'Jungle' Indeed

 

Welcome back to “The Jungle.” That’s how writer Kim Kelly ends the article she penned recently for The New Republic.

“The Jungle” refers to Upton Sinclair’s exposé-disguised-as novel, published in 1906, which revealed the atrocious conditions in U.S. slaughterhouses.

The book ultimately led to federal regulations (within four months of the novel’s publication) forcing the owners of meatpacking plants to improve the dangerous and disgusting working conditions endured by those unfortunate enough to work in the animal slaughter business.

“Welcome back” refers to the Trump administration’s success in turning back the clock, making conditions worse—for workers in corporate-owned slaughterhouses and for consumers who eat the meat processed there.

Kelly’s article is one of two recent news stories that shine a light on the darkest of industries—industrial meat—and reveal how our federal regulatory agencies continue to enable industrial meat producers to thrive in what Pulitzer Prize-winning Chris Hedges recently referred to as the “Age of Radical Evil.”

October 16 was World Food Day. So we thought it fitting to remind consumers why it’s critical to boycott industrially produced meat, and why we should never give up the battle to end factory farming, once and for all.

Read 'On World Food Day: Let's Boycott and Ban Factory Farms'

Smokin' Idea

 

Here’s an idea: Let’s keep the Pesticide Giants out of the cannabis industry—and keep healthy soil in.

The drug war isn’t over yet, but it’s not too soon to advocate for regenerative organic cannabis!

Black-market marijuana is synonymous with pesticide-heavy, resource-intensive indoor hydroponic production.

Now that many states have chosen to legalize cannabis for medical and recreational use, we have an opportunity to advocate for regenerative organic cannabis, grown in healthy soil and sunlight, without chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.

TAKE ACTION: Join our campaign for organic cannabis by signing this petition.

Who Knew?

 

When you buy certified organic processed meats (bacon, ham, salami, etc.) with the words “uncured” and “no nitrates” on the package, you can safely assume you’re avoiding cancer-causing substances, right?

Not if the meat you buy also contains non-organic celery powder produced with chemical nitrate fertilizer.

When members of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) convene in Pittsburgh this month, they’ll address several controversial issues, including this one: Should celery powder be allowed in certified organic processed meats?

Celery powder? Controversial?

Surely something so harmless as celery powder couldn’t have anything to do with the carcinogens found in processed meat from factory farms, could it?

It could. And it’s time the NOSB did something about it.

Read what OrganicEye has to say about it

SIGN THE PETITION: Get carcinogenic nitrosamines out of organic meat by banning celery powder!

We've Got Your Back.

 

Next week, as we have twice every year for the past couple decades, OCA will send a representative to the bi-annual National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting.

We’ll present tens of thousands of signatures from consumers demanding that the NOSB crack down on Big Fake Organic dairies that cheat the system.

We’ll present thousands of signatures from consumers telling the NOSB that any ingredient used to process meat that causes that meat to become carcinogenic should be banned from organic.

We’ll press for stronger, not weaker, organic standards.

We’ll argue that independent, authentic organic producers, motivated by fairness and a commitment to consumers and to being good stewards of the land, should write the rules for organic standards—not giant corporations, pressured by shareholders to increase stock values.

We take seriously our role as protector of organic standards. It’s an important piece of the work we do.

We wish we could bring all of you with us to Pittsburgh next week.

But we’ll settle for bringing your signatures, and your values and your spirit.

Your voices will be heard. We’ve got your back.

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

Blind Acceptance

 

Like millions of people, you’ve probably been trained by medical practitioners to accept a growing list of ailments as just “part of the aging process.”

Only a handful of those practitioners will tell you that many of the degenerative conditions you’ve come to accept as normal could in fact have as much to do with what you eat, as they have to do with how old you are.

When it comes to the health of your eyes, blindly following your doctor’s storyline about macular degeneration and aging could leave you, well, blind.

In this week’s video, Dr. Chris Knobbe, ophthalmologist and author of “Ancestral Dietary Strategy to Prevent and Treat Macular Degeneration,” talks about the link between the western diet and macular degeneration, a condition forecast to affect 196 million people by 2020.

Knobbe tells Dr. Mercola:

“Today, 20 percent of the world’s diet is wheat. In the U.S., 85 percent of that is refined, meaning, it’s nutrient-deficient, kind of like sugar in a lot of ways. If you advance to 2009, those four foods—sugar, refined white wheat flour, polyunsaturated vegetable oils and trans fats—make up 63 percent of the American diet. This is the recipe for disaster. This is what sits at the base of all of this metabolic disease, including macular degeneration.”

Will your doctor tell you that the best way to avoid going blind is to change the way you eat? Probably not, according to a new study from the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic.

Reporting this week on the Harvard study, the New Food Economy wrote:

Culturally and politically, we’re increasingly acknowledging that what we eat plays a major role in our health. Which is why it’s especially strange that healthcare providers know so little about it.

All the more reason to take control of your own health—starting with what you eat.

Watch ‘Using Diet to Treat Macular Degeneration’

Cow Flipping?

 

You’ve heard of cow tipping and house flipping. But how about cow flipping?

There are lots of organic dairies producing—with real integrity—authentic nutrient-dense organic milk, including raw milk.

But some “Big Organic” (as in, not really organic) dairies are taking advantage of a loophole in the Origin of Livestock Rule by “flipping” dairy cows in and out of organic production.

Cow flipping lets these organic imposters cut costs by among other things, feeding calves substances that are banned in organic—like “spray-dried bovine plasma” which is really just cow blood.

It’s time to close this loophole.

Cow flipping hurts consumers who think their “certified organic” milk is produced by dairy farmers who follow the rules. And it hurts the small dairy farmers whose prices are undercut in the market by factory farm-style dairies that cheat the system.

SIGN THE PETITION: Tell the National Organic Program: Don’t let 'Big Organic' dairies cheat family farmers and consumers.

Essential Reading

 

Water Poisoning Alerts Hidden from Public

The Age of Radical Evil

Child Labor in Your Chocolate? Check Our Chocolate Scorecard

Toxic PFAS Chemicals Found in Artificial Turf

Back to the Earth: When It Comes to After-Death Care and Burials, Green Is the New Black

Revealed: Google Made Large Contributions to Climate Change Deniers

Let Them Eat GM Cottonseed