Stop the Madness

May 3, 2024 |

“April is the cruelest month.”–T.S. Eliot, “The Wasteland,” 1922

COVID-19 has now violently emerged, alongside the Climate Emergency, as an existential threat. Our health, economic livelihoods, climate stability, democracy—our very survival as a human species—are under attack.

If we’re going to survive this pandemic, and avoid the pandemics lying in wait, if we’re going to avoid the greatest pandemic of them all looming on the horizon—runaway global warming and catastrophic climate change—we need to take control of our destiny and build a new Green Commonwealth that is regenerative, rather than degenerative.

In his essay this week Ronnie Cummins talks about the origins of COVID-19, the potential dangers that lie ahead, and how the path to survival must include rethinking our food production systems, our healthcare system and our political system.

“It’s time to admit that low-grade industrial food, air pollution, environmental and occupational hazards, and lack of access to healthy food and medical care give rise to the ‘pre-existing medical conditions’ that enable COVID-19 and other chronic diseases to kill people before their time.”

Read Ronnie’s essay: ‘Apocalypse Now: Stop the Madness‘

Stop the Madness

May 5, 2016 | Katherine Paul

Organic Consumers Association

Every 15 years, pesticides come up for review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Last year, 2015, was the year the EPA was supposed to review and either renew, or reject, glyphosate.

We’re still waiting. Meanwhile, glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, was as ubiquitous in the media this week as it is in our environment—and on our food.

As OCA, Friends of the Earth, Moms Across America and other groups planned our May 4 petition delivery (over half a million signatures) to EPA officials in Washington D.C., asking the agency to reject the renewal of glyphosate, the EPA was busy posting—then un-posting—documents the agency will use to justify its final, and presumably Monsanto-friendly, decision. From Politico:

The EPA on Monday [May 2] posted online and then removed an October 2015 final report from its Cancer Assessment Review Committee, which is made up of staff, that concluded glyphosate is “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

The move prompted House Committee on Science Space and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) to fire off a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. In the letter, according to Politico, Smith said that the decision to yank the report “raises questions about the agency’s motivation in providing a fair assessment of glyphosate.”

Smith wasn’t the only one with questions. The Center for Biological Diversity issued a press release accusing the EPA of using industry-funded studies to refute the World Health Organization’s findings that glyphosate is a probable carcinogen:

“EPA’s determination that glyphosate is non-carcinogenic is disappointing, but not terribly surprising — industry has been manipulating this process for years,” said Nathan Donley, a scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The analysis done by the World Health Organization is more open and transparent and remains the gold standard.”

US Right to Know (USRTK)’s Carey Gillam outlined the significance of the yanked document as it relates to protecting Monsanto from any legal liability from cancer patients:

Monsanto touted and tweeted the release of the document, which follows the release by EPA of a different memorandum supporting the safety of glyphosate last June. The newest memo gives the company added evidence to defend itself against a mounting stack of lawsuits filed by agricultural workers and others alleging Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide gave them cancer.

In other glyphosate news this week? Quaker Oats faces a class action lawsuit for being “deceptive and misleading” after glyphosate is detected in its oatmeal. Members of the European Parliament call for the European Commission to rethink plans to renew glyphosate in the EU.

And then there was this gem from Mercola.com: “Many Surprising Foods Found to Contain Monsanto’s Deadly Poison.” Not to mention our Video of the Week, from ABC News, about glyphosate in your California wine.

The EPA now says it will be the end of 2016 before they issue their final ruling. That’s how long we have to stop the madness.

What Is Going on with Glyphosate? EPA’s Odd Handling of Controversial Chemical

TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA: Don’t Re-Up Roundup!