Another Class of Pesticides Is Destroying Brains

Study: GMOs Lacking in Protein and Nutrients

Supreme Court Lets Youths’ Case Demanding Climate Action Proceed

We Need a Complete Change in Agriculture to Feed the Planet

Nutrition Research Is Deeply Biased by Food Companies. A New Book Explains Why.

Some Breakfast Cereals Contain More Glyphosate than Vitamin D or B12

Bugs Are Full of Our Drugs and They Could Be Getting Other Critters Hooked, Too

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.

Some of our staff just returned from South Africa and Zimbabwe, where we witnessed firsthand the toll industrial agriculture and global warming has exacted on the regions’ lands and communities.

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.

Our experience in these African countries served as a stark reminder of what happens when we try to “improve” on nature. Our chemical fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides, our GMO “frankenfood” experiments, all undermine nature’s superior systems.

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.

Thank you for sharing our vision, and for continuing to invest in it.

Make a tax-deductible donation to the Organic Consumers Association

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

Click here for more ways to support our work

It started out as an organic restaurant in the heart of Mexico, San Miguel de Allende. Today, Vía Orgánica has grown into a restaurant, grocery store, farmers market and teaching farm.

Best of all, Vía Orgánica represents a viable economic model for supporting organic regenerative farmers in central Mexico.

In this interview with Marjory Wildcraft of The GROW Network, OCA International Director Ronnie Cummins explains how Vía Orgánica, a project of OCA, came into being and how it has inspired a new generation of farmers to relearn indigenous and traditional ways of farming that are suited to Mexico’s high desert region.

Today, Vía Orgánica has 70 employees, including those at the restaurant, farm and market, and purchased products from about 250 small producers.

What’s next for Vía Orgánica?

“We’re happy now that we’ve created a model, but the next step is to see this duplicated all over the country,” Cummins said. “We can do this. It takes awhile, but even in a developing country, you can create an enterprise that will last and will be successful.”

Watch ‘Vía Orgánica: Business Models that Support Regenerative Agriculture’

By now, most everyone knows that the pesticides used by industrial farming operations pollute the air, linger in the soil and turn up on many foods—including Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Now, a new study suggests agricultural pesticides could also be in your home.

A team of researchers from Cornell University conducted pesticide analyses as part of a larger effort to study pollutants in homes and childcare facilities. Scientists sampled 350 rural homes in six New York state counties, looking for more than a dozen potentially toxic pesticides commonly used in conventional farming operations.

According to their analysis, published in September in JSM Health Education & Primary Health Care, 100 percent of the homes tested contained agricultural pesticide residues.

Read ‘Pesticides Are in So Many Many Foods. Did You Know They May Also Be in Your Home?’

There are about 8,700 lawsuits pending against Monsanto, by people who allege that exposure to Roundup weedkiller is responsible for their cancer.

Most of the people behind these lawsuits have stories not unlike the one told by Dewayne Johnson, during his landmark jury trial which resulted in a unanimous decision against Monsanto.

Like Johnson, many of these people have non-Hodgkin lymphoma—or they have family members who have already died from the disease. They face long, grueling trials as they go up against the biotech behemoth.

To Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer (which acquired Monsanto last year for $63 billion), these people are just “nuisances” to be dealt with—while the company ramps up its Roundup propaganda campaign.

Read ‘Bayer CEO Says Roundup Weedkiller Cancer Victims Are ‘Nuisances’

TAKE ACTION: Tell the National School Boards Association: Get Monsanto’s Roundup out of schools!

Make a tax-deductible donation to OCA’s Millions Against Monsanto campaign