The new Farm Bill will determine how an estimated $1.5 trillion will be spent on food and farming over the next decade.

Most Farm Bill money subsidizes massive monocultures of over-fertilized, pesticide-drenched genetically engineered grains for factory farmed animal feed, the sweeteners and oils used in processed food, and ethanol.

What about the family farmers growing healthy fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains, and pasture-raising animals?

Now’s the time to let Congress know there’s a mass movement of farmers and foodies who aren’t going to tolerate a business-as-usual approach to the Farm Bill.

Please contact your Congresspeople today to ask them to support the most innovative Farm Bill proposals, such as:

• The Farmland for Farmers Act (S. 2583) to protect vulnerable cash-strapped farmers and stop land grabbing speculative investors like billionaire Bill Gates from gobbling up all the farmland and leasing it out to corporate cronies.
• The Fair Credit for Farmers Act (S. 2668) to improve Farm Service Agency lending services to strengthen farmer-borrower rights, help to prevent predatory and discriminatory lending practices, and to be easier to access, fair and transparent.
• The Climate Stewardship Act to support regenerative organic agriculture practices on more than 100 million acres of farmland by providing tens of billions of dollars of supplemental funding for USDA working lands conservation programs, with new funding dedicated to stewardship practices such as rotational grazing and cover crops.
• The Opt for Health with SNAP (OH SNAP), Close the Fruit and Vegetable Gap Act of 2023 to scale up the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program that funds programs that give SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) users access to more fruits and vegetables, especially through farmers’ market matching and produce prescription programs.
• The Strengthening Local Processing Act (S.354 and H.R.945) to build more resilient regional food systems by increasing livestock processing options for local livestock and poultry producers and helping consumers access locally raised meat & poultry.
• The Local Farms and Food Act (S.1205 and H.R. 2723) to increase access to the suite of Local Agriculture Market Programs.

TAKE ACTION: For better food, demand a better Farm Bill!

Support organic-regenerative farmers! You can find farms around the world that are working toward a regenerative future here, Regenerative Farm Map

Kaare Melby, Finnskogen Farm and Organic Consumers Association, writes:

Want to boost your immune system, increase the nutrient content in your food, improve your mental health and detox your body? Fermented vegetables are for you!

Fermentation is the process that occurs when the natural bacteria in a vegetable break down the food’s complex elements into more digestible forms. When fermentation occurs, vegetables become easier to digest, allowing your body to work less, while reaping more benefits. And those benefits include higher levels of available nutrients, and live cultures of pro-biotic bacteria (kind of like the good stuff in yogurt). These pro-biotic bacteria can improve your digestion, boost your immune system, improve your mental health, and detox your body.

Worried that fermenting is risky? No need! Fermented veggies are actually safer than raw vegetables, because the fermentation process actually kills off any unwanted or dangerous bacteria that may exist on the food prior to fermentation. According to the USDA, there has “never been a single case of food poisoning reported from fermented vegetables.”

Fermented foods have been around for eons. Fermentation is an ancient art that pre-dates writing and agriculture.  It’s often considered to be the practice that first ushered our ancient relatives from the natural world, into a culturally driven world. In fact, the word ‘culture’ is another word for fermentation. Sandor Katz, who has written several books on the subject, calls it “a health regimen, a gourmet art, a multicultural adventure, a form of activism, and a spiritual path, all rolled into one.”

And the good news is that it’s a simple process that even the most novice cook can accomplish.

Here’s how to get started: Unlocking the True Potential of Vegetables

Winona LaDuke, Forum News Service.

Manoominikewag, 

“The wild rice harvest has begun in northern Minnesota. Canoes strapped to every imaginable vehicle cruise the roads, and the lakes resound with the sounds of a tradition that is a thousand years old.

There is a great joy in this harvest: It is a link to ancestors, and a breath of fresh air on wild-rice-full lakes, mist rising, and a seemingly endless sea of rice. And a way to make a living with the natural world, as opposed to exploiting it. 
That’s good for the soul.

This is the only place in the world where this plant grows — twice the protein of white rice, “astonishing effects on lowering cholesterol,” researchers would say, and all you must do is take care of the water. That’s an amazing gift. This gift has come to Akiing. It must be protected.

Unlike the boom-bust economies of mining, logging and oil, manoomin is an economy that is the perfect example of sustainability. A thousand years of harvesting on the same lake.

Native and non-Native people are all a part of this economy, tribal members producing most of the manoomin for the markets and processors, Native and non-Native finishing the rice for markets and eating. Parching wild rice is an art, and it’s not dying, it’s flourishing.



Read why this is “food for the belly and the soul. It is the past, and it is the future.”

Trevor Swoverland writes in the blog Decolonizing Heathenry:

“This past summer I had another experience that I can only describe as life-changing to the degree that I will always remember it as a time I became someone I had never been before. I learned how to harvest and process manoomin/wild rice. For a couple of weekends, I was close to the land and the water, myself, and my brother, as we glided gently through the stalks and harvested rice that will feed our families for the next year. I carved my bawa’iganaakoon/knockers out of cedar that grows near my home and we put down asemaa/tobacco and thanked the land and the water and the spirits for the gift spread out for miles ahead of us on the water. For the first time, the immense gravity of the need to protect the land and the water hit me, and my connection to the land and water that freely gave this beautiful and plentiful gift to sustain my family was clearer than I have ever experienced.

Boozhoo Anishinaabeg.

My name is Trevor Swoverland. I grew up in northern Wisconsin and I currently live in northeastern Minnesota. My people arrived here from the Highlands of Scotland, the southwestern part of Ireland, and near the Black Forest in Germany. I have written this to you because I am in your debt, and I need to acknowledge that.

I grew up in a place where many lessons shared by the Anishinaabeg with their European neighbors were enthusiastically put to use but without awareness of the origin of those lessons or any awareness that they allowed our own ancestors to survive. I grew up making ziinzibaakwad/maple sugar every spring and catching the namebin/white sucker, the ginoozhe/northern pike, the ogaa/walleye, and the agwadaashi/sunfish for food. We harvested the miin/blueberry, miskomin/raspberry, and the odatagaagomin/blackberry each summer.”



Read about how Anishinaabeg elders inspired Trevor to learn about his own peoples’ traditions and practices and more

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola:

* Vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) is found in green leafy plants and is best known for the role it plays in blood clotting. Vitamin K2 (menaquinones) comes in several forms, the most common of which are MK-4, found in animal foods, and MK-7, found in fermented foods. Vitamin K2 plays important roles in bone and cardiovascular health

* Research has found that people with the highest intakes of both types of vitamin K have significantly lower risks of atherosclerosis-related heart disease. Those with the highest intakes of vitamin K1 had a 21% lower risk of being hospitalized with atherosclerosis-related heart disease and those with the highest intakes of vitamin K2 had a 14% lower risk. Those with high vitamin K2 intake also had a 34% lower risk of peripheral artery disease

* One of the primary ways in which vitamin K2 protects your cardiovascular health is by activating matrix Gla protein (MGP), which is a potent inhibitor of arterial calcification. Vitamin K2 can have a direct blood pressure lowering effect in some individuals

* Low vitamin K status also raises the risk of frailty, impaired mobility and disability in elderly individuals

* Statin drugs can deplete your body of vitamin K2 by inhibiting MK-4 synthesis. As a consequence, statins may contribute not only to age-related frailty but also insulin resistance, because MK-4 synthesis requires the same enzymes that synthesize cholesterol.

Read more about Vitamin K

“But the food system is a life support system and should be based on the principles of living systems, not on the perceived effi­ciency of the industrial model. Linear thinking and linear processes are fundamentally at odds with the cycles of nature and, ultimately, nature still rules” . – The Global Eating Disorder, by Gunnar Rundgren.

Around the world lands that could once sustain entire communities are now depleted by chemicals and suffering under extended droughts. People who once knew how to grow nutrient-dense crops, from seeds that had evolved to suit natural soil and weather patterns, now subsist on inferior processed foods—when they can afford to buy them.

Here in the U.S., we are up against some of the worst yet most powerful industrial agriculture corporations in the world. Exposing their failures and their unquenchable thirst for profits, at any cost, is a daunting, yet crucial undertaking.

We view this work, at home and abroad (through our sister organization, Regeneration International) as so much more than a job. We see it as an honor, and as an investment in the future.

But to carry on our work, we need your help. We’re counting on you to keep this movement strong.

You have built a movement that knows the insanity of poisoning our soil, air, water and food . . . as well as the insanity of thinking that by allowing this dangerous form of “agriculture” to go on unabated, we won’t poison ourselves.

Please consider making a donation today. Thank you!

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

Support Citizens Regeneration Lobby, OCA’s 501(c)(4) lobbying arm (not tax-deductible)

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

Click here for more ways to support our work

Authors Wood NI, Stone TA, Siler M, Goldstein M, and Albin JL report in Dove Press:

“It is clear that one of the biggest root causes of this pandemic of chronic disease is our food environment. Ultra-processed foods laden with salt, oil, and sugar are ubiquitous, from the supermarket to the hospital cafeteria, comprising 73% of the United States’ food supply. And while an estimated 12.8% of Americans live in low-income, low-access areas called “food deserts”, where grocery stores are absent and affordable and nutritious food is limited, ultra-processed foods are available everywhere. In so-called “food swamps”, fast food chains and convenience stores pack streets, and chronic disease is the norm.

Notably, the geography of these food deserts and swamps reflect systemic inequities, including race and other social determinants of health. Grocery stores and supermarkets are reluctant to establish locations in the areas that need them most, often citing crime statistics and low incomes. Fast food chains and ultra-processed foods, in contrast, exist abundantly in underserved areas and target minoritized populations with their marketing messages. These structural barriers to achieving a nourishing dietary pattern increase disparities and perpetuate inequities.

Doctors, being no match for the devolving food environment around them, have been ineffective in addressing our nation’s increasing burden of chronic disease. While patients tend to look to their physicians for dietary advice, doctors are notoriously poorly trained in nutrition. Some have even argued that this poorly trained physician workforce is a structural contributor to the increasing prevalence of diet-related disease in America. Given that poor quality diet is one of the biggest risk factors for chronic disease and represents the leading cause of mortality in the United States, this is unacceptable.”

Learn more: Physician-Chef-Dietitian Partnerships for Evidence-Based Dietary Approaches to Tackling Chronic Disease: The Case for Culinary Medicine in Teaching Kitchens

By Dale Buss, IFT

“Cultivated meat is on its way to a major tipping point: the culmination of decades of development and the beginning of a vast potential market. Venture capitalists, governments, and tech moguls have poured billions of dollars into more than 100 startups whose collective goal is to replicate animal flesh in laboratories and bioreactors and give it the characteristics—and prices—of natural meat. Advocates believe they’ll also reduce the impact of animal agriculture on Earth’s climate.

Will cultivated (aka cell-cultured or cell-based) meat be held back perpetually by the major challenges it still faces in triumphing over the consumption experience, production costs, carbon footprint, and economic and social roles of actual meat—teasing revolutionary possibilities but coming up short of initial promises much like its predecessor, plant-based meat?

The new industry’s environmental narrative hasn’t gone unchallenged. Advocates say that a mature cultivated meat industry will provide improvement of up to 45% in energy efficiency compared with livestock production, according to Abbott. But a recent study by the University of California, Davis, questioned this basic assertion. After conducting a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of animal cell–based meat, the researchers concluded that “current production methods” lead to a greater global warming potential than beef production because making cultivated meat in bioreactors is more resource intensive. While warming caused by methane from livestock emissions ceases after a few decades, carbon emissions from the manufacture of cultivated meat would persist.”

Read about the cultivated meat debate and more

By University of Kansas

LAWRENCE —” Many of us know all too well the addictive nature of a big portion of food in the United States — most call it “junk food.” In fact, this kind of salty, sweet and high-fat fare makes up the lion’s share of what’s marketed to Americans. 68% of the American food supply is “hyperpalatable.”

Researchers employ a more scholarly term for food items featuring purposely tempting combinations of salts, fats and sugars: They’re “hyperpalatable.”

Now, an investigator at the University of Kansas has conducted research showing food brands owned by tobacco companies — which invested heavily into the U.S. food industry in the 1980s — appear to have “selectively disseminated hyperpalatable foods” to American consumers.

The question about their intent —we can’t really say from this data,” Fazzino said. “But what we can say is there’s evidence to indicate tobacco companies were consistently involved with owning and developing hyperpalatable foods during the time that they were leading our food system. Their involvement was selective in nature and different from the companies that didn’t have a parent tobacco-company ownership.”

Learn more about why 68% of the American food supply is hyperpalatable.

British Academy of Sound Therapy reports:

“When was the last time you listened to music? Today, yesterday, right now? Most people hear or actively listen to music every day and as humans we tend to change our playlists based on our mood. Music psychologists have proven time and time again, that music can have an effect on our health. So with that in mind, wouldn’t it be great if we could prescribe music to help with certain mood states?

We discovered that you only need 9 minutes of music to feed the soul and make you feel uplifted. The type of music which worked best had a driving rhythm, fast tempo and happy lyrical content.

Our test subjects reported that they became happier, had more energy and felt satisfied with life, it gave them control & most laughed more. This had a knock on effect of them being more positive towards others.

Listening to music for sadness caused our listeners to feel a sense of relief, be less overwhelmed, feel more stable and less likely to be triggered by things that reminded them of the issue. Releasing sadness is an important part of our wellbeing, so give yourself time to process it, put on some sad songs for 13 minutes and then get back onto the happy stuff!”

Read how small amounts of time can make a big difference to your wellbeing.

Tips for Harvesting and Preserving: Reaping the Harvest

Canada Needs to Keep Genetically Engineered Animals Out of the Wild, Group Says

How Bill Gates and Agribusiness Giants are Throttling Small Farmers in Africa and the Global South

The Secrets of Homeopathy Uncovered: Beyond Placebo Effect

State Department Refuses to Address How Much USAID Money Went to Wuhan Institute of Virology

“Dark chocolate contains magnesium, manganese, copper, zinc and phosphorus, all of which build bones.”

Cut, Poison, Burn — Is Radiation Treatment on the Way Out?

Calling for National Moratoriums on Deploying Technologies to Slow Global Warming by Dimming the Impact of the Sun

How to Make the Homemade Glass Cleaner for Windows, Mirrors, and More

NASA Satellites Reveal Restoration Power of Beavers

Three Widely Used Pesticides Driving Hundreds of Endangered Species Toward Extinction, According to EPA

U.S. Announces $1.13 Billion in Grants for Tree Planting Projects