First Steps

It’s the hardest part of anything worth doing: taking that first step.

But for anyone who’s paying attention to what’s going on in the world—the intensification of global poverty and food insecurity, deteriorating public health, species extinction, rising sea levels and extreme weather events, refugees fleeing drought and famine, escalating geopolitical tensions—inaction isn’t an option.

It’s time to step up. It’s time to embrace hope. And our best hope is regeneration.

The paradigm shift from degenerative food, farming and land-use practices toward regenerative practices—those that regenerate soil, biodiversity, health, local economies and climate stability—is arguably the most critical transformation occurring throughout the world today.

But that transformation won’t happen fast enough, unless we all step up. And the best place to take that first step is in our own communities.

In “First Steps: Build a Regeneration Movement in Your Local Community,” OCA’s Ronnie Cummins offers suggestions for how to build a local core group to advance the regeneration movement.

Read Ronnie’s essay

 

Haiti Being forced to accept Toxic GMO Seeds from MONSANTO

Monsanto is a POP-CON agent.

Monsanto needs to be dissolved immediately.

Haiti must refuse these seeds, and those who are funding Her reconstruction must refuse to accept the $4million dollar ‘Smallpox laced Blankets’ in the form of ‘HYBRID’ (what a lie) seeds from this dastardly and ANTI-LIFE company called MONSANTO.

Rumor Update of the Week-HR 875

The following note is typical of the calls and e-mails Organic Consumers Association has been receiving this week:famer-jail

“Do you know anything about HR 875, a ‘food safety’ bill that was written by Monsanto, Cargill and ADM? I’ve heard a few individual activists scream about this as the death of farmers markets, CSAs and local organic food, yet have seen no alerts from any of the reliable groups, including OCA. Any idea what’s up with this?”

For the record, Organic Consumers Association does have an alert out on HR875. As OCA points out in our Action Alert, we cannot support a “food Safety” bill unless it provides protection or exemptions for organic and farm-to-consumer producers and cracks down on the real corporate criminals who are tampering with and polluting our nation’s food supply— such as Monsanto.

Having said that, OCA supports aspects of HR875 that call for mandatory recalls of tainted food, increased scrutiny of large slaughterhouses and food manufacturers, and hefty fines against companies that send poisonous food to market. The now discredited ultra-libertarian notion that companies or the “market” will regulate themselves is not only ludicrous, but dangerous, whether we are talking about the banking system or the food and farming sector.

Of course, Monsanto and large corporate agribusiness are out to destroy traditional farming. Unfortunately, while many people have been distracted by HR 875, the biotech companies have been hard at work pushing their agenda: Monsanto’s gene-altered (so-called) drought-resistant corn, Epitopix’s E. coli vaccine, and the ban on rBGH-free labeling that Monsanto’s successor Eli Lilly is trying to push through the Kansas legislature. We need to keep working together to work towards positive alternatives, such as organic agriculture and the green economy.

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