Support our REAL organic dairy farmers

Will the real organic dairy farmers please stand up?

Organic Dairy Farmers’ Rally — USDA Secretary Asked to Vigorously Enforce Organic Laws

Go Local! Choose Co-ops First.

In an age of Walmarts and Home Depots, there's still a place for the corner grocer, hardware store and credit union. How do small businesses compete with giant ones? Often it's by banding together.

Check out this great short spot on co-ops.

Youtube

Alert of the week

A Quarter Million Experimental "Frankentrees" to Be Grown in U.S

The USDA is currently taking public comments on whether or not the company ArborGen should be allowed to conduct 29 field trials of genetically engineered "cold tolerant" eucalyptus trees in the U.S. This massive experiment, which is on the verge of being green-lighted, will literally be using nature as the laboratory to test more than 260,000 frankentrees. Scientists across the U.S. are voicing concerns over this proposal including:

-The USDA failed to do an Environmental Impact Statement to assess potential negative issues related to the proposed field trials.

-The spread of the these plants into the wild through seeds and plant matter is highly likely, and the impacts on native ecosystems from this invader are unknown

.-One of the experimental GE tree varieties is a known host for cryptococcus gatti, a fatal fungal pathogen whose spores cause meningitis in people and animals.

Comments are being accepted by the USDA until July 6, 2009.

Take action here courtesy of the Organic Consumers Association:

http://tinyurl.com/lykvyx

This is a trailer for the new feature length film Food Inc.

Go See This Movie. Coming soon to a theater near you.

http://tinyurl.com/c9u2vj

What Can They be Thinking?

Agrichemical industry steps up pressure on White House organic garden

http://tinyurl.com/o6xwfb

Alert of the Week - HR 875

ALERT Update OF THE WEEK on behalf of the OCA
HR 875 Update:
Will the Real "Monsanto Bill" Please Stand Up?

News of a "Monsanto Bill to Criminalize Organic Farming" has been speeding around the internet. The Organic Consumers Fund, OCA's lobbying partner in Washington, DC, analyzed the bill and determined that they could not support food safety legislation like this that could be applied in a one-size-fits-all manner to all farms, including organic and farm-to-consumer operations -- especially a bill that references the National Animal Identification System (a voluntary USDA animal tagging program that some influential members of Congress are trying to make mandatory for every owner of even a single farm animal). With these concerns, the Organic Consumers Association put out this alert on March 12.

Nevertheless, the OCA was alarmed by the misleading headlines attached to anti-HR 875 alerts. Even if this bill were passed as is today, it wouldn't criminalize organic farming. The bill would require farms to have a food safety plan, allow their records to be inspected, and comply with food safety regulations. To say this is tantamount to criminalization doesn't give organic farmers enough credit.

Worse, linking this bill to Monsanto (for no other reason than because the bill's sponsor Rosa DeLauro is married to political operative Stan Greenberg, who lists Monsanto as a past client) obscures the real damage Monsanto is doing in Congress. This past week, Monsanto got a bill passed in committee that forces GMOs on Africa.

10% on the 10th

Durango Natural Foods Members!

Be sure to mark your calendars, because on Friday, April 10th, DNF with be offering a 10% (total) Member Discount at the register all day.

Come on down, fill your baskets and ring in the savings.