“Regulating by carbon trading is like fiddling as Rome burns. Governments and the UN should impose a carbon tax on corporations, both for production – wherever their facilities are located – and for transport, which the Kyoto Protocol does not account for directly. Incentives for renewable energy are also essential. We face a stark choice: we can destroy the conditions for human life on the planet by clinging to ‘free-market’ fundamentalism, or we can secure our future by bringing commerce within the laws of ecological sustainability and social justice .” LEARN MORE

Vandana Shiva, leading author and activist in India, member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Organic Consumers Association

…and the “Natural” Foods Myth
Whole Food Market and United Natural Foods, Inc.: Undermining Our Organic Future

After four decades of hard work, the organic community has built up a $25 billion “certified organic” food and farming sector. This consumer-driven movement, under steady attack by the biotech and Big Food lobby, with little or no help from government, has managed to create a healthy and sustainable alternative to America’s disastrous, chemical and energy-intensive system of industrial agriculture.

However, the annual $50 billion natural food and products industry is threatening (more…)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been working for over five years to force a National Animal Identification System (NAIS) on American farmers and animal owners. NAIS is designed to identify and track each and every individual livestock and poultry animal, even those owned by family farmers, hobby farmers, homesteaders, and pet owners. USDA is seeking to engage stakeholders and producers to hear not only their concerns about the National Animal Identification System, but also potential or feasible solutions to those concerns. The information and ideas gathered will assist Secretary Vilsack in making decisions about the future direction of animal traceability in the United States. The deadline to submit comments to the USDA is August 3, 2009.

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Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps filed its Second Amended Complaint today in San Francisco Superior Court against falsely labeled “organic” personal care companies that use non-organic pesticide-intensive agricultural and/or petrochemical material to make the main cleansing and moisturizing ingredients in their products. Defendants include, among others: Hain-Celestial (Jason “Pure, Natural & Organic; Avalon “Organics”); Levlad (Nature’s Gate “Organics”); Kiss My Face “Organic”; YSL Beaute Inc (Stella McCartney’s “100% Organic Active Ingredients”), Country Life (Desert Essence “Organics”); Giovanni “Organic Cosmetics”; and the certifiers Ecocert and OASIS.

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Dean Foods’ WhiteWave division has announced it will release a new non-organic “natural” version of its popular Horizon dairy products. Horizon is the largest organic dairy brand in the marketplace, and many consumers will likely alternatively purchase the Horizon “natural (conventional) ” brand at a premium and at a time when organic dairy farmers are already experiencing record losses.

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