Consumer Power

 

Think consumer boycotts don’t have much power? Think again.

Back in the day before Congress killed consumers’ right to know about GMOs, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) spent millions of dollars in California to defeat a citizen ballot initiative in 2012 that would have required labels on GMO foods.

That made the GMA and its members—including organic and natural brands owned by Big Food corporations—favorite targets of pro-labeling consumers.

Brands weren’t too happy about that. So when a similar initiative came on the ballot in Washington, the GMA tried to protect brands by illegally laundering donations to the anti-labeling campaign.

From then on, it was all downhill for Monsanto’s Evil Twin.

Read ‘Consumers Force Lobbying Group for Big Food Brands to ‘Re-Brand’ Itself’

Just Ban It

 

As if we needed more evidence of the dangers posed by Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, this just in from GM Watch:

A newly published study adds to the ever-growing pile of evidence in support of the cancer-causing potential of the weedkiller active ingredient glyphosate. Glyphosate herbicides like Roundup are used on over 85% of genetically modified crops.

The new study shows that a very low concentration of glyphosate (in the parts per trillion range and thus environmentally relevant for everyone) can trigger breast cancer when combined with another risk factor.

The statistics are bleak: About one in eight women in the U.S. will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. This year 41,760 women will die from it.

Meanwhile, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drags its feet, and Monsanto’s parent company continues to insist that glyphosate is safe, glyphosate remains the most widely used herbicide in the world—9.4 million tons of it were dumped on fields and lawns and parks in 2016 alone.

Because well, you know, corporate profits—the market for glyphosate is predicted to reach $12.54 billion by 2024.

Read 'Can Herbicides Cause Breast Cancer? Purdue and INSERM Scientists Discover a Piece to the Puzzle.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Ban Monsanto’s Roundup Weedkiller!

Make a tax-deductible donation to the Millions Against Monsanto Campaign

One-Two Punch

 

The shift from agrarian societies to industrial, to digital, has come at a high cost when it comes to the general public’s knowledge of agriculture. The value of that loss cannot be over estimated when it comes to consumer campaigns and the role they can and must play in promoting the system changes we need for a just transition to sustainable agriculture, sector-wide. - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, August 8, 2019

The crumbling of Big Food’s biggest lobbying group, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the association's recently announced plan to reinvent itself as the Consumer Brands Association, proves the power of consumer campaigns that target corporate greed and corruption.

OCA took some heat when in 2012 we first launched the “Traitor Boycott,” targeting the organic and natural brands that had been scooped up by Big Food corporations. But the campaign had an impact, even if it took several years for that impact to be fully realized.

The combination of consumer campaigns and consumer education delivers a one-two punch to Big Brands and the Big Food corporations that own them.

According to a report in Money magazine:

As consumers come to place higher importance on fresh, healthier foods, and no longer feel compelled to stick with the grocery brands from their childhoods, the sales of plenty of old-fashioned classics are suffering.

And from the Wall Street Journal:

The classic consumer food companies—makers of cereals, snacks, soups and condiments—are no longer the staples of pantries or portfolios. Shares of some are down by a third or more over the past year as strategies to boost sales fail, and consumers embrace fresh food and new brands.

We have a long way to go before we rid the world of corporations whose food destroys our health, and whose production practices destroy our environment. But thanks to you, we're making progress.

Please consider making a donation today to help us grow our consumer campaign and education work. Thank you.

Make a tax-deductible donation to Organic Consumers Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Support Citizens Regeneration Lobby, OCA’s 501(c)(4) lobbying arm (not tax-deductible)

Click here for more ways to support our work

Dirty Deals

 

This week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue threw small and mid-sized independent family farmers under the bus when he said:

“In America, the big get bigger and the small go out. I don’t think in America we, for any small business, we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability.”

Yet we sure as heck do have guaranteed income and guaranteed profitability for Big Ag and Big Food and Big Farms—in the form of billions of dollars in subsidies for the wealthiest farmers whose GMO monocultures degrade our soil, pollute our waterways and provide contaminated ingredients for junk food.

Who doesn’t Perdue and his U.S. Department of Agriculture want to support? Farmers like Phillip and Dorathy Barker, who farmed for 40 years in North Carolina.

In this video, Phillip Barker says:

“Forty years. We’ve been in dairy for 40 years. Not everybody wants to be big, big, big . . . We tried to sell into school systems, but we couldn’t because of the way the system is locked in.”

The “system” Barker refers to is the institutional food system dominated by three giant corporations—Aramark, Compass Group and Sodexo—which locks out independent farmers like the Barkers in favor of exclusive relationships with Big Food companies like Tyson (the No.1 water polluter in the U.S.), Cargill (recently dubbed the worst company in the world) and Coca-Cola.

And of course, whether it’s here in the states like North Carolina, or anywhere else in the world, farmers of color are the ones hit first and worst by the destructive business practices of Big Ag and Big Food.

Watch the Real Meals Campaign video

Read ‘Real Meals, Not Dirty Deals: A National Coalition Calls for Food Justice’

TAKE ACTION: Join the Real Meals Campaign

OrganicEye

 

Who owns the organic label? We all do.

Sure, we have laws governing organic certification, and certifiers who are responsible for making sure producers adhere to those regulations.

But as we’ve reported in the past, sometimes “the fraudulent few” give organic a bad name.

That’s where OrganicEye, a new project of Beyond Pesticides, comes in.

OrganicEye, a watchdog group led by organic industry veterans Mark Kastel, Jay Feldman and Terry Shistar, plans to keep a close eye on all things organic.

They’re counting on consumers to help.

Learn more about OrganicEye

Send your tips to OrganicEye

Follow OrganicEye on Facebook

Essential Reading

 

Fake Meat Is Junk Food

Google Becomes Evil

Guess Which Candidates Support the Farmers Bill of Rights?

Milk? Sugar? Microplastics? Some Tea Bags Found to Shed Billions of Particles

Uncovering How Microbes in the Soil Influence Our Health and Our Food

Quiz: Veggie Burger or Dog Food?

Beauty Company Must Pay FTC $1.76M for Falsely Labeling Products as Organic and Vegan — How Not to Get Duped