Azienda Agricola La Torricella

Millions Against Monsanto

Washington Labor Unions Endorse I-522

For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page, Millions Against Monsanto page and our Washington News page.

The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO endorses Initiative 522 because everyone in our state deserves to know what is in their food before they buy it. I-522 would require foods such as breakfast cereals, chips and many other pantry staples to be labeled if they contain ingredients that have been genetically modified. The main reason that foods are genetically modified is so they can withstand exposure to pesticides and herbicides, chemicals that are known toxins.

The workers who are most vulnerable to the toxic exposure associated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are farm workers. For this reason, the United Farm Workers have taken a strong stance in favor of I-522. They are joined by the Washington State Nurses Association, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 46, and dozens of other unions, environmental groups and sustainable businesses.

Many of the organizations that support I-522 stood up to support farm workers who told their stories about the horrors of pesticide exposure in Olympia last year at the hearing on HB 2413, legislation to protect people from dangerous pesticide drift. The stories of rashes, vomiting, respiratory distress and birth defects from exposure to aerial crop dusting were grotesque and sobering. Imagine your boss dumping tons of toxic chemicals on you and your children! I-522 will give consumers the chance to decide against genetically modified organism (GMO) products that require the intensified chemical use.   

New Study: Fungicides May possibly Be Killing Bees

For connected articles and much more details, please pay a visit to OCA’s Genetic Engineering web page, Millions Against Monsanto web page and our Honey Bee Wellness page.

Bee populations are dwindling across the globe, putting 1 in 3 meals crops like apples and almonds, which rely on pollination from bees, at critical risk.

In the US, beekeepers have reported annual losses of about 33 % of their hives each and every year, a level of loss that the Agricultural Study Solutions reports could threaten the financial viability of the bee pollination market if it continues (and some beekeepers report a lot larger losses than this at upwards of 70 or, in some instances, one hundred percent).

Regardless of the growing losses, the causes of the enormous bee die-offs have yet to be firmly defined, although accumulating study is pointing to a cocktail of agricultural chemical substances as a probably main culprit.

New Study: Fungicides Might Be Killing Bees

Systemic neonicotinoid pesticides have been increasingly blamed for bee deaths (and have been implicated in a recent mass bee die-off of 25,000 bumblebees along with millions of bee deaths in Canada), prompting the European Union (EU) to ban them for two years.

Now, it seems measures that target single classes of pesticides, even though a move in the appropriate path, may be falling quick. In a very first-of-its-kind study, researchers analyzed pollen from bee hives in seven main crops and found 35 various pesticides along with high fungicide loads. Each and every sample contained, on typical, nine diverse pesticides and fungicides, even though one contained 21 various chemicals.

Moreover, when the pollen was fed to wholesome bees, they had a important decline in the capability to resist infection with the Nosema ceranae parasite, which has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp

“Labeling It Ourselves”: With Real Food Calculator, Students Take Prop 37 into Their Personal Hands

For connected articles and far more information, please pay a visit to OCA’s Genetic Engineering web page, Millions Against Monsanto web page and our California News web page.

As the defeat of Prop 37 is mourned in California and all through the food motion, students are actually enacting it, continuing the challenging function for food chain transparency that they began well prior to the Prop 37 battle entered the mainstream.

For 4 years, from coast to coast, students have created, piloted, and refined the Actual Food Calculator, the most meticulous assessment tool for food procurement obtainable. The qualifications of ‘real food’ are stringent and precise, utilizing robust third-party certifications and going the further step in verifying source agricultural and labor practices. GMOs are outright prohibited from counting below any of the Calculator’s 4 categories: community-based, fair, humane, and ecologically-sound. The Calculator’s criteria in fact enact Prop 37 on an institutional basis – with it, students are literally taking Prop 37 into their own hands.

The True Food Calculator evaluates each food item purchased along with its supply, producing a percentage indicating the proportion of the school’s food spending budget dedicated to real food. Most importantly, the Calculator is performed by students – the consumers.

This is labelling-it-your self on a banner-drop scale, as students not only investigation and track multi-million-dollar budgets, but also engage with the final results and challenge their institutions to commit to and publicize measurable goals for improvement and policies for far more just and sustainable acquiring.

Carleton College senior Lindsay Guthrie, a leader of the Real Food Calculator Operating Group, feels strongly about the knowledge students gain by conducting the Calculator, noting that “the knowledge and the relationships they create make them uniquely prepared to be food leaders who can articulate the complicated dynamics of food getting. It is about much more than auditing the industry — as Prop 37 essentially would have carried out — it’s about positioning food advocates inside the technique and taking it back.”

Debunked: six Lies That Biotech and Big Food Are Telling Voters

For related articles and far more info, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page, Millions Against Monsanto web page and our California News web page.

Considering that Oct. 1, Monsanto and the rest of the Biotech and Big Food gang have been pounding the California airwaves with practically $ 36 million worth of boldface lies and twisted truths.

Their aim? Misinform and confuse California voters into believing they’d be better off not realizing what pesticide-makers are hiding in their foods, than they would be if food suppliers had to label genetically modified foods.

The ads are getting an influence. After enjoying a 26-point lead for the past six months, the YES on 37 campaign has dropped 19 points in the polls.

But the YES team is fighting back, calling out the lies. And the liars. They’ve already forced the opposition to pull its 1st Television ad and re-shoot it after exposing the ad’s dubious spokesperson, Henry Miller, for misrepresenting himself and Stanford University.

Miller, a lengthy-time front man for Large Tobacco and Big Oil, doesn’t have an ounce of credibility. Neither do the people operating behind him. No sooner had the Stanford University kerfuffle simmered down, than the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics accused the campaign of misleading voters by falsely stating, in the Official Voter Data Manual, that the Academy opposes Prop 37. In reality, the Academy has not taken an official position on the initiative.

The American Medical Association and the World Well being Organization/United Nations also called out the NO campaign for misrepresenting their statements and positions on Prop 37.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Decade-Extended Feeding Study Shows Substantial Wellness Hazards of Genetically Engineered Foods

For connected articles and more info, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page, Millions Against Monsanto web page, and our California News page.

Scientists in Norway have released final results from experimental feeding studies carried out more than a ten-year period, and the verdict is in: If you want to steer clear of obesity, then keep away from eating genetically engineered (GE) corn, corn-based items, and animals that are fed a diet of GE grain.

&nbspAs reported by Cornucopia.org1, the project also looked at the effects on organ changes, and researchers located substantial modifications that impacted weight acquire, eating behaviors, and immune function.

How Genetically Engineered Corn and Soy Can Wreak Havoc on Your Wellness

&nbspAccording to the featured write-up:

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp “The benefits show a good link in between GE corn and obesity. Animals fed a GE corn diet regime got fatter faster and retained the weight compared to animals fed a non-GE grain diet regime. The studies were performed on rats, mice, pigs and salmon, reaching the identical benefits.

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp … Researchers discovered distinct changes to the intestines of animals fed GMOs compared to these fed non-GMOs. This confirms other research done by US researchers. Important adjustments occurred in the digestive systems of the test animals’ major organs like the liver, kidneys, pancreas, genitals and a lot more.”