“The COP15 summit in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, which was focused on desertification and its impacts, closed with commitments by 196 countries to restore one billion hectares of degraded land between now and 2030. They also agreed to enhance drought preparedness, response and resilience.”

Even with these commitments, a number of groups felt left out, particularly the smaller NGOs and civil society groups who are not part of the policy process.

There were very few civil society groups officially invited to attend COP15, and their absence was obvious.

“These platforms are only for high-level people, and they don’t listen to us. I come from a rural area, and even for me to come here, I had to fight, and I came late,” says Mailes Zulu Muke of Save Environment and People Agency, a grassroots NGO in Zambezi, Zambia.

A number of attendees RFI spoke with said that the people on the ground were not acknowledged, or included.

“[At] these high-level conferences here, there are just [academics], and ministers, not people from the ground. Most of the policies without implementation [plans] are just as good as dead,” one attendee said.

Read more: Desertification Summit Ends with Promises to Restore a Billion Hectares of Land

The Food Shortage Solution in Your Own Backyard

Carey Gillam—‘Forever Chemicals’ in Food: Is FDA Ready to Take a Tougher Stance?

Ukraine: What Comes Next?

Klaus Schwab and the Origins of the WEF

Top Gun Maverick—A Counter Narrative

Dangerous Pathogens and Lab Leaks: What Are the Odds?

The Neighborhood Food Network

Global Hunger Fight Means No Biofuels

OCA is seeking to build a powerful coalition to bring about cooperation and synergy between the peace movement, the climate crisis movement, and the organic community.

The United States needs to be spending our tax dollars on MORE FARMS, (organic and regenerative) NOT ARMS!

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As we pointed out last week, we are struggling to survive and regenerate our health, our food and farming, and our entire planet in the eye of the hurricane.

But we need your volunteer participation and your financial support to carry us forward. Tell everyone you know to go to our website and subscribe to our free newsletter, Organic Bytes.

We need farms, not arms, and peace, not war. We need organic food and natural health, not GMOs, pesticides, and lab engineered meat and dairy. We need nuclear disarmament and a ban on weaponizing viruses and other pathogens.

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OCA’s longtime ally, GMO Free, reminds us about “17 Toxic and Terrible” products that have been forced upon the world by Bayer and Monsanto:

“Bayer completed its purchase of Monsanto in 2018, in a move that the company’s own investors have rebelled against in recent months to the tune of a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit against the company.

Since then, the German pesticide, GMO and pharmaceutical company’s reputation had been considerably damaged due to being associated with Monsanto and its ongoing Roundup/cancer lawsuits.

Bayer and Monsanto have a lot in common, starting with the toxic products they have brought to market.

This is just a shortlist of the top reasons – the ‘Toxic 17’ – why you should boycott Bayer-Monsanto, an unethical corporation and a scourge on humanity and the planet.”

OCA’s and the anti-GMO Movement’s Great Reset will involve shutting down this criminal corporation forever and putting its executives and chief shareholders on trial for their crimes against humanity.

Learn more about the Toxic 17: Bayer and Monsanto’s Sinister Seventeen

The USDA has announced a small but welcome reset, i.e. significant increases in spending for organic food and farming, but still refuses to acknowledge that government subsidized chemical, GMO, and energy-intensive agriculture is a disaster.

As the Beyond Pesticides newsletter explains:

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on June 1 that it will provide a potential 15-fold increase in funding aimed at organic food production — up to $300 million. The subject Organic Transition Initiative provision is embedded in a new USDA Food System Transformation framework (FSTF), whose raison d’être is captured in the press release: “to transform the food system to benefit consumers, producers and rural communities by providing more options, increasing access, and creating new, more, and better markets for small and mid-size producers.” That funding for organic transition, the invocation of climate as a significant driver of multiple features of the initiative, and a focus on equity concerns are all welcome news. Beyond Pesticides maintains that it will be critical that this FSTF result in concrete goals that set out specific metrics and timelines — particularly around the magnitude of acres shifted to organic production and the pace of the phase out of non-organic substances and protocols…”

Learn More: USDA Announces Dramatic Increases in Support for Organic Agriculture without Call for Total Transition

Today, we launched a new live broadcast on our Millions Against Monsanto Facebook page, “The Secret Military History of Monsanto,” hosted by Organic Consumers Association’s political director Alexis Baden-Mayer.

Our guest for the inaugural broadcast was Mitchel Cohen, editor of the book, The Fight Against Monsanto’s Roundup: The Politics of Pesticides, and author of the article, “War Within the War: The Fight Over Land and Genetically Engineered Agriculture.”

Watch The Secret Military History of Monsanto Episode 1: Mitchel Cohen on Monsanto’s Ukraine Invasion on Facebook or Rokfin (extended version)