Spring Back

Organic Bytes Newsletter - May 5, 2022

May 05, 2022

Beyond the Madness and Sadness

Given the magnitude of the current crisis, we at OCA believe we need to expand our redemptive message of Regeneration to encompass, not only the next stage of organic food and farming and land use, but also our political policies and practices. We must step up our efforts, not only championing organic food and farming, but international peace and economic justice, civil liberties, participatory democracy, and regenerating health, both mental and physical. In the midst of political corruption and opportunism, media censorship and fear-mongering, it’s essential to focus on positive ideas and solutions.

Our once hoped-for global community of nations appear to be lurching toward endless war and chaos. The Big Pharma, Deep State cover up of the lab origins of COVID, rampant comorbidities (induced by Big Food, Big Ag, and corrupt government policies and subsidies), media fear-mongering, war-mongering, censorship, scientific fraud, Big Pharma profiteering, lockdowns, authoritarian mandates, and alarming numbers of deaths and injuries from rushed to market “gene therapy” vaccines continue.

Degenerative food, farming, land use, and finance are still the rule rather than the exception. Politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, find it easier to demonize one another rather than sit down, listen to their constituents, and find common ground. War is raging in Ukraine as well as many other nations, cheered on, not just by the military-industrial complex, but by leading war hawks in both parties. Poverty, suffering, and mental anxiety, exacerbated by the pandemic and the lockdowns, are rampant. The great web of biodiversity is unraveling. The climate is in free fall. Our children and the most vulnerable are forced to struggle harder than ever, just to survive and maintain a positive outlook.

Read Ronnie's blog post: Regeneration: Beyond the Madness and Sadness

But in order to carry out a Regeneration Revolution we need your help.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

But if you haven’t donated recently, please consider giving us a donation today.

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

Support Citizens Regeneration Lobby, OCA’s 501(c)(4) lobbying arm (not tax-deductible)

Donate $100 or more and we’ll send you a copy of Ronnie’s new book, The Truth About COVID-19, or his 2020 book, Grassroots Rising

Click here for more ways to support our work

BILLION AGAVE PROJECT

A Global Game-Changer for Arid Lands and the Climate

Rob Verkerk writes in the Defender:

• Forty percent of the Earth’s land area is arid or semi-arid, much of it degraded and very challenging to farm. Increasing amounts are turning to desert.
• This land supports one-third of the human population of our planet and the majority experience extreme poverty.
• Agroforestry systems are widely seen to be key to regenerating this land and capturing carbon from the atmosphere.
• Could the vast agricultural waste from the [hundreds of millions of] agave plants processed annually by the Mexican tequila [and mescal] industry point to a viable solution for people, livestock and the planet?

Watch Rob’s powerful interview with Ronnie Cummins at the Via Organica Ranch

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

U.S. Farmland Falling Under Foreign Ownership

Civil Eats reports:

“Foreign investment in U.S. cropland has nearly tripled in the past decade, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data. The total cropland controlled by foreign interests in 2020 was 10.9 million acres, up from 4.1 million acres in 2010… Foreign investors own more than just cropland. Overall, they own or lease nearly 37.6 million acres of agricultural land, including forests and pastures. That is an area slightly larger than the state of Illinois and makes up 2.9 percent of all privately held agricultural land in the U.S. This is up from a total of 24.2 million acres in 2010, according to the USDA.”

ENVIRONMENT

40% of the Earth’s Land Has Been Degraded by Humans

Eco-Watch reports:

“Human activity has degraded as much as 40 percent of the world’s land, impacting half of the people on Earth and putting about half of global gross domestic product at risk.
That’s the stark finding of the Global Land Outlook 2, a new report from the UN’s Council to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). With more than 1,000 references and the support of 21 partner organizations, the publication is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the state of the world’s land, and it offers both a dire warning and promising solutions… In a world of profligate consumerism, global supply chains, and a growing population, land resources – our soil, water, and biodiversity – are rapidly being depleted. As a finite resource and our most valuable natural asset, we can no longer afford to take land for granted. We must move to a crisis footing to address the challenge and make land the focus,” UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw wrote in a foreword to the new report.”

Learn more: Up to 40% of the World’s Land Is Degraded by Humans, UN Report Warns

CDC WATCH

Public Losing Faith in the CDC

Carolyn Hendler reports:

“Since the start of the pandemic, the public’s trust in U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has waned. It is now widely accepted that the agency has lost a significant amount of credibility. An NBC News poll conducted in January 2022 showed that only 44 percent of Americans trust the CDC while 43 percent do not trust the agency. Another poll by Pew Research conducted in February showed that 60 percent of Americans were confused by the CDC’s changing guidelines for COVID-19…This is in clear contrast to public opinion prior to the coronavirus pandemic when a 2019 poll showed that more than 80 percent of Americans viewed the CDC favorably.”

Learn more: Public Trust in the CDC Waning

GAIN-OF-FUNCTION

Virologists Oppose Restrictions on Their Reckless Weaponization of Viruses

Emily Kopp writes for US Right to Know:

“Virologists pushed back on the possibility of tighter regulation of viruses tweaked in the lab to be more lethal at a public meeting Wednesday.
An enhanced pandemic potential pathogen is a virus or microbe that has gained increased transmissibility — capacity to spread from person to person and reverberate throughout a population — or virulence — capacity to cause serious disease.
Experiments that are reasonably anticipated to generate deadlier pathogens are supposed to receive heightened oversight from the Department of Health and Human Services under what is nicknamed the HHS ‘P3CO,’ short for the pandemic potential pathogen committee.
Though established just a few years ago, critics say the committee’s work is hidden from public view, suffers from glaring loopholes and needs a reboot. Work that contributes to vaccine development or results from viral surveillance efforts in nature is exempted from this extra layer of review, for example.”

Learn more: Virologists Push Back on More Regulation of Viruses Made More Lethal in the Lab

FARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Organic Farming is Carbon Farming

IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) Europe writes:

"IFOAM Organics Europe has urged the need for a holistic and multi-dimensional approach to carbon farming, focusing not only on the amount of carbon stored in soils, but also on biodiversity protection and the systemic transition of farming systems towards agroecology.
Jan Plagge, IFOAM Organics Europe president, said: 'Practices that are common in organic farming are already contributing to higher soil carbon stocks on organic farms, while providing benefits for soil health, water quality and biodiversity protection. Organic farming should therefore be recognised as a carbon farming practice.'"

WATCH OCA'S LIVE BROADCAST WITH ALEXIS BADEN-MAYER

Watch OCA's Live Broadcast with Alexis Baden-Mayer

OCA is hosting a live broadcast with our Political Director, Alexis Baden-Mayer, Thursday, May 5th.

This week, we continue our "Biolabs In Your Backyard" discussion.

The podcast is free to watch, but will require registering with Rokfin.

Watch our broadcast

Check out previous episodes here

Organic Consumers Association