UNCHAIN
YOUR HEART: TAKE ACTION ON VALENTINES DAY
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Organic Consumers Association
has produced a one-minute satirical flash animation called: "SLAMMED,"
designed to get us all to think twice before we buy conventional
chocolates or flowers for our Valentine’s gifts.) Show your Valentine
you really care, not only about her or him, but also about organics
and Fair Trade. Behind the feel-good advertising façade
of Valentine’s Day, the global chocolate and cut-flower giants
are poisoning the Earth with toxic pesticides and exploiting farm
workers. Over 40 percent of the world’s chocolate comes from Africa’s,
Côte d’Ivoire, where the International Labor Organization
has reported widespread instances of child slavery. Meanwhile
dozens of toxic pesticides, including DDT, are sprayed on flowers
in major exporting countries such as Colombia and Ecuador, making
cut-flowers the most toxic crop in the world. To learn more, to
send a message to the chocolate and flower giants that you will
be boycotting their products, and to find out where you can find
Fair Trade & organic Valentine’s gifts, check out OCA’s "Unchain
Your Heart" page on our website: /old_articles/valentines/

The World Trade Organization (WTO), responding to intense pressure
from the Bush Administration and the biotech industry, has ruled
that the European Union’s (EU) moratorium on genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) from 1998-2004 was illegal. The moratorium was
put in place because of EU concerns on human safety, environmental
pollution, and inadequate testing, and has subsequently been officially
lifted. Canada and Argentina backed the U.S. in filing a complaint
with the WTO in 2003, alleging that the moratorium was a violation
of international trade laws. The Bush Administration has claimed
that the EU ban has hurt U.S. farmers who grow genetically engineered
crops, and that the EU should pay hundreds of millions of dollars
in penalties to the U.S. But market analysts point out that the
WTO ruling will not benefit the biotech industry, because EU food
manufacturers and supermarket chains, fearing a consumer backlash,
will continue to refuse to sell food products containing GMOs, no
matter what the WTO says. U.S. Trade officials have admitted that
the main impact of the WTO ruling will be to intimidate smaller
nations from banning GMOs. /old_articles/ge/ruling060208.cfm

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parody
by Michael Gibbs

Plans for a system that would require tagging or implanting all
farm animals with radio frequency devices and registering those
animals with a federal government tracking system have been delayed
until after 2009, the USDA announced last week. The National Animal
Identification System (NAIS) has been gaining support in the corporate
agribusiness world, supposedly as a method for sourcing the origins
of Mad Cow disease or possible terrorist biological attacks on the
nation’s livestock. Opponents point out the plan was drawn up by
corporate behemoths like Monsanto and would require every owner
of even a single animal to register their home with a national tracking
system, including Global Positing Coordinates (for satellite tracking)
and implant or tag every animal with a radio frequency device (RFID).
Large-scale livestock producers say NAIS would help them control
an outbreak of disease by allowing individual animals to be tracked
to their origins. Small-scale farmers say the registration fees,
RFID expenses and administrative bureaucracy of the system would
drive them out of business. The USDA announced a delay in the launch
of the program last week, based on disputes in the cattle industry
over who gets control of the overall database. The OCA is in the
process of building an online NAIS information and action center
to help citizens educate themselves and offer feedback to the USDA
on the NAIS issue.
/old_articles/ofgu/ID060202.cfm

• Members
  of the United Nations estimate that if the world took half of
  what it currently spends on bottled water ($100 billion annually)
  and invested it in water infrastructure and treatment, everyone
  in the world could have access to clean drinking water.
• But
  bottled water is cleaner, right? Actually, the U.S. EPA sets
  more stringent quality standards for tap water than the FDA
  does for bottled beverages, and roughly 40% of bottled water
  is actually just tap water.
• 1.5
  billion barrels of oil are consumed each year to produce the
  plastic for water bottles, enough to fuel 100,000 cars.
• According
  to the Container Recycling Institute, only 14 percent of plastic
  water bottles are recycled.
• A
  water bottle in a landfill or lying around as litter will take
  over 1,000 years to biodegrade.

/old_articles/foodsafety/Bottled020606.cfm

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A new
report from the Mental Health Foundation indicates that dietary
changes over the last fifty years have played a negative role in
human mental health. Industrial agriculture has introduced pesticides
and altered the body fat composition of animals due to the diets
they are now fed. As a result, the population’s intake of omega-3
fatty acids has decreased, and the consumption of omega-6 fatty
acids has increased. According to the study, this unequal intake,
combined with a lack of vitamins and minerals, is associated with
depression, concentration and memory problems. Dr Andrew McCulloch,
chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said, "We
are well aware of the effect of diet upon our physical health. But
we are only just beginning to understand how the brain as an organ
is influenced by the nutrients it derives from the foods we eat
and how diets have an impact on our mental health." /old_articles/school/diet060202.cfm

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A national food service distributor to more than 200 college and
corporate cafeterias across the U.S. has announced it will begin
to provide only cage-free eggs. Responding to a petition by students
at the American University in Washington, D.C., Bon Appetit will
discontinue purchasing conventional eggs. According to the Humane
Society, laying hens are the most abused animals in agribusiness.
Up to eight birds are squeezed into a single cage, forcing each
bird to live out its life in a space about half the size of a
sheet of computer paper. Birds’ beaks are clipped off to keep
them from attacking each other in these cramped quarters, and
cages are stacked so that birds living below other cages are literally
rained on with defecation from their upstairs neighbors. Bon Appetit’s
decision is particularly significant, given that the company purchases
eight million eggs per year, and cage-free eggs are more expensive.
The company hopes prices will drop with increased demand. Bon
Appetit already buys rBGH-free milk and antibiotic-free meat.
/old_articles/school/eggs060201.cfm

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Owners of corporate factory farms are celebrating after being
let off the hook for polluting the environment. The EPA, ignoring
massive public opposition, has approved a Bush Administration
proposal that allows factory farms to freely violate clean air
standards for the next four years. The deal will also forgive
these same polluters from paying millions of dollars in fines
for past air pollution violations. In exchange for the freedom
to pollute, the deal requires that factory farms agree to allow
the EPA to monitor their air pollution. The regulation will exonerate
more than 6,700 factory farms from having to pay fines of up to
$27,500 per day for violating clean air standards in the past
and over the next four years. The EPA claims this arrangement
is needed in order to gather data necessary to further refine
air emissions regulations for egg, chicken, turkey, dairy and
hog industries. According to the EPA’s rule, the main goal of
this regulation is to "reduce air pollution."
/old_articles/epa4.htm

GOOD
NEWS AND BAD NEWS: The Environmental Protection Agency has announced
new stricter regulations on a number of carcinogenic chemicals. The
adjusted standards finally take into account the fact that children
are far more vulnerable to toxic chemicals, such as pesticides, than
adults. /old_articles/school/epatoxic040605.cfm

FISH
FARMS SPREAD LICE: Canadian researchers have discovered farmed salmon
are spreading sea lice to wild salmon. The scientists found unusually
high levels of lice in a 19 mile radius surrounding a salmon farm. "Conservatively,
this means that the parasite footprint of the farm is 150 times larger
than the farm itself," said study co-author John Volpe. /old_articles/foodsafety/salmon33105.cfm

NEW
YORK FIREMEN EAT MAD DEER: Mad Deer disease has now spread across
the country to New York, where scientists report that the state’s first
confirmed infected white tail deer was donated to the Verona (NY) Fire
Department and eaten at a banquet. Although the Oneida County Health
Department claims it is "unlikely" a deer infected with Chronic
Wasting Disease (CWD) can transfer the fatal illness to humans, they
are recommending that everyone who attended the event contact the New
York State Health Department immediately. /old_articles/madcow/firemen040505.cfm

TRUTH
IN LABELING: Thanks to consumer pressure, the Whole Foods Market
grocery chain has finally announced it will begin to label its private
label products in a manner that allows consumers to see which ingredients
may contain genetically modified organisms. CEO John Mackey said of
the policy, "If we don’t do this, who will?" Noting the possibility
that labeling could invite legal actions, Mackey stated that it would
be a "lawsuit worth fighting." /old_articles/ge/wholefoods040705.cfm

30
MILLION ORGANIC CONSUMERS IN USA: The organic market is exploding!
The Natural Marketing Institute has released a report indicating that
23% of U.S. shoppers are now organic consumers. In 2004, the organic
market grew by a full 18%, due to consumer concerns about their health
and the environment. /old_articles/organic/23percent32905.cfm