U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, has reintroduced a package of bills geared towards reforming the country’s agriculture sector. One of these bills, the Farm System Reform Act, would mean the end of factory farming and more grassfed meat.

Want to stop factory farming and have more grassfed meat? Congress could do it, they just need to:

* Untangle the wicked problem of factory farming by getting to its root: the power imbalance between the companies that control the meat industry and the family farmers who do their bidding.

* Make the Big Four meatpacking companies liable for the waste, pollution and adverse health impacts of their factory farms.

* Restore mandatory and meaningful country of origin labeling to protect American beef and pork farmers from unfair competition from overseas, while expanding this protection to dairy farmers.

Life would be a lot better if we had more grassfed meat.

The American Grassfed Association lists the reasons grassfed meat is the healthy choice for people, communities, animals and the planet:

* Grassfed and pasture-based farming restores natural ecosystems and wildlife habitat, reduces reliance on petrochemicals, improves the soil with organic matter, and reduces greenhouse gasses, especially C02.

* Research shows that grassfed meat is lean, contains a high percentage of good fats – Omega 3s and CLA — and beneficial antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

* Small family farms provide jobs and strong economies in rural communities and create sustainable businesses for succeeding generations.

* Cattle, goats, sheep, and bison evolved to eat grass. Feeding them a diet of cereal grains creates an acidic environment in their digestive systems, and can lead to disease and the need for treatment with antibiotics.

This is the meat people want to eat. Sixty-two percent of Americans say they would prefer to eat grassfed meat.

But it’s not the meat U.S. farm policy is delivering to consumers.

The Farm Bill subsidizes corn-fed factory farms and does little to support ranchers and farmers who graze their animals from start to finish.

Every ruminant animal in America spends some of its life on grass, but approximately 95 percent of the cattle in the US are still finished or fattened on grain for the last 25 to 30 percent of their lives.

The biggest obstacle to farmers and ranchers raising 100 percent grassfed beef is the processing bottleneck caused by the stranglehold the big-four meatpackers have over the industry.

Although this bill is a far cry from giving farmers and our communities a path towards organic and regenerative farming, it is important to make the four giant meat monopolies responsible for the environmental destruction caused by factory farms. By consolidating the responsibility for the polluting and inhumane practices to include the corporations as well as the farmers.

This provision will give regulatory agencies the ability to assign culpability for the damage that has been done and curtail the degenerative practices happening now.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Pass the Farm System Reform Act!

READ MORE: Farm Bill Priority #1: Stop Factory Farming! More Grassfed Meat!

Why are we letting a handful of “Big Meat” corporations destroy our health and communities? Together, we can build a better food system.

Watch this video to learn about the 13 reasons to Boycott Big Meat

Downland this PDF of  the 13 reasons to Boycott Big Meat and share this information with your friends and families!

Need help finding organic regenerative locally produced food? We’ve created a regenerative farm map! Just plug in your zip code, and find a farm near you.

Carey Gillam reports in UnSpun:

“A Mexican standoff with the United States turned into a Mexican smack-down this month with the release of Mexico’s formal rebuttal to US efforts to overturn limits Mexico has ordered on the use of genetically modified (GM) corn and the weed killing chemical glyphosate.

In a 189-page report filed with a panel of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Mexico laid out in stark terms why it has ordered that GM corn not be used for tortillas and dough that people eat and why it has ordered its farmers to stop using glyphosate by 2024.

‘Mexico has legitimate concerns about the safety and innocuousness of genetically modified corn… and its indissoluble relationship with its technological package that includes glyphosate,’ the government’s report states. Mexico cites the ‘use of dangerous pesticides’ as a factor causing ‘serious health effects.’

There is ‘clear scientific evidence of the of the harmful effects of direct consumption of GM corn grain in corn flour, dough, tortilla and related products,” Mexico states. More evidence is needed, Mexico says, to determine “whether and to what extent, such risks are transmitted to food products further downstream…’’

Read about the evidence of risk Mexico cites

An analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola:

“* Out of the estimated 48 million cases of foodborne illness that occur every year in the U.S., up to 20% may be linked to food prepared at home

* In a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, about 48% of the spice containers were contaminated

* Cutting boards and trash can lids were the No. 2 and No. 3 most-contaminated objects, while the handles of sink faucets turned out to be least-contaminated

* In another study conducted in 10 U.S. kitchens, 67% of sponges tested positive for fecal coliforms, while 33% contained E. coli

* Handwashing, even for five to 8.99 seconds, significantly reduces contamination risk

Out of the estimated 48 million cases of foodborne illness that occur every year in the U.S., up to 20% may be linked to food prepared at home. This means food you cook right in your own kitchen has the potential to make you sick, and it’s possible to transfer those disease-causing germs onto other surfaces nearby.

While you may be aware of the risks of a dirty sponge used one too many times — or even how your kitchen sink could serve as a reservoir of bacteria — when’s the last time you cleaned your spice jars?”

Learn more: What’s the Most Germ-Ridden Object in Your Kitchen? It’s Not the Sponge

Report by ANH-USA:

“Powerful forces are trying to shift our food system away from the soil-based farming systems and towards genetically engineered, lab-grown food. We can’t let them succeed.

THE TOPLINE

* Bored Cow, a cow and animal free whey-containing, cultured milk, is one of a growing number of foods being produced through synthetic biology and ‘precision fermentation’—the health risks of which are largely unknown.

* We’re told products like Bored Cow are fine—even desirable—because they’re biologically the same as their natural counterparts without the toll on the environment purportedly caused by livestock and dairy farming.

* Yet the evidence indicates that these products are far from biologically equivalent, but regulators don’t seem to care.

Got Milk GE-yeast-fermented-whey-protein drink?”

Read why the marketing hype behind Bored Cow starts falling apart

Read Not So Precise Fermentation: Lab Finds 92 Unknown Compounds in Synthetic Biology Milk

Where’d the beef come from?

Most grass-fed beef labeled “Product of U.S.A.” is actually imported from overseas.

But you wouldn’t know that, thanks to the power meatpackers like Brazil’s JBS and China’s Smithfield have over the U.S. government.

Things are starting to change, thanks to the 13,798 of you who took action!

Starting in 2026, the VOLUNTARY “Product of USA” label may only be affixed to meat from animals that were born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the United States of America.

Still, we don’t have MANDATORY country-of-origin labeling. Imported beef should be labeled in the grocery store the same way it’s declared to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Now that the “Product of the U.S.A” fraud is being taken care of, let’s make country-of-origin labeling mandatory, so we always know where our meat is coming from.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress you want MANDATORY country-of-origin meat labeling!

Max Graham writes for Yes! Magazine:

“Trees and edible plants are being planted at churches, schools, street corners, and empty lots across the country to provide free shade and food to all.

Below the red-tile roofs of the Catalina Foothills, an affluent area on the north end of Tucson, Arizona, lies a blanket of desert green: spiky cacti, sword-shaped yucca leaves, and the spindly limbs of palo verde and mesquite trees. Head south into the city, and the vegetation thins. Trees are especially scarce on the south side of town, where shops, schools, and housing complexes sprawl across a land encrusted in concrete.

On hot summer days, you don’t just see but feel the difference. Tucson’s shadeless neighborhoods, which are predominantly low income and Latino, soak up the heat. They swelter at summer temperatures that eclipse the city average by 8 degrees Fahrenheit and the Catalina Foothills by 12 degrees. That disparity can be deadly in a city that experienced 40 straight days above 100 degrees last year—heat that’s sure to get worse with climate change.

The good news is there’s a simple way to cool things down: plant trees. ‘You’re easily 10 degrees cooler stepping under the shade of a tree,’ said Brad Lancaster, an urban forester in Tucson. ‘It’s dramatically cooler.’” 



Read more about this exciting initiative

Jeffrey D. Sachs writes in Common Dreams:

“A US-funded laboratory origin of Covid-19 would certainly constitute the most significant case of governmental gross negligence in history. The people of the world deserve transparency and factual answers on vital questions.

The US government (USG) funded and supported a program of dangerous laboratory research that may have resulted in the creation and accidental laboratory release of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the outbreak, the USG lied in order to cover up its possible role. The US Government should correct the lies, find the facts, and make amends with the rest of the world.

A group of intrepid truth-seekers—journalists, scientists, whistleblowers—have uncovered a vast amount of information pointing to the likely laboratory origin of SARS-CoV-2. Most important has been the intrepid work of the The Intercept and US Right to Know (USRTK), especially investigative reporter Emily Kopp at USRTK.”



Read more to learn the facts that are know as of today

Tom Perkins writes for The Guardian:

“New legal action could put an end to the practice of spreading toxic sewage sludge on US cropland as a cheap alternative to fertilizer, and force America to rethink how it disposes of its industrial and human waste.

A notice of intent to sue federal regulators charges they have failed to address dangerous levels of PFAS “forever chemicals” known to be in virtually all sludge.

The action comes as sludge has contaminated farmland across the country, sickening farmers, killing livestock, polluting drinking water, contaminating meat sold to the public, tainting crops and destroying farmers’ livelihoods.

The practice “doesn’t pass the straight face test”, said Kyla Bennett, policy director for the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) nonprofit, which filed the notice.

“EPA has known for years that there is PFAS in biosolids but they are sitting on their hands, and I can think of no better ways to contaminate America than PFAS in pesticides and PFAS-laden biosolids,” she said. “We’re going to get the EPA to start regulating this shit, literally.”

Read more about the mix of human and industrial waste that is a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process

Max Goldberg writes for the Organic Insider:

“When the Real Organic Project (ROP) launched in 2018, small organic farmers across the country saw it as their best — and only — hope to save the movement that they created.

After years of fruitless appeals to the National Organic Standards Board to have the rules enforced, no longer could these pioneers sit by and witness both their own financial demise and the weakening of industry standards, with the USDA turning a blind eye to organic factory animal farms and continuing to allow hydroponics in organic, a growing method that clearly violates section 6513 of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990.

Just the other day, ROP took a gigantic step forward to accomplishing its goal by signing a groundbreaking partnership with Germany’s Naturland, an entity that certifies over 140,000 organic farms around the world.

The Real Organic Project is an add-on label that requires USDA organic certification as a baseline and then prohibits things such as organic factory farms, hydroponics and split organic farms (part of the farm being organic, part of the farm being conventional/not in transition). What makes ROP really stand out is that its executive, standards and advisory boards are a who’s who in the history of organic farming and rulemaking in the U.S.

Read more about this dynamic joint venture

Who is Naturland?

Much of OCA’s work is focused on educating consumers and engaging them in the battle to boycott Big Meat, GMOs, and junk foods and help regenerate our food, farming, and land-use practices. But of course this ongoing campaign for organic and regenerative foods is also a battle to protect our health.

Never has that mission been more urgent than now. We all know by now how valuable a healthy immune system is—and how a polluted environment and a highly processed, pesticide-contaminated industrial diet compromises our health and leaves us vulnerable to chronic disease.

Our job would be easier if we could focus exclusively on food and agriculture. But unfortunately, the corporations that benefit from corrupting the food system, polluting our waterways and degrading our soil, also corrupt our political system.

As long as food and agriculture policy is written by Big Food and Big Ag, our food, our environment—and our health—will suffer. As long as gene engineers, bioweapons scientists, unelected medical czars, Silicon Valley billionaires, and Big Pharma bureaucrats feel free to lie and terrify the public into submission, participatory democracy faces a mortal threat.

Help us keep the battle going!

Please consider making a donation to the OCA today.

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

Kathy Kelly reports:

“Now, in the occupied Gaza Strip, as weapons dealers benefit from increasing military shipments to Israel, Palestinians have resorted to eating mixtures of grass and animal feed. The past five months of Israeli siege, bombing, and displacement have killed more than 31,000—mostly women and children—but a process of famine long underway is clearly about to expand that number exponentially, particularly among children.

Human Rights Watch says the Israeli government is starving civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza. Aiding and abetting this war crime, the United States has approved 100 military sales to Israel over the past five months. U.S. bullets, bombs, and guns have helped keep crucially needed aid from reaching millions of Palestinians. The bombs have buried or destroyed much of the food supplies which could have mitigated this horror, and they have forced vast populations to flee attacks and huddle in the city that is Israel’s latest target: Rafah. The United States continues providing the muscle behind a starvation genocide.

On March 11, eight U.S. Senators signed a letter to President Joe Biden insisting that ongoing weapons shipments violate U.S. laws forbidding military aid to regimes that are obstructing U.S. humanitarian aid.

Twenty-five prominent humanitarian and human rights organizations delivered a letter to the President echoing the Senators’ message.”


Read more about why It’s time to acknowledge the futility of war and call for a collective home to be shared by Muslims, Jews, Christians, Bahais, Druze, and many others in a secular democratic state encompassing Israel and Palestine

Nylah Burton writes for Andscape:

“After the opening of Minneapolis Native American restaurant Owamni, Sean Sherman, an Oglala Lakota chef, pivoted to a new level of visibility, winning the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in the United States for 2022. Owamni embraces the ideals of the Indigenous Food (Re)volution that Sherman has spread for years through his brand The Sioux Chef, but this time in a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Almost a year after Owamni opened, I became intrigued by a different direction Sherman was taking with his romantic and business partner, Black Minneapolis food writer Mecca Bos — coalition building with different groups of people of color, focusing on the connection between Black and Indigenous food.

In 2022, Bos and Sherman started a new nonprofit organization called the BIPOC Foodways Alliance, highlighting multicultural histories of food traditions through dinners and community building to dismantle white supremacy. In May 2023, the duo led a tasting menu at Platform, the new James Beard Foundation chef-in-residence program, serving dishes such as jollof rice with mango and scotch bonnet pepper and smoked goat mushroom egusi with fufu and dried collards.”



Read more about how food  can change the world and bring the importance of decolonization to the forefront