Organic Bytes #195: GMO Vaccines, Obama’s Biotech Friends, and More…
Friday, October 16th, 2009This week from the Organic Consumers Association:
Quote of the Week
World Food Day - Organic Is the Answer to Food Security
“Organic agriculture puts the needs of rural people and the sustainable use of natural resources at the centre of the farming system. Locally adapted technologies create employment opportunities and income. Low external inputs minimize risk of indebtedness and intoxication of the environment. It increases harvests through practices that favor the optimization of biological processes and local resources over expensive, toxic and climate damaging agro-chemicals…in response to a frequently asked question: Yes, the world can be fed by the worldwide adoption of Organic agriculture. The slightly lower yields of Organic agriculture in favorable, temperate zones are compensated with approximately 10-20% higher yields in difficult environments such as arid areas.”
-International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements World Food Day, October 12, 2009
- Quote of the Week: World Food Day - Organic Is the Answer to Food Security
- Alert of the Week: Get Genetically Engineered Vaccines Out of Organic!
- Victory of the Week: Kucinich Secures Funding for Organic Farming Research
- Alert Update of the Week: Obama’s Biotech & Chemically Dependent Friends
- Movie of the Week: Meet the Farmer TV
- Book of the Week: The Raw Milk Revolution
- Organic News of the Week: MOOMilk Is Local and Organic
- Little Bytes: Go Locavore and Cool the World
- Planting Peace and Grassroots Netroots News
Read the full newsletter on their website.
Alert Update of the Week
In last week’s issue of Organic Bytes, the OCA had a story entitled “Internet Myth of the Week: Congress To Pass Bill That Will Outlaw Organic Farming?” The article focused on our stance on a new controversial bill in congress: HR875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. There’s been a lot of hype circulating the internet about the possible ramifications of the bill, and the OCA felt it was necessary to weigh in on the issue. Linn Cohen-Cole, the most vocal opponent of HR 875, and the person who initially shared her concerns about the bill with the OCA, responded to our article in Organic Bytes last week with deep concerns. We’ve posted her main points in our web forum for our readers to discuss.
It is a new year, we have a new administration, and the time is now to rein in genetically engineered foods and crops once and for all. Recent news and scientific research has underscored the urgent need to take action. For example, the USDA recently
Dannon (or Danone), the French-based multinational that owns Activa and the popular organic brand Stonyfield Farm, has 
President Obama’s new stimulus package is now signed into law. Here’s how it affects the green-minded home owner:1) New incentives and tax credits are now available for households for energy conservation and alternative energy. Homeowners investing in energy-saving insulation, replacement windows, duct seals, or high-efficiency heating and cooling systems can now receive a tax credit worth 30 percent of the upgrade cost (maximum credit value: $1,500). The previous tax credit was 10 percent of an upgrade cost, up to a maximum of $500.2) If you have been thinking about switching to sustainable energy, now is the time. Solar panels, geothermal heat pumps, and windmills also qualify for a 30 percent tax credit. For example, a $24,000 investment to make a home solar-powered would generate a federal tax credit worth $7,200. Previously, the cap was $2,000 for geothermal and solar; $4,000 for wind. Add state and utility credits to this and consumers will see significant discounts in these purchases.
This new program looks at the links between eating local and the costs of not doing so. Explore the business of small family farms, and the health benefits derived from eating organic, not to mention the economic benefits to the community from supporting local farms. We’ve posted two of these half-hour programs to our website for your viewing. Watch how one family starts up their own small farming operation from scratch. In the second episode, watch how this group of people fulfills Obama’s request to U.S. citizens to begin volunteering one day per week when they start getting involved helping out at a local sustainable farm.
Alexis Baden-Mayer from OCA’s Washington, DC, office attended the 2009 BioFach World Organic Trade Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, February 19-22. In her first report back from the expo, she says, “I learned that by eating organic food and composting our waste, we can turn back global climate change!”
This week, OCA’s Alexis Baden-Mayer is in LaCrosse, WI at the U.S. National Organic Action Plan summit where a grassroots group of organic producers and consumers discussed the creation of a coordinated plan articulating a shared vision, set objectives and benchmarks for measuring organic agriculture’s social and environmental benefits, and proposals for the future growth of U.S. organic food and agriculture for the next decade and beyond. Countries all over the world have developed and implemented national organic action plans with clear targets, benchmarks, and protocols to facilitate public accountability of agricultural policies. The U.S. National Organic Action Plan builds on this experience, but it is driven by a non-governmental group of grassroots participants.
Thousands of you have been active in OCA’s Web Forum, but did you know it also contains a section where folks, like you, are setting up their own blogs. Just go to the 
1) 
Last week’s Organic Bytes featured an 
This short 7 minute video will give you a brief overview of USDA’s Big Brother National Animal Identification System and why it should be stopped.
Although more than 70% of the non-organic food in American supermarkets contains genetically engineered ingredients, massive opposition to GMO crops in Europe has basically kept them off the market (except for imported animal feed). According to the majority the EU, biotech crops pose unacceptable risks to human health and the environment– despite industry, U.S. Government, and many trade officials’ insistence that they are perfectly safe. This week, France’s Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo announced that his country, along with several other European nations, would be renewing its ban on all genetically engineered (GE) crops, including Monsanto’s GE corn (MON 810), which is the only biotech crop allowed for human consumption in the EU. According to Borloo, “The basis of the safeguard clause, which tackles open-field cultivation of the Monsanto 810 maize, is on risks considered as severe for the environment…”
According to a recent (December 2008) global summary report from the Worldwatch Institute:1) The U.S. leads the world, by far, in genetically engineered crop production and consumption.
Moving way beyond OCA’s ongoing campaign to press the Obama Administration and industry to drop “business as usual” and green the economy–before it’s too late–Orlov reminds us, with brilliant historical analysis and humor, that it probably is too late, and we’d better start comparing “best practices” for collapsing societies, to guarantee our collective survival in the coming catastrophic times.
