Beyond Pesticides:

“A scientific review in World’s Poultry Science Journal highlights the adverse health effects on avian species from exposure to the widely used weed killer glyphosate (Roundupᵀᴹ) throughout the process of poultry production. The herbicide enters the poultry production system through residues in genetically engineered feed. An earlier article in Scientific Reports concludes that glyphosate’s (GLP) ‘widespread application on feed crops leaves residues in the feed,’ while residues are ‘found to be common in conventional eggs acquired from grocery stores.’

In analyzing the biochemical, toxicological, and ecological impacts of glyphosate on poultry, particularly chickens, the authors find a wide body of evidence linking glyphosate and its metabolite (breakdown product) aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) to debilitating hazards that extend beyond mortality.

These sublethal effects include disruption of the gut microbiome and gastrointestinal disease; decreased productivity and diminished reproductive health; hepatic and kidney toxicity; growth and developmental impacts, including teratogenicity and embryotoxicity; endocrine disruption and oxidative stress; and impaired immune functions.”

Read how Glyphosate-based herbicide (GBH) formulations contain not only glyphosate but other inert (nondisclosed) ingredients, such as adjuvants that increase toxicity

TAKE ACTION: Make Your State the First to Ban Monsanto’s Roundup Weedkiller!

WATCH: Does Roundup Cause Cancer? They Don’t Want You to Know, featuring Carey Gillam

On October 16, World Food Day, Regeneration International in collaboration with the Organic Consumers Association will put on its 5th annual People’s Food Summit. This totally FREE event unites farmers, researchers, activists, and communities from every continent for a 24-hour virtual journey into the heart of regenerative agriculture.

This year’s theme, Sowing Peace, Harvesting Solidarity: The Power of Farmers and Food Systems in Regenerating Our Planet, will spotlight farmer-led solutions, indigenous knowledge, and innovative research driving food system transformation worldwide. Through regional panels, cross-continental dialogues, and participatory research showcases, we’ll explore how soil, water, biodiversity, and community resilience can be restored, one field, one farm, and one network at a time. From climate-resilient grazing in drylands to agroforestry in temperate and tropical regions, from urban gardens to vast rangelands, the People’s Food Summit celebrates small-scale producers who grow 70% of the world’s food, and charts a regenerative path forward for all.

This October 16: Join us. Learn. Share. Regenerate.

Save the date and learn more about the People’s Food Summit

Mexico is making meaningful strides to protect biodiversity and public health. Earlier this year, constitutional reforms safeguarded native maize. And just this week—on September 3—a Presidential Decree banned the import, sale, and use of 35 pesticides deemed highly toxic to both people and pollinators.

These chemicals—already banned in many countries and covered by international agreements Mexico has signed—include aldicarb, carbofuran, endosulfan, and DDT. Their removal is a major victory, as they damage the nervous system, disrupt DNA and hormones, pollute water, and devastate bees, pollinators, and birds.

Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegué has stressed a vision of “cleaner, more sustainable, and safer agriculture for producers, farmworkers, and consumers.” While dangerous insecticides are still in widespread use, this week’s decree marks a turning point and a foundation for broader reform.

Civil society and farming communities are calling for the next step: banning additional toxic chemicals such as chlorpyrifos, paraquat, glyphosate, and more, while replacing them with safe, effective agroecological alternatives.

Momentum is growing. With this week’s historic action and the pressure of grassroots voices.

Read how Mexico is moving closer to a future where farming flourishes in harmony with nature—delivering healthier food systems and a safer environment for generations to come

Elissa Blake, Neuroscience News:

“Have you ever felt like music keeps you company? Does music truly offer companionship or is it simply a figure of speech? A new study led by Dr Steffen A. Herff, cognitive neuroscientist at Sydney, Music, Mind and Body Lab at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, has shown for the first time empirically that music can indeed keep you company by facilitating imagined social interactions.  

‘Music appears to act as a catalyst for social imagination,’ Dr Herff said. ‘Even without words or voices, it can trigger thoughts of connection, warmth and companionship. Whether we’re celebrating or grieving, music is something we can turn to,’ Dr Herff said. ‘This study shows that beyond shaping our emotions, music can also shape our thoughts and imagination, highlighting that music can indeed be good company.’

Dr Herff said the findings offer new insight into how music can shape higher order cognitive processes like imagination. The team hopes that the finding may help develop low-cost, easily accessible ways of systematically using music to alleviate feelings of loneliness, especially in times of isolation such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and complement existing recreational, artistic and professional usages of imagination.”

Read more about this fascinating study from the University of Sydney

Food Print Podcast:

“In the last few decades, there’s been a lot of research on the health of people. Why are people getting less healthy? And as part of that discussion, there’s been a lot of research into the nutrient density of food and trying to determine, why do we start to see declining levels of nutrients in food?

And so for the same amount of calories, why are people getting, actually, less than we did say 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago from food? And there seems to be an empty calorie problem where we’ve got the calories, we’re producing the food with artificial fertilizers, with synthetic pesticides, we’re producing it, but the question is, what are we doing on a microscopic level that is compromising that food?

We try to put in fertilizer as the artificial way of adding nutrients to the soil. The problem with that is the more fertilizer you put in does not amount to the more nutrition you get out of that food. It doesn’t work that way.” —Dr. Urvashi Rangan


Read how the answer really lies in not using chemistry to address all these issues, but rather using nature and the power of nature and its ecosystem and to cultivate that in order to take care of these problems

Download the transcript to this brilliant podcast featuring Preeti Simran Sethi, Ricardo Salvador, Ryan Nebeker, Urvashi Rangan,and Rowen White or listen here

The truth about glyphosate is scary. This widely used weed killer is contaminating our food system and harming animals and humans.

We at Organic Consumers Association are fighting back. We’re exposing the truth about glyphosate and promoting organic, regenerative agricultural practices and have been since 1998.

Glyphosate’s impact is devastating. The stakes for our planetary health are high. It can disrupt gut health, cause reproductive issues, and weaken immune systems in animals and people. Glyphosate residues consistently show up in eggs and feed crops, putting human health at risk. To make matters worse, glyphosate-based herbicides contain hidden ingredients that make them even more toxic.

By donating to OCA, you’ll be supporting our efforts to educate consumers, advocate for policy change, and empower people to make healthier choices.

Every donation counts, and with your help, we can create a healthier, safer more organic and regenerative food system, that will ensure a better world for us all and future generations.

Please donate today to help us fight against toxic pesticides and herbicides that are putting our soils, lakes, rivers and health at extraordinary risk.

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

Have you considered making a grant request from your Donor-Advised Fund?

Ben Martynoga writes for The Guardian:

“Nick Padwick hunches over a microscope, examining a sample of compost he has made on his Norfolk farm. ‘Look at that bad boy! That’s a bacteria-feeding nematode!’ he exclaims. ‘Stunning fungal hyphae.’

Padwick, the farm manager at Wild Ken Hill since 2018, is part of a growing movement of farmers taking a deep interest in the microscopic life forms upon which their livelihoods depend. Under this approach to regenerative farming, nurturing diverse soil communities – from bacteria and fungi to microscopic animals and worms – is seen as an essential prerequisite for growing healthy foods with minimal or no use of agrochemicals or soil-damaging machinery.

For Padwick, 59, this marks a dramatic shift after nearly four decades in conventional agriculture, the very systems that experts now blame for devastating soils worldwide. ‘I really have been a part of it,’ he admits. ‘I cringe every time I think of it.’ All this has implications for not just food security but biodiversity, water quality, flood mitigation, climate resilience and greenhouse gas emissions.”



Read why the stakes could not be higher

Learn more about Regenerative Agriculture

Stacy Malkan, Real Clear Health:

“When chemical giant Syngenta hired biologist Tyrone Hayes to study its widely used herbicide atrazine, the company didn’t like the results. Hayes found that atrazine, one of the most common weed killers in America, disrupted hormones in frogs and altered their sexual development.

Instead of facing the science, Syngenta went into product-defense mode: pressuring Hayes not to publish, and when he did, launching a full-scale effort to discredit him. Internal company documents later revealed a coordinated campaign to smear Hayes’s reputation and bury his findings.

This story is typical of how the world’s largest chemical corporations act when confronted with evidence their products cause harm. Today, just four multinationals dominate the global pesticide market – Bayer, Syngenta, BASF, and Corteva. All of them have long histories of suppressing inconvenient science, manipulating regulators, and attacking critics to weaken regulation and keep their profits flowing. Meanwhile, American children are exposed to many toxic chemicals that are not allowed in other countries.”



Learn more about how it’s more than just atrazine. American children are exposed to dozens of pesticides and chemicals that Europe and other countries have deemed too dangerous.

TAKE ACTION: Ban Roundup, Don’t Bail Out Bayer!

Center for Food Safety:

“Legislative language moving through Congress, intended to prevent farmers, consumers, and workers from holding pesticide manufacturers accountable for the harm caused by their toxic products, is being opposed by a broad coalition of farmers, beekeepers, consumers, environmentalists, and workers, with the release of a joint statement opposing a dramatic change in a fundamental legal right. 

The document, Protect the Right of Farmers, Consumers, and Workers to Hold Pesticide Companies Accountable for Their Harmful Products, is joined by 51 organizations, coalitions, businesses, and leaders representing tens of thousands of members and communities. The legislation is hidden in a provision of the Appropriations bill (Section 453) that has passed through the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, which is headed for a vote in the full House, followed by the U.S. Senate.

The Appropriations provision is being pushed by chemical companies in the wake of extraordinary jury verdicts against Bayer/Monsanto, amounting to billions of dollars of compensatory and punitive damages, for ‘failure-to-warn’ liability claims involving glyphosate (Roundup??) weed killer products. The pesticide has been classified as cancer causing by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization (WHO).”



Read more

TAKE ACTION: Ban Roundup, Don’t Bail Out Bayer!

Randi Gollin writes for Martha Stewart:

“The adage ‘everything old is new again’ seems tailor-made for the plant known as yaupon. What is yaupon—and why is it creating a stir in the beverage world?  For one thing, it makes a delightful cup of tea that’s boosted by a gentle buzz. What’s more, it’s homegrown and has a fascinating past. We connected with yaupon tea specialists to learn more about this unique drink and its current renaissance.

Yaupon, also called yaupon holly (botanical name, Ilex vomitoria—more on that below), is a drought-tolerant species of evergreen shrub in the holly family, known for its bright red berries and leathery leaves.

Yaupon tea, made from the dried leaves of this perennial, is generally regarded as an herbal tea or tisane.

Yaupon may be unfamiliar to many tea drinkers, but this local, sustainable source of caffeine dates back at least 1,000 years. Along with being used for ceremonies and rituals, Yaupon was consumed by Indigenous peoples as a daily beverage.”

Read how it has a storied past and was often referred to as “the beloved tree”

West Nipissing Will Ask Province to Halt Glyphosate Spraying of Forest

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Report Shows 3M, Hid Knowledge of Toxic Chemicals Seeping Into Blood From Common Household Products: ‘This Changes Everything’

Cloning: Significant Ethical Controversy

Maine Farmers Band Together To Make up for Federal Funding Cuts

How To Make Your Kids’ School Lunch More Eco-Friendly

Umatilla Tribes, Oregon Secure $22M for First Co-Managed Wildlife Area

1.2 Million Immigrants Gone From U.S. Labor Force Under Trump, Preliminary Data Shows

Judge Blocks Flights Sending Hundreds of Children Back to Guatemala

Reluctance To Reach Out to Old Friends Is a Common Experience, but Reconnecting Can Pay Off

Worried About Getting a CT Scan? Here’s What to Ask Your Doctor

Draft MAHA Report Favors Research, Not Rules

Number of Black-Owned Farms Has Decreased Drastically Since 1900

This Fall, Get Involved in One of These Campus Sustainability Initiatives

11 Healthy Snacks to Help Support Gut Health