Pepsi is the largest food company in the United States, and the second-largest in the world, just behind Nestlé, which makes it the top purveyor of pesticide-drenched genetically engineered Frankenfoods.

Pepsi’s brands regularly rank among the foods with the highest amounts of the carcinogenic weed killer glyphosate, because they’re sprayed with Monsanto’s (now Bayer’s) Roundup.

Some ingredients are genetically engineered to be impervious to the Roundup that kills natural, unmodified plants: soy, corn, cotton, canola, sugar beets and alfalfa.

Others are non-GMO crops that have Roundup sprayed on them as a “dessicant” to dry them out prior to harvest: wheat, oats and beans.

According to the Environmental Working Group:

“EWG tests have found shockingly high levels of cancer-linked glyphosate in popular PepsiCo products like Quaker Oats and Sabra Hummus.

But PepsiCo continues to allow this dangerous chemical in their food. This is unacceptable. Consumers and parents shouldn’t have to worry about cancer-linked pesticides in food.”

Read more: EWG Tests of Hummus Find High Levels of Glyphosate Weedkiller

Like, share, and add your comments to our message to Pepsi on social media

Example:
PepsiCo: I’m avoiding your pesticide-drenched Frankenfoods. Of all the hummus brands, PepsiCo’s Sabra has the most glyphosate, because the garbanzo beans, even though they aren’t genetically engineered, are sprayed with a “desiccant,” Monsanto’s (now Bayer’s) carcinogenic Roundup weedkiller, to dry them out prior to harvest.

Make your own hummus using these Fair Trade and Organic ingredients:

Canaan Palestine Fair Trade Organic Olive Oil: Canaan works with over 1,000 artisan family farms spanning across 43 different villages where the ancient olive orchards are over 3,000 years old. It gets its name from the Land of Canaan, home of olives and birthplace of the first agriculture on Earth.

East Jerusalem Goods’ ”El Najem” Tahini from Palestinians and Israelis working together to prove that peace is possible when we join together around the table to share a delicious meal. Palestinian chef Kamel Hashalmon makes this Fair Trade Organic tahini distributed by Israelis Michal Palti, a former Haaretz food correspondent, and Lilach Rubin, a culinary expert and food researcher. 

Kalvash (chickpeas/garbanzo beans) from the Gila River Indian Reservation: Act in solidarity with people of another occupied territory by buying organic chickpeas from Ramona Farms, a Native American owned and operated company.

If you don’t grow your own garlic, check our Regenerative Farm Map and get it from a local farmer

By Bec Gregory:

“As we prepare for warmer weather and holidays in tropical climates, keeping biting bugs at bay is a top priority. Itchy insect bites aren’t just annoying. Some can even be deadly! And for those of us who live in places where mosquito and tick-borne diseases are common, effective protection is an absolute must.

And getting it right isn’t easy! Most commercial bug sprays are horrible to use, smell disgusting, and contain toxic ingredients. Others can leave an oily residue on the skin that bugs and dirt stick to. Gross! Not to mention the need to apply often throughout the day when you just wanna have fun!

But the necessity for insect repellents to safeguard against serious health conditions such as Lyme disease and West Nile virus is increasingly important. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), diseases spread by mosquito, flea and tick bites tripled from 2004 to 2016, with more than 640,000 cases of vector-borne diseases during that time. Yipes!

So, what can we do about it?”


Read about the dangers of DEET, and how for thousands of years, humans have taken advantage of the ability of plant material to repel insects, plus suggestions for some of the best natural insect repellent sprays that are proven to work without the downsides of conventional synthetic ingredients

Emily Mullin, WIRED:

“Biotech giant Bayer plans to distribute mustard greens that have been genetically altered to make them less bitter to grocery stores across the country.

Last year, startup Pairwise started selling the first food in the US made with Crispr technology: a new type of mustard greens with an adjusted flavor. But chances are, most consumers never got to sample them. The company introduced the greens to the food service industry—select restaurants, cafeterias, hotels, retirement centers, and caterers—in just a few cities. A single grocery store in New York City also stocked them.

Now, biotech giant Bayer has licensed the greens from Pairwise and plans to distribute them to grocery stores across the country. “We hope to have product reaching kitchen and dinner tables in the fall of this year,” says Anne Williams, head of protected crops in Bayer’s vegetable seeds division. She says Bayer is currently talking to farms and salad companies on how best to grow and package the greens.
”

Learn how Pairwise is turning its attention to developing pitless cherries, seedless blackberries and more

Source: Countercurrents By Colin Todhunter, Sustainable Pulse:

“On 19 April, the Philippine Supreme Court issued a cease-and-desist order on the commercial propagation of genetically modified (GM) Golden Rice and GM eggplant in the country, Countercurrents recently reported.

The Stop Golden Rice Network says that the court decision is a victory for farmers and consumers everywhere as the decision goes beyond Golden Rice and insecticidal eggplant and covers “any application for contained use, field testing, direct use as food or feed or processing, commercial propagation, and importation of GMOs.”

The court recognized that government agencies and other proponents of GM Golden Rice and GM eggplant “failed to submit proof of safety and compliance with all legal requirements.” The order remains indefinite until GMO proponents can fulfill all the mandated steps and provide concrete evidence that these GMOs are indeed safe.

A network of farmers, consumers and civil society organizations, Stop Golden Rice emphasizes the need to address hunger and malnutrition through securing small farmers’ control over resources such as seed, appropriate technologies, water and land.”



Read about this victory and the irreversible consequences GMOs can have on plant genetic resources

GMO foods and their companion pesticides and chemicals destroy the environment, pollute the water and air, kill bees and other pollinators, and poison our bodies, metastasizing the diet- and environmentally-related chronic diseases and damaged immune systems that now plague the majority of the population, including our children. The nation’s chronic disease epidemic, since GMOs and highly processed foods have dominated our diets, sets up 145 million Americans to become victims of cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes.

For almost 30 years, OCA and our predecessor organization, the Pure Food Campaign, have been educating consumers and farmers about the hazards of genetically engineered (GE) foods and crops, calling special attention to the fact that these “Frankenfoods” and crops are always accompanied by and contaminated with toxic pesticides and chemicals (such as Bayer/Monsanto’s Roundup/Glyphosate, and Syngenta/ChemChina’s neonicotinoids).



As we’ve said all along, the only real protection consumers have to defend themselves against hidden GMOs and their companion poisons is to buy foods labeled as “USDA Organic” (or in the case of animal products, those certified as grass-fed or pastured), to grow your own, or else to buy local and regional products from farmers and ranchers that you trust.

Please make a donation, if you can, to support our continuing work to move our food system to a just, healthy, real food, organic and regenerative way of eating and farming for all.

Make a tax-deductible donation to Organic Consumers Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Make a tax-deductible donation to Regeneration International, our international sister organization

Considering a gift from your IRA?

By Mike DiGirolamo & Rachel Donald, Mongabay:

“Putting a dollar amount on a single species, let alone entire ecosystems, is a controversial idea, but creating a tradable asset class based on that monetary value is even more problematic, experts say.

In 2023, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to establish a list of Natural Asset Companies (NACs) that would hold the rights to ecosystem services, which they valued at $5,000 trillion, essentially creating a new nature-based asset class. The SEC withdrew the application earlier this year following intense opposition from 25 Republican attorneys general.

On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Indigenous economist Rebecca Adamson argues this financialization of nature comes with perverse incentives and fails to recognize the intrinsic value contained in biodiversity and all the benefits it provides for humans. Instead, she suggests basing economies on principles contained in Indigenous economics.”

Listen here

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola:


“STORY-AT-A-GLANCE

* A bona fide superfood,  leaves are packed with essential amino acids and impressive amounts of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and natural plant compounds, which naturally translate to protection against toxins and disease

* Aside from food use and the nutritional and medicinal advantages, moringa leaves can also be used as a biofertilizer, and the seeds can act as a water purifier

* One company used moringa to start a nutritionally based company called Kuli Kuli, making bars, powder and other products from the leaves after discovering in the Peace Corps that the leaves helped increase flagging energy

* Examples of moringa’s nutritional benefits include chlorogenic acid, which research indicates may help balance blood sugar after meals, and quercetin, which may help lower your blood pressure”

Read about how Moringa is an important food source, plus the multiple uses for every part of the tree, including the seeds, leaves, flowers, fruit (pods), bark and roots

Alina Chan reports for The New York Times:

“Although how the pandemic started has been hotly debated, a growing volume of evidence — gleaned from public records released under the Freedom of Information Act, digital sleuthing through online databases, scientific papers analyzing the virus and its spread, and leaks from within the U.S. government — suggests that the pandemic most likely occurred because a virus escaped from a research lab in Wuhan, China. If so, it would be the most costly accident in the history of science.

Here’s what we now know:

*
The SARS-like virus that caused the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, the city where the world’s foremost research lab for SARS-like viruses is located.

* At the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a team of scientists had been hunting for SARS-like viruses for over a decade, led by Shi Zhengli.

* Their research showed that the viruses most similar to SARS‑CoV‑2, the virus that caused the pandemic, circulate in bats that live roughly 1,000 miles away from Wuhan. Scientists from Dr. Shi’s team traveled repeatedly to Yunnan province to collect these viruses and had expanded their search to Southeast Asia. Bats in other parts of China have not been found to carry viruses that are as closely related to SARS-CoV-2.”



Read the evidence and how it is undeniable that U.S. federal funding helped to build an unprecedented collection of SARS-like viruses at the Wuhan Institute

From Chelsea Green Publishing:

*2023 Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal Winner: Heroic Journeys

“All of us who care about the future of Planet Earth must be grateful to Vandana Shiva.”—Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace

“A powerful memoir published to coincide with Vandana Shiva’s 70th birthday.

Vandana Shiva has been described in many ways: the “Gandhi of Grain,” “a rock star” in the battle against GMOs, and “the most powerful voice” for people of the developing world. For over four decades she has vociferously advocated for diversity, indigenous knowledge, localization, and real democracy; she has been at the forefront of seed saving, food sovereignty, and connecting the dots between the destruction of nature, the polarization of societies, and indiscriminate corporate greed.

In Terra Viva, Dr. Shiva shares her most memorable campaigns, alongside some of the world’s most celebrated activists and environmentalists, all working toward a livable planet and healthier democracies. For the very first time, she also recounts the stories of her childhood in post-partition India—the influence of the Himalayan forests she roamed; her parents, who saw no difference in the education of boys and girls at a time when this was not the norm; and the Chipko movement, whose women were “the real custodians of biodiversity-related knowledge.” Throughout, Shiva’s pursuit of a unique intellectual path marrying quantum physics with science, technology, and environmental policy will captivate the reader.”

Order “Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements” by Dr. Vandana Shiva

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