For the sake of both babies and bees and our entire planetary health, please send a message to your state legislators to ban dangerous neonic seed treatments!

“Research links neonics to neurological, developmental, and reproductive harms, including birth defects of the heart and brain,” according to the National Resources Defense Council.

A 2024 study found that environmental exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides is linked to preterm birth. This is alarming, given that over 95 percent of pregant women have neonics in their bodies, with the highest levels in Hispanic women, and levels are on the rise.

Beware: drinking water treatment does not remove neonics from water.

What began with the collapse of bee colonies has become a full-on insect apocalypse that scientists say is “tearing apart the tapestry of life”, devastating bird populations, harming deer and rabbits, impacting human health and threatening the future of foods that rely on pollinators.

The U.S. agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to bees than it was 25 years ago and crop yields for apples, cherries and blueberries are already being reduced by a lack of pollinators.

TAKE ACTION: Ask your state legislator to support a ban on bee-killing neonic seed treatments!

NRDC.org, Fact Sheet:

“Research links neonics to neurological, developmental, and reproductive harms, including birth defects of the heart and brain. This is deeply concerning because at least half of the U.S. population is regularly exposed to neonics, with children facing higher exposure rates. In fact, a study of 171 pregnant women in the United States found that over 95 percent had neonics in their bodies, with the
highest levels in Hispanic women,and detection levels were on the rise. Standard drinking water treatment does not remove neonics from water, so households that cannot afford or do not have access to extra filtration devices face a greater risk of finding neonics in their tap.”


Read “Neonics: The Toxic Truth”

Also read “Neonicotinoid Insecticides: Exploring Links to Preterm Birth”

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola:

“STORY-AT-A-GLANCE

* Modern farming practices and seed hybridization have significantly reduced the nutritional content of fruits and vegetables over the past 60 years, with average declines of 16% for calcium, 27% for vitamin C and 50% for iron

* The focus on higher yields, longer shelf life and visual appeal in crop development has led to a trade-off in nutrient density, particularly evident in hybrid tomatoes compared to heirloom varieties

* Four multinational corporations control two-thirds of the global seed market, leading to loss of biodiversity, farmer dependence on hybrid seeds and exploitative labor practices in seed production

* The nutrient decline in produce contributes to increased risk of deficiencies, reduced antioxidant intake and rising chronic diseases, leading to greater reliance on dietary supplements

* Solutions include supporting seed banks, practicing regenerative agriculture, increasing consumer awareness and implementing policies that prioritize soil health, protect farmers’ rights and enforce fair labor practices in seed production”

Learn more and watch the documentary

By Issy Ronald, CNN:

“The warm, damp environments of your showerhead and toothbrush are the perfect breeding ground for microbes, and a new study has identified hundreds of viruses that live there, showing the vast biodiversity to be found in the average home.

These viruses, however, are not the kind that will give you the common cold or flu (or worse). Called bacteriophages, or phages for short, they are the natural enemy of bacteria. Each tiny, tripod-looking phage has evolved to hunt, attack and gobble up a specific bacterial species.

‘The number of viruses that we found is absolutely wild,’ Erica Hartmann, an associate professor at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering who led the study, said in a statement. ‘We found many viruses that we know very little about and many others that we have never seen before. It’s amazing how much untapped biodiversity is all around us.’

Researchers from the university studied samples of biofilms – the glue-like communities of microorganisms attached to a surface – from 34 toothbrushes and 92 showerheads to reach their conclusions, which were published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes.”



Read more

Beyond Pesticides reports:

“According to Senator Booker, “School meals should be a child’s safest source of nourishment, not another source of toxic exposure.”



The overwhelmingly large body of scientific findings on the adverse effects of pesticides in the food that children eat in schools and generally. For example, last week Beyond Pesticides commented on EPA’s Draft Human Health and/or Ecological Risk Assessments for Several Pesticides, citing scientific findings that, “Neonicotinoids have been found to affect mammalian nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) [which] are of critical importance to human brain function, especially during development and for memory, cognition, and behavior.” (See more here.)

The range of adverse health outcomes associated with pesticide exposure extends well beyond neurotoxic effects to cancer, immune system and respiratory effects, diabetes, endocrine disrupting effects that affect organ function, and more. For a catalog of the range of adverse effects, see Pesticide-Induced Disease Database. 

Safe School Meals Act (SSMA) identifies four objectives:

* Directing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set safe limits for heavy metals in school meals. The limits will be based on a threshold of reasonable certainty of no harm to school-age children from aggregate exposure. If the agencies fail to set these limits within two years, the limits will automatically be set to non-detectable until the agencies can determine a safe level of exposure.

* Banning glyphosate, paraquat, and organophosphate pesticide residues in school meals. Certified organic farms would automatically meet this requirement.

* Banning PFAS, phthalates, lead, and bisphenols in food packaging in school meals.

* Directing FDA to reevaluate food additives with known carcinogenic, reproductive, or developmental health harms, such as artificial food dyes, and ban their use in school meals prior to the completion of FDA’s analysis.”

Learn more

“It is ironic to think that man might determine his own future by something so seemingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray.” – Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

We need bees in order to grow food, or at least some of it. Yet the food–GMO food, drenched in neonics–we are growing is killing the bees.

It’s not just the bees that are dying. Butterfly and bird populations are in decline, too.

And it’s not just the neonicotinoids that are to blame. Other herbicides and pesticides, especially Monsanto’s Roundup, used to grow GMO crops–and also used to contain (kill) weeds in cities and home gardens –are decimating pollinators, fish and wildlife, and now we are finding they threaten humans too.

When in 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, her seminal work on the impact of chemicals on our environment, she probably didn’t imagine a world in which millions of tons of evermore powerful chemicals are used not just to eliminate unwanted weeds and insects, but to grow the majority of the corn, soy, beets and other crops that are found in more than 80 percent of our processed foods, and are fed to an equally high percentage of the animals that eventually enter the human food supply.

But here we are. Will we change course, and reverse the damage? Will we save the bees, birds, butterflies–and ourselves–by driving GMOs, neonics and Roundup off the market?

Please help us work towards transitioning our industrial food system away from a toxic degenerative model to organic/regenerative practices that will create a healthy environment and a future we can look forward to.

Make a tax-deductible donation to Organic Consumers Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Make a tax-deductible donation to Regeneration International, our international sister organization

Have you considered making a grant request from your Donor-Advised Fund?

Real Organic Podcast:

Anthony Suau has been building bridges and telling stories, spreading the word about how crucial it is that we turn around the degenerative agricultural system that dominates global food production through his groundbreaking film, “Organic Rising”.

He has been a huge supporter and ally of the Organic Consumers Association and is someone who has sought out and brought together so many people and organizations who are fighting for an organic healthy world.

He is undoubtably a true organic hero!

“Award-winning filmmaker Anthony Suau sits down with Dave to talk about his documentary Organic Rising. Although he set out to make a short, ten minute piece about organic food and farming practices, he quickly realized the deep need Americans have for clarity around the role of chemicals in our food system and the outcomes they cause. Anthony Suau is a filmmaker and photojournalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, New York Times Magazine, and Life. He has published five books, including photo essays documenting the fall of the Berlin Wall and war imagery in Iraq. Originally from Peoria, Illinois, his lifelong relationships to conventional (chemical) farmers allowed him the access and ability to showcase various differences between organic and chemical agricultural practices. His film Organic Rising was released on October 1, 2023.”

Watch Dave Chapman of The Real Organic Project interview him here

Jonathan Matthews & Claire Robinson write for GM Watch:

“Covert PR operations involving the secret profiling of over 3,000 people and organizations considered “critics” of the pesticide industry recently made headlines around the world. The secret profiles, including ones on GMWatch and its co-directors, are said to include private and personal, even intimate, information that lawyers say violate privacy laws in several countries and regions, such as the UK, the European Union, Kenya and India. They also include false, misleading and malicious claims (examples below), clearly designed to damage the reputations of those targeted.

This was all uncovered during a year-long in-depth investigation led by Lighthouse Reports, a Netherlands-based consortium of journalists that work on collaborative public interest investigations with the world’s leading media. The main breakthrough came when the investigators managed to penetrate the private social network, known as Bonus Eventus, where the profiles were being shared. This enabled them to not only access these secret dossiers, but to identify the Bonus Eventus network’s members and work out exactly who had done the profiling.

In response to the news, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an organization which defends independent journalism and fights against propaganda and disinformation, has called for all those involved in the profiling to be brought to justice.”

Read more

The best-kept secret in today’s world is that solutions to some of our most pressing issues—food insecurity, deforestation, overgrazing, water scarcity, rural poverty, forced migration—lie in adopting, improving, and scaling up organic and regenerative agriculture best practices.

The Regenerative Agriculture Solution starts with the story of how two brothers—Jose and Gilberto Flores—are at the leading edge of this approach, pioneering the use of the previously discarded leaves of the prodigious agave plant to regenerate agricultural soils, reduce erosion, and improve water capture.

When Ronnie Cummins, the cofounder of Organic Consumer Association (OCA) and Regeneration International, met the Flores brothers in 2019 and witnessed their revolutionary agave agroforestry system, he knew they were onto something important.

Cummins had spent decades studying the potential and pitfalls of organic and regenerative agriculture and knew best practices when he saw them. He started to write a book about Flores’s brother and other visionary people, such as Dr Vandana Shiva, Allan Savory, and John Liu, who started landscape-scale regeneration projects. The scientific data was even more convincing, suggesting that these projects—and others like it—could revolutionize how we understand the climate catastrophe.

Sadly, Cummins passed away in April 2023, in the midst of working on the book. Not to leave this work unfinished, Ronnie’s widow and OCA cofounder, Rose, called on their friend, colleague, and collaborator, Regeneration International’s cofounder André Leu, to complete the work and place the Flores brothers’ breakthroughs in the broader context of regenerative agriculture solutions to the world’s many interlocking ecological crises.

The result is The Regenerative Agriculture Solution, a book that shows how regenerating our forests, rangelands, and farming ecosystems can cool our planet, restore the climate, and enrich our communities.


Learn more and order the book here

HaberDash, Medium:

“Not all baking soda is created equal, and understanding the differences can be crucial for both effectiveness and safety. The primary distinctions lie in production methods and sourcing.

* Natural vs. Synthetic: Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, can be derived naturally from mineral deposits or produced synthetically. Natural baking soda is mined from trona ore, which is found in abundance in places like the Green River Basin in Wyoming. This process is considered more environmentally friendly and produces a purer product. Synthetic baking soda, on the other hand, is created through a chemical process involving ammonia and carbon dioxide. While both types are chemically identical, those concerned with sustainability often prefer naturally sourced baking soda.

* Purity and Additives: The purity of baking soda can vary depending on the source and production process. Food-grade baking soda is typically more refined and pure, making it suitable for cooking, personal care, and medicinal uses. Some industrial-grade baking soda may contain impurities or additives that are not suitable for consumption or skin contact. Always check labels and choose baking soda that is labeled as food-grade for safe use in personal care and health applications.

* Environmental Impact: Natural baking soda sourced from trona ore is often considered to have a lower environmental impact compared to synthetic production. The mining process of trona is relatively simple and has fewer environmental drawbacks compared to the chemical synthesis route.”


Read this in-depth exploration of the truths behind these myths and learn why baking soda remains a powerhouse in natural living

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