Guardian staff, The Guardian:

“PFAS have been used in manufacturing and added to consumer products for decades. They are used across dozens of industries and in a huge range of consumer products because they are so effective at making items resistant to water, stains and grease. Your non-stick frying pan, for example, probably uses PFAS to make the “non-stick” coating.

PFAS can be found in non-stick cookware, fire retardants, stain and water repellents, some furniture, waterproof clothes, children’s textiles, pizza boxes and takeout containers, food packaging, carpets and textiles, rubbers and plastics, electronics and even dental floss.
PFAS are everywhere. While there is concern about these chemicals, the biggest risk and strongest predictor of having high levels of PFAS in your body appears to be living in proximity to contaminated water.

Regular exposure to the galaxy of chemicals we encounter in our daily lives potentially poses health hazards, but about 90,000 human-made chemicals now exist, and we simply don’t know how daily exposure to them affects our health.

A shorthand for the properties of some PFAS is PBT: persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic. Some chemicals classed as PFAS have been linked to health problems including high cholesterol, fertility issues, immune system disorders, kidney disease, birth defects, some cancers and a range of other serious health problems.”

Learn more about PFAS, including how they’re absorbed through the skin, and steps you can take to avoid them

Read “3M, Mohawk Hid Forever Chemical Dangers That Led to Health Crisis”

Send this letter (or modify it to write your own) to your State Legislator:

Dear [State Legislator],

Maine and Minnesota have passed broad bans on products containing PFAS.

Maine’s PFAS ban includes a prohibition on the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer (the industry name for it is “biosolids”). A few other states, notably Michigan, are testing sewage sludge for PFAS.

Every state in the nation should do the same.

Chemical companies like DuPont and 3M have covered up evidence of the dangerous human health and environmental impacts of PFAS since the 1960s.

Today, overwhelming research links PFAS to a wide range of health problems, including kidney, testicular, bladder, and prostate cancer, as well as developmental, immune, reproductive, and hormonal dysfunction.

Chemical companies are replacing older PFAS with other chemicals in the PFAS family. Unfortunately, these replacements, such as GenX, act a lot like older PFAS, and studies show that they can present similar hazards. Short-chain perfluoroalkyl sulfonates and perfluoroalkyl carboxylates adversely affect rat livers and thyroid hormones just like their long-chain homologues do.

PFAS do not break down naturally and bioaccumulate in the environment and our bodies.

It’s time to ban all PFAS and set to work cleaning up the water and remediating the land. Some plants, including hemp, have been shown to suck PFAS out of the soil, a process known as “phytoremediation.”

For more information, please contact the National Conference of Environmental Legislators: http://www.ncelenviro.org/issue/pfas/

Thank you for your attention to this important issue.


[Your Name]



TAKE ACTION NOW: Tell Your State Legislators to Ban Toxic PFAS!

By Emily Kwong, Regina G. Barber, Rachel Carlson & Rebecca Ramirez, NPR:

“In five years, the bird-collecting board game Wingspan sold 2 million copies. In the world of board gaming, that’s a blockbuster hit.

This fall, the game’s creator, Elizabeth Hargrave, is hoping people will fall in love with another icon of the natural world: mushrooms.

Undergrove is co-designed by Hargrave and Mark Wootton and published by Alderac Entertainment Group. The game is a meditation on the mycorrhizal relationships between trees and fungi.

Across 48 hand-painted mushroom tiles, players assume the role of mature Douglas fir trees. Players compete on a cooperative landscape, “partnering” with mushrooms to trade carbon for nutrients.”

Read more

Watch: “Lessons From Fungi on Markets and Economics” by Toby Kiers

“Resource inequality is one of our greatest challenges, but it’s not unique to humans. Like us, mycorrhizal fungi that live in plant and tree roots strategically trade, steal and withhold resources, displaying remarkable parallels to humans in their capacity to be opportunistic (and sometimes ruthless) — all in the absence of cognition. In a mind-blowing talk, evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers shares what fungi networks and relationships reveal about human economies, and what they can tell us about inequality.”

Christopher Damman & The Conversation US write for Scientific Amercian:

“Imagine a world where food on grocery store shelves is ranked by its healthiness, with simple, research-backed scores. In some countries, that world already exists.

Nutrient profiling systems, or NPSs, support clear front-of-package labels that assess food quality based on nutrient content. Nutri-Score in France is a rainbow-colored system grading foods from A to E. Health Star Rating in Australia is a five-star system rating foods in half-star increments. And the Traffic Light System in the U.K. labels nutrient levels as green, yellow or red.

In contrast, the U.S. lacks a front-of-package ranking system for food. Food Compass was recently developed out of Tufts University to help address this gap and shortcomings in other systems. But it uses nutritional information not currently available for most foods and consumers.

Each nutrient profiling system uses different scoring algorithms, but most assign positive points to nutrients and foods that are typically underconsumed, such as fiber, fruits and vegetables. Conversely, negative points are given to overconsumed nutrients like sugar, saturated fat and sodium, which are often added to processed foods. These points are combined into a single score: higher scores indicate healthier foods, while lower scores indicate less healthy options.”



Learn more about how nutrient profiling systems work

WWNO – New Orleans Public Radio | By Madeline Heim (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel):

“If she closes her eyes, Danelle Larson can still remember how the stretch of Mississippi River in front of her looked as recent as a decade ago: nothing but open, muddy water.

Today, it’s covered with impressively tall and thick beds of wild rice.

Larson, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and Alicia Carhart, Mississippi River vegetation specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, surveyed the plants by airboat in mid-September. Summer floods on the river delayed growth somewhat, but the tall green shoots still waved in the breeze in almost every direction off the shores of Goose Island County Park near La Crosse.

‘It’s one of the most dramatic changes on the upper Mississippi,’ Larson said. ‘It’s everywhere.’

In the past several years, wild rice has exploded on this part of the upper river, particularly on a section of it called Pool 4, near Alma, and Pool 8, near La Crosse. Historical records show it was common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but poor water quality and other problems caused widespread aquatic vegetation die-offs in the 1980s.

But what’s driving the substantial increase in growth is still largely a mystery.”



Read about the once muddy water: “Now, it’s pretty crystal clear. The plants seem to love it too.”

Together, we can create a healthier, more sustainable food system for all. But we can’t do it without your help.

We need your support to continue this critical work. Every dollar counts in our fight against Big Ag’s stranglehold on our democracy. Your donation will help us mobilize millions of consumers, pressure lawmakers to take action, and build a better food system for all.

As our co-founder Ronnie Cummins always said: ‘The food movement is the biggest, most influential social movement on the planet.’

Join us in this revolution!

Please donate to OCA today and help us create a world where organic, regenerative, locally sourced food is the norm, not the exception!

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

Make a lasting impact through monthly giving, stock donations, planned giving, and IRA charitable distributions

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola:

“STORY-AT-A-GLANCE

* Biological dentistry takes a holistic approach, considering overall health and using advanced technologies like 3D computer beam computer tomography (CBCT) scans to provide more accurate diagnoses and treatments for dental issues

* Mercury fillings pose significant health risks. Proper removal by a biological dentist is crucial to prevent complications like kidney function compromise and hormonal imbalances

* Modern biological dentistry uses lasers instead of drills, reducing pain and the need for anesthesia. Ceramic fillings are preferred over composite resins due to their longevity and safety

* Dental cavitations, areas of chronic infection often caused by improper tooth removal or root canals, are identified using CBCT scans and thermography, allowing for targeted treatment”



Learn about the role of a biological dentist compared to a conventional dentist

Watch: “World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry” by Charlie Brown, JD

“Representing dentists in legal actions in a dozen states, Attorney Brown shredded the gag rule which prevented dentists from advocating, advising, and advertising mercury-free dentistry. He led initiatives for consumer facts sheets, notably in California. He sued and beat the US Food and Drug Administration in court, leading first to classification, then ultimately to the FDA Amalgam Safety Communication.”

Check out the map: Global Overview of Countries Phasing Out Dental Amalgam

USDA, Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory: Mandan, ND:

“Interpretive Summary: There is a growing interest in beef from animals finished on pasture. This research conducted three types of chemical analyses relevant to nutrition to study more than 1500 compounds in the meat of Black Angus cattle from two common commercial US beef finishing systems (grass-fed on pasture and grain-fed in a feedlot). We found that 907 out of 1575 profiled compounds differed in abundance between grass-fed and grain-fed beef samples. Grass-fed beef had higher levels of potentially beneficial compounds, while grain-fed beef had higher levels of other potentially beneficial compounds. This indicates that feeding some grain (by-products) could be beneficial. Grass-fed beef samples also had lower markers of oxidative stress and improved mitochondrial function compared to grain-fed animals. Two potential metabolites of antibiotics were only observed in grain-fed beef. Pasture-finished cattle displayed improved markers of metabolic health and potentially beneficial compounds for consumers. Our findings, however, do not indicate that grain-fed beef is unhealthy. It remains to be determined in randomized controlled human feeding trials whether observed differences have an appreciable effect on human health.”



Read about how as environmental and health concerns of beef production and consumption mount, there is growing interest in agroecological production methods, including rotational grazing and finishing beef cattle on pastures with phytochemically diverse grasses, forbs, and/or shrubs

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola:

“STORY-AT-A-GLANCE:

* Glyphosate exposure is linked to increased neuroinflammation and Alzheimer’s-like pathology in mice, suggesting a detrimental impact on brain health

* Aminomethylphosphonic acid, a metabolite of glyphosate, persists in brain tissue long after exposure, indicating long-term effects

* Over 80% of the U.S. population has detectable levels of glyphosate in their urine, highlighting widespread exposure

* Fasting for less than 8 hours is associated with higher glyphosate levels, revealing dietary habits influence exposure

* Children and adolescents demonstrate higher glyphosate levels compared to adults, raising significant concerns about potential long-term health impacts on younger populations”

Learn about the widespread Glyphosate exposure within the U.S. population, and more

TAKE ACTION: Make Your State the First to Ban Monsanto’s Roundup Weedkiller!

Zamaria Ball writes for Grice Connect:

“Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Edie Grice, a seasoned gardener and herb enthusiast. Her insights and tips on herb gardening have been invaluable, enriching my understanding and appreciation for these versatile plants. Edie emphasized the importance of regular pruning and creative uses for herbs, inspiring me to experiment further with my rosemary.

When talking with Edie, I learned about her flourishing herb garden, which thrives under the summer sun.

‘In my garden, herbs thrive, growing lush and vibrant,’ Edie shared, emphasizing her passion for cultivation.

Edie’s favorite herbs include basil, sage, oregano, and rosemary, each contributing unique flavors and aromas to her culinary creations.

‘Among them, my rosemary stands out, growing so vigorously that it now resides in its own pot, towering at four feet tall,’ she explained. This impressive growth not only showcases her gardening skills but also provides her with an abundance of fresh ingredients.”

Learn why Edie’s tips and enthusiasm for gardening are a testament to the benefits of cultivating herbs at home, encouraging others to enjoy the fruits of their labor in the kitchen

We have a favor to ask if you are on Facebook: Can you help us amplify our message?

At the Organic Consumers Association, we are working tirelessly to raise consumer concerns, bring important education about food and health, and protect consumer rights. Together, with your support, we have made a stunning impact on how we understand the connections between food, health, and agricultural practices. With over 2 million followers on our OCA and Millions Against Monsanto Facebook pages combined, the outreach we are able to do there is a tremendous way for us to activate and educate people who care about these issues.

With your help, we can spread the word even farther. Please take a moment to make sure you are following our pages, then add us to your favorites. Doing this will indicate to Facebook that there are many people who support the work we are doing and that you want to see more from us.

Instructions:

* Go to the Organic Consumers Association Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/organicconsumers

* Click the “Follow” button near the top of our page

* The “Follow” button will then read “Following”… click the button again and it will open up a menu

* In the menu, choose the “Favorites” option

* Click the blue “Update” button at the bottom of the menu

* NOTE: If you are using a mobile device, you may have to click “Feed” in the “Following” menu in order to see the “Favorites” option

* Repeat the instructions above with our Millions Against Monsanto Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/millionsagainst

And that’s it! You have now added us to your favorites and helped our message reach more people! Thank you!

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