This week, we had to make the tough decision to furlough our entire staff to part-time pay while we figure out how to continue our necessary work with half our budget.

We are several hundred thousand dollars short of our annual operating expenses, so we are launching a month-long fundraising campaign to bridge the gap and position our organization to continue our work for the remainder of the year and beyond.

It’s no secret that it’s been a tough few years for grassroots nonprofits like ours. We’re reaching out to you today in the recent wake of OCA losing our major funder. We are facing a serious financial shortfall that threatens our ability to continue the work you count on us for—mobilizing consumers to make their voices count, educating, advocating, and organizing for the right to healthy food, medicines, soils, clean water, and a biodiverse, thriving planet.

Gratefully, we have an incredible network of dedicated and passionate organic consumers and activists like you to reach out to. If you are able to give $10 more than your usual annual contribution—and everyone else reading this does the same, including those who don’t usually give—we can continue without making massive cuts. Our goal for this spring and summer is to raise $300,000, and if 2,400 dedicated donors from our millions strong network contributed $25 per month, we could completely close this year’s funding gap.

In the organic and regenerative agriculture advocacy space, our organization leads with unmatched reach and quantitative impact. Our weekly newsletter reaches 350,000 email subscribers, and our social media platforms collectively engage over two million followers. Our extensive network consistently drives campaigns that result in policy shifts, increased public awareness, and measurable outcomes.

Making a donation is a powerful way to stand with the movement. Many in our community contribute through activism rather than financial means—and we deeply value their commitment. For those who can give, your support makes it possible to empower grassroots advocates who are leading change in their communities, often without the means to donate themselves. Through your generosity, OCA provides these changemakers with the education, tools, and resources they need to amplify their voices and drive real impact.

Since 1998, the dedicated staff of the Organic Consumers Association has campaigned to safeguard organic standards while fighting the worst forms of industrial agriculture. We’re beating back Tyson’s factory farms, Monsanto (now Bayer)’s GMOs, ChemChina’s pesticides, and sewage sludge dumped on farmland that’s contaminated with DuPont’s forever chemicals. With successful consumer lawsuits, we have taken on major brands like General Mills, Smithfield, Ben & Jerry’s, and D’Artagnan—sending a clear message that misleading consumers won’t be tolerated.

Organic Consumers Association is the reason why “Monsanto” became synonymous with “evil,” why Bayer’s neonicotinoids are known to be what’s killing the bees, why glyphosate-exposed cancer victims were able to win billion-dollar judgments, and why more people every day demand regenerative organic food raised on farms with high standards for workers’ rights and animal welfare.

We haven’t done this alone. This movement is bigger than any one organization, it takes farmers, doctors, scientists, community organizers, litigators, and people like you to create change. But we’ve been doing this longer and reaching more people than any group working on these causes.

If we don’t raise emergency funds now, we’ll be forced to severely scale back core campaigns and slow the momentum we’ve built together.

Our future depends on your support. Please make a donation today.

Your donations, now more than ever, are what keep us going—allowing us to fight back, speak out, and stand strong for what we believe are some of the most pressing issues of our times.

Over the past decade, donors like you have enabled us to not only lead the organic movement with purpose but also expand our impact globally. Through our partnership with sister organizations—Organic Consumers Association, Regeneration International, and Vía Orgánica—we’ve strengthened our structure by pooling resources and expertise. This collaboration allows each organization to achieve its unique goals while advancing our shared mission of creating a healthier world.

Regeneration International

In 2015, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) brought together 60 individuals from 21 countries in Costa Rica to launch Regeneration International—a global network committed to advancing regenerative organic agriculture. Since then, Regeneration International has expanded to include more than 650 partners worldwide, all working to promote regenerative farming skills in their communities. Each year, RI hosts the widely attended People’s Food Summit, where partners share impactful skills and inspiring success stories from their regions.

We are excited to announce that we have just launched the new Regeneration International certification standards, whose goal is to facilitate a paradigm shift from the current degenerative systems to ones that regenerate soil, biodiversity, climate, community, fairness, care, and health. We are in the process of certifying our first farm now!

Our Regenerative Farm Map is the result of years of collaboration, helping people connect with local farmers and producers. New farms are added weekly across the U.S. and Canada, and we’re now expanding our efforts worldwide.

Vía Orgánica

In 2009, OCA launched our Mexican sister organization, Vía Orgánica, which recently made national news for its role in the country’s decision to constitutionally protect native corn varieties from contamination by banning genetically modified corn. Vía Orgánica director Mercedes López was a major force behind the victory. Mercedes is an organizer of the No Corn, No Country campaign and its class action lawsuit that has kept GMO corn from being planted in Mexico. Her leadership is celebrated in the new documentary Seeds of Sovereignty.

In 2014, Vía Orgánica established an agricultural school and research center to provide university-level training in regenerative organic agriculture to students from across Mexico. Vía Orgánica is proof of the superiority of alternatives to chemical-intensive farming practices. We’re empowering the next generation of farmers by focusing our efforts on people without much money but who still have access to land. By teaching them regenerative organic techniques adapted to the warm and dry climate, we’re sharing the tools needed to revitalize their land, stabilize their local economies, and increase their communities’ food self-sufficiency.

The most promising model Vía Orgánica has developed with Regeneration International and OCA is the Billion Agave Project, which you can read about in the book Ronnie was writing when he passed away, The Regenerative Agriculture Solution.

One way to keep the staff of Vía Orgánica going is to come stay at the farm school just outside San Miguel de Allende. For $100 per person per night, we will put you up in one of our eco-cabins and feed you three delicious, farm-fresh organic meals each day. You can see a working regenerative organic farm in action and have the option of adding on any of the 20 workshops we regularly offer students who visit the farm school.

North Shore AgroEcology Center

In 2017, OCA created the North Shore AgroEcology Center in the Baptism River Valley of Finland, Minnesota, where our U.S. operations are based. This research, education, and demonstration farm focuses on regenerative agriculture principles and practices suited to northern climates. The site incorporates fruit and nut trees, mushrooms, bees, a market garden, sugar maple woodland development, medicinal herbs, hügelkultur, a deep-winter greenhouse, and a climate-forward tree seedling nursery. The Center hosts farm tours, workshops, and other educational opportunities throughout the season.

Our Goals

Our goal for the coming year is to deepen our connection with grassroots groups driving change in their communities. We’ve learned so much from everyone in our network, and we’re committed to offering even more responsive and robust support moving forward.

We stay adaptable with our action plans, always aiming to be as effective as possible in our core mission areas. We keep you updated on the latest news and research, providing you with ways to take action. One of our greatest strengths is our capacity to react quickly to emerging news and policy shifts. This allows us to quickly mobilize, sending out action alerts and articles—especially when we need to counter misinformation from mainstream media.

As an OCA supporter you know our work on these issues is more critical than ever. We’ve made significant strides in promoting organic and regenerative agriculture, but we can’t do it without your support. Our future depends on your generosity. Will you please join us in this fight for a healthier world?

With gratitude and solidarity,

Rose Welch
Organic Consumers Co-Founder & National Director

Ercilia Sahores
Organic Consumers International Director