Fwd: Organic Bytes: New OCA Personal Care Carcinogen Study -- OCA Obama Success Stories -- Health & Climate Revolution, & More...

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Organic Consumers Association <oca

cyndikrall

Fri, 6 Mar 2009 9:13 am

Organic Bytes: New OCA Personal Care Carcinogen Study -- OCA

Obama Success Stories -- Health & Climate Revolution, & More...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organic Bytes

Health, Justice and Sustainability News 

March 6, 2009 -  Issue #164

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In This Issue

 

 

 

OCA Campaign Success Story of the Week: OCA's New Study Finds Greatly

Reduced Carcinogens in Personal Care Products

 

 

 

Alert Update of the Week: OCA & Grassroots Pressure on Obama and

Vilsack Show Results

 

 

 

More Good News: Campaigning of OCA & Allies Shifts USDA and Helps Hilda

Solis Get Confirmed

 

 

 

Nutrition News of the Week: Taking a Bite Out of Childhood Obesity

 

 

 

Alert of the Week: Sign the Health Revolution Petition

 

 

 

Sustainability News of the Week: OCA at Power Shift '09, Artists for

the Climate

 

 

 

Related Web Videos of the Week: Wendell Berry speaks about Climate

Change

 

 

 

Web Forum Posting of the Week: We only have the next 10 days to stop

MANDATORY NAIS

 

 

 

Genetic Engineering News of the Week: Study Shows Monsanto's GE Cotton

is Killing the Soil

 

 

 

 

Headlines and Articles of the Week

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Cynthia,

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to another exciting issue of Organic Bytes! With more than a

quarter million readers, you are in good company.

 

 

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OCA Campaign Success Story of the Week:

OCA's New Study Finds Greatly Reduced Carcinogens in Personal Care

Products

 

 

 

 

 

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) released a new follow-up study

today that assesses hazardous levels of the unlabeled carcinogen

contaminant 1,4-dioxane in leading conventional as well as  " natural "

and " organic " brands of personal care and household cleaning products.

The results indicate significant improvement for 23 products from

sixteen major brands that OCA had previously exposed last year as

containing potentially dangerous levels of 1,4-dioxane. In other words,

thanks to ongoing pressure from the OCA and its allies, some of the

best selling personal care products on the market have been

reformulated to be safer for human health and the environment.

 

Of course, our work is never done: the study also found a number of

conventional products that had alarmingly high levels of the

carcinogen. The study was commissioned by the OCA and was overseen by

environmental health consumer advocate David Ste

inman (author of The

Safe Shopper's Bible). The independent third-party laboratory, Bodycote

Testing Group, known for rigorous testing and chain-of-custody

protocols, performed all testing.

 

Learn more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alert Update of the Week:

OCA & Grassroots Pressure on Obama and Vilsack Show Results

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to your hard work and ongoing pressure, the Obama Administration

and Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack are apparently responding to OCA

and our allies' calls for major reform in the food and farm sector,

including:

 

 

President Obama's budget plan includes a $1 billion a year increase in

funding for U.S. child nutrition programs including school lunches.

Learn more

 

 

Secretary Vilsack has called for government support for farmers using

alternative energy, such as wind and solar, as well as those converting

to organic farming practices. Vilsack also has called for cuts in

taxpayer subsidy payments to large farms.. Learn more

 

Vilsack has pledged the USDA's support in ending racial discrimination

in the farm sector, specifically condemning past discrimination in

limiting credit opportunities for African-American farmers. Learn more

 

The USDA's National Organic Program has cracked down on companies

spiking organic fertilizer with prohibited synthetic additives. Learn

more

 

President Obama has guaranteed at least $500 million for the Green20Jobs

Act in the stimulus package. Learn more

 

What's next? Keep the pressure on! Congress, President Obama and

Secretary Vilsack need to hear from you on key issues.

 

 

Time to Rein in Genetically Engineered Food

 

Take Action: Stop NAIS

 

Give rBGH the Boot from our Nation's Schools

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Good News:

Campaigning of OCA & Allies Shifts USDA and Helps Hilda Solis Get

Confirmed

 

 

 

 

 

On February 23, 2009, the Obama administration heard the voice of

organic consumers and named Kathleen Merrigan deputy agriculture

secretary. As one of OCA's favored nominees for the position, Merrigan

has a solid background in sustainable and organic agriculture. She was

the administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service at the USDA

when the division crafted the organic guidelines. Since then, she's

been a board member of the Organic Center and a professor at Tufts

University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She's

been an avid organic booster, spreading the word about the superiority

of organic foods.

 

Thank you to the nearly 100,000 organic consumers, including 50,000 new

OCA participants who joined OCA's Vilsack campaign, which is putting

pressure on the Secretary of Agriculture to make positive changes at

the USDA with actions like the appointment of Merrigan.

 

We'd also like to thank the thousands of you who took part in another

OCA alert and su

pported Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary. We're pleased

to announce she was confirmed on February 24, 2009. Secretary Solis,

the department's first Latino chief, is a longtime ally of farm

workers, a champion of workers' rights and green jobs, and an

experienced leader who has fought to restore balance to our economy.

OCA expects Solis to bolster protections for farm workers and other

laborers in the food sector.

 

Learn more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's Working!

Your OCA Support is Bringing Positive Change

 

 

 

 

 

The Organic Consumers Association is one of the few nonprofit

organizations that provides you with success stories, nearly every

week, showing you how your financial donations are directly bringing

about positive change. These success stories are due to the involvement

and donations of our supporters. In order to continue bringing positive

change in the realms of health, social justice, and sustainability, we

need your contributions. If you are unable to donate, please help

spread the word about OCA to friends, family and colleagues.  Please

donate today!

 

Donate Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nutrition News of the Week:

Taking a Bite Out of Childhood Obesity

 

 

 

 

Child-friendly, healthy and truly delicious food can be served in

school lunchrooms: that's what OCA's DC Intern, Chantal Clement,

learned at " Take a Bite out of Childhood Obesity " , a briefing on the

=0

AChild Nutrition Reauthorization Act sponsored by the Physicians

Committee for Responsible Medicine.  Thanks to junk food diets, the

estimated lifetime risk for kids born in or after 2000 to contract Type

2 Diabetes (a disease doctors generally treated patients aged 30 or

more for) is 32.8% for men and 38.5% for women. Due to widespread

dietary unhealthiness, boys will lose 11.6 years from our current life

expectancy rates and girls will lose 14.3 years.The Child Nutrition

Reauthorization Act is an opportunity to get these healthy,

cost-effective foods to every school child through the school meals.

 

Learn more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alert of the Week:

Sign the Health Revolution Petition

 

 

 

 

The Organic Consumers Association is co-sponsoring a health care reform

petition, put together by our friends at Natural News, with a goal of

generating 100,000 signatures for submission to elected officials in

Washington DC. The broad scope of this petition reminds the President

and Congress that the nation's health is dependent on prevention as

well as curing disease:

 

 

Safeguarding our food supply: Banning genetically engineered foods and

known toxic ingredients such as aspartame and MSG.

 

Investing in disease prevention: Teaching the public about nutrition

and exercise with Public Service Announcements.

 

Cleaning up the environment: Investigating the impact of fluoridation

and pharmaceuticals in the public water

supply.

 

Protecting our children : Restricting junk food advertising and

encouraging the use of fresh and unprocessed foods in schools.

 

Learn more and take action

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sustainability News of the Week:

OCA at Power Shift '09, Artists for the Climate and the Capitol Climate

Action

 

 

 

 

Worldwide, industrial food production is responsible for 30% or more of

the fossil fuel use and the greenhouse gas pollution that's driving

climate change. The Organic Consumers Association has joined the

climate movement to bring the CO2 levels down below the dangerous

tipping point of 350 ppm (we're at 387 ppm right now). We support the

movement's goals to stop new coal plants, to shut down or phase out the

pre-existing 600 U.S. coal plants, to create 5-10 million new green

jobs in wind and solar sector, and to begin a deep retrofitting of the

nation's 130 million buildings to drastically cut (by 80--90%) energy

consumption. In addition, we're educating climate activists about the

potential organic agriculture has to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions

by drastically cutting fossil fuel use and sequestering greenhouse

gases in the soil. As the Rodale Institute has shown, transitioning the

world's agricultural lands to organic would allow the soil to absorb

40% of current greenhouse gas emissions.

 

On February 28, OCA's DC intern Chantal Clement spoke at Power Shift

'09, a gathering of 12,000=2

0young climate activists, on a panel about

the film Food Inc. On March 1, OCA's political director Alexis

Baden-Mayer caught up with Wendell Berry at the Chesapeake Climate

Action Network's Artists for the Climate, and on March 2, she joined

Berry and a few thousand others at the Capitol Climate Action to shut

down the coal plant that powers the U.S. Capitol.

 

Learn more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Web Videos of the Week:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wendell Berry speaks about Climate Change at Artists for the Climate

conference in DC.

 

Watch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web Forum Posting of the Week:

We only have the next 10 days to stop MANDATORY NAIS.

 

 

 

 

The following was posted in the OCA web forum by Cyn:

" Whether you're a small farmer, rancher, a person that owns just one 

animal, or just an average consumer, we are all gong to suffer for 

this. If you think food prices are high now, just wait when the NAIS

becomes mandatory. You can forget about buying healthy, free range, or

organic meat, milk  and eggs because it will become price prohibitive.

Most likely you  wont be able to get it at all, because the cost of

NAIS for small  farms and ranches will put them out of business...The

U.S. House  Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry

will hold a  hearing on NAIS on March 11. Bills to put NAIS into law,

HR875 and 

companion Senate S814, are being pushed through Congress, as

well as an Appropriations Bill with funding for NAIS. This hearing is

critical to blocking mandatory NAIS... "

 

Read more and post your own thoughts in OCA's web forum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Genetic Engineering News of the Week:

Study Shows Monsanto's GE Cotton is Killing the Soil

 

 

 

 

A new study analyzing fields planted with Monsanto's genetically

modified (GM) cotton indicates the crops are causing the soil to slowly

die. The study found that over a three year period soil

micro-organisms, which are necessary for building healthy and nutrient

rich soil, decreased dramatically in the Monsanto cotton fields.

According to the Institute for Science in Society, " At this rate, in a

decade of planting with GM cotton, or any GM crop with Bt genes in it,

could lead to total destruction of soil organisms, leaving dead soil

unable to produce food. " Learn more

 

You can make a difference. Join the Organic Consumers Association and

contact your Congresspersons today and urge them to:

 

1) Require mandatory labeling of all GE plants and animals

2) Place a moratorium on new genetically engineered plants or animals,

and

3) Protect non-GE and organic farmers by assigning liability for injury

caused by genetically engineered organisms.

 

Take action

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Headlines and Articles of the Week:

 

 

 

1) Scientists Ag

ree That Organic Farming Delivers Healthier Soil and

More Nutritious Food:

Scientists gathered last week for the annual American Association for

the Advancement of Science meeting, analyzed research from the last

decade, and determined, once again, that the path to healthy soil and

healthy food is organic farming.

 

2) How to Survive the Coming Century: Living or Dying in a World Warmed

Just Four Degrees

 

3) Support Ron Paul's Bill to End the Ban on Raw Milk:

The consumption of raw milk is legal in every U.S. state, but its sale

is currently illegal in about half of them. U.S. Congressman Ron Paul

has introduced HR 778, a bill " to authorize the interstate traffic of

unpasteurized milk and milk products that are packaged for direct human

consumption. "

 

4) Nation's Food System Nearly Broke:

" Any time a country neglects its family farm base and allows it to

become financially bankrupt, the entire economy of that country will

soon collapse. It may take generations to rebuild the farm economy and

that of the country... "

 

5) Washington State Turnaround on Organic Milk Policy Has Far-Reaching

Implications:

" Washington State announced plans last week to deny mothers the choice

to purchase organic milk for their infants and young children with

federal WIC Nutrition Program funds. This policy confuses consumers and

will set a precedent for other state agencies.... "

 

 

Let OCA sift through the media smog and bring you=2

0the top new and

analysis of the day. The OCA website has 10 or more news articles

posted each day, and a library of over 40,000 articles covering issues

including health, justice, food and farming, politics, and the

environment. Bookmark OrganicConsumers.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organic Geek News of the Week:

Do You Twitter?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The OCA is now on Twitter! We will be posting from our news feed, as

well as new campaigns, alerts, and anything else we think you'll like!

Get OCA news anywhere and everywhere you go.

 

Sign up: http://twitter.com/organicconsumer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get Involved With OCA In CA

 

 

 

 

*Learn more about OCA related action alerts and other news in CA here.

 

*Join CA discussion groups in our forum.

 

*Post events in CA on our community calendar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message From OCA Sponsor:

Consumer Tip of the Week:

How to Afford Organic During a Recession

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eden Foods Offers OCA Customers 15% Discount

 

Eden Foods is one of the few national organic food producers who goes

beyond the USDA Organic Standards. Although Eden Foods is USDA

certified, their products do not bear the USDA seal, because they say

the USDA standard really represents a " minimum standard " that Eden

Foods goes far beyond.

 

As a r to Organic Bytes, you can enjoy a 15% discount rate on

any Eden Foods pr

oducts by going here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please forward this publication to family and friends, place it on web

sites, print it, duplicate it and post it freely. Knowledge is power!

 

ORGANIC BYTES is written and edited by Craig Minowa and Ronnie Cummins

and is a publication of:

ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION

6771 South Silver Hill Drive

Finland, Minnesota 55603

Phone: (218)- 226-4164

Fax: (218) 353-7652

 

 

You are d as:

Cynthia Krall

Rocklin, CA

cyndikrall

 

 

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