Big Money, Big Risk

 

Introducing the latest inductee into our Gain-of-Function Hall of Shame: Peter Daszak.

Daszak is president of EcoHealth Alliance, a top scientific collaborator and a grantwriter for virus hunters and gain-of-function/dual-use researchers, in labs both military and civilian.

On behalf of the U.S. government, often the military, Daszak and his teams scour the globe for animal pathogens, then bring them back to high-containment laboratories where they catalog, investigate and use genetic engineering and synthetic biology to make the pathogens more infectious, contagious, lethal or drug-resistant.

Daszak works in labs controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense, in countries in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa. Many of these labs are staffed by former biological weapons scientists. (See Arms Watch’s reports).

Daszak and other gain-of-function researchers justify their experiments this way: If/When an outbreak of a new virus occurs, they can compare it to the ones in their labs, and maybe glean how the novel virus emerged.

Critics of virus hunting say scientists like Daszak could make a greater contribution to human health by going after the viruses that commonly infect humans, not the ones that never have.

But that logic doesn't prevent Daszak from pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars to fund his gain-of-function experiments.

Do Daszak and his collaborators do it just for the money? Or do they have a bigger agenda? And why is the Pentagon constructing new laboratories around the globe, for the “consolidation and securing of pathogens?”

Read: Peter ‘Show Me the Money’ Daszak Pulls in Big Bucks, through EcoHealth Alliance, for Risky Virus ‘Research’

Visit our Gain-of-Function Hall of Shame

SIGN THE PETITION: Stop the Genetic Engineering of Viruses! Shut Down All Biowarfare Labs Now!

Now. Or Never?

 

As a conscious consumer who takes control of your health, you may give little thought, much less weight, to the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Maybe it’s time you did. Maybe it’s time we all do.

The dietary guidelines handed down by the federal government dictate how hundreds of millions of your tax dollars are allocated for nutrition programs that serve vulnerable children, seniors and veterans—the very people whose poor health increased their risk of getting, or dying from, COVID-19.

Every five years, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA) hand down an updated version of the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

And every five years, Big Food and Big Pharma lobbyists line up to try to influence those guidelines—either directly, or indirectly through groups pretending to look out for you.

One of those “influencers” is the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). For years, CSPI cozied up to Monsanto and the biotech industry. Now the so-called “public interest” group is attacking the natural health industry for trying to keep people healthy during the pandemic.

We had a public health crisis before the pandemic hit. A crisis caused in large part by poor diets peddled by Big Food lobbyists and promoted by their friends in Congress. A crisis that resulted in the U.S. racking up nearly 25 percent of all COVID-19 related deaths, despite accounting for only about 4 percent of the global population.

If ever we needed dietary guidelines based on the latest, most rigorous science, and solid advice on natural health, that time would be now. Five years from now might be too late.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Members of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee: Americans Deserve Dietary Guidelines Based on the Latest, Most Rigorous Independent Science

TAKE ACTION: Defend Natural Medicine and Reform American Healthcare!

Read ‘Lies Exposed: CSPI’s Organized Attack Against Mercola’

‘Meating’ of the Minds

 

To eat meat, or not to eat meat: It’s probably one of the hottest debates around the dinner table, especially for animal welfare and climate activists.

But what’s often left out of that debate is whether vegans and vegetarians can support meat eating, if the meat doesn’t come from an industrial factory farm.

Last week, we took that question to a panel of well-known long-time vegans and vegetarians.

We wanted to know: Could committed vegans and vegetarians support the #BoycottBigMeat campaign, which advocates for an end to factory farms but also calls for support for farmers and ranchers who produce organic grass-fed and pasture-raised meat using regenerative practices?

For the short answer, read our blog post. For a deeper dive, watch the full panel discussion.

Read ‘Finding Common Ground: Can Vegans, Vegetarians and Meat-Eaters Unite for Change?’

Watch the panel discussion

TAKE ACTION: Nominate Tyson for the Corporate Accountability Hall of Shame

SIGN THE PETITION: It’s Time for Radical Reform: No More Factory Farms!

Sneak Preview

 

“We can get Earth back to the Garden of Eden that it once was, through regeneration.” — “Kiss the Ground”

In the face of a crisis as enormous as climate change, it’s easy to feel powerless.

Throw in a global pandemic, and powerlessness turns to paralyzed.

But global warming didn’t shut down during the COVID-19 crisis (just ask the Iowa farmers trying to recover from a recent hurricane-force storm that wiped out nearly 14 million acres of crops). And neither can we.

The good news? There’s reason to be hopeful.

As the soon-to-be-released-on-Netflix documentary, “Kiss the Ground,” makes clear, we already have the climate solution. It’s simple. And it’s right beneath our feet.

“Kiss the Ground” is a full-length documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson that sheds light on how regenerative agriculture can restore balance to our climate, replenish our vast water supplies and feed the world.

The film will be available on Netflix beginning September 22. But you can watch the trailer now.

Watch the trailer

Host a local screening

Captured!

 

“Whoever wins the Presidential election in November must take agriculture antitrust enforcement seriously and stop the blatant, corrupt cronyism between government officials and Big Ag, or there will be no independent, family farm agriculture as we now know it.” — Ben Gotschall, Organization for Competitive Markets

Farmers have to deal with and overcome a lot of unknowns, from unpredictable weather to unwanted pest invasions.

They also have to deal with this known fact: The food & farming policy deck is, by design, stacked against them.

A new report by the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) reveals just how stacked that deck is.

The report, titled “Captured: How Agribusiness Controls Regulatory Agencies and Harms Producers and Consumers,” also makes specific policy recommendations for leveling the playing field for independent family farmers. To illustrate how bad things are, OCM profiled a few farmers, including Wisconsin dairy farmer Saral Lloyd, who’s quoted in the press release:

“In these tumultuous times we see plainly that we need a truly transformational agriculture, not more business as usual. Unfortunately, the revolving door between the USDA, the check-off and the big corporations is squashing our opportunity for real change.”

OCM’s report highlights many of the reasons OCA, along with Regeneration International, last year launched the national coalition of U.S. Farmers & Ranchers for a Green New Deal.

It’s time for real change, real fast—not baby steps.

Read OCM’s press release

Read the full report

SIGN THE PETITION: Green Consumers for a Regenerative Green New Deal

Essential Reading

 

Oleander Is a Deadly Plant, Not a COVID-19 Cure

Myths and Truths of Gene-Edited Foods

EPA Relaxes Rules Limiting Toxic Waste From Coal Plants

Cattle Are Part of the Climate Solution

Meatpacking Corporations Cash in on Pandemic While Family Farms and Consumers Foot the Bill

Op-Ed: Will the Real ‘Whole Grain’ Please Stand Up?

Stop Eating Pesticides: Which Produce Should You Pick?