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85,000 Untested Chejikcals. But Hey, Don't Worry

Ronnie Cummins- Organic Consumers Assoc.

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Oct. 30, 2016

'Don't Worry'

Pesticide chemicals being sprayed on crops on a farm

“. . . new chemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream; almost 500 annually find their way into actual use in the United States alone…500 new chemicals to which the bodies of men and animals are required somehow to adapt each year, chemicals totally outside the limits of biologic experience.” - Rachel Carson, “Silent Spring” (1962)

Two years after Rachel Carson sounded the above warning, she died of breast cancer.

Now 50 years later, the pesticide and chemical assault on our health that Carson exposed in her book, “Silent Spring,” has intensified. Newer toxic chemicals, like Monsanto’s Roundup and Syngenta’s atrazine, have taken over where DDT and arsenic left off. Despite massive scientific evidence that these chemicals are poisoning us, U.S. regulatory agencies have avoided or delayed taking action on thousands of deadly chemicals, including Monsanto’s Roundup (active ingredient glyphosate) and Syngenta’s atrazine, the two most heavily sprayed poisons on GMO corn and soybeans, America’s top crops.

The European Union, utilizing the “precautionary principle,” has banned several dozen agricultural pesticides and practices that still pollute U.S. food, food packaging, water, bodycare, cosmetic, and cleaning products.

The President’s Cancer Panel, in 2010, warned that up to 80 percent of U.S. cancer cases—currently striking 48 percent of men, 38 percent of women, and increasing numbers of children—are directly caused by poisons in our environment and food, by Big Food, pharmaceutical, chemical and genetic engineering corporations, aided and abetted by federal government bureaucrats.

Still, U.S. regulatory agencies repeat the same old refrain: “Don’t worry.”

Read Ronnie’s essay

 

'Cesspool of Corruption'

Black and white pond beside a farm

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is required to review every pesticide once every 15 years, promised a decision on glyphosate by the end of July 2015, only to later push the deadline to end of 2015.

Now, here we are near the end of 2016, and the EPA, apparently more concerned about protecting Monsanto’s profits than it is about protecting human health and the environment, refuses to act.

What, or rather, who, is holding up the agency's decision?

Monsanto and its minions, in this case the pesticide industry’s lobbying group, CropLife. On October 12, CropLife wrote a letter to the EPA that, as US Right to Know’s Carey Gillam reported, asked to exclude anyone who’s ever expressed a negative opinion of glyphosate from sitting on the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP)—the panel charged with advising the EPA on the reregistration of glyphosate.

Dr. Rosemary Mason, a medical professional and activist, made the same accusations—and more—in her “Open Letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency about Glyphosate and the International Monsanto Tribunal,” as reported by Countercurrents.org, which called the whole mess a "cesspool of corruption."

The EPA immediately bowed to CropLife’s request, setting in motion yet another delay.

Meanwhile, consumers are left to deal with the health risks, and environmental contamination, of the world’s most heavily sprayed herbicide. We don't think that's right. So we're going to the EPA's top dog, Gina McCarthy, with our demand that the EPA do its job.

TAKE ACTION: Tell EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy: Quit Stalling. Ban Glyphosate NOW!

Call the EPA at 202-564-4700

Tweet: @GinaEPA No more stalling! #BanGlyphosate now! http://orgcns.org/2eemucG

TAKE ACTION: Sign our original “Ban Glyphosate” petition.

 

 

REGENERATION INTERNATIONAL

Meet Abdellah Boudhira

Farmer Abdellah Boudhira

Abdellah Boudhira, a third-generation farmer in Morocco, has experienced first-hand the downside of conventional farming. Boudhira watched his family farm suffer under the false promises of higher yields, combined with the high costs of chemical inputs like synthetic fertilizers and toxic pesticides.

To save his family farm, Boudhira made the transition to regenerative agriculture. It’s been a challenging journey, Boudhira told us, especially with extended and recurring drought conditions in his part of the world.

In this interview with our Regeneration International (RI) team, Boudhira explains why the decision to transition to organic was the right one—especially after witnessing the damage expensive hybrid seeds and toxic chemicals had inflicted on his most precious resource: soil.

Boudhira will also share his story on November 18, at an event RI helped organize for the upcoming COP22 Climate Summit in Marrakesh.

Read the interview

Support OCA's Regeneration International Project (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic, regenerative agriculture and climate change)

 

 

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

Truth and Consequences

Blue tractor on a farm

In the evidence from the Monsanto Tribunal, the truth is there for the world to see. The US EPA, the European Food Safety Authority, the European Commission, the UK Chemicals Regulation Directorate and the Republic of Ireland have been conspiring with Monsanto against civil society to destroy the environment with chemicals and poison their food. These countries have sustained over the years the largest loss of biodiversity, i.e. ecocide. – “Open Letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency about glyphosate and the International Monsanto Tribunal,” by Dr. Rosemary Mason

To the list of countries Dr. Rosemary Mason calls out in her “Open Letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency about glyphosate and the International Monsanto Tribunal,” we could add many—including Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay and a host of others.

As Mason says in her letter, the truth is there for the world to see. And so are the consequences.

Government agencies’ collusion with Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow and others is rampant. But you already know that. The question is, how do we change it? How do we force the agencies we support, with our tax dollars, to protect us—instead of corporate profits?

The answer is, relentlessly. Using every tool in our under-funded-but-shiny toolbox. We keep the pressure on government agencies. We craft and push policies that support regenerative, not degenerative, agricultural practices. We seek out, and support, candidates who will advance those policies.

And we use our consumer power. Because, ultimately, food companies will produce what consumers want.

Case in point? Food giant Nestlé just announced that the company will start producing more non-GMO products, according to the headline, “due to the growing demand from consumers, in a shock to the Biotech Industry in the U.S.” We suspect Nestlé will still fall far short of providing consumers with what they really want—products derived from a genuinely regenerative food supply chain.

But it’s a positive sign that the #ConsumerRevolution is making headway.

With your help, we’ll keep pushing—on all fronts. Until government agencies hear us, politicians support us, and food companies start producing the products consumers want, and the world needs.

Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our GMO labeling legislative efforts)

Support OCA's Regeneration International Project (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic, regenerative agriculture and climate change)