alabama; Chairman, Subcommittee on Agriculture.
Jay Armstrong–Kansas Wheat Commission; Chairman, Farm Foundation.
Gary Black– Commissioner of Agriculture, Georgia.
John Block– Former Secretary of Agriculture.
Mike Brandenburg–State Legislator, North Dakota.
Terry Branstad–Governor of Iowa.
Sam Brownback–Governor of Kansas.
Chuck Conner–CEO, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.
Mike Conaway–House Agriculture Committee Chairman.
Jack Dalrymple–Governor of North Dakota.
Dennis Daugaard–Governor of South Dakota.
Rodney Davis–Congressman from Illinois; House Agriculture Committee and Subcommittee Chair of Bio Tech.
Mary Fallin–Governor of Oklahoma.
Eddie Fields–Senator, Oklahoma; Chair Senate Ag and Rural Development.
Steve Foglesong–Former President National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Jim Gilmore–Former Governor Virginia; Chairman of Report on Terrorism and Agro-Terrorism.
Bob Goodale–Former CEO of Harris Teeter.
Bob Goodlatte–Congressman, Virginia; Former Chairman House Agriculture Committee.
Ron Heck–Iowa farmer and Past President of the American Soybean Assn.
Mike McCloskey CEO Fair Oaks Farms- one of largest dairies in U.S.
Beau McCoy State Senator; Nebraska Nat. Chr. Council State Govts
Ted McKinney Former Director of Global Corp. Affairs for Elanco Animal Health
Sid Miller Commissioner of Agriculture, Texas
Jim Moseley Former consultant on agriculture at EPA; Former Deputy Secretary of USDA
Garry Niemeyer–Former President National Corn Growers.
Sonny Perdue–Former Gov. Georgia.
Rick Perry–Former Gov. Texas.
Pat Roberts–U.S. Senator Kansas.
Marcus Rust–CEO Rose Acre Farms, second largest egg producer in U.S.
Kip Tom–CEO, Tom Farms LLC, largest agri-business farm operator in Indiana; Operates farms in South America.
Johnny Trotter–CEO of BarG, 125,000 head of cattle feedlot operation and farms 10,000 acres in TX.
Steve Wellman–Former President of the American Soybean Association.
***
REPORT SHOWS U.S. FOOD SUPPLY CONTAMINATED WITH GLYPHOSATE
Food Democracy Now! and the Detox Project are releasing a 26-page report that shows that America’s food supply is contaminated with alarming levels of glyphosate residues.
As the main active ingredient in Monsanto’s bestselling weedkiller, Roundup, both Roundup and glyphosate have been linked to a host of negative health impacts, including birth defects, reproductive problems, lowered immune response, irritable bowel syndrome, harmful imbalances in gut microflora, and cancer.
The report details the latest independent peer reviewed science that conclusively shows that Roundup and glyphosate are significantly more harmful at much lower levels than previously thought and outlines the significant flaws in the U.S. regulatory system that has left the American public exposed to high levels of a toxic chemical, which last year the World Health Organization linked to cancer.
Food Democracy Now! and the Detox Project are demanding that the EPA Inspector General’s office launch a non-partisan investigation into glyphosate’s likely negative human health impacts reviewing the latest scientific research; halt the use of Roundup on important food crops, and uncover possible misconduct between U.S. regulators and the chemical industry they are supposed to regulate.
Using an independent FDA-registered laboratory, scientists found alarming levels of glyphosate residues in many popular American food products, including General Mills’ Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran, Special K and Frosted Flakes, and PepsiCo’s Doritos, Ritz Crackers and Stacy’s Simply Naked Pita Chips, as part of a unique testing project designed to reveal pesticide exposure at real world levels.
Even more disturbing is that the highest glyphosate levels were found in General Mills’ Cheerios, one of the first foods that American mothers commonly feed their young children when they begin eating solid foods. Glyphosate residues for Cheerios, measured at 1,125.3 parts per billion (ppb), were simply off the chart and much higher than the 28 other food products tested.
New scientific evidence shows that possible harm from glyphosate can begin at much lower levels, even as low as 0.1 ppb. Credible independent peer reviewed studies published in 2014 and 2015 found that rats exposed to 0.1 ppb of Roundup and 0.05 ppb of glyphosate could cause severe organ damage and alter gene function of over 4,000 genes in the livers and kidneys of rats. These new findings should be a wake-up call for all Americans regarding unacceptable levels of pesticide residues in our nation’s food.
This report comes after more than a year and a half investigation into the massive U.S. regulatory failures that have left the American public not only in the dark about glyphosate contamination in our food supply, but also regularly exposed to levels of this toxic weedkiller that emerging science is now demonstrating to be more hazardous to human health than previously thought.
New independent research shows that harm from Monsanto’s Roundup and glyphosate-based herbicides can begin at much lower levels than previously thought. The new research shows that endocrine disrupting chemicals can disrupt basic hormone functions at ultra-low levels. U.S. regulations must reflect latest scientific research to protect our health and that of our children.
In addition, glyphosate is also patented as an antimicrobial agent. This has raised alarm among scientists who believe that low level exposure to glyphosate can negatively disrupt beneficial bacteria in the gut biome the way it does in the soil, leading to whole host of human health problems that doctors are just beginning to understand.
For the past 20 plus years, U.S. regulators have refused to test for glyphosate residues even though it’s the most widely used weedkiller in the U.S. and its use has exploded in the past two decades due to the widespread adoption of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO crops. Today more than 300 million pounds of glyphosate-based weedkillers are sprayed across U.S. farmland, public parks and lawns and home gardens. Use of Roundup has become so pervasive that 75 percent of rainwater samples in the Midwest tested positive for glyphosate, according to Food Democracy Now!
On March 20, 2015, 17 leading scientific experts from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared glyphosate “probably carcinogenic to humans,” which should have served as a call-to-action for U.S. regulators. Instead, the U.S. EPA issued a final report that agreed with Monsanto’s rebuttal, which called the IARC’s report “junk science.” This is why Food Democracy Now! is calling for an investigation of possible regulatory misconduct at the EPA by the EPA’s inspector general.
Currently, U.S. regulators allow what is considered a very high level of daily glyphosate residue in America’s food. In the U.S., the EPA set the daily acceptable intake (ADI) limit at 1.75 parts per million (ppm) per kilogram of bodyweight per day in the U.S., versus a more responsible level at 0.3 ppm in the European Union based on their review of the same studies submitted to the EPA. That’s six times the European level now allowed in the U.S. food supply.
The U.S. government’s continued reliance on Monsanto-funded science and their refusal to consider the most current independent peer reviewed scientific research is alarming, especially considering the fact that the regulators at the FDA are currently reviewing a 15-year re-approval of Monsanto’s Roundup and glyphosate-based herbicides based on out-of-date science.
You can share this report by following this link: http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/2047?t=15&akid=1946.101853._11J9w
What else you’ll find in the report:
- Levels of glyphosate residues found in popular American foods.
- A summary of what the latest independent scientific research says about the safety of Roundup and glyphosate.
- A detailed analysis of why the current U.S. EPA’s acceptable daily intake (ADI) is much too high.
- Evidence that regulators in Europe considered the U.S. ADI to be “very high” and “far outside the range” of what chemical companies other than Monsanto submitted for safety approvals.
- Scientific evidence that refutes Monsanto’s claim that glyphosate does not accumulate in the human body.
- A call to action-–to investigate regulatory collusion at the EPA, end the practice of pre-harvest spraying of Roundup on food crop, and a call to release all the scientific data submitted by Monsanto for safety assessments.
Editor’s addendum: I don’t want to sound defeatist, but with Trump’s climate change denier Myron Ebell set to head up the EPA, I think there’s not much chance that glyphosate poisoning will be remediated so long as agribiz and biotech rules in Washington. The answer, of course, is to eat organic food. –J.C.
###
A Website to Enhance and Protect the Health of Mother Earth
Organic Lifestyle Comments (0)
It It was really heartening to hear that at recent meetings in Europe, the idea was brought forth that the many-faceted movements and groups concerned with the health of the environment, the health of our food and farming systems, the health of the ecological web of life on our planet, and the mental and spiritual health of the human beings on this plant need to coalesce into a meta-movement that includes them all.
Is there really any difference between the Native Americans who are standing up for pure water and conservationists who want to protect our rivers and oceans? Is there any fundamental difference between those who want to stop chemical corporations from polluting the land and waters of the earth from those folks who want to purchase organic food because they know it won’t contain agricultural chemicals, antibiotics, and GMOs? And is there any difference between those who want to arrest and reverse climate change and those who want to convert our energy systems from carbon-based exploitation of fossil fuels to renewable, clean energy sources? I could name a hundred NGOs that want rational environmental change and whose purposes dovetail with all these others.
We need to get together.
What would that look like if all of us banded together to promote environmental improvement? First of all, we’d need to coalesce around a single idea that connects us all. Very simply, that idea is health. The word “health” contains the word “heal,” and the aim of all our groups is to heal the sores, cankers, and diseases caused by rapacious modern industry. The diseases show up in disruptions to the planet’s healthy ecosystems, in the participants in the environmental web of life, in the mutated amphibians, sick waterfowl, and disappearing species of the great extinction we’re going through. The word “health” is also related to the word “whole.” In this case, wholeness refers to the situation where all available environmental niches are filled with functioning participants. In other words, where a natural system is most biodiverse, it is most healthy.
Biodiversity is the key to health. Any ecosystem has a set of trophic niches ready to be filled. A trophic niche is a place in the system that not only has food for a creature, but a beneficial role for that creature to play. That’s why the die-off of creatures in the great “Sixth Extinction” we’re going through is so destructive. Every unfilled trophic niche in an ecosystem is an opportunity for a disruptive creature or organism to fill it and take over, causing great harm.
Mental and spiritual health likewise flow from an attunement with nature. We are all the children of nature; Gaia—the living organism that is the earth–is our mother. We do not know better than nature how to conduct ourselves. Our task is to understand nature—her laws, tendencies, energies, directions, movements—and pattern our social and economic systems on her. If you take notice, nature’s arrangements are all sustainable. Everything else is, by definition, unsustainable and will eventually collapse.
So yes, let’s erect the big tent under which all those people and organizations working for the health of the planet and those creatures who live on it can find a home. Together we can assail the forces working against that goal. We don’t have much time. Climate change is fast upon us. Species extinction is progressing rapidly. Huge multinational corporations are taking over world agriculture and poisoning the earth. If we stay separated into little fiefdoms, caring only about our own narrow interests, we will not succeed.
But together we will prevail. Hence I’ve registered www.gaiashealth.com as the umbrella and big tent under which any and all organizations and individuals who are working to promote the health of the planet and its creatures can shelter.
I will be working to have Gaia-friendly institutions around the world gather at this website. If you want to help out, simply nominate organizations, institutions, and individuals you know are working to protect and enhance the health of Mother Earth.
***
KEEPING AN EYE ON THE ORANGE ONE
With the election of Donald Trump as President, we can only hope that his campaign promises were just rhetoric and that he really doesn’t plan to abrogate the Climate Change Agreement, revoke the nuclear deal with Iran, lend government support to increased use of fossil fuels, and so many others.
But until we see otherwise, we can only believe that he meant what he said regarding these environmental treaties and issues. For progressives, his election and Republican control of Congress appears to be the recipe for an unmitigated disaster.
It therefore behooves the environmentally concerned to watch the actions of Trump, Congress, and the future right-wing Supreme Court carefully. On November 11, Trump gave us a clue as to his policies on the environment. In looking for someone to follow through on his campaign vow to dismantle one of the Obama administration’s signature climate change policies, Trump probably could not have found a better candidate for the job than Myron Ebell.
According to The New York Times, “Mr. Ebell, who revels in taking on the scientific consensus on global warming, will be Mr. Trump’s lead agent in choosing personnel and setting the direction of the federal agencies that address climate change and environmental policy more broadly.
“Mr. Ebell, whose organization is financed in part by the coal industry, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the linchpin of that policy, the Clean Power Plan. Developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the plan is a far-reaching set of regulations that, by seeking to reduce carbon emissions from electricity generation, could result in the closing of many coal-burning power plants, among other effects.”
And what will Ebell be doing in the Trump administration? He’s been picked to head up the EPA.
***
HYDROPONIC IMPORTS BEING SOLD AS ORGANIC
An organic industry watchdog contends the USDA has quietly allowed a flood of hydroponically-produced fruits and vegetables, largely imported, to be illegally labeled and sold as “organic.”
This produce is generally grown under artificial lighting, indoors, and on an industrial scale. The Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute has filed a formal legal complaint against some of the largest agribusinesses involved in the practice and their organic certifying agents.
The controversy will come to a head in mid-November, when the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is expected to vote at its semiannual meeting in St. Louis on whether or not hydroponic operations (growing without soil) should be legalized for organic certification. This vote comes six years after the NOSB initially reaffirmed that hydroponics and aquaponics should be prohibited under the organic label.
Disregarding that prohibition, the USDA has allowed over 100 foreign and domestic soil-less operations to become certified organic, creating unfair competition for soil-based U.S. growers. The U.S. is an outlier in international commerce as most countries prohibit the organic certification of soil-less hydroponic produce, including the 28 countries of the European Union (EU), Mexico, Japan, and Canada.
“Astute consumers have turned to organics to procure fruits and vegetables for their family knowing that certified farmers do a better job of stewarding the land by nurturing the complex biological ecosystem in the soil, which creates nutrient-dense, superior food,” said Mark Kastel, senior farm policy analyst at The Cornucopia Institute. “Hydroponic and container systems rely on liquid fertilizers developed from conventional crops or waste products. Suggesting that they should qualify for organic labeling is a specious argument.”
The Cornucopia complaint specifically targets two of the giants in U.S. hydroponic production, the organic berry behemoth, Driscoll’s, and a major tomato, cucumber, and bell pepper producer, Wholesum Harvest. Both agribusinesses have production in the U.S. and Mexico and are certified by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and Quality Assurance International (QAI), respectively.
Pioneers of the organic movement, including the “Agrarian Elders” and other diversified farmers, are incensed by the rise of “organic” hydroponics and are leading the “Keep the Soil in Organic” movement. They are witnessing firsthand the displacement of domestic organic produce with hydroponic versions.
These organic farmers argue that organic agriculture has always been entirely centered on the biological complexity found in properly managed, fertile soil. Iconic farmer and author, Eliot Coleman, of Maine explains, “The phrase ‘organic hydroponic’ is an oxymoron—a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction. Hydroponic growers produce crops in sterile surroundings and douse plant roots with liquid nutrients that can never begin to duplicate the biological complexity of fertile soil.”
In addition, organic hydroponic produce, whether imported or grown by giant agribusinesses in the U.S., is not identified in the marketplace. Consumers have no way of knowing if the berries, tomatoes, peppers, or cucumbers they are purchasing are truly organic.
The Cornucopia Institute has engaged the public by distributing a proxy letter to organic stakeholders (available as a download through the hydroponics link in the projects tab on their website). The organization says it has already received thousands of originally signed letters which they will hand deliver to the NOSB at their St. Louis meeting starting November 16.
“There is a higher authority than the USDA, or even the federal courts, in these matters,” said Kastel, “and that’s the community of organic farmers, and their loyal customers who vote every day in the marketplace with their dollars. They are clearly voicing their opposition to the faux organic production that is flooding the marketplace.”
What’s not even mentioned is the energy needed to power artificial lighting to grow crops hydroponically. Crops grown outdoors have a free, sustainable, and very powerful light source: the sun.
***
ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT BACTERIA IN CONVENTIONAL POULTRY
A new study published in the scientific journal Clinical Infectious Diseases has found evidence that an antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus can be transmitted to consumers via grocery store poultry meat. Robert Skov, a lead researcher on the paper, said in a statement, “At present, meat products represent only a minor transmission route for MRSA to humans, but our findings nevertheless underscore the importance of reducing the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals as well as continuing surveillance of the animal-food-human interface.”
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ORGANIC FARMING BOOSTS YIELDS, UPS PEST CONTROL
Organic farming increases biological control of pests and yields in barley
A recent study published in Landscape Ecology has reaffirmed that organic farming leads to greater yields and pest control by supporting natural predators, and demonstrated that these benefits associated with organic farming are maintained regardless of the surrounding landscape.
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LESS ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT E. COLI IN ORGANIC PIGS
A study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE tested swine from four different European countries—Denmark, France, Italy, and Sweden—and found that those raised on organic farms consistently harbored less antibiotic-resistant E. coli than swine raised on conventional farms. “For all four countries, resistance was substantially lower in organic than conventional pigs…This knowledge, together with a continued effort to improve animal health and thereby reduce the overall need for antibiotics, would be valuable to reduce antibiotic resistance without compromising animal welfare,” the authors concluded.
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was really heartening to hear that at recent meetings in Europe, the idea was brought forth that the many-faceted movements and groups concerned with the health of the environment, the health of our food and farming systems, the health of the ecological web of life on our planet, and the mental and spiritual health of the human beings on this plant need to coalesce into a meta-movement that includes them all.
Is there really any difference between the Native Americans who are standing up for pure water and conservationists who want to protect our rivers and oceans? Is there any fundamental difference between those who want to stop chemical corporations from polluting the land and waters of the earth from those folks who want to purchase organic food because they know it won’t contain agricultural chemicals, antibiotics, and GMOs? And is there any difference between those who want to arrest and reverse climate change and those who want to convert our energy systems from carbon-based exploitation of fossil fuels to renewable, clean energy sources? I could name a hundred NGOs that want rational environmental change and whose purposes dovetail with all these others.
We need to get together.
What would that look like if all of us banded together to promote environmental improvement? First of all, we’d need to coalesce around a single idea that connects us all. Very simply, that idea is health. The word “health” contains the word “heal,” and the aim of all our groups is to heal the sores, cankers, and diseases caused by rapacious modern industry. The diseases show up in disruptions to the planet’s healthy ecosystems, in the participants in the environmental web of life, in the mutated amphibians, sick waterfowl, and disappearing species of the great extinction we’re going through. The word “health” is also related to the word “whole.” In this case, wholeness refers to the situation where all available environmental niches are filled with functioning participants. In other words, where a natural system is most biodiverse, it is most healthy.
Biodiversity is the key to health. Any ecosystem has a set of trophic niches ready to be filled. A trophic niche is a place in the system that not only has food for a creature, but a beneficial role for that creature to play. That’s why the die-off of creatures in the great “Sixth Extinction” we’re going through is so destructive. Every unfilled trophic niche in an ecosystem is an opportunity for a disruptive creature or organism to fill it and take over, causing great harm.
Mental and spiritual health likewise flow from an attunement with nature. We are all the children of nature; Gaia—the living organism that is the earth–is our mother. We do not know better than nature how to conduct ourselves. Our task is to understand nature—her laws, tendencies, energies, directions, movements—and pattern our social and economic systems on her. If you take notice, nature’s arrangements are all sustainable. Everything else is, by definition, unsustainable and will eventually collapse.
So yes, let’s erect the big tent under which all those people and organizations working for the health of the planet and those creatures who live on it can find a home. Together we can assail the forces working against that goal. We don’t have much time. Climate change is fast upon us. Species extinction is progressing rapidly. Huge multinational corporations are taking over world agriculture and poisoning the earth. If we stay separated into little fiefdoms, caring only about our own narrow interests, we will not succeed.
But together we will prevail. Hence I’ve registered www.gaiashealth.com as the umbrella and big tent under which any and all organizations and individuals who are working to promote the health of the planet and its creatures can shelter.
I will be working to have Gaia-friendly institutions around the world gather at this website. If you want to help out, simply nominate organizations, institutions, and individuals you know are working to protect and enhance the health of Mother Earth.
***
KEEPING AN EYE ON THE ORANGE ONE
With the election of Donald Trump as President, we can only hope that his campaign promises were just rhetoric and that he really doesn’t plan to abrogate the Climate Change Agreement, revoke the nuclear deal with Iran, lend government support to increased use of fossil fuels, and so many others.
But until we see otherwise, we can only believe that he meant what he said regarding these environmental treaties and issues. For progressives, his election and Republican control of Congress appears to be the recipe for an unmitigated disaster.
It therefore behooves the environmentally concerned to watch the actions of Trump, Congress, and the future right-wing Supreme Court carefully. On November 11, Trump gave us a clue as to his policies on the environment. In looking for someone to follow through on his campaign vow to dismantle one of the Obama administration’s signature climate change policies, Trump probably could not have found a better candidate for the job than Myron Ebell.
According to The New York Times, “Mr. Ebell, who revels in taking on the scientific consensus on global warming, will be Mr. Trump’s lead agent in choosing personnel and setting the direction of the federal agencies that address climate change and environmental policy more broadly.
“Mr. Ebell, whose organization is financed in part by the coal industry, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the linchpin of that policy, the Clean Power Plan. Developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the plan is a far-reaching set of regulations that, by seeking to reduce carbon emissions from electricity generation, could result in the closing of many coal-burning power plants, among other effects.”
And what will Ebell be doing in the Trump administration? He’s been picked to head up the EPA.
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HYDROPONIC IMPORTS BEING SOLD AS ORGANIC
An organic industry watchdog contends the USDA has quietly allowed a flood of hydroponically-produced fruits and vegetables, largely imported, to be illegally labeled and sold as “organic.”
This produce is generally grown under artificial lighting, indoors, and on an industrial scale. The Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute has filed a formal legal complaint against some of the largest agribusinesses involved in the practice and their organic certifying agents.
The controversy will come to a head in mid-November, when the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is expected to vote at its semiannual meeting in St. Louis on whether or not hydroponic operations (growing without soil) should be legalized for organic certification. This vote comes six years after the NOSB initially reaffirmed that hydroponics and aquaponics should be prohibited under the organic label.
Disregarding that prohibition, the USDA has allowed over 100 foreign and domestic soil-less operations to become certified organic, creating unfair competition for soil-based U.S. growers. The U.S. is an outlier in international commerce as most countries prohibit the organic certification of soil-less hydroponic produce, including the 28 countries of the European Union (EU), Mexico, Japan, and Canada.
“Astute consumers have turned to organics to procure fruits and vegetables for their family knowing that certified farmers do a better job of stewarding the land by nurturing the complex biological ecosystem in the soil, which creates nutrient-dense, superior food,” said Mark Kastel, senior farm policy analyst at The Cornucopia Institute. “Hydroponic and container systems rely on liquid fertilizers developed from conventional crops or waste products. Suggesting that they should qualify for organic labeling is a specious argument.”
The Cornucopia complaint specifically targets two of the giants in U.S. hydroponic production, the organic berry behemoth, Driscoll’s, and a major tomato, cucumber, and bell pepper producer, Wholesum Harvest. Both agribusinesses have production in the U.S. and Mexico and are certified by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and Quality Assurance International (QAI), respectively.
Pioneers of the organic movement, including the “Agrarian Elders” and other diversified farmers, are incensed by the rise of “organic” hydroponics and are leading the “Keep the Soil in Organic” movement. They are witnessing firsthand the displacement of domestic organic produce with hydroponic versions.
These organic farmers argue that organic agriculture has always been entirely centered on the biological complexity found in properly managed, fertile soil. Iconic farmer and author, Eliot Coleman, of Maine explains, “The phrase ‘organic hydroponic’ is an oxymoron—a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction. Hydroponic growers produce crops in sterile surroundings and douse plant roots with liquid nutrients that can never begin to duplicate the biological complexity of fertile soil.”
In addition, organic hydroponic produce, whether imported or grown by giant agribusinesses in the U.S., is not identified in the marketplace. Consumers have no way of knowing if the berries, tomatoes, peppers, or cucumbers they are purchasing are truly organic.
The Cornucopia Institute has engaged the public by distributing a proxy letter to organic stakeholders (available as a download through the hydroponics link in the projects tab on their website). The organization says it has already received thousands of originally signed letters which they will hand deliver to the NOSB at their St. Louis meeting starting November 16.
“There is a higher authority than the USDA, or even the federal courts, in these matters,” said Kastel, “and that’s the community of organic farmers, and their loyal customers who vote every day in the marketplace with their dollars. They are clearly voicing their opposition to the faux organic production that is flooding the marketplace.”
What’s not even mentioned is the energy needed to power artificial lighting to grow crops hydroponically. Crops grown outdoors have a free, sustainable, and very powerful light source: the sun.
***
ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT BACTERIA IN CONVENTIONAL POULTRY
A new study published in the scientific journal Clinical Infectious Diseases has found evidence that an antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus can be transmitted to consumers via grocery store poultry meat. Robert Skov, a lead researcher on the paper, said in a statement, “At present, meat products represent only a minor transmission route for MRSA to humans, but our findings nevertheless underscore the importance of reducing the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals as well as continuing surveillance of the animal-food-human interface.”
***
ORGANIC FARMING BOOSTS YIELDS, UPS PEST CONTROL
Organic farming increases biological control of pests and yields in barley
A recent study published in Landscape Ecology has reaffirmed that organic farming leads to greater yields and pest control by supporting natural predators, and demonstrated that these benefits associated with organic farming are maintained regardless of the surrounding landscape.
***
LESS ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT E. COLI IN ORGANIC PIGS
A study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE tested swine from four different European countries—Denmark, France, Italy, and Sweden—and found that those raised on organic farms consistently harbored less antibiotic-resistant E. coli than swine raised on conventional farms. “For all four countries, resistance was substantially lower in organic than conventional pigs…This knowledge, together with a continued effort to improve animal health and thereby reduce the overall need for antibiotics, would be valuable to reduce antibiotic resistance without compromising animal welfare,” the authors concluded.
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