15 APril 10

#220
ORGANIC
Org a nic Consum er s A sso ci at ion
BY TES Food & Consumer NewsWeekly
w w w.org a n icconsum e r s.org

Take Action: Tell Your Senators Quote of the Week

“This could be something quite big. We might
No GE Crops in Foreign Aid! be setting up a huge problem.”

D
-Robert Kremer, USDA Soil Scientist, on the
espite overwhelming evidence that genetically engineered (GE) crops have damage caused by Monsanto’s genetically
failed to deliver on industry promises to feed the world and reduce pesticide engineered RoundUp Ready technology.
use, a new multi-billion dollar aid bill directs taxpayer dollars towards more “Special Report: Are Regulators Dropping
GE research. As written, the Senate bill is a stealth giveaway to corporations the Ball on Biocrops?” - The Washington Post,
like Monsanto under the fraudulent guise of feeding the world’s poor. April 13, 2010
Act Now! Tell your Senator to oppose the Global Food Security Act until the pro-Mon-
santo GE clause is removed! www.is.gd/buF8k Little Bytes
Agriculture Department Seeds the Way for
Save Local & Organic Farming from Food Safety Bill “People’s Gardens”
In the next few weeks, the US Senate is expected to vote on a sweeping overhaul of 80 volunteers at the USDA are lending their
federal food safety law S. 510. The House food safety bill passed last year (HR 2749) sweat and muscle to an organic garden on the
included several measures that threaten small-scale organic producers, including a grounds of the agency’s headquarters on the
registration fee of $500 and blanket application of complicated monitoring and trace- National Mall.
ability standards—regardless of farm size. www.is.gd/buFct Victory! Supplements Are Exempted From
Codex Language in Food Safety Bill
Keep Nanotech Ingredients Out of Organic Food! The FDA Food Modernization Act (S. 510), also
The USDA National Organic Program’s advisory panel, the National Organic Standards referred to as the “Food Safety” bill, has been
Board, will be meeting in California at the end of this month. OCA political director modified to exempt dietary supplements from
Alexis Baden-Mayer will be presenting testimony at the meeting. It is language that would have restricted con-
essential that we back up OCA’s position to ban nanotechnology sumer access to vitamins and supplements
from organic production with as many letters from OCA mem- under the proposed World Trade Organiza-
bers as possible. This is a huge public health and environmen- tion’s Codex Alimentarius regulations.
tal issue. Will the USDA permanently ban nanotech ingredients Pesticide and Chemical Industry Front
from organic food and products, or will they leave the door Group Makes Alice Waters a Poster Child
open to this new, dangerous, unregulated technology, with the for Toxic Sludge
power to literally change matter at the atomic or electron level? The pesticide and chemical industry front
Learn More: organicconsumers.org/nanotech.cfm group American Council on Science and
Take Action: www.is.gd/buFlE Health has thanked organic chef and gar-
dening advocate Alice Waters for refusing a
“Food Inc.” on PBS - Have a House Party! request from the Organic Consumers Asso-
On Wednesday, April 21, 2010, at 9pm, we invite you to host ciation to publicly oppose growing food on
a potluck and screening party for the PBS broadcast of Food, farms and gardens fertilized with toxic sew-
Inc. Invite your family and friends over for a healthy organic age sludge.
meal. Then watch the Oscar-nominated Food, Inc. and discuss Peak Oil: US Military Warns Oil Output
what we eat, how it’s produced and where we should go from May Dip Causing Massive Shortages By 2015
here. PBS’s Point Of View has free gifts to give away—books, gift The US military has warned that surplus oil
cards, sustainable food items and more - and they’ll be select- production capacity could disappear within
ing some lucky potluck hosts and participants to receive them! two years and there could be serious short-
www.is.gd/buFus ages by 2015 with a significant economic and
political impact. This underlines the urgency
OCA Needs Your Help to Spread the Organic Revolution to shift our food and farming system to
OCA and our international network of organic consumers and farmers understand that energy efficient organic practices.
we have a positive life-affirming solution for the global food, health, and climate cri- GMOs: Boston Globe Lies
sis: organic food, farming, and ranching. But to get out our all-important message we The Boston Globe just printed a whopper:
need your support. Please send us a tax-deductible donation today. “Genetically engineered crops are more envi-
organicconsumers.org/donations.cfm ronmentally friendly than organic ones.”
Monsanto and the biotech industry have been
Written and edited by Alexis Baden-Mayer & Ronnie Cummins repeating these lies for over a decade. Appar-
Please post, distribute, & subscribe: organicconsumers.org/organicbytes.cfm ently some in the mass media have decided to
We are Making Positive Change · Our Work Depends on You! Please Donate: become GMO cheerleaders.
www.organicconsumers.org/donations.cfm Read these articles & many more:
www.organicconsumers.org