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F o o d & C o n su m e r N e w s W e e k ly

Organic ‘Victory’ Garden Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) Update

Since the OCA’s EFCA alert in Organic Bytes #165, thousands of people
Planted at White House have contacted Congress in support of workers’ rights and the proposed
Employee Free Choice Act (HR 1409 & S560). Meanwhile, Fortune 500 front
In a major victory for organic and local food activists, First Lady Michelle groups have spent over 100 million dollars to defeat or water down these
Obama broke ground on the White House’s first organic kitchen garden bills. Whole Foods and Starbucks, traditional union busters, have offered
since the Roosevelt Administration. According to the First Lady “I’ve been a so-called “third way” which would essentially gut EFCA’s key worker pro-
able to have my kids eat so many different things that they would have tections. Despite the hysteria and lies circulated against EFCA, the bill does
never touched if we had bought it at a store because they either met the not eliminate workers’ choice to utilize the secret ballot, nor threaten our
farmers that grew it, or they saw how it was grown.” shaky economy. EFCA would level the playing field for workers, includ-
Are you ready to follow the First Lady’s lead? Would you like resources and ing those now routinely exploited by large corporations in the food sector,
tips for growing or expanding your own victory garden? Sign OCA’s organic and increase penalties against companies such as Wal-Mart, Whole Foods,
victory garden petition and visit our Organic Transition’s Campaign at: McDonald’s, or Starbucks that illegally coerce or intimidate employees in
organicconsumers.org/transitions/ an effort to prevent them from forming a union.
Will YOU stand up for workers and supporter EFCA? Contact your Con-
Tax Greenhouse Gas Emissions Now gresspersons today. Learn more in OCA’s EFCA Action Center:
The current climate crisis will become a full-blown climate catastrophe organicconsumers.org/efca.cfm
unless Congress acts quickly to drastically reduce climate-destabilizing
greenhouse pollution from our current, and rising, 387 ppm (parts per mil- What’s in Your Body Care Products?
lion) of CO2 in the atmosphere back to a level below the dangerous tipping Organic Bytes #165 reported on a new study from the OCA exposing and
point of 350 ppm. Big business, including agribusiness, has been profiting assessing levels of the carcinogen 1,4-Dioxane in personal care and house-
from cheap energy and saddling the public with the costs of hold cleaning products. Many of the products we analyzed
its pollution for too long. Now, they’re trying to escape regu- had cleaned up their acts since our 2008 study, but a few
lation through Wall Street-style emissions trading. It’s time products still tested off the charts for dangerously high lev-
to make the polluters pay. We need a tax on greenhouse els. This week, we posted our press conference on YouTube,
gas emissions now! Ask Congress to pass America’s Energy which summarizes our study and features David Steinman.
Security Trust Fund Act of 2009 and extend its carbon tax Watch the video at organicconsumers.org/bodycare/
to all greenhouse emissions, including the potent methane
and nitrous oxide emissions from industrial agriculture’s Headlines and Articles of the Week
fossil fuel fertilizers and factory farms. ▶ Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?
organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17351.cfm Organic gardens are springing up outside of federal build-
ings in DC. School lunch programs are getting more fund-
Rumor Update: HR 875 ing to provide kids with healthier foods. Sales of natural
The following note is typical of the calls and e-mails OCA has Quote of the Week and organic foods are booming.
been receiving this week: “Do you know anything about HR “That there is a crisis in water ▶ How Local Retailers Can Compete With Wal-Mart
875, a ‘food safety’ bill that was written by Monsanto, Car- is a given, and that we need A new study has found that when Wal-Mart comes to town,
gill and ADM? I’ve heard a few individual activists scream to address it is a given. That’s local grocery stores should not attempt to compete with the
about this as the death of farmers markets, CSAs and local why there’s so much momen- chain’s low prices. Instead, the study found that local stores
organic food, yet have seen no alerts from any of the reliable tum behind developing a expanding niche food items, like natural and organic prod-
groups, including OCA. Any idea what’s up with this?” global standard.” -Michael ucts, fared better against the behemoth.
For the record, OCA does have an alert out on HR875. As OCA Spencer, director of the ▶ Sugar Making a Comeback
points out in our Action Alert, we cannot support a “Food Water Stewardship Initiative The old enemy, sugar, doesn’t seem as evil as high fructose
Safety” bill unless it provides protection or exemptions for speaking at the World Water corn-syrup (HFCS) to the modern mindful consumer, so
organic and farm-to-consumer producers and cracks down Forum in Istanbul about many products are now touting sugar as the new ‘natural’
on the real corporate criminals who are tampering with and the development of a new ingredient.
polluting our nation’s food supply—such as Monsanto. “Water Stewardship” stan- ▶ Integrated Solutions to the Water, and Climate Crises
Having said that, OCA supports aspects of HR875 that call dard. This certification is “The dramatic convergence of multiple crises-global warm-
for mandatory recalls of tainted food, increased scrutiny of expected to be as globally ing, hunger and depletion of natural resources such as
large slaughterhouses and food manufacturers, and hefty popular as the current Forest water-compels us to shift from the dominant industrial
fines against companies that send poisonous food to mar- Stewardship Certification. agriculture model and consider a new way forward…”
ket. The now discredited ultra-libertarian notion that com- Within a couple of years, ▶ Join OCA’s Delegation to Cuba, End the Travel Ban!
panies or the “market” will regulate themselves is not only Water Stewardship logos Learn more at: organicconsumers.org/cuba.cfm
ludicrous, but dangerous, whether we are talking about the should adorn a wide variety
banking system or the food and farming sector. of products ranging from How to Make Positive Change
Monsanto and large corporate agribusiness are out to beer to cereal to t-shirts. OCA’s success stories are due to the involvement and dona-
destroy traditional farming. While many people have tions of our supporters. In order to continue bringing pos-
been distracted by HR 875, the biotech companies have been pushing their itive change in the realms of health, social justice, and sustainability, we
agenda: Monsanto’s gene-altered (so-called) drought-resistant corn, Epi- need your contributions. If unable to donate, please help spread the word
topix’s E. coli vaccine, and the ban on rBGH-free labeling that Monsanto’s about OCA to friends, family and colleagues. Please donate today:
successor Eli Lilly is trying to push through the Kansas legislature. organicconsumers.org/donations.cfm
We need to keep working together to work towards positive alternatives,
such as organic agriculture and the green economy.

Writ ten and edited by Cr aig Minowa & Ronnie Cummins · Please post, distribute, & subscribe: organicconsumers.org/organicby tes.cfm