Alert Update of the Week:
Another OCA rBGH Victory – Dannon Will Dump Bovine Growth Hormone
|
 Dannon (or Danone), the French-based multinational that owns Activa and the popular organic brand Stonyfield Farm, has announced it is committed to eliminating rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone) by the end of 2009. This controversial genetically engineered growth hormone was originally developed by Monsanto and is injected into cows to force them to produce more milk. Dannon joins a host of other companies, like Starbucks and Yoplait, that have also recently responded to your emails and pressure by removing rBGH from their products.We and our allies are making progress driving rBGH off the market and educating the public about the health and environmental hazards of genetically engineered foods, and the benefits of organics. Unfortunately, hazardous rBGH-tainted dairy products are still force-fed to our children and low-income consumers as part of the national school lunch program and federal nutrition programs such as Food Stamps and the WIC program. But you can change that. Tell Congress to mandate that school lunch and other taxpayer-funded federal nutrition programs purchase only rBGH-free milk and instead supply our children and low-income communities with certified “USDA Organic” milk.Learn more and take action |
Sustainability Tip of the Week:
Stimulus Package– How to Retrofit Your Home and Receive Big Tax Credits
|
 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.
3) New hybrid cars now qualify for tax credits worth anywhere from $2,500 to $7,500, while plug-in conversion kits for old hybrids, now generate tax credits worth 10 percent of the kit’s cost (maximum credit value: $4,000).
For questions about home energy conservation and renewable energy options, you can contact a contractor trained by the federal Home Performance with Energy Star program.
|
Web Videos of the Week:
“Meet the Farmer” TV
|
 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.Watch
|
OCA at BioFach, the World Organic Trade Fair
|
 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!”Read more
|
Share Your Organic Vision for a U.S. National Organic Action Plan
|
 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.Read more and share your vision for the National Organic Action Plan
|
Featured OCA Blog of the Week:
Thinking Globally
|
 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 forum and click on the “blogs” link on the top. We’ve been featuring many of your web forum postings in past issues of Organic Bytes, but we’d like to shift our focus to some of your thought provoking blogs, as well.Here’s a recent blog entry by “radicalmom”:“My thoughts regarding this whole planetary mess into which we have found ourselves are diverse and complicated…I have been lucky enough in my travels to be exposed to alternative ideas and have explored all forms of thought in relation to planetary actions and mind-set. My leanings are esoteric and have molded my philosophic approach to troubles and strife, be they local or global. A solution came to me in the form of less than ten words: Our “planetary issues are metaphysical”. Most will say it is the “least likely” answer. I say that it is the “most probable” answer…”
Read more and join in |
|
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
1) The Hidden Link Between Factory Farms, Toxic Chemicals and Human Illness:
1) 
The USDA has proposed a rule to require all farms and ranches where animals are raised to be registered in a federal database under the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) for existing disease control programs. The draft rule covers programs for cattle, sheep, goats, and swine. It also sets the stage for the entire NAIS program to be mandated for everyone, including anyone who owns even one livestock animal, for example, a single chicken or a horse.
The U.S. system of petroleum-based, biotech, and chemical-intensive agriculture produces an enormous amount of relatively inexpensive food. Of course, that’s ignoring the huge hidden costs to taxpayers and damage to public health, the environment, and climate stability (not to mention the routine exploitation of farmers and laborers). Our leaders in Washington are currently looking at making some major policy changes, so there’s no better time to let our elected public officials to create jobs in the food and farming sector that help, rather than undermine public health; that conserve and rejuvenate the environment; and that guarantee workers living wages, safe working conditions, and the right to organize. Energy-efficient, carbon-sequestering organic agriculture is the only system with the potential to turn back global warming, create millions of green jobs, and produce healthy, affordable food.
Yoplait, a leading brand of yoghurt, and the 19th largest dairy producer in the U.S., has announced, that as of August 2009, it will no longer purchase milk from dairies injecting their cows with Monsanto’s controversial genetically engineered synthetic hormone, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH). Yoplait’s rejection of rBGH-tainted milk comes in the wake of a consumer campaign organized by the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, the OCA, and dozens of allied public interest organizations. Yoplait’s action is amplified by a growing number of mainstream companies who have recently turned their backs on rBGH, including Starbucks, Caribou, Cabot cheese, and Subway. For over ten years, OCA and our allies have led the charge against rBGH and other genetically engineered foods and food ingredients. Although rBGH is not allowed on organic farms and is banned in most of the industrialized world because of its threats to both animal and human health, this cruel and dangerous drug is still injected into approximately 10% of U.S. dairy cows–to force them to produce more milk. With your help, OCA and its allies will continue our campaign until Monsanto’s rBGH is driven completely off the market.
The Organic Consumers Association put together this fun animated web video a few years ago, but most of the information is still relevant, other than the dude in the White House. Learn how to avoid getting “slammed” this Valentines with Fair Trade and organic chocolate and flowers.
We couldn’t change the Agriculture Secretary, but we haven’t given up the hope of changing agriculture policy. For a report on the impact of OCA’s Stop Vilsack campaign, which generated over 100,000 emails to Barack Obama and the Senate, and an introduction to OCA’s follow-up campaign, USDA Watch, please go 
In a new study published Monday in the scientific journal Environmental Health, mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup. The news is disturbing given that this ingredient is present in a large portion of processed American foods. According to David Wallinga, M.D., co-author of the study, “Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply.” A separate study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where high fructose corn syrup is the first or second highest labeled ingredient-including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s.
From 1800 up until the 1950s, U.S. Presidents utilized the yard surrounding the White House to produce a portion of their own food with vegetable gardens, fruit trees, livestock and greenhouses. For the past 50 years,a chemical and energy-intensive factory farm food system has displaced traditional organic practices, while the White House vegetable gardens have long since been buried beneath a chemically managed, perfectly manicured lawn. Enter 2009 and a new president who may consider bringing back the old tradition of the White House Victory Garden. Can the White House lawn become an organic symbol of America’s new future?
