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Vandana Shiva Invites you to Act for Seed Freedom and Food Freedom

Sep6
Fortnight of Action for Seed Freedom and Food Freedom:2nd October – 16th October 2013

Watch Vandana Shiva’s video invitation,”Act for Food and Seed Freedom ” 

Dear lovers of life’s diversity and lovers of freedom,

It is time to organise and concentrate our energies to liberate our seeds and our food from the toxic, greedy and lethal clutches of global corporations like Monsanto; from the laws the corporations are writing, stealing our democracies in order to steal our seeds and food, our health and livelihoods, our cultures and our lives. We need to break from the sense of powerlessness the corporations would like us to experience to make us believe they are all powerful and we have no power to change. But we do. We just have to combine our collective energies. We must become the change we want to see.

I invite you to unleash your creative energies during the Fortnight of Action for Seed Freedom and Food Freedom – 2nd October to 16th October.

2nd October is Gandhi’s birth anniversary. Gandhi left us the legacy of “Swaraj”- self-organised freedom and “Satyagraha”- the force of truth. Let us dedicate ourselves to celebrating 2nd October as the day for a worldwide “Seed Satyagraha”. A day when we defend Seed Freedom and Food Freedom by identifying every regional law written by corporations to undermine these freedoms by criminalizing diversity, seed saving and seed exchange, farmers innovations and farmers rights; whilst establishing illegitimate seed monopolies through patents and privileging of uniformity and monocultures.

After having identified laws for seed slavery, let us commit ourselves to not obey these unethical and brute laws which threaten life on earth, including our lives and the lives of our children. Gandhi had reminded us 100 years ago, that “As long as the superstition remains that unjust laws must be obeyed, so long will slavery exist”. We have a dream, and our dream is that every seed, every bee, every butterfly, every earthworm, every person, every child be free of manipulation and control, hunger and disease; that they evolve and co-evolve in freedom, well-being and health. We must not allow ourselves to be subjected to the superstition that Monsanto Laws must be obeyed. For the sake of Gaia’s laws, of life’s renewal in freedom and the laws of justice, it is our ecological and ethical duty to disobey Monsanto’s laws. And while resisting and not co-operating with destructive laws of seed dictatorship, let us celebrate Seed Freedom and Food Freedom through adopting The Law of the Seed and creating Gardens of Hope – seed sanctuaries – and GMO-free, patent free Seed Freedom Zones.

On 12th October we will self-organise to March against Monsanto across the world, like we did on the 25th May.

16th October is World Food Day. Monsanto and other Biotech giants have been foolish and arrogant enough to award themselves The World Food Prize they sponsor that day. Let us give Real Food Prizes to Real Food Heroes in our communities, who bring us real and healthy food instead. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 72% of the food that people eat comes from small farms and gardens. We can make the 72% a 100% by saving Seeds of Freedom and planting Gardens of Hope everywhere. Industrial agriculture driven by corporations has destroyed 75% of the planet’s biodiversity resulting in hunger and disease. 1 billion are hungry, 2 billion suffer from food related diseases. This is not a food system that brings us life and health. It is a greed and profit-driven, commodity producing system that has unleashed death and destruction. We have to stop this destruction. There is no place for poisons and corporate slavery in the food system. We are what we eat.

Our seeds and food are vital to life. We cannot afford to allow the destruction of the planet and our health to continue. We cannot allow seed slavery and food dictatorship to continue. We must take back our seeds, our food, our freedom.

With love and strength to each and every one of you to evolve your highest powers and unleash your highest creative and collaborative energies, so that together we shape a food system that protects life on earth, our small farmers, our health and our future.

 Vandana Shiva

 

Films for Action: La surconsummation

Aug15

cute_pig06This six-minute film raises awareness about our industrial food system’s exploitation of animals, including humans. Have you considered eliminating factory-farmed meat from your diet?

Warning: Contains mildly graphic images that may upset some people.

 

This entry was posted on August 15, 2013, in Policy.

No Justice, No Juice! Boycott Florida Agriculture – 9 Billion reasons to Demand Justice for Treyvon

Jul19

Sign the Petition Here! 

Food justice activist and OKT friend,  LaDonna Redmond, has initiated this petition drive.

Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law has created an environment for Black boys that is intolerable. As a mother, I cannot sit by and watch as children are murdered as a matter of public policy. The murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager, is an example of dangerous policies designed to put guns in the hands of people who shoot and kill Black childen on a whim and without fear of consequences. There are many others that are affected by this heinous law. We do not know all of their names but they are equally affected.

From Stand Your ground laws to modern day slavery in agriculture, Florida is the home of injustice. Florida farm workers are forced to work under inhumane conditions. Often robbed of wages and dignity, farm laborers, have created one of the most profitable businesses in Florida- Agriculture! We can change this today.

Florida is the second-largest producer of orange juice in the world, behind Brazil, and the state’s $9 billion citrus industry is a major economic force, contributing 76,000 jobs.

According to the 2010-11 Florida Agriculture Statistics Services (FASS) Citrus Summary, of the citrus harvested, 90 percent was processed into juice and the remainder was sold as fresh fruit.In addition to providing juice, processed citrus was used to produce other by-products, such as oils, fragrances, flavorings, and animal feed.

According to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida ranks second in the value of vegetable production, and first in cash receipts for oranges, grapefruit, fresh snap beans, sweet corn, watermelons, fresh cucumbers, squash and sugarcane. The state is seventh in agricultural exports with $3.1 billion.

We must stop supporting this states unjust practices. We can change the state by refusing to purchase food grown in Florida.

Buy your food locally from farmers that are growing food free from exploitation. We can use food as a tool to organize for change in Florida’s laws and any where else the Stand Your Ground Laws are in effect.

Midwest farmers douse fields in chemicals as insects grow resistant to Bt Corn

Jul10

“… pollution runoff from Midwestern farms, carried to the ocean by the Mississippi, is slated to create the largest ocean dead zone recorded in the Gulf of Mexico, choking marine life that crosses its path.”

Published on Tuesday, July 9, 2013 by Common Dreams by Sarah Lazare, staff writer

Pesticides Poured on Illinois Cornfield (Photo: Fig and Sage)

Pesticide use is skyrocketing across the Midwestern U.S. corn belt, as biotech companies like Syngenta and AMVAC Chemical watch their pesticide sales spike 50 to 100 percent over the past two years, NPR reported Tuesday.The culprit? Bt corn—a type of genetically engineered corn with insecticide built into its genes.

Variations of this corn strain—peddled across the world by large multinationals including Monstanto and Syngenta—are giving rise to Bt resistant insects and worms, studies show.

NPR reports that resistant ‘pests’ are decimating entire cornfields across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.Yet, now that the targeted insect killings are not working, big agribusiness is simply throwing pesticides at the problem instead of moving away from GMOs.

This is despite warnings last year from the Environmental Protection Agency that unrestrained use of Bt corn will off-set the balance of the ecosystem.

Monsanto denies the severity of the damage wrought by Bt corn, assuring customers that many farmers ‘have great success.’

Environmental groups have long warned that Bt corn is a danger to non-‘pest’ insects. In a2004 briefing, Greenpeace showed that the effects of non-targeted insect killings ripple throughout the ecosystem. Critics charge that the modified corn—which is spread by big agribusiness, pushed to small farmers, and crossbred with non GMO strains—undermines food diversity and security and devastates small-scale, sustainable farmers and peasants.

The revelation comes after scientists recently warned that pollution runoff from Midwestern farms, carried to the ocean by the Mississippi, is slated to create the largest ocean dead zone recorded in the Gulf of Mexico, choking marine life that crosses its path.

(Photo: Digital Journal)

NY Times best-seller reveals “How the Food Giants Hooked Us”

Jul1

Worth Reading….

Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Michael Moss’ new book, “SALT SUGAR FAT: How the Food Giants Hooked Us” that investigates the science and profit motives behind the development of addictive junk foods. For a quicker overview, you can read his 13-page New York Times article.

Here is the promotiponal overview from the Moss’ website:

Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970) and seventy pounds of sugar (about twenty-two teaspoons a day). We ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt a day, double the recommended amount, and almost none of that comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food. It’s no wonder, then, that one in three adults, and one in five kids, is clinically obese. It’s no wonder that twenty-six million Americans have diabetes, the processed food industry in the U.S. accounts for $1 trillion a year in sales, and the total economic cost of this health crisis is approaching $300 billion a year.

In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how we got here. Featuring examples from some of the most recognizable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century—including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more—Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research.

Moss takes us inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the “bliss point” of sugary beverages or enhance the “mouthfeel” of fat by manipulating its chemical structure. He unearths marketing campaigns designed—in a technique adapted from tobacco companies—to redirect concerns about the health risks of their products: Dial back on one ingredient, pump up the other two, and tout the new line as “fat-free” or “low-salt.” He talks to concerned executives who confess that they could never produce truly healthy alternatives to their products even if serious regulation became a reality. Simply put: The industry itself would cease to exist without salt, sugar, and fat. Just as millions of “heavy users”—as the companies refer to their most ardent customers—are addicted to this seductive trio, so too are the companies that peddle them. You will never look at a nutrition label the same way again.

Downtown Market farmers’ market a well-heeled oasis in the food desert

Jun24
Downtown Market Sign

Downtown Market Farmers’ Market signage. Is this a mixed message?

By Stelle Slootmaker, OKT Communications Officer

For the past three weeks, I have stopped at the Downtown Market farmers’ market to pick up my very generous CSA share from Green Wagon Farm.

On each occasion, I have been discouraged to note that much of the other food sold here is of the gourmet variety with very high prices. For example, goat cheese for $1 an ounce (that’s $16 a pound); 2 mini donut bites for $2; artisan bread, $6 a loaf; or organic blue eggs, $6 a dozen.

The shoppers that I’ve seen patronizing the market seem to be the type who can afford these prices. A large gathering of homeless and income challenged folks seem corralled in the park just a block away. But it may as well be miles.

That said, I have been able to find more reasonably priced items from Green Wagon, Visser Brothers, Creswick Farm and a few others–free range eggs for $3.00 and strawberries for $3.75 a quart. But would a person or family with income challenges feel comfortable shopping here? I doubt it.

In my opinion, this market is one more successful example of why we need an alternative to the existing food and agriculture system.

This market is thriving, as is big agribusiness and the food industry as a whole. But I doubt that it does much to provide “food desert” families access to healthy foods. A local blog, Food Deserted, asked the question, “Will this market serve the desert? Or, will it be an oasis that is too expensive for the poor?”

At my first glance, I am afraid the answer is the latter.

8 Foods We Eat In The U.S. That Are Banned In Other Countries

Jun20

Reposted from BuzzFeed

This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “food poisoning.” Original list found in Dr. Jayson Calton and Certified Nutritionist Mira Calton’s new book, Rich Food, Poor Food.posted on June 19, 2013 at 5:30pm EDT

Ashley PerezBuzzFeed Fellow

1. Artificial food dye: Makes your food pretty and inhibits nerve-cell development.

Artificial food dye: Makes your food pretty and inhibits nerve-cell development.

Found in: Practically everything we eat: cake mixes, sports drinks, cheese, candy, and even MACARONI AND CHEESE.

Why it’s dangerous: Artificial dyes are made from chemicals derived from PETROLEUM, which is also used to make crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt and TAR! Artificial dyes have been linked to brain cancer, nerve-cell deterioration, and hyperactivity, just to name a few things.

Where it’s banned: Norway, Finland, Austria, France, and the U.K.

For more information on artificial dyes, visit 100 Days of Real Food.

2. Olestra (or Olean): Lowers calorie counts while causing vitamin depletion and anal leakage.

Olestra (or Olean): Lowers calorie counts while causing vitamin depletion and anal leakage.

Found in: Fat-free potato chips, corn chips, and French fries.

Why it’s dangerous: Created by Proctor & Gamble as a substitue for cooking oil, Olestra robs your body of its ability to absorb vitamins. Fun side effects include cramps and leaky bowels.

Where it’s banned: The U.K. and Canada.

For more information on Olestra, visit Time magazine’s “50 Worst Inventions.”

3. Brominated vegetable oil: Makes food dye stick to liquid, but also may cause birth defects and major organ damage.

Brominated vegetable oil: Makes food dye stick to liquid, but also may cause birth defects and major organ damage.

Found in: Sports drinks and citrus-flavored sodas.

Why it’s dangerous: Bromine is a chemical used to stop CARPETS FROM CATCHING ON FIRE, so you can see why drinking it may not be the best idea. BVO is linked to major organ system damage, birth defects, growth problems, schizophrenia, and hearing loss.

Where it’s banned: In over 100 countries.

For more info on BVO, visit Web MD’s “Brominated Vegetable Oil Q&A.”

4. Potassium bromate (or bromated flour): Great for impatient bakers, bad for your kidneys and nervous system.

Potassium bromate (or bromated flour): Great for impatient bakers, bad for your kidneys and nervous system.

Found in: Wraps, rolls, bread crumbs, bagel chips, flat breads.

Why it’s dangerous: Derived from the same harmful chemical as brominated vegetable oil, brominated flour is used to decrease baking time and reduce costs. Only problem is, it’s linked to kidney damage, cancer, and nervous system damage.

Where it’s banned: Europe, Canada, and China.

For more information on potassium bromate, visit Live Science’s “The Truth About Potassium Bromate.”

5. Azodicarbonamide: Bleaches flour, plastic, and induces asthma as an added bonus.

Azodicarbonamide: Bleaches flour, plastic, and induces asthma as an added bonus.

Found in: Breads, frozen dinners, boxed pasta mixes, and packaged baked goods.

Why it’s dangerous: Used to bleach both flour and FOAMED PLASTIC (yoga mats and sneakers soles), azodicarbonamide has been known to induce asthma.

Where it’s banned: Australia, the U.K., and most European countries.

For more information on azodicarbonamide, visit Food-u-cate.

6. BHA & BHT: Waxy preservatives linked to cancer and tumors.

BHA & BHT: Waxy preservatives linked to cancer and tumors.

Found in: Cereal, nut mixes, gum, butter, meat, dehydrated potatoes.

Why it’s dangerous: Used to keep food from becoming rancid, BHA and BHT are known to cause cancer in rats. And we’re next!

Where it’s banned: England, Japan, and many other European countries.

For more information on BHT and BHA, visit Berkley Wellness’ “Two Preservatives To Avoid?”

Source: amazon.com

7. Synthetic growth hormones rBGH and rBST: Harm cows and can give humans breast, colon, and prostate cancer.

Synthetic growth hormones rBGH and rBST: Harm cows and can give humans breast, colon, and prostate cancer.

Found in: Milk and dairy products.

Why it’s dangerous: Growth hormones are bad for cows and people, causing infertility, weakened muscle growth, and a whole array of cancers.

Where it’s banned: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and the EU.

For more information on rBGH and rBST, visit the American Cancer Society’s info page.

8. Arsenic: Basically this ish will slowly kill you.

Arsenic: Basically this ish will slowly kill you.

Found in: Poultry.

Why it’s dangerous: Used as chicken feed to make their meat appear pinker and fresher, arsenic is POISON, which will kill you if you ingest enough.

Where it’s banned: The EU.

For more information on arsenic, visit NPR’s “How Trace Amounts Of Arsenic End Up In Grocery Store Meat.”

GE French Fries, Coming to a Fast Food Restaurant Near You

Jun12

Reposted from Food & Water Watch via EcoWatch

By Genna Reed

The J.R. Simplot Company, giant potato supplier for McDonald’s, has spent years working on the perfect potato. Its new genetically engineered(GE) traits—which will be offered in five different varieties of potatoes—up for approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has lower levels of a carbohydrate called acrylamide, whichmay cause cancer, and also has reduced black spot bruising. These potatoes will be used as frozen fries, potato chips and shoestrings, which make up approximately 50 percent of the potato market in the U.S., according to Simplot.

Both of the desired traits are achieved through the reduced expression of enzymes, affecting the amino acid asparagine for the low acrylamide trait and the enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO) for reduced bruising (the same way GE apples have been engineered not to brown). The problem is that an alteration in just one enzyme can unintentionally affect other plant characteristics as well as the plant’s health.

These GE potatoes will likely be fried using Monsanto’s new-and-improved omega-3 soybean oil, which will probably be marketed to lead consumers to believe that the bio-engineered combination is “healthy” fried food. A low-acrylamide potato may reduce levels of just one of the harmful chemicals brought out by frying foods but there are other dangerous compounds that are produced when food is heated to very high temperatures, including advanced glycation endproducts, or AGEs, which can lead to “chronic inflammation and oxidative stress,” (also linked to cancer). And of course this new fried “goodness” doesn’t address the high-calorie and low-nutrient content that make fried potatoes unhealthy in the first place.

Historically, GE potatoes have not fared so well in the marketplace. Monsanto’s NewLeaf GE potatoes were approved in 1995, but the company pulled its potatoes from the market in 2001. If approved, these potatoes may face the same fate and never make it into happy meals across America. But these potatoes could also be exported, since Simplot has submitted its petition for approval to Canada, Mexico, Japan and South Korea.

The USDA will be seeking comments until July 2 and we intend to tell them to further review the potential health effects of these GE potatoes.

Visit EcoWatch’s GE FOOD page for more related news on this topic.

Free webinar on reforming chemical policies

Jun6

Toxic chemicals in our food, air, water and soil are making us sick … especially our babies and children. Cancers, behavior issues, learning disabilities and asthma have all been linked to the chemicals we encounter every day. These impacts are multiplied for people of color living in urban communities and farm workers. Join this free webinar to learn how we might be able to change policies that regulate these chemicals.

“Chemical Policy Reform as a Driver for Green Chemistry”

Wednesday June 12, 2013 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Great Lakes Green Chemistry Network and Michigan Green Chemistry ClearinghouseWebinar with Mike Belliveau, President & CEO, Environmental Health Strategies Center, Senior Advisor, Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families

Belliveau is the founder and president of Environmental Health Strategy Center, a public health organization working for safer chemicals and a sustainable economy.  He serves as senior advisor to Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a national coalition focused on modernizing the federal chemical management system.  A social entrepreneur, he organized a regional trade association to promote biobased manufacturing, the Sustainable Bioplastics Council of Maine.  Belliveau has more than 30 years of experience in chemical hazard assessment, science policy analysis, and green chemistry solutions.  Mike holds an environmental science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 
This entry was posted on June 6, 2013, in Policy.

Stabenow votes to cut food stamps

Jun3

Reprinted from The Daily Koss
Last week, the U.S. Senate voted down an amendment by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to restore $4.1 billion in food stamp cuts—by reducing corporate welfare to a handful of crop insurance companies, mostly based overseas. Only 26 senators voted “yes.”

But we can’t blame obstructionist Republicans. Twenty-eight Senate Democrats (including Stabenow) joined with all voting Republicans to defeat this crucial amendment. If these cuts are allowed, around 500,000 low-income households will lose an average of $90 in monthly benefits.

Food Stamps are already being cut as the federal stimulus dries up, and these proposed new cuts—from both parties—will only make it worse. Given that so many people are working for fewer hours or lower wages, now is not the time to cut such essential benefits.

Click here to join Daily Kos and Campaign for America’s Future  petition campaign to these 28 Senate Democrats, demanding they put low-income families ahead of corporate welfare—and to oppose draconian cuts to food stamps.

 

Note from OKT–Stabenow also recently voted against allowing states to create their own  GMO food labeling requirements. You can view her voting record at votesmart.org.