From Big Ag to Big Pharma to the steps of the White House, it’s time to stop
twisting our words and telling big green lies ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
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ESSAY OF THE WEEKWORDS OF WAR

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The metaphors of war have long been a part of public health.

We fight illness. Sometimes we beat disease and sometimes we lose the battle. We
shore up and mobilize our immune defences.

For most of this year we have been in lock-down to protect ourselves from an
invisible enemy and now we are looking for a magic-bullet, in the form of a
vaccine, to save us.

The way we talk about health influences the choices that we make, both as
individuals and in terms of public healthcare.

As long as we are at war with nature, and at war with our bodies we will frame
our healthcare choices in terms of a war.

That choice means we never have to delve too deeply into the origins of illness.
We don’t have to acknowledge the complexity of the socioeconomic factors that
influence who is most vulnerable―and we can easily be controlled by the politics
of fear.

As this week’s two-part essay reveals, it’s long past time for the public health dialogue to move beyond its out-dated
words of war.

Let’s measure health in its broader context, according to the quality of our
lives, the quality of our food and our environment and not according to narrow
metrics of vaccine uptake.

READ ‘Vaccine Fundamentalism―War Metaphors in the COVID-19 Response, Vaccine
Policy and Public Health, Part 1’
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READ ‘Vaccine Fundamentalism―War Metaphors in the COVID-19 Response, Vaccine
Policy and Public Health, Part 2’
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#BOYCOTTBIGMEATTURKEY TREACHERY
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It's tough enough when independent farmers who raise organic regenerative
poultry have to compete in a marketplace dominated by corporate-owned factory
farm "Big Brands."

It's even tougher when those Big Brands make false claims about their products.

This week, OCA joined five other nonprofits in filing a Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) complaint
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Farms turkey products are produced by "independent family farmers." Because,
well, they aren't.

Not only that, but Cargill makes a host of other false claims about its
Honeysuckle and Shady Brook brands, all intended to imply that the brands have
far-reaching benefits for workers, animals and the environment.

In fact, far from the bucolic family farms portrayed by Cargill’s marketing, Cargill’s actual production methods exploit contract farmers and slaughterhouse
workers, systematically abuse animals and cause grave harms to the environment.

Read our press release
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Read the full FTC complaint
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Read 'This Major Company Is Under Fire for Allegedly Mislabeling Turkeys'
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Read 'MN-based Cargill Faces Federal Complaint Over Turkey Labels'
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Find regenerative poultry products near you
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ACTION ALERTCABINET CRISIS

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We need our leaders to lead.



As President-elect Biden considers his new cabinet we must encourage him to choose those who understand the multiple and
intersecting crises we face, especially around climate change.

The Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats have proposed a slate of potential cabinet picks that includes the top advocates for
regenerative organic food and farming, including organic farmer and Maine
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree for Agriculture Secretary.

But fears are already mounting that Biden will feel pressured to avoid
confrontation―and a potential veto―and choose those whom Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell approves of.

Biden has options: there are alternative political and legal strategies open to him that will
allow him to fill out the executive branch without allowing McConnell to become
a de facto co-president.

Let’s put some alternative pressure on and ensure he appoints a cabinet of
people who 1) don’t have ties to agribusiness, fossil fuel companies or
corporate lobbyists; 2) represent the diversity of America; and 3) are ready to
act with the urgency that the climate, economic, health and farm crises demand.

Take Action: Join the #BidenBeBold Campaign: Tell the President-Elect to Appoint
a Climate Justice Cabinet!
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PESTICIDESGREEN FAKERS

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“Like a pandemic, climate change is an inevitable threat that we must address
before it is too late...we need to support a recovery for farmers that puts the
fight against climate change and biodiversity loss at its core.”



These are not the rousing words of Greta Thunberg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or
Al Gore, but a message from global Ag-Tech giant Syngenta.

This kind of messaging can also be found in similar “green” campaigns from the
other “big five” global pesticides producers Bayer, BASF, Corteva and FMC.

It’s not so much a road to Damascus moment for Big Ag as it is a cynical
co-option of the language of transformation.

Companies that produce pesticides and GM crops, that patent seeds, that
encourage large monocultures and markets that drive small farmers out of
business are increasingly using greenwash words to sell their wares.

But make no mistake. Nothing will ever make these companies, whose products have directly led to
biodiversity loss and accelerating climate change, meaningful participants in a
better, cleaner, safer world.

It’s time to call these green fakers out.

Read ‘Investigation: How Pesticide Companies Are Marketing Themselves as a
Solution To Climate Change’
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FEED THE WORLDHUNGER GAMES
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The idea that the world might soon be unable to feed its human population is an
old and powerful narrative that has recently been extensively exploited by
agribusiness.



But it’s an idea that actually rests on some pretty shaky foundations, mostly based on flawed mathematical models that support a business-as-usual
model of farming and food production.

According to a new analysis by Dr. Jonathan Latham these models either underestimate global food supply (now and in the future),
or they cause the models to overestimate global food demand (now and in the future).

Dr. Latham argues that rather than a food shortage we have a global glut. As
such there is no real justification for extreme measures to improve yields, or to
turn to GMOs or pesticides in order to feed the global population.

If we want to feed the world well, agricultural practices and policies should be
driven by criteria such as ecological sustainability and cultural
appropriateness―not trumped-up concerns about yield.

READ: ‘The Myth of a Food Crisis’
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FOOD & FARMINGABUNDANCE

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How do we create abundance?



Science and Big Business say we should only look forward ― to more complex technology and innovation. But centuries ago, Native Americans
already knew one of the secrets.

Long before Europeans reached North America and the first settlers sat down to
the first Thanksgiving meal, many Native Americans cultivated staples corn,
squash and beans together in one plot. They called these plants “sisters” to
reflect how they thrived when they were grown together.

Interplanting these agricultural sisters produced bountiful harvests that
sustained large Native communities and created fruitful trade economies.

If the European settlers learned anything from this example, the lesson didn’t
stick with them for very long. Today we rely on monoculture farming that damages
our land, our climate and, ultimately, our bodies.

As we sit down to our Thanksgiving meals this year it’s worth asking ourselves: why did these superior Native farming practices decline and what benefits could
emerge from bringing them back?

READ ‘Returning the ‘Three Sisters’ – Corn, Beans and Squash – to Native
American Farms Nourishes People, Land and Cultures’
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SUPPORT OCA & CRLSTRAIGHT TALK

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The holidays (we hope) will bring a welcome pause for many of you in what has
been an exhausting whirlwind of a year.



Like many of you we are looking forward to family, food and simple comforts. But we can’t stop for long because there is still so much to do.

This week, in particular, we have seen a flood of stories demonstrating how
language can be used to fool us. How words of war can panic us into foolish
actions, with far-reaching consequences. How words of transformation are being co-opted to fool consumers, to twist the
scientific and regulatory agenda and to further the domination of larger
corporations and a degenerative industrial food and farming system.

For us words like “sustainable” and “regeneration” have meaning. We are ready and willing to stand up for those words, to file the lawsuits, to
advocate for the policies, to make a noise so that the real power and meaning
behind these words does not get lost.

We are thankful for your support in this mission and we hope we can continue to
count on it.

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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LITTLE BYTESESSENTIAL READING

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Prospective Association Between Organic Food Consumption and the Risk of Type 2
Diabetes: Findings From the Nutrinet-Santé Cohort Study
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Researchers Warn that Some COVID-19 Vaccines Could Increase RISK of HIV
Infection
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Asymptomatic 'Casedemic' Is a Perpetuation of Needless Fear
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Gates Ag One: The Recolonisation of Agriculture
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Lawsuit: Tyson Managers Bet Money on How Many Workers Would Contract COVID-19
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'
[[link removed]] The Real Looting in America Is the Walton Family': GAO Report Details How
Taxpayers Subsidize Cruel Low Wages of Corporate Giants
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Who Says ‘No’ To Remdesivir To Treat COVID-19
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[[link removed]] Organic Consumers Association
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