#213 18 F e b 10
ORGANIC
Org a nic Consum er s A sso ci at ion
Victory: New Organic Rules Ban
Intensive Confinement Dairy Feedlots
After years of claims that the organic dairy access to pasture requirement
was vague and couldn’t be enforced, the USDA’S National Organic Pro-
gram (NOP) has finally come out with a rule that bans intensive confine-
ment feedlots and requires that organic cows get at least 30% of their feed
from grazing for at least four months out of the year.
Read more: www.is.gd/8H0Xf
This rule is a great victory for organic
consumers and organic dairy farmers
who properly graze their animals, but
what about beef? The USDA wants to know
what consumers think about “finishing”
or fattening up organic beef cattle for four
months in factory farm-style feedlots.
Studies show that cattle confined and fed
grain in feedlots are prone to E. coli 0157H
contamination, whereas healthy organic
cattle grazing on grass are typically free of this dangerous pathogen. The
meat from grass-fed beef is also healthier and more nutritious than beef
that’s been “marbleized” in the feedlot.
Take Action: Tell the USDA’s NOP that you don’t want organic beef cattle
to be kept in factory-farm-style feedlots for the last four months of their
lives (the deadline is April 19, 2010): www.is.gd/8H1c3
Take Action Against Monsanto’s GE Alfalfa
Obama USDA Poised to Approve Monsanto’s GE Alfalfa
Don’t believe Monsanto’s green-washing. Genetically modified organisms
(GMOs), aren’t meant to feed the world or survive the evermore frequent
droughts and floods brought on by global warming. GMOs are designed
to sell Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup and the patented “Roundup Ready”
genes now spliced into millions of acres of corn, cotton, soy, canola, sugar
beets and alfalfa. A 2009 study showed that, in 13 years, Roundup Ready
crops increased herbicide use by 383 million pounds.
During the Bush administration, the movement to stop GMOs was mak-
ing progress. Reflecting public concern over GMOs, in 2007, a Federal
court ruled that the Bush USDA’s approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa
violated the law because it failed to analyze risks such as the contami-
nation of conventional and organic alfalfa and the development of “super-
weeds.” The court banned the planting of GM alfalfa until USDA completed
a rigorous analysis of these impacts. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
twice affirmed the national ban on Roundup Ready alfalfa planting, but
Monsanto is appealing. They’re taking organic alfalfa farmers all the way
to the Supreme Court!
Now the Obama Administration’s USDA is trying to get the court-ordered
ban on Roundup Ready alfalfa lifted. They’ve issued a new draft environ-
mental impact statement that denies and downplays the obvious environ-
mental and human health hazards of GM alfalfa.
Widespread GMO-contamination of organic alfalfa is inevitable if the
Obama Administration successfully distorts science and ignores public
opinion and allows Monsanto’s GM Roundup Ready alfalfa to be planted
across the US.
We must stop the Obama administration from taking away our right to
grow and consume organic and GMO-free food. The “change we believe in”
is a healthy and sustainable future based upon organic food and farming
and a green economy.
So far, 16,099 OCA activists have sent letters. Take Action: www.is.gd/8H2p4
If you are in San Diego, Monsanto’s coming to town! Join the demonstra-
tion: Say No to GMO! A Peaceful Eat-In (Facebook Event): www.is.gd/8H2Nq
Written and edited by Alexis Baden-Mayer & Ronnie Cummins · Please post, distribute, & subscribe: organicconsumers.org/organicbytes.cfm
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F o o d & C o n su m e r N e w s W e e k ly
Take Action Against Toxic Sludge
Tell San Francisco City Officials to Stop Endangering Public Health
and Degrading the Word “Organic” by Distributing Toxic Sewage
Sludge Under the Guise of “Organic Compost”
The city of San Francisco, along with other municipalities across the US,
are trying to trick Bay Area gardeners and farmers into spreading toxic
sewage sludge on their fields and gardens. We need to stop San Francisco
from promoting and distributing toxic sludge, and then we need to stop
your city from doing the same thing.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission pays Synagro, the cor-
porate giant of the toxic sludge industry, to take its toxic sewage sludge,
mix it with the waste of a half-dozen other California counties, and then
claim that it’s been magically transformed into “high-quality, nutrient-
rich, organic biosolids compost.” But of course sewage sludge is hazard-
ous waste, not “organic fertilizer.” Sewage sludge is banned in organic
agriculture and it should be banned for all land applications, period.
Municipal sludge is the toxic residue that is left over after household,
industrial, hospital, and storm-water sewage has passed through a waste-
water treatment plant.
Municipal sludge routinely contains hundreds of dangerous pathogens,
toxic heavy metals, flame retardants, endocrine disruptors, carcinogens,
pharmaceutical drugs and other hazardous chemicals.
Cities such as San Francisco and the toxic sewage sludge industry
shouldn’t be allowed to continue to lie to us and poison us!
San Francisco and other cities’ toxic sewage sludge giveaways must stop.
Over 4,000 OCA activists have emailed San Francisco Mayor Gavin New-
som in protest and hundreds have called, but his office still claims not to
understand the problem. Please help us get their attention by sending a
free fax to Mayor Newsom: www.is.gd/8H3kH
Eating Like Our Parents Left for the Weekend
“If these kids can’t afford to go to Biggest Losers to change their lives, they
are probably reduced to eating bad burgers, on bad bread, with fries and
a coke. Seeing their beauty, and their diminished hopes, and viewing the
fat swollen cage they find themselves in it makes me feel desperate. They
are young folks stuck with nearly useless bodies, chronically sore knees
and hips, aching feet, a puzzling future, a dicey surgical hope, and always-
hungry stomachs filled with shit food.”
“The plight of the young couple reminds me of a Roseanne segment from
the TV show. Her husband had just returned from the market and they
were unloading the bags. After a few minutes of pulling cookies, potato
chips, cokes, candy, ice cream, more cookies, and a cake out of the bags,
she ranted, as only Roseanne could: “You know, at some point we need to
grow up and stop eating like our parents just left for the weekend.” That
segment really struck me. We are a nation that eats like its parents just left
for the weekend!” -Will Allen: www.is.gd/8H3G2
Vandana Shiva on Monsanto Indian Farmer Suicide
“Every seed that is in the market in cotton today, linked to one company or
others, is licensed and controlled by Monsanto.” -Vandana Shiva
Watch the video: www.is.gd/8H42s
OCA Needs Your Help to Spread the Organic Revolution
OCA and our international network of organic consumers and farmers
understand that we have a positive life-affirming solution for the global
food, health, and climate crisis: organic food, farming, and ranching. But
to get out our all-important message we need your support. Please send a
tax-deductible donation today: organicconsumers.org/donations.cfm