We have the right to know where this pandemic came from. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
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COVID-19SHHHHH . . .

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In an article
[[link removed]] he wrote this week, journalist Sam Husseini recounts how, on February 11, he
asked Anne Schuchat, the Centers for Disease Control’s principal deputy
director, at the National Press Club if it were a "complete coincidence" that
the outbreak of the novel coronavirus happened in Wuhan, a center of China's
declared biowarfare/biodefence capacity.

“I didn't get a satisfactory answer. In fact, at the end it was remarkably
evasive. She wouldn't answer my followup question about whether the claimed
‘zoonotic origin’ precluded the outbreak from being caused [by] pathogens from
nature that then could be accidentally leaked from the labs.”

In polite media circles, journalists don’t want to talk about biowarfare or
bioterrorism or bioweapons at all, much less in the context of COVID-19.

Husseini thinks that’s a mistake. So do we—an irresponsible, dangerous mistake.

After all, if consumers should have the right to know if their food is
genetically engineered, shouldn’t we have the right to know if scientists are
genetically engineering viruses in labs? And how potentially dangerous that
"research" might be?

If you’ve been following our coverage of the pandemic, you know that we’re
focused on health—how to get healthy, and stay healthy (hint: stay away
[[link removed]] from Big Food).

We’re also focused on how COVID-19 has exposed the fatal flaws in our industrial
food system: monopolies
[[link removed]] that have led to too few and too big processing plants; unjust treatment of farmworkers
[[link removed]] and slaughterhouse workers
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[[link removed]] instead of to family farmers.

But we’re also focused on how the world unites around actions to prevent the
next pandemic. Those include restoring biodiversity
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[[link removed]] “gain-of-function” research, genetically engineered or otherwise.

Husseini exposes the media’s failure to take seriously the opinions of a host of
credible scientists who are arguing for a thorough investigation into the
origins of COVID-19.

We think the world has a right to know what happened. So we can do everything in
our power to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

READ: ‘Averting Our Gaze from Biowarfare: Pandemics and Self-fulfilling
Prophecies’
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MORE ON COVID-19:

Evidence SARS-CoV-2 Emerged From a Biological Laboratory in Wuhan, China
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Dr. Fauci Backed Controversial Wuhan Lab With Millions of U.S. Dollars for Risky
Coronavirus Research
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SARS-CoV-2 Could Have Escaped From a Lab – and the U.S. Is in the Frame
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SIGN THE PETITION: Stop the Genetic Engineering of Viruses! Shut Down All
Biowarfare Labs Now!
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REGENERATIONHOME ON THE RANGE

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It’s a common assumption: Anywhere cattle are grazing, land—and biodiversity—are
being destroyed.

That assumption is 100-percent correct, if you’re talking about the cattle
raised for Big Meat giants like Cargill [[link removed]] and JBS.

But it’s dead wrong if you’re talking about ranchers like the Elzinga family,
who run Alderspring Ranch [[link removed]] in May, Idaho. After a recent visit to Alderspring Ranch, Linley Dixon,
associate director of Real Organic Project
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“The cattle at Alderspring never stand still. They graze as they slowly move,
strategically guided by the Elzingas on horseback, across the high elevation
sagebrush steppe . . . The herd’s continuous movements mimic the impact of the
50-90 million buffalo that once helped to shape the carbon sequestering American
grasslands.”

By intentionally herding their cattle to mimic the movements of buffalo herds
that grazed the same lands decades ago, the Elzinga family is actually restoring
the rangelands.

“While most beef cattle graze monoculture pastures, those at Alderspring Ranch
graze ‘a salad bar’ of over 2,500 different plant species.”

Real Organic Project’s video
[[link removed]] of Alderspring Ranch includes gorgeous scenery—and an important lesson for
environmentalists and consumers on regenerative grazing.

Read 'What Do a Rancher and Vegan Have in Common?
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Watch the video on Alderspring Ranch
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ACTION ALERTAT WHAT COST?

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Last week Tyson
[[link removed]] , one of the biggest Big Meat companies of them all (and a Big Donor
[[link removed]] to Trump’s 2016 campaign) took out a full-page ad
[[link removed]] in the New York Times to whine about how the global supply chain is “breaking.”

Trump responded immediately by ordering
[[link removed]] factory farm meat processing plants to stay open, even though massive food
processing facilities like the meatpacking plants are overtaking
[[link removed]] nursing homes as the country’s worst COVID-19 disaster zones.

The order came after the Trump administration had already waived
[[link removed]] regulations limiting meat-processing line speeds, making one of the most dangerous jobs
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And it gets worse. Despite allowing Big Meat to speed up its already dangerously
fast slaughterhouse line speeds, despite the growing number of COVID-19 deaths
and illnesses at processing plants, the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S.
Department of Labor issued “ interim guidance
[[link removed]] ” for meatpacking plants which essentially gives corporations a free pass if
workers are injured.

Rather than invest in smaller processing plants to serve organic regenerative
meat producers, it appears Trump will save his favorite cheap McDonald’s
burgers—no matter who dies in the process.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress: No more COVID-19-contaminated factory farm
slaughterhouses! Support local processing plants for organic pasture-based
farmers and butchers.
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SUPPORT OCA & CRLNOW OR NEVER

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You’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating: There is an opportunity in every
crisis and the deeper the crisis, the better the opportunity can be.

No one would wish for a global pandemic. The human suffering. The economic
fallout. It’s horrendous.

But here we are. The big question is: What do we do now?

For those of us engaged in trying to replace a failing, extractive, unjust
industrial ag model with a just and regenerative food and farming system, the
answer is clear: We must use this crisis to convince consumers and policymakers
that there’s a better way.

You can’t turn on the TV, open a newspaper or visit an online news site these
days without reading something about the factory farm-COVID-19 dilemma.

Thousands of workers at slaughterhouses have COVID-19—but we have to keep those
monstrous killing factories running at warp speed, or Wendy’s will run out of
hamburg ers.

And oh-by-the-way we’re also going to run out of meat and milk in grocery
stores, but meanwhile factory farm dairies are dumping milk, and hog and poultry
farms are “depopulating” chicks and pigs by the millions, because the supply
chain is “broken.”

But wait! China’s hogs were wiped out by swine flu last year, and we’ve got trade deals,
after all, so we’ve got to keep our factory farms up and running so we can ship
pork to China.

And then we have the scientists pointing out that while COVID-19 didn’t
originate in a factory farm, other viruses have, and it’s only a matter of time
before another one does.

And this: If we don’t want viruses jumping from wildlife to humans, we better
stop ripping down forests and tearing up grasslands to plant monoculture corn
and soy crops to feed the miserable animals imprisoned in factory farms.

All of which is to say that never have the media focused this much attention on
an issue we've been begging them, for decades, to cover.

Never have we had such an opportunity to say enough . . . it’s time to end the production of “cheap” meat that comes at the expense
of slave labor, the environment, human health and animal torture.

Now, more than ever, we need your help to bring down the powerful corporations
that are literally going to kill us.

Please make a generous donation at this time, if you are able. And please stay
safe.

Make a tax-deductible donation to Organic Consumers Association, a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit
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Support Citizens Regeneration Lobby, OCA’s 501(c)(4) lobbying arm (not
tax-deductible)
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Donate $100 or more and we’ll send you a copy of Ronnie’s new book
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Click here for more ways to support our work
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INTERVIEW OF THE WEEKBATTY IDEA?
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Scientists are legitimately concerned about viruses like the coronavirus jumping
from animals to humans. But how, and where, they conduct research on these
viruses deserves scrutiny, according to Jonathan Latham, Ph.D., an expert in
plant ecology, plant virology, genetics and genetic engineering.

In this interview
[[link removed]] with Pacifica Radio, Latham asks why scientists would want to take a bat
coronavirus that has been manipulated to penetrate human cells and replicate the
virus, essentially providing an “evolutionary opportunity for the virus to jump
to humans”—and conduct that research in a lab with a "terrible" safety record?

Latham offers one of the best explanations we’ve heard for why COVID-19 probably
originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and why the “gain-of-function”
research that created the virus should never have been undertaken in the first
place.

Latham also raises important questions about the role of agribusiness and palm
oil production in pandemics.

Latham is co-founder and executive director of the Bioscience Resource Project
[[link removed]] , editor of Independent Science News
[[link removed]] and director of the Poison Papers [[link removed]] project which publicizes documents of the chemical industry and its regulators.

Listen to the Pacifica Radio interview with Jonathan Latham
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ACTION ALERTHEATED DEBATE

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Droughts, fires, floods . . . climate instability
[[link removed]] is forcing U.S. farmers and ranchers to face increasingly frequent and
intensifying natural disasters that threaten their land and their
livelihoods—and increase food insecurity for everyone.

A growing number of farmers and ranchers understand that the more organic and
regenerative farming and grazing practices they deploy, the more
climate-resilient their operations become.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) knows it, too.

But instead of increasing funding for programs to help farmers adapt to climate
change—and help them become part of the climate solution—the Trump
administration is proposing drastic cuts to those programs.

Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), an organic farmer and a member of the
Congressional Advisory Committee for the national coalition
[[link removed]] of U.S. Farmers & Ranchers for a Green New Deal has a different plan. In a press release
[[link removed]] Pingree said:

“We need to empower farmers with the best available science and provide a range
of conservation tools, because what works for one farmer in Maine may not work
for another in Iowa or Georgia. I have set an ambitious but achievable goal: to
reduce agricultural emissions by 50% before 2030 and make this segment of our
economy net-zero by 2040. Challenges of this scale demand bold solutions and,
unlike other industries, agriculture has a unique opportunity to draw down
massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil.”

Pingree’s plan is called the Agriculture Resilience Act
[[link removed]] , a bill that needs public support, and support from your Representatives and
Senators.

TAKE ACTION: Ask your members of Congress to help organic farmers by supporting
the Agriculture Resilience Act!
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LITTLE BYTESESSENTIAL READING

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10 Inspiring Discussions on Improving the Post-COVID Food System From Food Talk
Live
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We Are in a New Danger Zone
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58 percent of workers at Tyson meat factory in Iowa test positive for
coronavirus
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Deforestation of Amazon rainforest accelerates amid COVID-19 pandemic
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These 10 Invasive Plant Species Are Surprisingly Delicious
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Cargill’s Slaughterhouse Profits Flow Through Tax Havens to Keep Its Billionaire
Owners Wealthy
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US EPA Grants First Permit to Test Genetically Modified Mosquitoes
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[[link removed]] Organic Consumers Association
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218-353-7652

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