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Food and Agriculture

Monsanto Will Go On Trial In International Court

December 4, 2015 Staff, www.organicconsumers.org ,
By Staff of Organic Consumers Association - PARIS – The Organic Consumers Association (OCA), IFOAM International Organics, Navdanya, Regeneration International (RI), and Millions Against Monsanto, joined by dozens of global food, farming and environmental justice groups announced today that they will put Monsanto MON (NYSE), a US-based transnational corporation, on trial for crimes against nature and humanity, and ecocide, in The Hague, Netherlands, next year on World Food Day, October 16, 2016. The announcement was made at a press conference held in conjunction with the COP21 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, November 30 – December 11, in Paris.

Project Censored 2015: Top Ten News Stories The Media Ignored

November 29, 2015 Tim Redmond, www.cascadiaweekly.com , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Tim Redmond for Cascadia Weekly. As Project Censored staffers Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth note, 90 percent of U.S. news media—the traditional outlets that employ full-time reporters—are controlled by six corporations. “The corporate media hardly represent the mainstream,” the staffers wrote in the current edition’s introduction. “By contrast, the independent journalists that Project Censored has celebrated since its inception are now understood as vital components of what experts have identified as the newly developing ‘networked fourth estate.’”

Chief Coca-Cola Scientist Quits Amid Controversy Of Obesity Research

November 28, 2015 Roisin Davis, www.truthdig.com ,
By Roisin Davis for Truth Dig - Coca-Cola’s chief scientist and health officer, Rhona Applebaum, has left the company after helping set up a nonprofit research group tasked with downplaying the role of sugary drinks in the obesity epidemic. In August, The New York Times reported that the company had financial ties to the research group—the Global Energy Balance Network, which is made up of university researchers, according to Ars Technica. Coca-Cola provided the group with $1.5 million in research funding, of which $1 million was designated to the University of Colorado, where group President James O. Hill is a professor.

Sign The Pact For The Earth – Regeneration International

November 28, 2015 Ronnie Cummins, www.organicconsumers.org , ,
By Ronnie Cummins for Organic Consumers Association. Paris, France - For far too long, the big agribusiness corporations have been allowed to pollute and poison with impunity. Their chemical-intensive, degenerative farming methods have moved 50-75 percent of the original carbon content of the soils into our atmosphere and our oceans. At the same time, factoring in transportation, packaging and deforestation, industrial agriculture has contributed an estimated 25-40 percent of the excess CO2 to the atmosphere. We believe the solution to the climate crisis is obvious. We must replace our toxic, degenerative agricultural system with regenerative organic agriculture and land management practices.

WTO Says Tuna Labels Can’t Tell Consumers ‘Dolphin-Safe

November 25, 2015 David Dayen, www.theintercept.com ,
By David Dayen for The Intercept - International trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) need to be carefully examined piece by piece because they can take precedence over a country’s own laws. Case in point: the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday ruled that dolphin-safe tuna labeling rules — required by U.S. law, in an effort to protect intelligent mammals from slaughter — violate the rights of Mexican fishers. As a result, the U.S. will have to either alter the law or face sanctions from Mexico.

Trade Laws Undo Local Progress On Food Systems

November 25, 2015 Sharon Treat, www.iatp.org ,
By Sharon Treat for IATP - So much of trade policy involves searching through legal texts and leaked documents for clues about what’s coming next. Careful examination of the recently released text for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is already revealing new risks for our food system. Those findings also tell us what to watch out for in the other big pending trade deal—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union. Unlike earlier trade agreements focused primarily on reducing tariffs to open up markets, these agreements are likely to include extensive provisions intended to reduce or eliminate state and federal regulations viewed as “trade irritants.”

Newsletter: Movement Mobilizes To Stop The TPP

November 22, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. Now that the TPP is public, opposition is rising as we see the TPPis actually worse than expected. In an interview with Jaisal Noor of The Real News, Margaret Flowers explains how the TPP was a victory for the corporations on issue after issue, including reducing wages and worker rights, undermining environmental protection, making healthcare more expensive, undermining Internet freedom and more. Kevin Zeese in a conversation with Chris Hedges talks about how the TPP is the greatest corporate power grab in US history and how people have to rise up to stop the race to the bottom that will affect every aspect of our lives. A few days after the text was released, we highlighted ten shocking realities of the TPP. The final text showed that critics were right about what it would contain. In fact, the TPP is a step backward on many important issues.

We Are The Solution: African Women Organize Land & Seed Sovereignty

November 7, 2015 Simone Adler and Beverly Bell, www.otherworldsarepossible.org ,
By Simone Adler and Beverly Bell for Another World, In the agricultural sphere, development rests in the hands of the women, and their role is being proven repeatedly. We Are the Solution raises awareness and consciousness, key to changing the mentality of the people, on the importance of women in family farming and agricultural production. Women are the primary workers of the land and the majority of the workforce in agriculture, involved in every step of agricultural production: in the fields, 70% of African agriculture is done by women; in conservation, women are the ones making efforts to conserve the native seeds; in animal husbandry; in food processing; in marketing; in selling food at the local level; and as consumers.

Victory: First US Food Company Agrees To Remove Neonicotinoids

November 2, 2015
By Michael Pollan for Center for Food Safety - WASHINGTON, DC (October 22, 2015)—Center for Food Safety (CFS) today congratulated Pop Weaver, the second largest popcorn supplier in the country, for taking a bold step towards removing bee-toxic insecticides from their popcorn supply. Just this month, CFS launched a campaign urging the company to phase out the use of neonicotinoid seed coatings. In an announcement yesterday on their website and Facebook page, Pop Weaver committed to “removing 50% of its neonicotinoids usage in 2016, 75% in 2017, with a long-term commitment of further reducing usage by working with agricultural universities and those companies supplying neonicotinoids to the seed industry.”

GMO Bar Codes, The Newest Gimmick To Keep You In The Dark

November 2, 2015 Staff, www.organicconsumers.org ,
By Staff of Organic Consumers Association - “The [Oct. 21, 2015] Senate Agriculture hearing reaffirmed the broad consensus among scientists and regulators that GMOs are safe . . . We were pleased to hear Senator Stabenow’s [D-Mich.] personal commitment to work to develop a bipartisan bill that can pass the Senate by the end of this year…”. - Pamela Bailey, Grocery Manufacturers Association, in an October 21, 2015 press release. In the ever-complicated debate over labeling of genetically modified foods, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack offers this idea: Use your smartphone. Vilsack told members of Congress on Wednesday that consumers could just use their phones to scan special barcodes or other symbols on food packages in the grocery store.

From ‘Sustainable’ To ‘Regenerative’—The Future Of Food

October 29, 2015 André Leu and Ronnie Cummins, www.organicconsumers.org ,
By André Leu and Ronnie Cummins for Organic Consumers Association - This week (October 26, 2015), the paywalled site PoliticoPro reported that the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture wants “farmers and agricultural interests to come up with a single definition of sustainability in order to avoid confusing the public with various meanings of the term in food and production methods.” We agree with Secretary Tom Vilsack that the word “sustainability” is meaningless to consumers and the public. It’s overused, misused and it has been shamelessly co-opted by corporations for the purpose of greenwashing.

Urban Farming Of Acta Non Verba Invests in the Future

October 27, 2015 Sarah Small, www.foodtank.com , ,
By Sarah Small for Food Tank - The Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project is investing in the health and future of their community. Educators use the farm as their classroom to engage the underserved parts of the Oakland, California, community with fresh produce and to provide low-income residents with the knowledge and skills to grow and sell their own organic food. Their programs provide the seeds to build healthy habits and sustainable lives starting at an early age. Food Tank had the opportunity to speak with Amani Ali, Office Manager at Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project.

Europe – Big Problem For Biotech Industry

October 22, 2015 Jim Goodman, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
By Jim Goodman for Popular Resistance. Wonewoc, WI - The US farm press is a segment of the media that most people never see. The glossy magazines tell farmers everything they need to know in order to be successful, efficient and progressive--- that is, in constant growth mode. Most have no subscription fees, there are plenty of advertisers to cover costs. Editorial content is clearly tailored to keeping advertisers happy. By supporting the trend to bigger farms, they also support the sale of bigger and more expensive machinery. Labor management articles clue farmers in on how to keep the growing Hispanic agricultural labor force productive. Editorials endorsing Genetically Modified (GM) seed, the associated pesticides and their inherent ability to feed the world are frequent and insistent.

Newsletter – A People United Will Never Be Defeated

October 18, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. This week, hundreds of thousands rallied in Washington, DC for the Million Man March, more information became available regarding US war crimes, we celebrated the second annual People's Climate March and World Food Day and we are preparing a mass mobilization to protest the TransPacific Partnership. Popular Resistance is collaborating with a growing number of organizations and people to protest the TransPacific Partnership and other international treaties that will prevent us from achieving success in our struggles for racial, economic and environmental justice. We are planning a mass mobilization in Washington, DC this November to show the large and diverse opposition to agreements that force us to sacrifice the health and safety of our communities for corporate profits. There will be two days of action preparation followed by three full days of creative events. You are invited to participate in any way that you can.

World Food Day: Big Ag Doesn’t Serve Us

October 17, 2015 Vandana Shiva, www.thequint.com
By Vandana Shiva for The Quint - During the last half-century, agriculture and food systems lost their way, in the darkness and fog created by corporations that made chemicals for warfare, through myths and paid propaganda - that poisons and synthetic chemicals are necessary to feed the world. For the industry it was a matter of extending their sources of profits long after the war was over. For the planet and people, the costs have been tragically high. 75 per cent of the earth’s biodiversity, soils, water have been destroyed, the climate has been destabilised, farmers have been uprooted, and instead of nourishing us, industrial food has become the biggest cause of disease and ill health.
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