“You must do the things you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Just weeks ago, two new reports warned that pesticides aren’t needed to “feed the world,” yet our insistence on using them kills hundreds of thousands of children worldwide. Ignoring that report, the EPA, under the new Trump administration, reversed a plan by previous administration that would have banned chlorpyrifos, a chemical known to be unsafe at any level—and also known to cause neurological damage in children.

The chlorpyrifos decision is just one in a series of disheartening decisions to come down the pike in the past few months. Decisions like the one by the USDA, to not test the food you eat for glyphosate residues. The decision by Trump to bless the Bayer-Monsanto merger. The escalation (by all sides) of the war in Syria. Attacks on the rights of women, immigrants, LGBT activists. 

The list goes on. Our rights are under siege.

We can complain with our fingertips, safely ensconced behind our electronic screens. Or we can do things we think we cannot do.

Reports are that millennials are signing up in droves to run for office.  One news report says that twice as many candidates signed up in the first 40 days of 2017 as in all of 2016. VoteRunLead reports that after the last federal election, 6,125 women signed up to run for office.

As part of our new #resist and #regenerate campaign, we will encourage people like you to get involved in local and state politics. To support good candidates—or run yourself. We’ll also enlist your help in consumer campaigns that will include direct action aimed at corporations that pollute our bodies and environment, and corrupt our government.

Time has run out for quiet lobbying of politicians whose loyalties lie with big corporate donors. It’s time to do the things we think we can’t—but know we must.

Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our GMO labeling legislative efforts)

Support OCA’s Regeneration International Project (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic, regenerative agriculture and climate change)