Organic Bytes: Monsanto in Your Kitchen, Gas Tank, and Clothes Closet

 

Subscribe |  View PDF | Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Monsanto in Your Kitchen, Gas Tank, and Clothes Closet #267, March 10, 2011 In this issue: Quote of the Week - UN: Organic Ag Can Double Food Production in 10 Years Alerts of the Week: Getting Monsanto Out of Your Kitchen, Gas Tank, and Clothes Closet March 26, 2011: Rally for the Right to Know! OCA's Fair World Project Update Remember to Take Action... Little Bytes A NOTE TO ORGANIC BYTES SUBSCRIBERS! Over the next few weeks we will be transitioning to a new service to send Organic Bytes, so please add the address RONNIECUMMINS [AT] ORGANICCONSUMERS.ORG to your spam filter white lists! Thanks! Quote of the Week UN: Organic Ag Can Double Food Production in 10 Years "To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the most efficient farming techniques available. Today's scientific evidence demonstrates that agroecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production where the hungry live - especially in unfavorable environments. "To date, agroecological projects have shown an average crop yield increase of 80% in 57 developing countries, with an average increase of 116% for all African projects. Recent projects conducted in 20 African countries demonstrated a doubling of crop yields over a period of 3-10 years." -Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food and author of the report "Agro-ecology and the right to food," published March 8, 2011. Read More PLEASE DONATE Millions Against Monsanto Fundraising Appeal A quarter of a million people have already signed up as participants and supporters in our Millions Against Monsanto Truth-in-Labeling Campaign. But we need money to print leaflets, to buy hundreds of copies of the video "The World According to Monsanto," to print up T-shirts and bumper stickers, and to pay our campaign staff. As you know, GMOs, Factory Farms, and deceptively labeled consumer products pose a mortal threat to public health, climate stability, and all living things. As we speak, organic crops are being contaminated with Monsanto's GMOs. We need your financial contributions to educate and mobilize consumers, to protect and maintain strict organic standards, and to pressure the entire food industry, including natural food stores and co-ops, to adopt Truth-in-Labeling practices. Please Donate Alert OF THE WEEK Getting Monsanto Out of Your Kitchen, Gas Tank, and Clothes Closet March is the Millions Against Monsanto campaign's Month Without Monsanto. Join in on Twitter by tweeting #MonthWithoutMonsanto or through the Facebook page "Month Without Monsanto." For someone who's already been eating organic, a month without Monsanto seems pretty simple. But, as original Month Without Monsanto blogger April Dávila found, Monsanto's tentacles reach far beyond the grocery aisles. Our non-organic, often sweatshop-manufactured, cotton clothing has sprouted from Monsanto's seeds, too. Even the gas is our cars is Monsanto-made! About 35% of the U.S. corn crop is made into ethanol. (The rest feeds factory farmed animals or becomes "food" ingredients like high fructose corn syrup.) It's tough to choose between supporting Monsanto or Big Oil. The fact is, we need to drive less and carpool more or, better yet: walk, bike, and use public transportation whenever possible. The Obama Administration's USDA recently approved a new corn variety genetically engineered by Syngenta to be easier to convert to ethanol. Like crops that are modified to produce pharmaceuticals, genetically modified ethanol crops present a huge contamination danger to our food supply. Who's protecting consumers? The USDA's deregulation decision is final. The only thing we can do at this point is scream bloody murder at the politicians we elect to provide oversight on these issues. Time to write the president and your congressional representatives! Learn More and Take Action More Tips for Getting Monsanto Out of Your Kitchen, Gas Tank, and Clothes Closet Truth-In-Labeling March 26, 2011: Rally for the Right to Know! You're not alone in being upset at the new approvals of Syngenta's ethanol corn, Monsanto's sugar beets and alfalfa, and the free pass AquaBounty expects to get from the FDA for the first GMO animal intended for human consumption. It's obvious that the hundreds of thousands of letters the Obama Administration has received from consumers aren't making a difference with federal regulators. That's why OCA is turning its attention this year from online organizing to on-the-ground action. We're gearing up for the largest single day of action against GMOs in US history. The Millions Against Monsanto campaign has vowed to mobilize 1,000,000 supporters in advance of World Food Day, October 16, 2011, when we'll hold at least 435 actions, representing at least 2300 people in each US congressional district. In the meantime, there are hundreds of online activists, led by Trish & Erica, our volunteer administrators of OCA's Millions Against Monsanto Facebook page, who have decided that they're ready to act now. The enthusiasm and can-do spirit Trish & Erica are spreading is infectious. There's an action in D.C. that OCA political director Alexis Baden-Mayer will be helping to organize, as well as 20 or more other actions that are developing around the country. Join In Create a Millions Against Monsanto Chapter for Your Congressional District Fair World Project Update Fair World Project at Expo West, Launches Blog 1. Fair World Project at Expo West Please join Fair World Project and the Fair Trade Resource Network at Expo West, March 11, 2011 from 11am-12pm in Room 205B for Changing the Way We Do Business: Fair Trade Certification and Sourcing. Join us for a panel discussion regarding fair trade certification of products and companies at home and abroad. 2. Fair World Project Launches Blog! Looking for up to the minute information, news and discussions on all things fair trade? Look no furtherthan the FWP blog. And don't forget to follow FWP on Twitter and "Like" us on Facebook.   Remember to Take Action... Ban Triclosan! Take action by April 8, 2011 New York: Label Milk From Cows Given rBGH (Genetically Engineered Bovine Growth Hormone)! California: Label GM Salmon! Hawaii: Demand Truth-in-Labeling!  Alaska: Stop GMO Salmon! Little Bytes "The Spirit of Wisconsin" by John Nichols READ MORE Klebsiella Planticula-The Genetically Engineered Biofuel Bug That Almost Ate the World READ MORE Obama Administration's Ag Policy: Token Nods to Organic, and Policy Power Behind Industrial Ag READ MORE We Need Big, Brash, Nonviolent Climate Protests. Are You In? READ MORE Nitrogen Fertilizer: Agricultural Breakthrough - And Environmental Bane READ MORE LOCAL HI NEWS OF THE WEEK HI - Get Involved Locally Learn more about OCA related action alerts and other news in HI here. Message From Ouur Sponsors Eden Foods Offers OCA Customers 15% Discount Eden Foods is one of the few national organic food producers who goes beyond the USDA Organic Standards. Although Eden Foods is USDA certified, their products do not bear the USDA seal, because they say the USDA standard really represents a "minimum standard" that Eden Foods goes far beyond. As a subscriber to Organic Bytes, you can enjoy a 15% discount rate on any Eden Foods products by going here. Learn More Become an OCA Sponsor! Every issue of Organic Bytes now goes to 265,000 organic consumers with a thousand new subscribers each week. Please help us and your business by letting our subscribers know who you are and that you support the work of the OCA. Please contact us if you want more information! Please forward this publication to family and friends, place it on web sites, print it, duplicate it and post it freely. Knowledge is power! Organic Bytes is a publication of Organic Consumers Association 6771 South Silver Hill Drive - Finland, MN 55603 - Phone: 218-226-4164 - Fax: 218-353-7652 You are subscribed as: Lourdes Salvador Wailuku, HI salvadorlourdes@yahoo.com Read past issues and print- friendly PDF versions of Organic Bytes Subscribe | Connect with us: