"Hope in a book about the environmental challenges we face in the twenty-first century is an audacious thing to promise, so I’m pleased to report that Courtney White delivers on it." – Michael Pollan

The debate between "saving the environment" and extracting enough food and energy from nature in order to sustain a growing population has always been framed in terms of trade-offs.

Until now.

In his book, Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey through Carbon Country, Courtney White says there may just be a free lunch after all—by making the most of sunlight, grass and carbon to grow food, while also healing the land.

Grass, Soil, Hope reads like a travelogue, "a journey to the grassy frontiers of agriculture," according to Michael Pollan, who wrote the foreword. The book’s heroes are the farmers and scientists who are figuring out that, contrary to conventional wisdom, we can create significant amounts of new soil in the course of a single generation.

Read Pollan’s foreword to Grass, Soil, Hope

Go here order the book. Enter the code CGP35 to receive a 35-percent discount (good through Dec. 31, 2014).

ACTION ALERT

Hillary Clinton. Former senator and secretary of state. Mother. Grandmother-to-be. Potential frontrunner for the Democratic nominee for U.S. president in 2016.

And Monsanto cheerleader.

From back in the days when she worked for the Rose Law Firm, which represented Monsanto, to her ongoing cozy relationships with pro-GMO appointees Michael Taylor (Deputy Commissioner for Foods) and Tom Vilsack (Secretary of Agriculture), Clinton has always pandered to the pesticide and junk food manufacturers.

She hasn’t changed her tune—even though she’s on the wrong side of the 93 percent of Americans (future voters) who want mandatory GMO labeling laws.

Last month, Clinton told the pro-GMOers at the BIO International Convention that the public is "misinformed" on the safety of GMO foods. Monsanto just needs to put a more positive spin on the mounting scientific evidence against GMO crops and GMO-contaminated foods, and voilà! Consumers will no longer need to worry their pretty little heads.

It’s time to tell Hillary: No amount of "spin" will convince consumers that Monsanto’s toxic crops and food are good for public health and the environment.

And no candidate who cheerleads for Monsanto will get the vote of the millions of consumers who believe politicians should stop taking Monsanto’s money, and start protecting the public.

TAKE ACTION: Hillary Clinton: It’s time to dump Monsanto and support public health, and regenerative, organic agriculture!

Watch Hillary promote Monsanto (approximately 29 minutes in)

Read the press release

Already signed? Please share this petition with friends and family!

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

This week the biotech cheerleaders and their indentured servants on Capitol Hill held a two-hour hearing to talk about their biggest problem-you.

It seems you just don’t "get" them.

From Hillary Clinton to the Big Gun lobbyists on Capitol Hill, the storyline now is that what the biotech industry suffers from is just a "failure to communicate." Once they do a better job of "educating" you about the wonderfulness of their genetically engineered (pesticide-laden, nutritionally deficient, environmentally damaging) food products, you’ll embrace them with open arms.

In the meantime, they’ve got to stop those pesky mandatory GMO labeling laws.

For decades, Monsanto has been getting away with murder. But now that consumers know the truth, and scientists are exposing genetically engineered crops and food for the dangerous fraud that they are, the biotech industry is being forced to spend millions on a massive public relations campaign to win you over.

Sorry, Monsanto. The jig’s up.

The Gene and Junk Food Giants are desperate to prevent Oregon from passing the nation’s second mandatory GMO labeling law. They are pushing for a hearing as early as September on the "DARK" (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, a federal law to preempt state labeling laws.

Now, more than ever, we have to keep pushing back.

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 legislative efforts in Oregon, Vermont and other states)

NEW STUDY

Pregnant? Living near fields of crops sprayed with pesticides? You might want to move.

A study published last month in Environmental Health Perspectives shows that babies whose moms lived within a mile of crops treated with widely used pesticides were more likely to develop autism.

According to the research, mothers who lived less than one mile from fields treated with organophosphate pesticides during pregnancy were about 60 percent more likely to have autism than children whose mothers did not live close to treated fields. When women in the second trimester lived near fields treated with chlorpyrifos—the most commonly applied organophosphate pesticide—their children were 3.3 times more likely to have autism.

And still, the pesticide-makers would have us believe all cases of autism are caused by genetics?

Learn more

Read the study

VIDEO OF THE

WEEK

The number of children diagnosed with autism in the U.S. has risen alarmingly over the past 15 years. So has the use of glyphosate (Roundup) on genetically engineered corn and soy crops. Dr. Stephani Seneff, senior research scientist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explains why she thinks it’s no coincidence.

Watch the video

TRAVEL PROMO

Looking for something more interesting to do this Thanksgiving than watch football and eat too much? How about an in-person, behind-the-scenes look at Cuba’s organic revolution?

Join a group of passionate explorers and researchers, food production and policy professionals as they travel the cities and farms of Cuba, November 21-30. Be prepared to transform your vision of sustainable food chains and cooperatives, in a country with a long and colorful history of agricultural reform.

Details and sign up here.