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Amazon unveils largest rooftop solar array in New Jersey

"Amazon unveiled what the company says is the largest rooftop solar panel energy system in New Jersey on the 30-acre roof of its Carteret warehouse.

"The 22,000-solar-panel system will power the online retailer's facility. The company said it is one of the largest rooftop solar panel systems in the country and generates enough electricity to power 600 homes" via NJ.com.

Green America has been mobilizing people to push Amazon to switch the gigantic amounts of energy it uses from fossil fuels to renewables

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Green American Magazine Fall 2017 Drinking Water at Risk #109
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GMO Yogurt: How does your favorite brand stack up?

GMO Inside is calling on Chobani to shift to non-GMO feed sources for its dairy cows.  Chobani processes roughly 40 million pounds of milk per week from over 78,000 dairy cows on nearly 900 farms.  All told, that’s a lot of milk!  Milk which comes from cows who are eating GMO feed 2-3 times per day.

While Chobani is the largest Greek yogurt manufacturer with roughly 50% market share, we are hoping that all yogurt makers will insist on using milk from cows fed non-GMO diets.   GMOs have never been proven safe for human consumption and there is a growing body of studies which demonstrates that great caution should be exercised when developing and consuming GMOs.  A large percentage of the GMO crops grown in the US are used as animal feed. (Read more about GMO feed here.)  By shifting away from GMO feed for their cows, Chobani has the power to shift thousands of acres of farmland to non-GMO farming techniques.

While GMO Inside believes the “Precautionary Principle” to be the best approach when it comes to developing and consuming GMOs, we know that consumers may care about a number of factors when it comes to choosing food products.  The following chart captures various consumer concerns related to Greek yogurt.  It is by no means exhaustive as far as brand or concerns go, but we hope it helps!

For more information on these brands, read below.  Better yet, you can call your favorite yogurt brand and ask the questions that matter to you.  If the company gives you an answer you are not satisfied with, let them know why!

Yogurt Brand GMO Ingredients? GM Feed for Cows rBST (synthetic growth hormone) Milk Protein Concentrate (thickening agent) Organic Options? GMO Inside’s overall rating
Chobani No Likely No No No C
Fage No Likely No No No B
Greek Gods No Likely No No No B
Yoplait Greek Likely Likely No Yes No F
Dannon Oikos Likely Likely No No No D
Stonyfield No No No No Yes A
Nancy’s No No No No Yes A
Strauss Creamery No No No No Yes A
Wallaby No No No No Yes A

Did we exclude one of your favorite brands?  Please add your comments or questions on our blog and we'll get the scoop! Or check out Be Food Smart for an even deeper look at these Greek yogurt brands.

Fage

Fage is a close second in the Greek yogurt market, holding 14 percent of the market in 2011. The positives to Fage brand yogurt are that no milk concentrate is used (like Yoplait, see below) and they do not add extra thickeners to their plain varieties, though they are most likely added for their flavored yogurt. On their website, they highlight the healthy benefits to Fage, including statements saying it is beneficial to vegetarians, diabetics, and it is gluten free for those with gluten allergies or preferences. However, there is currently no organic option.

Greek Gods

Greek Gods was founded in Seattle, Washington in 2003 and is now owned by Hain Celestial.   They do not add milk protein concentrate, artificial coloring, or rBST, but there is no organic variety available.

Yoplait

Yoplait Greek is owned by General Mills and is the second most popular overall yogurt company in the US, the first being Chobani. Yoplait Greek promotes the health aspect of their product, advertising the high levels of calcium, vitamin D, and protein, especially for their kid’s products, as well as claiming their product can help with weight loss. However, their website does admit to using aspartame (artificial sweetener), carmine (red coloring), gelatin, and milk protein concentrate in their Yoplait Greek Parfait cups.  There are no organic options available.  In 2012, General Mills spent over $1 million to oppose GMO labeling in California.

Dannon

Oikos is Dannon’s Greek yogurt brand.  It is not certified as USDA organic and does not mention “natural” or “non-GMO” products on their website.  They also have no statement on rbST use, or a bovine growth hormone used on cattle, so it is possible that these substances are used. They use cultured grade A non-fat milk, though fruit varieties include additives such as fructose, modified corn starch, and other products.

Stonyfield

Stonyfield is an all organic yogurt company started in 1983 that is sold in natural food stores, national supermarkets and large retailers across the country. All of their products are USDA Organic certified (including Stonyfield Greek and YoBaby); therefore, they are audited throughout the production process to ensure that they do not use pesticides or herbicides, GMOs, antibiotics, or growth hormones. In regards to GMOs, they are currently in the process of being approved by the non-GMO Project, which will test their animal feed for GMO contamination. They formally state that they believe GMO products should be labeled to guarantee consumer safety and were a founding company of Just Label It, a non-profit advocating for GMO labeling. Group Danone(which also owns Dannon) is the parent company of Stonyfield, owning 85 percent of the company, yet Stonyfield maintains a unique partnership with Groupe Danone, with company co-founder Gary Hirshberg remaining Chairman and the company remaining true to it's health and environmental mission.

Nancy’s

Nancy’s is another USDA organic certified Greek yogurt company owned by Springfield Creamery in Eugene, Oregon.  Nancy’s does not add any thickeners or pectins and strains off the whey during production. They say they use all organic fruits from the Northwest region. On their website they describe their milk sources, stating they are from local dairy farms, mostly within a 50 mile radius of their creamery in Eugene. They do not use pesticides, antibiotics, or synthetic growth hormones, and their product is USDA certified by Oregon Tilth. Their website does not directly say that they are GMO free, but their organic certification prohibits GMO use.

Wallaby’s Family

Wallaby’s yogurt company is based out of Napa Valley, California and inspired by a trip to Australia by the co-founders who were inspired by the sweet, amazing flavor of their yogurt. They use organic milk from nearby farms in Sonoma and Marin counties. They are organic certified by Quality Assurance International (QAI) and the USDA. Due to their organic certification, they are also GMO free.

Conclusion

Genetically modified organisms, introduced in 1996, now represent a major part of our food system.  (Roughly 90% in crops like corn and soy, and included in nearly 85% of processed foods).  In spite of their ubiquity, the benefits of GMOs are less apparent.  Genetically modified crops have led to increased usage of herbicides, increased chemical residues on foods, organic farm contamination, lawsuits between chemical companies and farmers because their fields were pollinated with patented seeds, and various health issues in laboratory animals and livestock, just to name a few of the problems with GMOs.

It will be impossible to eliminate GMO farming without addressing the food that is given to animals.   Because GMO crops are so often used to feed livestock, including cows, GMO Inside hopes to encourage progress throughout the dairy industry.

Chobani is the leader within the Greek yogurt industry, and with this leadership comes responsibility.  By working with its supply chain partners to switch to non-GMO or organic feed sources, Chobani can effectively reduce demand for GMO crops by a lot (40 million pounds of milk per week, remember?).  This will in turn increase demand for non-GMO crops and help to convert thousands of acres of farmland away from GMO farming techniques.

Please sign our petition to Chobani!

 

We Want Regeneration, Not Experimentation

Regenerative Agriculture— Not Genetic Engineering—is the Solution to Climate Change and Our Ailing Food System 

Industrial agriculture companies continue to bully farmers into growing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), with their toxic chemicals and scrambled genes. Many farmers are being left in economic ruin, and GMOs have effectively made an experiment of our bodies, the natural world, and our food system. These genetically engineered crops and their associated chemicals are not the answer to feeding the world in the face of population growth, climate change, or any other scenario.  

But, in these uncertain times, where should farmers and consumers look for solutions? 

There are many existing agricultural practices—known collectively as regenerative agriculture—that have the potential to restore our food system and help reverse climate change by building healthy soils. These practices prove that we don’t need GMOs and dangerous technical solutions, when the biological solution is clear: feed the soil to feed people and cool the planet. 

Re(Store) It!

GMOs Degrade the Soil, Contributing Both to Climate Change and Struggling Farmlands 

GMOs are grown as large monocrops that are susceptible to pests and require application of toxic insecticides and herbicides, which eliminate beneficial organisms in the soil. These crops also require regular tilling or plowing, which exposes and kills these same important organisms.  

This degraded soil loses carbon to the atmosphere, where it forms damaging greenhouse gases that warm the earth and contribute to climate change. The lack of carbon and biodiversity in the soil leaves farmlands weakened and food crops lacking essential nutrients. This double-whammy is just one more reason why GMOs should be rejected. 

Regenerative Agriculture: Making an Example of Wheat 

The solution to climate change and restoring our ailing food system is in the soil. The primary focus of regenerative agriculture is building healthy soils for these exact reasons. It keeps soils protected and covered with mulching and crop rotations. Nutrients are added and carbon storage potential is increased with the use of composting and cover crops. Mindful livestock management and conservation tillage keep soil disturbance to a minimum. 

Another tenet of regenerative agriculture that makes it so different from industrial agriculture and genetic engineering is its focus on perennial crops, which bring all the above benefits and also has the potential to be a major source of food. For example, research on perennial wheat crops is well underway, with some varieties like Kernza already available on the market. But, genetically modified wheat is also being tested, concerning many existing wheat farmers who anticipate GE wheat will lead to increased input costs, potential loss of international markets, lack of control of the seed system, and a decline in human and environmental health. 

Re(Store) It!

We are at a major crux—the industrial agri-experiment is failing, and continued efforts to pursue GMOs are misguided. We need to demand regeneration and reinforcement of natural systems, rather than experimenting with human health and dominating nature through genetic engineering. In supporting restorative agricultural systems, we’re recognizing farmers as stewards, not subjecting them to the negative feedback loop of poverty associated with GMOs. We’re building more secure food systems, stabilizing the global atmosphere, and promoting human health and wellbeing. 

Want to know more about regenerative agriculture?? Follow along on InstagramTwitter, and Facebook as we continue to tell break down ways to save our soils, farm communities, and food system.

 

- Jes Walton, Food Campaigns Specialist

Detroit Fights for Fair Water Access

Photo caption: The board of We the People of Detroit, from left to right: Debra Taylor, Chris Griffith, Monica Lewis-Patrick, Aurora Harris, and Cecily McClellan. Courtesy of We the People of Detroit and the KIND Foundation.

They were a group of women who didn’t start out together as community organizers. In 2009, the state proposed that Detroit’s mayor assume control over Detroit public schools, in place of elected school committee members, which caused families to worry that the move could result in crippling budget cuts. People began attending city council meetings to speak out against the takeover. Monica Lewis-Patrick was one of them, and she soon got to know and started eating lunch with a group of parents and other concerned citizens.

The city council and the press assumed the new friends were part of an organization. A reporter covering the story went up to Debra Taylor, one of the friends, and asked, “Who are you?”

“Well, we’re the people of Detroit,” Taylor responded.

We the People of Detroit was born on that day, but the group has grown far past that one struggle. Lewis-Patrick is the CEO of We the People of Detroit, which now broadly advocates for human rights for Detroit’s most vulnerable populations. They’ve fought numerous austerity measures—which they said disproportionately affected low-income families—enacted by the government both before and since the city of Detroit’s declaration of bankruptcy in 2014. They also traveled to Flint to help organize citizens for clean water two years before that city made national news. Now, We the People is fighting its biggest and longest battle yet: ensuring that Detroiters have fair, equitable, and uninterrupted access to clean water.

Water, Water Everywhere, but Not a Drop to Drink

The city’s water system supplies drinking water to nearly 3.8 million people in the suburbs of Detroit, which it sources from Lake Huron.

When Michigan declared bankruptcy on behalf of Detroit in 2014, nearly a third of its debt was $5.7 billion owed to the city by its own water department. At that point, the department began shutting off water for residents who were more than $150 behind on their water bills. The cost of water had risen about 96 percent in eight years prior to 2014 (it’s now up 120 percent since 2007). The average Detroiter was paying 20 percent of their pretax income on water, whereas the EPA recommends water costs should be around 2.5 percent of household income.

“It is contrary to human rights to disconnect water from people who simply do not have the means to pay their bills.” —Catrina de Albuquerque, UN special rapporteur

As a result, tens of thousands of homes in the city had their water shut off over inability to pay their water bills. These families also lived under the threat of a visit by social services, because the agency can take children out of homes that don’t have water for more than 72 hours, and the city can seize the homes where this is the case.

Lewis-Patrick says the shutoffs are an affront to health, safety, and the poor, who were expected to pay water bills that could have been a quarter of their take home pay, while commercial buildings downtown were allowed to let their water bills pile up. Al Jazeera reported in October 2014 that commercial and industrial users had racked up $30 million in unpaid water bills, including the Detroit Lions’ stadium, which owed the city $55,000. Lewis-Patrick says those debts are still unpaid and likely growing.

“Many of the wealthy leaders were allowed to renegotiate [or have] millions of dollars of debt [forgiven], but then the rest of the debt for the water system has been laid on the backs of retirees, pensioners, and low-income people,” Lewis-Patrick says.

So We the People of Detroit took on the water utility and the city of Detroit. The group documents water shut-offs and manages a water relief hotline, which helps affected people access water. In 2016, it delivered 125 tons of bottled water to citizens.

It also puts pressure on the government by bringing national and international eyes to the situation. In 2014, United Nations special rapporteurs on the rights to water, sanitation, and affordable housing visited the city. We the People of Detroit staff showed them around and introduced them to residents.

“I heard testimonies from poor, African-American residents of Detroit who were forced to make impossible choices—to pay the water bill or to pay their rent,” Catarina de Albuquerque, one of those special rapporteurs, said in a press release. “It is contrary to human rights to disconnect water from people who simply do not have the means to pay their bills.”

The UN provided a report about to the State Department, Detroit’s mayor, and the governor of Michigan and went on the UN record, but nothing really changed, says Lewis-Patrick.

Overburdening Low-Income Families

In July, the city announced water prices would be going up an average of 4.5 percent, due to a 0.3 percent drop in water usage. Meanwhile, the high price of water has exacerbated already dire conditions for Detroit homeowners. In 2015, banks foreclosed on 14,000 homes just based on water debt.

In addition, over 100,000 homeowners faced foreclosure because of illegal tax assessment, which stole wealth from families and made them more vulnerable to water shutoffs. A 2016 study from professors at Wayne State and Oakland Universities shows that from 2009 to 2015, the city assessed homes at much higher prices than their actual worth—resulting in higher property tax bills than warranted—and then foreclosed on the homes when residents couldn’t pay those taxes. In a time when property values were plummeting in the city, the study noted, the property tax bills often exceeded the market value of the entire home.

Low- and middle-income Detroiters were also particularly hard-hit by the predatory subprime mortgages that led to the 2008 housing market crash and recession. Black customers looking for loans in Detroit were 70 percent more likely to get a high-risk subprime loan than white borrowers with similar financial characteristics, according the ACLU. Subprime loans often have predatory terms, such as ballooning interest rates or high fees. The ACLU has an ongoing suit against Morgan Stanley for its role in shaping the high-risk predatory loans that contributed to the foreclosure crisis in Detroit, on behalf of five Black families.

“Between predatory-lending practices being imposed on Detroiters, along with [too-high property taxes due to] illegal and unconstitutional assessment, and then you compound that with unaffordable water for a city that’s about 40 percent living in poverty, it doesn’t take much—one child getting sick, a flat tire or car repair, or any of those basic life situations—to force people into an
insecure situation as it relates to their water,” says Lewis-Patrick.

Bring the Press, Researchers, Everyone

The shutoffs are still ongoing, but Lewis-Patrick calls the progress made in the last three years by We the People of Detroit in coalitional action with other organizations and thousands of volunteers “tremendous.” However, she says, the organization is no replacement for a working, affordable water utility.

“There’s a big difference between affordability and assistance," says Nadia Gaber, a researcher who has worked with We the People of Detroit. "And the [Detroit Water and Sewerage] department has been working on an assistance model that economists like Roger Colton have shown won’t get people the water they need. [And they] deserve to live a dignified life.”

The group has brought attention to its cause by making collaborative agreements with researchers like Gaber at 13 universities who study water, public health, and public policy. From 2014 to 2016, We the People of Detroit, in coalition with the Detroit People’s Water Board and other groups, trained community members on data collection for these researchers, and they began a citizen science project that included a survey of over 500 Detroit residents experiencing water shutoffs. Researchers were looking for connections between shutoffs, race, and water-related illnesses.

That two-year project culminated in a book released last summer called Mapping the Water Crisis: The Dismantling of African-American Neighborhoods in Detroit, which Lewis-Patrick says is being studied in classrooms from middle school to college.

“What we know based on a study from Michigan State from early February is that 36 percent of America will not be able to afford their water over the next five years,” says Lewis-Patrick. “Even though the national narrative is that Black folks in Detroit just don’t want to pay their fair share, this is really not about racializing a group of people in Detroit. This is about a systemic issue that the country is facing.”

Meanwhile, We the People of Detroit will continue to empower and amplify the voices of the poorest communities in their city, who historically have the least power. Lewis-Patrick says she’s proud of her community and those who have come from afar to help protect it: “I love ... when you see Detroiters running water hoses from house to house, to ensure that if their neighbor has been cut off, they still have access to this life-renewing source called water. Detroit is what we’re uplifting and Detroit is synonymous with all the struggles that are happening around the globe.”

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Green America in Food Business News: Dannon debuts Non-GMO Project verified yogurts

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — DanoneWave, the North American operations of Danone S.A., is introducing its first Non-GMO Project verified yogurts as part of its Dannon Pledge, the company’s commitment to practices focused on sustainable agriculture, transparency and naturality. DanoneWave’s Dannon brand whole milk yogurts and plain quarts as well as Danimals smoothies will now feature the Non-GMO Project verified seal.

Sergio Fuster, DanoneWave
Sergio Fuster, president of DanoneWave’s yogurt team

“We hear that consumers increasingly want to know what’s in the products they buy and how they’re made,” said Sergio Fuster, president of DanoneWave’s yogurt team. “One of the ambitions of the Dannon Pledge was to provide consumers with yogurt choices that support the transparency they have been asking for. As a subsidiary of DanoneWave Public Benefit Corp., the largest public benefit corporation in the U.S., we’re making changes to our business to answer that demand. One key step is Non-GMO Project verification of select Dannon products. By working closely with organizations like the Non-GMO Project, we’re offering consumers more food choices that match their preferences.”

To achieve Non-GMO Project verification, DanoneWave had to ensure its products were made with milk from cows fed non-G.M.O. feed. To qualify for the verification, DanoneWave worked with its dairy farmer partners to develop the needed non-G.M.O. feed for cows. An estimated 80,000 acres of U.S. farmland is needed to cultivate the new supply, the company said, and DanoneWave is working with Green America to help develop that supply.

Dannon takes first step toward 'bold change'

Related Reading: Dannon takes first step toward 'bold change'

 

“The scale at which Dannon is working is impressively large, and we are pleased to be able to assist them to find the right partners to work with to ensure that America’s leading yogurt maker continues to bring new choices to shoppers, while deepening their sustainability practices,” said Alisa Gravitz, president and chief executive officer of Green America.

DanoneWave plans to eventually procure Non-GMO Project verification for all products from the Dannon, Oikos and Danimals brand families.

DanoneWave announced the Dannon Pledge in April 2016. In July 2016, the company starting using non-G.M.O. ingredients in its three flagship brands: Dannon, Oikos and Danimals. Additionally, Dannon has been and is continuing to implement animal welfare practices at its farmers partners’ operations via the Validus Certification system, which ensures food is produced using socially responsible on-farm production practices. Currently, more than 90% of Dannon’s direct milk supply comes from farms that are Validus Certified, the company said.

Dannon Pledge

Click to view full infographic

“We are making progress to implement the Dannon Pledge.” DanoneWave said, “The introduction of the first products under the Dannon and Danimals brands with the Non-GMO Project verified seal is a major milestone, as is the fact that more than 90% of our milk comes from dairy farmer partners that have achieved Validus animal welfare certification. We look forward to providing further updates in the future.” 

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Activists Deliver Strong Message to Congress and FERC: No More Fracked-Gas Pipeline

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioners were greeted this morning by anti-pipeline protesters calling attention to FERC’s rubber-stamping of natural gas pipelines. The rally was endorsed by over 100 organizations nationwide: http://bit.ly/Endorsers_Sept20_2017. Waiving signs saying “Stop the Fracking Pipelines” and “#FERCAbuses Communities and Environment” the protestors heard from speakers including the Reverend Lennox Yearwood and activists fighting pipelines nationwide.

 

The protest then moved on Capitol Hill, with a sign-on letter supported by 139 organizations (http://bit.ly/OrgSignOns) urging legislators to put in place a moratorium on FERC approved pipelines and infrastructure until it holds hearings and institutes legislative reforms. They also urged Senators and Representatives to oppose S.1460 (The Energy and Natural Resources Act) and other dirty energy bills, and support a transition to renewable energy instead (including H.R. 3671 (Rep. Gabbard's 'OFF ACT') or the Senate '100 by 50' Act). The FERC rally and Hill visits were supported by activists nationwide that sent over 25,000 messages (http://bit.ly/FERCLettersSep20) to Congress to oppose the expansion of fracked gas pipelines and infrastructure.

 

“We need to get serious about becoming fossil-free as soon as possible,” said Reverend Lennox Yearwood. “FERC is not doing that; instead they are rubber-stamping fracked gas pipelines and export terminals. Renewable energy is good for the planet, it’s affordable, and there’s tremendous job growth in that sector of our economy. FERC is part of the problem and must be changed.”

 

“Because of FERC’s pro-industry stance on every aspect of pipeline review, approval and development, people across the nation are having their property rights taken, their forests cut down, their sense of safety and the value of their homes, businesses and agriculture taken from them,” said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper and leader of the regional Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “And we have yet to find a member of Congress willing to stand up and call for congressional hearings to investigate what is really happening with FERC and pipelines. And so we have come to Washington, D.C. to make clear to FERC and to Congress, that FERC abuses communities and the environment and we will not sit silent until we are heard and reforms are put in place.”

 

“Tens of thousands of people are telling their Representatives and Senators that Congress needs to rein in FERC’s abuses,” said Todd Larsen, Executive Co-Director at Green America.  “People are fighting back against pipelines in their communities, and Americans nationwide are calling on Congress to reject dirty energy legislation and rapidly move the U.S. to clean energy solutions that create jobs, healthy communities, and address climate change.”

 

“I literally would not be here today without the support and lifeline provided by Beyond Extreme Energy,” said Maggie Henry, whose organic farm in western Pennsylvania was destroyed by fracking and whose home was damaged by frackquakes. "I draw so much strength and energy from them, it's like refueling with a big solar charge."

 

The protests and Hill visits come at a pivotal time. FERC’s quorum was recently restored, allowing the agency to once again approve pipelines, and that quorum contains two recently confirmed Trump nominees – Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson – who are in favor of expanding natural gas infrastructure. The Senate is considering legislation (S.1460), already passed in the House, which would expand FERC’s authority and expedite the approval of fracked gas pipelines nationwide. 

 

While the Trump Administration and Congress are pushing for more pipelines, activists have recently scored several victories fighting pipelines, including regulatory or judicial victories against the Atlantic Coast, Constitution, Valley Lateral, and Southeast Markets pipelines.  These victories were quickly challenged by the pipeline industry in the courts and with FERC.  Activists are calling for a moratorium on any new pipeline approvals until Congressional hearings into FERC’s abuses take place.

 

Media Contacts:

Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, 215 801 3043

Karen  Feridun, Berks Gas Truth, 610-678-7726

Ted Glick, Beyond Extreme Energy, 973-460-1458

Melinda Tuhus, 203-623-2186

Todd Larsen, Green America, 202-872-5310

Dannon Introduces First Non-GMO Project Verified Yogurts

Roughly a year after Dannon announced its Dannon Pledge, a commitment to more natural ingredients and product transparency, the company has successfully transformed its yogurt-making process; the company has announced that its Dannon® brand Whole Milk Yogurts and Plain Quarts, as well as its Danimals® Smoothies, are now Non-GMO Project Verified.

Sergio Fuster, President U.S. Yogurt, DanoneWaveSergio Fuster, President U.S. Yogurt, DanoneWave  

“We hear that consumers increasingly want to know what’s in the products they buy and how they’re made. One of the ambitions of the Dannon Pledge was to provide consumers with yogurt choices that support the transparency they have been asking for. As a subsidiary of DanoneWave Public Benefit Corporation, the largest public benefit corporation in the U.S., we’re making changes to our business to answer that demand. One key step is Non-GMO Project verification of select Dannon products,” said Sergio Fuster, President of DanoneWave’s yogurt team, in a press release. “By working closely with organizations like the Non-GMO Project, we’re offering consumers more food choices that match their preferences.”

The aforementioned Dannon products will now begin to feature the Non-GMO Project Verified seal with its recognizable butterfly icon—a seal signifying that products are in compliance with the Non-GMO Project standard and are made with milk from cows fed non-GMO feed. To qualify for the Non-GMO Project Verified seal, Dannon worked closely with its dairy farmer partners and ingredient suppliers to successfully navigate the rigorous evaluation process established by the Non-GMO Project, North America’s most rigorous third-party verification system for non-GMO food and products.

Dannon Non-GMO-Labeled Products Dannon products soon to be available featuring the Non-GMO Project Verified seal include:

  • Dannon Whole Milk Yogurt – Available in single-serve (5.3 oz each), multi-packs and/or 32 oz sizes in Strawberry, Strawberry Banana, Vanilla and Peach varieties.
  • Dannon Plain Yogurt Quarts – Available in full fat, lowfat and nonfat varieties.
  • Danimals Smoothies – Available in multi-packs of six bottles and more (3.1 fl oz each serving) in a range of flavors, including Strawberry, Strawberry Banana, Strawberry Kiwi, Cotton Candy, Raspberry, and Orange Cream varieties.

Megan Westgate, Executive Director, Non-GMO Project“At the Non-GMO Project, we’re dedicated to building and protecting a non-GMO food supply and providing consumers with non-GMO choices.” said Megan Westgate, Executive Director of the Non-GMO Project. “Aligning with a large and respected brand like Dannon is an incredible opportunity to inspire change across the industry to provide more non-GMO food choices to U.S. consumers.”

Dannon said, in its press release, that the verification process was a serious undertaking; achieving this milestone required Dannon to work with its dairy farmer partners to develop the needed non-GMO feed for cows. An estimated 80,000 acres of U.S. farmland is needed to cultivate the new supply, the company noted, and Dannon has relied on expertise and guidance from Green America to help develop that supply, and a video available at www.DannonPledge.com includes some of the pioneering farmers working with Dannon to serve the evolving preferences of consumers.

Alisa Gravitz, President & CEO, Green America Alisa Gravitz, President & CEO, Green America

“The scale at which Dannon is working is impressively large and we are pleased to be able to assist them to find the right partners to work with to ensure that America’s leading yogurt maker continues to bring new choices to shoppers, while deepening their sustainability practices,” said Alisa Gravitz, President and CEO of Green America.

Announced in April of 2016, the Dannon Pledge is Dannon’s commitment to a range of progressive practices focused on sustainable agriculture, transparency, and naturality. The company noted that the DanoneWave portfolio of Non-GMO Project Verified products is growing—and DanoneWave’s offers various exclusively organic brands, such as Horizon and Earthbound Farm.

 

New ownership
The Back Forty Mine: Is It the Next Standing Rock?

The border lands between the North Woods of northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan historically haven't been a hotbed of environmental activism. The region, populated largely by farming and middle- or working-class families, trends staunchly conservative in states that toggle between red and blue from election to election. People kayak and fish in the summer, ski and snowmobile in the winter, and hunt deer and duck when the law permits them to do so. They don’t attend protests.

But then someone messed with their river.

If you travel from the North Woods to “the U.P.,” down gravel roads and through increasingly wild landscapes to the mouth of the Menominee River, what may strike you is the quiet. The forest here is dense and lush and seems like it could swallow the few slender roads that wind along the river’s banks at any moment. Of course, it’s not completely silent. You hear the babble of the river, the trilling of a hundred birds, and the snap of twigs as deer, opossums, and other wildlife creep through the trees to drink from the rushing water. But what you don’t hear much of is the noise of humanity. Cars, cell phones, chatter—the sounds of human comings and goings barely reach this far into the woods, if at all. To many local residents, it feels like a sacred place. 

To the Menominee Tribe, it is sacred.

According to tribal history, this land is where the Menominee Nation’s creation story took place about 10,000 years ago. Their story states that the five main clans of the Tribe—Ancestral Bear, Eagle, Wolf, Moose, and Crane—were transformed at the mouth of the river into human form and became the first Menominee.

The river also feeds directly into Green Bay and Lake Michigan, so it contributes to the drinking-water supply of the more than 35 million people who get their water from the Great Lakes. 6.6 million people in Illinois alone rely on Lake Michigan for their water.

Now, Toronto-based Aquila Resources wants to put an open-pit sulfide mine 150 feet from the river, near the point of the Menominee Nation’s origins. Tribal members are deeply concerned about what that means for their ancestors who are buried on the site.

But the Back Forty mine isn’t just about saving the Menominee’s cultural heritage, stresses Guy Anahkwet Reiter, a community organizer with the Tribe. The Menominee and local residents also fear what the mine’s impacts will be to the water, the surrounding environment, and human health.

“The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of fresh water in the whole world,” Reiter says. “The Menominee River flows into Lake Michigan, where millions of people get their drinking water. Ninety percent of the breeding stock of Lake sturgeon only use the Menominee River. If project goes through,  you can say goodbye to Lake Michigan’s lake sturgeon and to clean water. This isn’t just a Menominee problem. It belongs to all of us.”

Calling themselves Water Protectors—like North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux before them, who fought to keep the Dakota Access oil pipeline from crossing their sacred traditional lands and burial sites—the Menominee and numerous other members of the local community are mobilizing for a stand-off against Aquila.

More Toxic Than Your Average Mine

Andi Rich, a lifelong resident of the twin cities of Marinette, WI, and Menominee, MI, didn’t know a lot about sulfide mining when she first heard about plans for the Back Forty mine. But when she started researching, what she found turned her into an activist.

“I knew about places around here that have had mines, and it wasn’t the end of the world. But I started seeing some Facebook posts about contaminated water and how close the mine would be to the Menominee River. The proximity drew me in,” she says. “Then I realized it wasn’t a regular mine but a sulfide mine, and there are all these hazards that come in with that. So I started wondering, ‘What are we thinking? Why would anybody do this?”’

As Rich discovered, to create an open-pit sulfide mine, Aquila Resources would dig a hole 750-feet deep only 150 feet from the banks of the Menominee River. Which, again, flows directly into Lake Michigan. While mining itself isn’t a terribly clean proposition, sulfide mining is much dirtier than average because it often results in toxic acid mine drainage.

Aquila plans to extract gold, zinc, copper, and other metals from sulfide ore. Sulfide ore is basically sulfide-mineral rocks, which contain sulfur that’s chemically combined with enough of any of these metals to make them worth extracting. The company would dig its pit to remove the soil and rocks covering the sulfide ore. Then, it would mine the ore through a cycle of drilling and blasting to bring it out of the ground.

From there, Aquila plans to use cyanide to extract the metals from the sulfur on site. As the nonprofit SOS Blue Waters describes in a mining case study on its website, “... regular mining is like mining the chocolate chips out of a cookie, while sulfide mining is like mining the sugar out of a cookie.”

Here’s the thing with sulfide minerals: When they’re exposed to air or water, they create sulfuric acid, a highly corrosive substance that’s a component of drain cleaners and battery acid—and a suspected respiratory and musculo-skeletal toxicant. When you have an open pit sitting 150 feet from a vital waterway, the chances of it flooding and creating sulfuric acid, sending that and other substances into said waterway, don’t seem all that slim.

“There are no examples of metallic sulfide mines which have not polluted both surface and ground waters,” says Dr. Al Gedicks, who has been assisting the Menominee with protecting their traditional lands. “Metallic sulfide mines will pollute up to 27 billion gallons of fresh water per year.” Gedicks is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and executive secretary of the nonprofit Wisconsin Resources Protection Council.

He points to a 2016 research paper by the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, which states, “Uncontrolled acid generation from AMD [acid mine drainage] results in an ecosystem with high levels of metals, dissolved solids, sulfates, and acidity. A mine draining acid water can devastate rivers, streams, and aquatic life for many years.”

Due the potential impacts of the mine, American Rivers named the Menominee River to its Most Endangered Rivers List in 2017.

Blue Sky, Orange Water

orange river small.jpg
Caption: People kayak in Colorado’s Animas River, which turned orange after the disastrous 2015 Gold King sulfide mine spill released millions of gallons of toxic wastewater into it.  Photo by Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP

Plenty of examples exist confirming that sulfide mines can release pollutants for years after their closure. In fact, more than 40 percent of the streams in the western US are contaminated by acid mine drainage, according to the EPA. A disastrous 2015 spill from Colorado’s Gold King Mine, for example, released millions of gallons of acid mine drainage into Colorado’s Animas River, devastating nearby farmland and the Navajo Nation.

At the time of the spill, EPA contractors had been working to mitigate pollution from the mine, when they accidentally breached a containment dam inside it, sending cadmium, lead, arsenic, and other toxic elements into the river.

Here’s the kicker: The mine had been abandoned since 1923. While mining pollution controls have certainly improved since then, the Gold King disaster does show what's at stake if even those improved controls fail. 

The Navajo Nation sued the EPA in August of 2016, demanding $160 million in compensation for damage to tribal lands, farms, cattle herds, and gardens. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) noted that the total economic impact on the Navajo from the spill could total $335 million. The EPA had accepted responsibility for the accident, but officials said it didn’t have to pay damages under “sovereign immunity” laws. The Navajo lawsuit is still pending.

Meanwhile, in Menominee, local activists fear what happened in Colorado and other sulfide mine sites could happen to them. They say Aquila is already trying to hide the potential environmental fallout from its plans for the Back Forty Mine, pointing to the fact that the company’s Michigan state permit applications state that the life of the mine [LOM] will be approximately seven years. But several Aquila press releases say that the mine will be operational for 16 years, meaning it will have more than twice the impact than what’s in the permit applications.

By minimizing LOM, the company can misrepresent the mine’s effects, says Gedicks. “Aquila is excluding half of all the potential impacts on water quality, air quality, and potential discharge of waste on site,” he says. “That deprives the public of the ability to understand what the impact of the mine would be. There’s effectively no transparency.”

While Aquila and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) have made plenty of promises that the mine will adhere to “strict” environmental and water-quality regulations, the Menominee and other local activists have significant doubts. (Aquila did not respond to Green America requests for comment.)

The Power of Community

 

AndiRich small.jpg

Caption: A coalition of Menominee Tribal members and residents of the towns near the Menominee River celebrate after the Menominee County Board passed a resolution opposing the Back Forty Mine in August. Photo via Andi Rich

Word of mouth travels quickly in North Woods communities. If you happen to move to the area, people will likely know your name, what kind of car you drive, and where you live before you even lay eyes on them for the first time. Those lines of small-town communication have been critical to spreading the word about the potential impacts of the mine. Community activist Andi Rich is the owner of Hammer Construction in Marinette, WI. At first, she says, she was concerned about the environmental impacts of the mine. But then she realized it might also affect her business.

“We do home improvement, which a lot of people use home equity loans to finance,” she says. “If this mine goes through, it’s a ticking time bomb on Marinette’s water supply. And if I was looking at buying a house in Marinette, and there’s a mine going in, I’m not going to buy a house anymore. Who’s going to want to move here? Home equity is going to disappear in the entire city.”

Not to mention the impacts on fishing families, fly-fishing guides, boat and kayak rental outlets, outdoor equipment stores, and other businesses that rely on North Woods tourism, she says.

So Rich went to a meeting of local citizens who were concerned about the mine. She found it “enthusiastic but not very organized,” so she started asking herself what she could do to help. She put in an order for some yard signs and brought about a dozen bearing the words “Save the Menominee River! Stop the Back Forty Mine!” to the next meeting. The signs vanished in a heartbeat, and Rich was bombarded with requests for more. So she ordered more.

And that’s how she became one of the people steering the citizen action group to Save the Menominee River. The group put up a public Facebook page and started organizing protests. Most take place in front of the Ogden Club, a bar and restaurant in Menominee, MI, owned by Aquila Resources’ communications manager Robin Quigley and former vice-president of exploration Tom Quigley. Aquila “rents” offices on the Ogden Club’s second floor.

The protests occur about twice a month. Group members also table local events, hand out fliers, speak at local schools, and turn out en masse in their “Save the River” shirts in local parades. They’ve urged a boycott of the Ogden Club and have pressed local city and county boards to adopt resolutions opposing the mine.

“Nobody I run into in daily life is for this mine,” says Rich.

It does indeed appear that Aquila has close to no social license for the mine. Community members say that business has dropped considerably at the Ogden Club because of the boycott. And when the Michigan DEQ held a public comment period on the mine permits, it generated over 2,000 comments against the mine, a full 98 percent of all comments. To date, four local towns and eight tribal governments have passed resolutions opposing the mine. In August, Menominee County, home to Aquila’s Upper Michigan offices, joined Green Bay’s Brown County and two others in passing similar resolutions. After their vote, the board had to wait several minutes for the cheering in the crowded room to quiet.

“Those Are Our Ancestors”

The Menominee Nation has worked closely with the Save the Menominee River group, providing the critical environmental justice voice to the mix.

When the Standing Rock Sioux put their bodies in front of the construction crews coming to place a stretch of the Dakota Access Pipeline on their traditional lands, their biggest concern was that the pipeline would desecrate the burial sites of their ancestors. The Menominee share a similar concern with one key difference: The Sioux strongly suspect their ancestors lay under DAPL’s path.

“We have actual physical proof,” says Reiter. “We have 22 ancestors that are literally right there on the mine site.”
Aquila claims that the mine will not disturb Menominee cultural resources—which it determined by conducting its own archaeological survey, rather than having an independent entity do so. The  company did not consult with the Menominee Nation.

“They did a very limited archaeological survey where we weren’t included,” says Reiter. “They determined what was important, what was sacred, without us even being there. The quality of work they did was not up to the standards that we would do.”

His tone takes a sarcastic turn: “They were, of course, fortunate to be able to find the mounds that are eight feet tall in some areas, but they weren’t able to find others.”

Even so, Aquila’s survey did discover cultural sites within their project area, although not where the pit will be located, says Reiter. In fact, the University of Michigan had surveyed some of the archaeological sites and burial mounds on and near what is now the mine site back in the 1950s. It recently conducted testing of the bodies they excavated back then, and in February of this year, determined that they were indeed genetic ancestors of the Menominee. Those ancestors “came home” to the Menominee reservation in Keshena, WI, for reburial and tribal honors this summer.

In 48 states, it’s required by law—specifically, the National Historic Preservation Act—that companies get the free, prior, and informed Consent (FPIC) of Native Tribes before conducting development projects on their lands or archaeological sites. Unfortunately for the Menominee, Michigan is one of two states that are exempt from that law.

“The federal government has delegated the entire mine permitting authority to the Michigan government, and Michigan says they don’t have to consult with the Menominee Tribe,” says Gedicks. “If the mine had been located across the river in Wisconsin, [Aquila] never would have been able to get away with this nonsense.”

Aquila needed four permits from the Michigan DEQ to start digging the Back Forty pit. Despite the fact that the public is overwhelmingly opposed to the project, Aquila received the third permit in February. Now, the company is only a wetlands permit away from shovels hitting the ground. Reiter, Rich, and others know that time is running out, so they’re stepping up their efforts to stop the mine.

The Wisconsin Resources Protection Council and another local organization, Save the Wild UP, have sent letters to the Ontario Securities Commission, which is responsible for investment regulation in Canada, stating that the life-of-mine information Aquila sent to Michigan is fraudulent and a violation of securities regulations. The groups are also demanding that the DEQ deny the wetlands permit on the basis of this information.

If the DEQ approves the final permit, Reiter says that the Menominee are prepared to put their bodies between Aquila’s heavy machinery and the Menominee’s sacred traditional land.

“If it comes between standing machines and my ancestors, I’m going to do that, and gladly,” he says. “We, the Menominee, were given the responsibility to look after that river and land by the Creator thousands of years ago, and that supersedes any treaty or law. This Menominee River is a part of me; its essence is within my soul. There isn’t a Menominee Indian around who wouldn’t feel connected and unified standing next to the river while gazing on its sacred banks and water.”

Several community members will likely join them. But Rich hopes it won’t come to that: “[Support has] started growing rapidly in the last couple of months. More people are putting up signs. For the first time, I’m very hopeful we can stop this mine.”

UPDATE (2/19/2018): On January 22, 2018, the Menominee Nation filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the Army Corps of Engineers and the US EPA, claiming the agencies have failed to adequately review permits for the Back Forty mine.

The Menominee state in their lawsuit that the EPA and the Army Corps should have taken over the permitting process under Clean Water Act rules, rather than leaving oversight to the Michigan DEQ. 

“The Menominee River and its wetlands are interstate federal waters, used in interstate commerce under the law. So under the law, this permit cannot be controlled by one state,” says Janette Brimmer, an Earthjustice lawyer who represents the tribe, in a statement. “The Clean Water Act is clear that the federal agencies must have the primary role and jurisdiction in this permitting process, and that they are legally obligated to comply with additional protections for the Menominee River under federal law.”

UPDATE (4/19/2018): On March 8th, the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers sent a notice to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, stating that the agencies had questions about the wetlands permit for the Back Forty Mine. The letter cited several areas of concern over the mine's permit application, including that Aquila's application doesn't specify how the company plans to prevent the leaching of toxic compounds from the mine site, and how the company will protect the river during heavy rains. 

The agencies gave the Michigan DEQ and Aquila 90 days from the date of the letter to adequately resolve the issues in the letter. If they cannot, permitting authority would transfer from the DEQ to the Army Corps.

Activists are hesitant to call the letter a victory, since even if the Army Corps takes over the permitting authority, it could still eventually grant the wetlands permit and pave the way for mine construction. However, they say that it does buy them more time to work to stop the mine. 

Take Action

Aquila Resources is a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Wisconsin Resources Protection Council says that one of the most powerful things people can do is contact the companies funding mine to voice your opposition.

Sign Green America’s letter to the companies funding the Back Forty Mine—Orion Mine Finance, Hudbay Minerals, and Ruffer—telling them the mine has no community support and asking them to withdraw funding. 

American Rivers is collecting signatures for a  petition to the Michigan DEQ, asking it to deny Aquila’s last permit for the Back Forty Mine.

Keep informed about the Menominee Nation’s fight against the mine on their campaign website: NoBack40.org.  

Support the Menominee Tribe’s GoFundMe campaign to crowdfund their legal opposition to the mine.

Header photo by Brian Benkowski.  Read Benkowski’s article series, “Sacred Water: Environmental Justice in Indian Country,” at ehn.org/ehs/news/2016/tribal-series/sacred-water/. 

Drinking Water at Risk

Water supplies across the US have become contaminated by toxins from the energy, mining, and agricultural industries, among others—wreaking havoc on vulnerable ecosystems and human health. But local communities are taking action to ensure clean water for all.

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Worm Composting: All-Natural Recycling

Recycle your kitchen waste into soil for your lawn, garden, or houseplants -- all with the help of thousands of new friends. Worm composting can reduce food waste, recycle natural materials, and provide a home for these tiny organisms.

Like many of us, Jeannette Stewart didn’t always pay attention to what happened to her garbage after she tied off the tops of her trash bags. But when she learned that the landfill near her Fairfax, Virginia home was so full it had to close, she started noticing how much garbage she and her neighbors generated, and resolved to reduce her output of waste.

“I saw our enormous trash bins being filled up with these plastic bags just overflowing from the top, and I thought, ‘This is an enormous problem,’” says Stewart, who began looking for creative ways to reduce her volume of trash. Soon, Stewart found part of her solution in indoor worm composting (also called vermi-composting), a simple, compact and low-maintenance way to recycle organic household waste into nutrient-rich soil. Worm composting is so compact, it even works for apartment dwellers. All you need to get started is a bin, some worms and a habitat moist and temperate enough to keep your worms happy.

Getting Started with Worm Composting

The Bin: The size of your worm bin can vary based on the amount of space you have available or the amount of garbage you will need to compost. Stewart recommends 10-gallon plastic storage containers, for processing the waste of two people. For those short on space, a bucket under the sink can work, as long as you empty the compost regularly. Five-gallon buckets are often available for free from restaurants or supermarket. 

In general, at least one cubic foot of space is needed for each pound of worms, and each pound of worms will process a half-pound of food scraps per day. 

To keep your worms happy and healthy, ventilate your bin with at least 20 quarter-inch holes in both the top and the bottom of the bin, covered by a mesh. Because the composting process can generate liquid waste, you will want to place a tray beneath your bin to capture any leakage. This “worm tea” is an excellent source of nutrients for houseplants.

The Worms: The best composting worms are “red wrigglers”, available from bait shops or worm farms. (See the resource link at the end of the article for online worm retailers, or search for “worm farms” online to find a source near your home to minimize transportation time, cost and energy.)

The Habitat: Fill your bin to a depth of at least 12 inches with moistened bedding before adding the worms and their food. One-inch-wide strips of black-and-white newsprint is optimal bedding material, although other cellulose-based materials such as yard waste, sawdust and plant clippings can be added. The newspaper should be moistened to the dampness of a wrung-out sponge. Add one cup of dirt per square foot of bedding to aid the worms’ digestion.

When choosing were to place your bin, keep in mind that the worms will be happiest at a constant temperature of about 65 – 75 degrees Fahrenheit, but can tolerate temperatures as low as 50 degrees or as high as 80 degrees.

Feeding the Worms

Almost all of the waste produced by a vegetarian diet free from packaged pro-cessed foods can be converted to soil by your worm composting bin. Avoid adding processed foods, like potato chips, or any foods containing oils, meats, or eggs, although crushed eggshells are fine.

In addition to fruit and vegetable waste, the worms will also digest small amounts of moistened paper, like tea bags and coffee filters. (Over time, the worms will digest their moistened newsprint bedding, as well.)

Because red wrigglers are used to living in the soil, be sure to bury their food, rather than placing it on top of the bedding.

Harvesting the Compost

After about three months, the worms will have converted the entire contents of a 10-gallon compost bin into rich worm castings, useful as a fertilizer for gardens, lawns and houseplants.

There are two methods for separating the worms from the compost. Because the worms avoid light, dumping the contents of your bin onto some newspaper will send the worms wriggling toward the center of the pile. You can then begin removing the outer layers of compost. A second separation method is to divide your bin in half. If you push the compost to one side of the bin, while adding bedding and food to the other side, eventually all of the worms will migrate, and you can harvest the worm-free compost while keeping your bin in constant use. If you end up with more compost than you can use, give some to a friend or a community garden, or tuck some into a city tree box.

Obstacles to Worm Composting

Though worm composting represents responsible waste management at its best, even some dedicated green consumers, fearing unpleasant odors or the attraction of pests, still balk at the idea of inviting thousands of worms to live in their home.

Because the worms eat so quickly and efficiently, your food scraps actually won’t have time to rot, creating unpleasant smells. Some denser, tougher items may take longer for the worms to consume, but keeping them buried in the bedding will pre-empt odors. If your bin smells bad, you may be over-feeding, or not properly ventilating. Try giving the worms less food or adding more air holes.

A properly maintained bin is unlikely to attract pests. Some harmless creatures such as small snails, pill bugs and especially spring mites may be introduced to the bin when you add the dirt, but they will not escape into your house. As Stewart says, “ The composting world requires a specific habitat, and your house is not the habitat. The habitat is the bin.”

In this self-contained habitat, your healthy, well-fed worms will thrive and breed, and eventually you will need to thin the herd and start a new bin.

Consider assembling a bin for a friend, donating your extra worms to help others integrate their patterns of consumption into a natural cycle of growth and decay that is easy on the Earth.

Worm Composting Resources

  • Gardeners Supply -- Offers tips, supplies and red worms for indoor and outdoor composters. Based in Burlington, VT. (888)833-1412..
  • Rising Mist Organic Farm -- This organic farm in Kansas sells everything you need to get started with worm composting, from bins, to books, to the worms themselves. (785)456-6725 
  • WormWoman.com -- Maintained by Mary Applehof, author of Worms Eat My Garbage (Flower PRess, 1997), WormWoman.com allows you to purchase worms (shipped from Michigan), bins and books. You can also sign up for Applehof's free e-mail newsletter about worm composting.
25 Ways To Get and Give What You Need Without Money

Nourishment


1. Hold a home-baked bread or dessert swap with friends and neighbors.
2. Grow your own fruits and vegetables to give away. 
3. Share seeds, plants, and clippings from your garden.  
4. Buy food or supplies in bulk and share with friends.
5. Start a dinner co-op. 
6. Arrange a cooking day among friends where you all get together and prepare food in bulk. 
7. Start a good times/bad times dinner program in your neighborhood. When something momentous happens to a family (having a baby, losing a loved one, illness, etc.), form a neighborhood team to provide dinners on a rotating basis until the family is back on its feet.

Care


8. Start a babysitting or childcare co-op. 
9. Start a pet-sitting co-op.
10. Arrange to look after a sick friend with neighbors.

Home Help 


11. Form a home-repair team. Give and get services from painting to putting up a fence or fixing the roof. 
12. Share infrequently used tools and garden supplies. Start a community toolshed.
13. Collect partially used or unused cans of paint to share and exchange. It saves money and cuts down on toxic waste.

Goods


14. Hold a clothes swap at work, at your house of worship or on your street.
15. Hold toy or sporting goods swaps/exchanges for kids so they can learn new sports and games.

Knowledge


16. Exchange music, art, or cooking lessons.
17. Arrange a used book swap in your apartment building, in your neighborhood, at your workplace, or at your house of worship.

Services


18. Start a skills exchange in your community. 
19. Start a carpool in your neighborhood or office.
20. Swap your skills for accommodation. Provide accounting, housework, nursing care, childcare, or other skills in return for a room in a house.
21. Alternatively, provide accommodations in your house to get the services you need and help a student or young person get started.

Community


22. Adopt a stream or a highway to restore or improve.
23. Give a traveler a place to stay.
24. Set up an area at a community center, apartment building, or hourse of worship where people can leave items they no longer need for others. Give what’s left to a charity.
25. Volunteer your time and energy in your neighborhood, city, town, or region.

 

Bees and Pesticides

Honey bees are a vital component of our food system because they pollinate many of the crops humans consume. Over 100 vital crops in our food system are pollinated entirely or in part by bees, including potatoes, broccoli, cotton, apples, beans, cherries, and tomatoes. Concurringly, bee colonies have noticeably declined in the past five years, as a result, agricultural production is suffering.

Heavy pesticide use is credited as the main cause of the plight of bees.

Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, an entomologist who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), documented a direct link between pesticide use and bee die-off. The USDA allegedly tried to suppress his research. The USDA plays a major role in regulating the on-farm use of pesticides and Lundgren’s research called into question many of its decisions. The USDA has been receiving a multitude of complaints about “scientific censorship” surrounding pesticide research. The USDA’s failure to address pesticide-linked bee deaths is impacted by the chemical industry’s influence in pesticide regulation. 

Does this sound familiar? In 1962, marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring. This book highlighted the detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment but received backlash from corporations and scientists in the agricultural chemical industry. People tried to discredit her work, but Silent Spring became widely acclaimed and is said to be a book that kicked off the modern environmental movement.

Similarly, Dr. Lundgren published his research about the highly toxic pesticide called neonicotinoids in the Journal of Pest Science and he has since been scrutinized by pesticide companies and other scientists. His research shows that neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticide as a result of their long-term effectiveness against insects. Neonicotinoids are absorbed by the plant and can then be found in the nectar or pollen. So, if bees have direct contact, residue contact, or contact with contaminated nesting material or areas, they could be at great risk. 

Many states, including Maryland and Connecticut, have established legislation to restrict the use of neonicotinoids, but the US government has yet to address this pressing issue. Bees are a necessity for maintaining our way of life. Bees and other pollinators are responsible for “providing one in every three bites of food we eat.” There is a “food chain” so to speak. It all starts with the pollinators that pollinate plants and the plants grow to become our food. If these harmful insecticides continue rapidly killing our pollinators, we could be looking at a food crisis. This would mean the loss of almonds, peaches, kiwi, avocados, and so much more.

But there is a solution. There are a lot of different ways that society can address this problem. One way to support pollinators is a home garden filled with lavender, poppies, geraniums, and/or aster. These flowers can attract pollinators, providing them with pollen and nectar.

Individual action is simple and all about using your consumer power. The best way to stop supporting the use of bee-harming pesticides is to purchase organically grown food and honey, and to avoid products produced with GMOs.

To push for a more bee-friendly system we need corporations to change their standards for food purchasing and for farmers to shift on-farm practices. You can take action against pesticide use by encouraging Kroger to phase-out the use of toxic pesticides in order to protect pollinators!

[Video] The Buzz on Bees

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DSODl2vjoQ

by Alex Mauthe, Food Campaigns Intern

Honey bees are a vital component of our food system because they pollinate many of the crops that humans consume. Over 100 vital crops in our food system are pollinated entirely or in part by bees. Some of these crops include: potatoes, broccoli, cotton, apples, beans, cherries, and tomatoes. Concurringly, bee colonies have noticeably declined in the past five years, as a result, agricultural production is suffering.

Heavy pesticide use is credited as the main cause of the plight of bees. Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, an entomologist who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), documented a direct link between pesticide use and bee die-off. The USDA allegedly tried to suppress his research. The USDA plays a major role in regulating the on-farm use of pesticides and Lundgren’s research called into question many of its decisions. The USDA has been receiving a multitude of complaints about “scientific censorship” surrounding pesticide research. The USDA’s failure to address pesticide-linked bee deaths is impacted by the chemical industry’s influence in pesticide regulation. 

Does this sound familiar? In 1962, marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring. This book highlighted the detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment but received backlash from corporations and scientists in the agricultural chemical industry. People tried to discredit her work, but Silent Spring became widely acclaimed and is said to be a book that kicked off the modern environmental movement.

Similarly, Dr. Lundgren published his research about the highly toxic pesticide called neonicotinoids in the Journal of Pest Science and he has since been scrutinized by pesticide companies and other scientists. His research shows that neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticide as a result of their long-term effectiveness against insects. Neonicotinoids are absorbed by the plant and can then be found in the nectar or pollen. So, if bees have direct contact, residue contact, or contact with contaminated nesting material or areas, they could be at great risk. 

Many states, including Maryland and Connecticut, have established legislation to restrict the use of neonicotinoids, but the US government has yet to address this pressing issue. Bees are a necessity for maintaining our way of life. Bees and other pollinators are responsible for “providing one in every three bites of food we eat.” There is a “food chain” so to speak. It all starts with the pollinators that pollinate plants and the plants grow to become our food. If these harmful insecticides continue rapidly killing our pollinators, we could be looking at a food crisis. This would mean the loss of almonds, peaches, kiwi, avocados, and so much more.

But there is a solution. There are a lot of different ways that society can address this problem. One way to support pollinators is a home garden filled with lavender, poppies, geraniums, and/or aster. These flowers can attract pollinators, providing them with pollen and nectar.

Individual action is simple and all about using your consumer power. The best way to stop supporting the use of bee-harming pesticides is to purchase organically grown food and honey, and to avoid products produced with GMOs.

To push for a more bee-friendly system we need corporations to change their standards for food purchasing and for farmers to shift on-farm practices. You can take action against pesticide use by encouraging Kroger to phase-out the use of toxic pesticides in order to protect pollinators!

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Renegotiating NAFTA

Originally published on Red Green & Blue.

A funny thing happened on the way to renegotiating NAFTA, the North American Trade Agreement that Trump said is so terrible for American workers. “The Swamp” is back, and it seems to be in charge, and looking to make NAFTA more friendly for corporations (which, needless to say, is NOT better for workers).

“At first glance, it’s a very mixed bag,” David Dayen writes at The Nation. “The negotiating objectives for NAFTA are mostly vague, and in parts revisit the well-worn tactic of using trade rules to guarantee corporate profits. In fact, several provisions are ripped directly from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the corporate-friendly deal Trump loudly rejected in January.”

This is all part of Trump’s (or really, the Koch Brothers and the Mercers’) desire to “harmonize” regulations – which is to say, eliminate protections for people and the environment in a race to the bottom that will maximize corporate profits by raping human and environmental health. Canadian regulations that go above and beyond American rules would be leveled down, and then US rules would be melted down to whatever is left in Mexico in a pell-mell race for the bottom.

The biggest issue: The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system, which Dayen describes as:

“…a secret extra-judicial court that gives corporations monetary awards for lost profits due to changes in law that run counter to trade agreements …corporations could still functionally overturn sovereign laws outside of the court system, and win billions of damages when governments try to write rules in the public interest.”

And while Corporations could jump over the head of US courts to go directly to an ISDS panel (often composed of just 3 corporate-friendly lawyers) over trade disputes, unions and environmental groups don’t get the same right. Only the US, Canadian or Mexican governments could take each other to ISDS court to enforce labor or environmental offences, and what are the odds that the Trump regime would ever do that?

Fran Teplitz, director of Green America’s Green Business Network, and Richard Eidlin, vice president and cofounder of the American Sustainable Business Council, appeal to fellow small-business owners in an op-ed for The Hill to break with the US Chamber of Commerce in opposing the ISDS.

“Many of these lawyers rotate between serving [as ISDS judeges] on tribunals that decide cases, and attacking governments on behalf of corporations. Such conflicts of interest are forbidden as highly unethical in most legal systems.

It’s hard to believe this Orwellian power grab is real, but it is. Multinational corporations already have pocketed $392 million from North American taxpayers under NAFTA ISDS attacks on toxic bans, environmental and public health policies and more. Tens of billions of dollars are pending in ongoing NAFTA cases. 

Elizabeth Warren sums it up (in a Washington Post op-ed):

“Imagine that the United States bans a toxic chemical that is often added to gasoline because of its health and environmental consequences.

If a foreign company that makes the toxic chemical opposes the law, it would normally have to challenge it in a U.S. court. But with ISDS, the company could skip the U.S. courts and go before an international panel of arbitrators.

If the company won, the ruling couldn’t be challenged in U.S. courts, and the arbitration panel could require American taxpayers to cough up millions — and even billions — of dollars in damages.”

As Jay Henderson, Digital Strategy Manager for Democracy for America, puts it, “Fixing NAFTA is a good idea. But that’s not what Donald Trump has in mind. Trump plans to do the bidding of big corporations by taking parts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and inserting them into NAFTA.”

And the biggest problem is: We really don’t know much of anything about what’s happening. All we’ve got is vague platitudes and closed-door discussions.

“The biggest thing needed to truly assess whether the administration actually wants to fix NAFTA’s problems or further entrench corporate control is transparency,” says Dayen. “The European Union posts its formal proposals on the Internet for all to see before entering negotiations. Trump needs to do the same; otherwise we can assume he has something to hide from the working-class supporters who were promised a revitalization of US manufacturing.”

“Big corporations have already used NAFTA to destroy millions of jobs and communities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico,” says DFA’s Henderson. “If Trump gets his way, the big corporations will have new powers under NAFTA to destroy much more. The good news: Investor-State Dispute Settlement is incredibly unpopular with the American people. It’s the kind of rip-off that helped to defeat the TPP.” He adds that The DFA has a petition “to tell your representative to vote no on Trump’s NAFTA corporate power grab!” (that he urges you to sign).”

Reprinted with permission.

Fall 2017
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