When will we start applying the Precautionary Principle to the cancer-causing
chemicals that are killing our kids? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
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ESSAY OF THE WEEKCAUTION TO THE WIND

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The first car my parents carted me and my brothers and sister around in, in the
1950s, didn’t even have seatbelts. Not one of us was ever strapped into a car
seat. No kid I knew donned a helmet before hopping on her bike.

When I was a kid, there were no government-regulated safety standards for cribs
or playpens or strollers. There were no “choking hazard” warnings on the
packages containing the toys we played with, regardless of how many small,
potentially detachable parts came with those toys.

Over decades marred by child deaths in car accidents, and what were determined
to be preventable deaths if only baby equipment manufacturers had thought to
make this crib safer, or that stroller less dangerous, the federal government
stepped in.

Yet of the more than 80,000
[[link removed]] chemicals used in the U.S. today, most haven’t been adequately tested for their
impact on human health, much less on the health of children.

That’s bad enough. But this is worse: Despite being “regulated” by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, and despite being linked to a host of human
health issues, agricultural chemicals like glyphosate
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[[link removed]] that pollute our air and water and whose residues contaminate our food,
continue to be widely used. Even though cancer kills more children
[[link removed]] in the U.S. than accidents do.

My three siblings and I were lucky. We survived, minus the seatbelts and
carseats and helmets that provide protection for today’s kids. But I worry for
my 2-year-old grandson and 6-year-old granddaughter. Though they travel
surrounded by high-tech protective gear and play with safety-tested toys, when
it comes to cancer-causing chemicals, they're at the mercy of our government
“protection” agencies that place a far higher value on corporate profits than
they do on small lives.



Read ' When Will We Start Applying the Precautionary Principle to the Chemicals
that Are Killing Our Kids?'
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TAKE ACTION: Tell your state lawmakers: Ban chlorpyrifos!
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TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA in your own words why glyphosate should be banned
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ACTION ALERTSECRETLY & SUSPICIOUSLY

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We have just a few more days—until the end of the day Monday, August 5—to let
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) know that the people who pay their
salaries (that would be us) are mighty unhappy with their plans to put
chemical-pushers like Monsanto
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Under a proposal
[[link removed]] the USDA ridiculously calls “Sustainable, Ecological, Consistent, Uniform,
Responsible, Efficient,” or “SECURE” for short, the job of “regulating”
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) would be handed over to the companies that
create them.

Why did this obviously flawed proposal come about? Because the USDA “wants
agribusiness to sell more genetically engineered (GE) seeds and food products
all over the world, as soon as possible,” says
[[link removed]] Dr. Steve Suppan, senior policy analyst for the Institute for Agriculture and
Trade Policy (IATP).

How did it come about? Secretly and suspiciously, according to
[[link removed]] IATP:

Input to develop the proposed rule occurred at private meetings with 80
organizations, with no public record of how these organizations influenced the
content of the proposed rule. The private meetings with no public announcement
are likely illegal under the Administrative Procedures Act and other laws
governing federal rulemaking.

If approved, this proposal will be a disaster for consumers, and a disaster for
the environment.

It's not a done deal yet. Please let the USDA know what you think. And don’t
hold back.

Read ‘USDA Opens Door to New Untested, Unlabeled GMOs’
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Read ‘Genetically Engineered Farm Animals: Regulators Rush to Keep Consumers in
the Dark’
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DEADLINE AUGUST 5: Tell the USDA to do its job: protect consumers, not the
biotech industry!
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SUPPORT THE OCA & CRLNOT ON OUR WATCH!
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OCA got its start defending Organic Standards. In 1998, when those standards
were first being drafted, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) wanted to
allow genetic engineering, irradiation and toxic sewage sludge in organic
production and products.

We said no way. With allied organizations, and help from hundreds of thousands
of consumers like you, we mobilized a massive consumer campaign to stop all
three. And we won.

Now we may have to do it all over again.

In addition to the USDA’s recent proposal to pretty much let chemical and
biotech companies regulate their own GMOs, there’s talk at the agency about
allowing gene-editing techniques in organic.

Yes, you heard that right. Under Secretary of Agriculture Greg Ibach floated the
idea at a July 17 House Agriculture Subcommittee hearing.

We’ve fought too hard and come too far to give up this fight. With your support,
we’ll stop this craziness in its tracks.

Please make a generous donation today to help our campaign to Save Organic
Standards. Thank you!

Make a tax-deductible donation to Organic Consumers Association, a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit
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Support Citizens Regeneration Lobby, OCA’s 501(c)(4) lobbying arm (not
tax-deductible)
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Click here for more ways to support our work
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MYTH OF NATURALIT'S ONLY NATURAL

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On July 31, CBS Marketwatch wrote about
[[link removed]] our recent lawsuit
[[link removed]] against Twinings Tea for falsely for claiming its glyphosate-contaminated tea
is made with “100% natural ingredients.”

Coincidentally, that same day, the International Federation of Gynecology and
Obstetrics (FIGO) recommended
[[link removed]] a global phase-out of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup
weedkiller. In a statement, FIGO wrote:

"When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment,
precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect
relationships are not fully established scientifically."

Unfortunately, the Precautionary Principle
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Meanwhile, Bayer (which bought Monsanto last year) this week said
[[link removed]] that the number of Roundup-related lawsuits—filed against the company by people
who allege that exposure to the weedkiller caused their cancer—is now
approximately 18,400.

All the more reason to call out companies like Twinings for misleading consumers
about the “naturalness” of products that contain a chemical that the World
Health Organization has classified
[[link removed]] as a “probable human carcinogen.”

People should know what’s in their food—especially when what’s in their food has
been linked to a host of human health issues
[[link removed]] . It's only natural.

Read ‘Beech-Nut Baby Food and Twinings Tea Contain Traces of a Chemical Linked
to Cancer—Should You Be Concerned?’
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Read the Statement by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics
on the Removal of Glyphosate from Global Usage
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TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA in your own words why glyphosate should be banned
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TAKE ACTION: By Midnight September 3: Tell the EPA: Ban Glyphosate!
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VIDEO OF THE WEEK'BLOOD-BOILING'

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The Hollywood Reporter called it a “blood-boiling eco-doc.” Movie City News
called it “one of the most genuinely scary films at Sundance this year.”

“ The Devil We Know [[link removed]] ” is a documentary about a common chemical and its potential to cause birth
defects in the unborn, and at least six diseases in humans. And, in an
all-too-familiar story, the film documents how two corporations—DuPont and
3M—hid the truth about its dangerous chemical, from employees and from the
public.

You may have long ago thrown out all your Teflon™-coated pans. But C8, the
chemical used to make Teflon, is (or in some cases was) used in a wide variety
of other consumer products.

Today, C8 contamination is so widespread that, according to this article
[[link removed]] in the Intercept, 99 percent of Americans have the chemical in their blood
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Read ‘The Devil We Know:’ How DuPont Poisoned the World with Teflon’
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ECO TRAVELLET'S GO CAMPING!

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Ecorestoration is “the great work of our time,” according to one of last year’s
land-restoration campers at the Vía Orgánica Ranch [[link removed]] , a regenerative teaching farm and ranch near San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

What’s an “ecorestoration camp?” The best explanation is here, in this video
[[link removed]] produced by Wil Crombie of Organic Compound Farm
[[link removed]] for OCA’s Vía Orgánica [[link removed]] project in collaboration with Ecosystem Restoration Camps
[[link removed]] and Regeneration International
[[link removed]] .

Want to participate?

Join Vía Orgánica and the Ecosystem Restoration Camp Movement in Mexico for the
week of Nov. 9th to 17th at the land-restoration camp at Vía Orgánica Ranch [[link removed]] .

Volunteer to camp, work, study, connect with the earth and meet new friends in
this beautiful ranch near San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Camp activities will
include restoration work such as tree planting, composting, seed collecting,
earthworks, cooking, listening to music, campfires, making new friends and much
more.

Ecosystem restoration is a growing global strategy to naturally draw down and
sequester carbon from the atmosphere and store it in our soils, forests and
vegetation to reverse global warming.

Learn more and sign up
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Watch this beautiful video filmed on site at the last Vía Orgánica Ecosystem
Restoration Camp in March
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Questions? Email [email protected]
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LITTLE BYTESESSENTIAL READING

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Opioid Roadmap: 76 Billion Pills and Counting
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Another Scandal With an Organic Dairy Mega-Farm Should Serve as a Wake-Up Call
to All Industry Stakeholders
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Cargill: The Worst Company in the World
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Functional Medicine and Diabetes: How to Treat the Root Cause
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The Cheapest Way to Save the Planet Grows Like a Weed
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Poisoned for Profit: Whether in the UK or India, We Are Not the Agrochemical
Industry’s Guinea Pigs
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Sesame Seeds: An Ancient Food With Therapeutic Uses
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[[link removed]] Organic Consumers Association
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218-353-7652

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