Current Actions
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Ghiradelli: Be Fair!
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Tell Driscoll's Berries that you support Food Justice
Migrant and seasonal farm workers represent some of the most economically disadvantaged people in the United States. According to the most recent findings of the National Agriculture Workers Survey (NAWS), nearly three-quarters of U.S. farm workers earn less than $10,000 per year and three out of five farm worker families have incomes below the poverty level.
Up until now, consumers wishing to support fair trade and food justice have had few choices in the marketplace. Most certified food justice products in the marketplace have been grown abroad. A new initiative, the Agriculture Justice Project (AJP), is a homegrown domestic fair trade label that represents the gold standard for social justice in agricultural and food jobs, rigorous third party certification, and a system based on the experiences and input of the farmers, farmworkers and business owners themselves. Food Justice Certified is based on the AJP standards which were developed specifically for North American food system operations. Many social justice labels in the marketplace today, such as Fair Trade, have been developed to meet the needs of small farmers in the southern hemisphere selling to buyers in the northern hemisphere. Food Justice Certified brings the concept of fair trade to the domestic setting.
The AJP standards were developed with extensive input from stakeholders, including farmworkers, food system workers, farmers, certifiers, processors/manufacturers, retailers, and representatives of indigenous populations. Our highly participatory method for creating this program has allowed us to find the gold standard for social justice in our food system that is functional and achievable for all business types.Take action and tell Driscoll's Berries that you support food justice and domestic fair trade.
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Take Action: Tell Trader Joe's
For several years, the CIW and its allies have attempted to persuade Trader Joe's -- the highly profitable "cheap-chic" grocer that is considered one of the "world's most ethical companies" -- to join the Fair Food program, an innovative solution to the decades-old problem of farmworker poverty.However Trader Joe's continues to duck the issue of exploitation in its tomato supply chain, claiming that, "At Trader Joe’s, we work with reputable suppliers that have a strong record of providing safe and healthy work environments and we will continue to make certain that our vendors are meeting if not exceeding government standards throughout all aspects of their businesses."
Yet as long as Trader Joe's refuses to join the CIW's Fair Food program, there is no credible mechanism for Trader Joe's to verify that its own minimal standards are being met, much less a commitment to forge a higher set of standards through direct partnership with farmworkers themselves.
Take action now! Send Trader Joe's a letter today in support of Fair Food.
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Hershey's: Be Fair!
It has been almost a decade since major chocolate companies committed to ending abusive child labor, forced labor and trafficking in their cocoa supply chains, but these abuses continue today. While many major companies have started to work with third party, independent organizations to trace their cocoa and institute labor standards among their suppliers, the Hershey Company lags behind all of its competitors in this area. Tell Hershey to Be Fair and source fair trade cocoa!For more information on the need for fair trade cocoa, please read Fair World Project's article Chocolate: the Bitter and the Sweet.
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Cadbury: Be Fair!
Cadbury: Be Fair!
It has been almost a decade since major chocolate companies committed to ending abusive child labor, forced labor and trafficking in their cocoa supply chains, but these abuses continue today. Many major companies have started to work with third party, independent organizations to trace their cocoa and institute labor standards among their suppliers. Cadbury has committed to sourcing fair trade cocoa for their products for sale in the UK, but refuses to source fair trade cocoa for US products. Tell Cadbury to Be Fair and source fair trade cocoa in the United States!For more information on the need for fair trade cocoa, please read Fair World Project's article Chocolate: the Bitter and the Sweet.
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Fair Trade is a Movement Not a Brand
Stop TransFair’s Attempt to Trademark “Fair Trade Certified” and “Fair Trade USA”
International trade has failed to deliver improved livelihoods to many impoverished farmers and workers in the developing world, where unfair and exploitative prices, wages and working conditions prevail, trapping millions in poverty.
In response, the “Fair Trade” movement, fueled by hundreds of retailers, NGOs, mission-driven for-profit “Alternative Trading Organizations“ and conscious consumers have implemented standards for fair pricing, wages and working conditions in farming and processing of diverse commodities and products. Products certified to these standards empower producers and their families and communities, enabling them to improve their lives and livelihoods.
One fair trade standards and certification organization is the Fair Labeling Organization (FLO), which among other certifying and standards organizations, develops fair trade standards and certifies producer groups that comply with these standards. TransFair is the US arm of FLO, and receives a “licensing fee” from companies that use the TransFair logo on products that are certified or contain fair trade ingredients.
Another fair trade standards and certification system is the Institute for Market Ecology’s (IMO) Fair for Life program, which fully committed fair trade companies such as Equal Exchange, Co-Op Coffees, Theo Chocolate and Dr. Bronner’s have chosen as superior to FLO/TransFair for various reasons. Notably, IMO does not allow use of its seal on products and brands that are not majority fair trade. Fair for Life also broadened the scope of fair trade to allow for the fair trade certification of virtually all agricultural commodities produced in developing countries if fair conditions are met along the entire value chain.
While TransFair has done an admirable job in promoting the concept of fair trade and broadening its visibility , TransFair has permitted its certification to be used in ways that mislead consumers and has attempted to claim exclusive use of the term “fair trade” in ways that unfairly hurt other certifiers and undermine the fair trade movement. First, TransFair licenses its seal for a fee on products and brands that have as little as 2% fair trade content. This has allowed large brands to present themselves as “Fair Trade” by selling a token product line extension that has been certified by TransFair to contain only an insignificant amount of fair trade ingredients. See for example Avon’s Mark line at at the OCA's Coming Clean Campaign site.
Second, increasingly, TransFair has used strategies aimed at achieving monopoly status for the certification of fair trade products in the US. TransFair has trademarked the term “Fair Trade Certified” and incorrectly represents itself as the “only fair trade certifier in the US.” Recently TransFair has changed its name to “Fair Trade USA” in the attempt to perpetuate the myth that it is the only fair trade certifier in the American fair trade movement. Imagine an organic certifier re-naming itself “Organic USA” and proceeding to aggressively promote itself as the only organic certifier in the US.
Take Action! If you feel TransFair’s attempt to brand and own the fair trade movement has to be stopped, sign the petition below and tell TransFair that Fair Trade is a movement, not a brand!
The OCA along with Equal Exchange, Dr. Bronner’s, Theo Chocolate and Co-op Coffees is coordinating a sign-on campaign of concerned consumers, retailers, NGOs and mission-based companies protest TransFair’s attempt to trademark the term “Fair Trade USA” as well as “Fair Trade Certified”. Signatories are asking USPTO not to give TransFair the exclusive right to use the name “Fair Trade USA”.
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Time for Fair Trade Procurment
International trade has not benefited everyone in the world. In fact, so-called “free trade” agreements have exacerbated global poverty, marginalizing workers and farmers and denying them a fair income for their harvest or labor. This reality has led to the emergence of fair trade, which aims to guarantee that workers and farmers receive a fair price that not only reflects the true costs of their production and work, but also creates a mechanism for socially just and environmentally sustainable production.
Each year, institutions, from municipal and state governments to universities, hospitals and school districts, spend billions of dollars purchasing commodities, like coffee, tea and sugar. An estimated $8 billion dollars was spent on institutional coffee purchases alone in 2009. Institutional purchasing can leverage large volumes and significant purchasing power to engage and empower ordinary people to create a just global economy.
Take action. Tell your governor that you support Fair Trade and that your state should too.
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Invitation to Formally Endorse OCA's "Coming Clean" Campaign
The OCA's Coming Clean campaign counters the fraudulent “organic” labeling of conventional shampoos, body washes and other body care products by various so-called “organic” body care companies. These mislabeled products are undermining the letter and spirit of the organic regulations, and the problem is fast escalating out of control.
The OCA is dealing with the struggle between the integrity of the organic paradigm and the hollow market-driven needs of the cosmetics industry. Unfortunately, the cosmetics industry appears to be winning, and has to date effectively paralyzed the relevant organic institutions into inaction. This has enabled a few companies to systematically green-wash conventional surfactant shampoos, body washes and other body care products with front panel “organic” claims. Thus, OCA, as a watchdog for organic consumer protection, has launched the Coming Clean campaign.
The OCA is inviting businesses and organizations to join together to preserve organic integrity by signing on to endorse this campaign.
All formal endorsements will be listed on OCA’s website.
For more information, please go tohttp://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Ronnie Cummins
National Director
Organic Consumers Association -
Retailers, Are You Ready to Come Clean?
Take a stand against organic fraud by adopting an Organic Cosmetics Integrity Policy like Whole Foods Market did in June 2010.
Please use the form below to submit your Organic Cosmetics Integrity Policy to the Organic Consumers Association.
The template below is based on Whole Foods Market's policy. Please feel free to edit this or create your own.
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Food Agenda 2020: A National Petition on Agricultural Solutions for Climate Change and Health
To stabilize our already chaotic climate and to avoid catastrophic global warming of 2-7 degrees centigrade or more, we must reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) pollution from our current unsustainable global level of 389 parts CO2 per million to 350 ppm or below. Otherwise, we face massive crop failures, starvation, water shortages, pestilence, and unending wars for dwindling natural resources. In practical terms, this means reducing current fossil fuel use (especially in the food, transport, housing, military, and utilities sectors) by 90% by 2050; while sequestering or storing as much CO2 as possible in the soil through organic soil management and reforestation.
By the year 2020, the U.S. needs to generate at least 25% of its energy from solar, wind, and other renewable sources (currently at 6%, while Denmark is at 20%). By 2020, 25% of our food needs to be certified organic (currently it is 4%), while drastically reducing the most-devastating greenhouse gases spewed out by industrial food and farming, methane and nitrous oxide. Only 1% of the U.S.'s 435 million acres of cultivated farmland are currently certified organic. In addition to drastically reducing fossil fuel energy use and slashing GHG emissions, each acre of farm, pasture, or range land brought under organic cultivation or management can safely sequester or store the equivalent of 7,000 pounds of climate-destabilizing CO2 per year. If all of U.S. farmland (not to mention pasture) were managed organically, we would be able to sequester almost 25% of all current GHG emissions, while significantly reducing fossil fuel use.
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Action Alert: Stop the Spread of Genetically Engineered Trees
Despite emails and calls from over ten thousand OCA members, the US Department of Agriculture has approved a “field trial” of over 250,000 genetically modified eucalyptus in the Southeast United States, including Florida. The field trials are being conducted by ArborGen, a notorious biotechnology entity owned by the “Big Three” paper multinationals: International Paper, MeadWestvaco, and Rubicon,
ArborGen’s GE eucalyptus has not been adequately evaluated by the USDA for potential environmental impacts. In fact, GE trees have the potential to be far more damaging than any other genetically engineered plant to date. Pollen from GE trees can travel hundreds of miles, contaminating communities and species far from the plantation. GE eucalyptus will likely become a dangerous invasive specie in southeast US, as non-GE eucalyptus has in other states, like California. Finally, ArborGen is simply the tip of the iceberg, advancing multinational pulp companies’ policies of environmentally devastating business plan of monocultures and clear cuts.
Act now! Send an email to the nation’s top retail office supply stores and insist that they reject paper products from GE trees!
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End the Travel Ban on Cuba- Contact Your Representative Today!
Since 1990, Cuba has carried out the world's most comprehensive and successful organic food and farming revolution, including the ongoing cultivation of over tens of thousands of organic urban gardens and farms. H.R. 4645, the most recent version of the "Freedom to Travel to Cuba" Bill, will be voted on in the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, the week of June 1, 2010.
OCA believes that the only way we can overcome our own domestic economic, food, health, energy, and climate crisis is through sharing information and "best practices" with organic practitioners and communities across the globe. This bill restores our right to travel to Cuba and lifts restrictions on agricultural sales to Cuba. It was introduced in February 2010 by Representatives Peterson (D-MN) and Moran (R-KS).
Use this e-mail content below as it is, or edit the content to make the message your own. Make sure your message is heard loud and clear asking for your representative to support H.R. 4645, a bill that will end the travel ban to Cuba for ALL Americans
Learn more about ambitous Cuba's organic agriculture experience.
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Haiti's New Earthquake: USAID Delivers Monsanto's Poison Pills
Take Action in Solidarity with Haitian Farmers Who Vow to Burn Monsanto's Seeds
Monsanto will be giving Haiti 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. Hybrid seeds have to be purchased and planted every year.
Monsanto's seeds will be distributed by the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) WINNER program. USAID is a tax-payer funded agency that promotes the United States' interests abroad. It is run by Dr. Rajiv Shah, an Obama appointee that the Organic Consumers Association opposed because of his work with the explicitly pro-GMO Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation works closely with Monsanto.
Haitian peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called Monsanto's poison pills Haiti's “new earthquake.” The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.
Like other US efforts to deprive Haiti of food security, dumping Monsanto’s seeds on Haiti's farmers will seriously undermine Haitian farmers’ independence, force an industrialized agriculture model on the impoverished nation and seriously threaten public health in the country.
Haiti’s farmers need support and solidarity to rebuild their local food and farming economy, not profit-driven industrial agriculture and hybrid seeds. Since independence more than 200 years ago, Haitian farmers have protected their seeds. They know that true food security is maintained by the farmers who save, trade and breed indigenous seeds using traditional methods.
As Jean-Baptiste said earlier this year, "We need to establish seed banks and have silos where we can store our Creole seeds. Local, organic seeds are the basis of food sovereignty. … It’s urgent that Haitians buy local seeds. ... What's the danger we face today? It’s that food aid from USAID and others is getting dumped in the country."Please use the form below to contact President Obama and USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah today to tell them to support Haitian farmers' demands for sustainability and food security, not Monsanto's poison pills.
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TAKE ACTION: The American Power Act Needs to Address Food and Farming!
The American Power Act, also known the Kerry-Lieberman "cap-and-trade" bill, takes steps to restrict some greenhouse gas emissions, but the bill subsidizes nuclear energy, preempts progressive state and municipal climate change policy and handcuffs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Conspicuously missing from the bill are any effective measures to reduce greenhouse gases in the food and farming sector, which is responsible for up to 30% of the world's climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases. The American Power Act could make a positive impact on climate change by:
-Supporting local food distribution. The average single food item travels over 1400 miles from farm to fork. Developing local food economies could greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases generated from from food transportation and refrigeration.
-Transition conventional farms to organic.
-Prohibiting funds for industrial geoeneringeering. Geoengineering, according to the ETC Group, is the intentional, large-scale manipulation of the environment by humans to bring about environmental change, particularly to counteract the undesired side effects of other human activities. Technologies like biochar production, while promising for small-scale and community-based initiatives, are extremely hazardous at the industrial level.
-Banning funds for industrial biofuels. Industrial biofuels, like corn-based ethanol, consume more energy in their production than they save by providing an alternative to fossil fuels. Additionally, most ethanol in the United States is produced from Genetically Engineered corn grown in monocultures on megafarms, which are hugely energy dependent.
-Dismantle factory farms or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The livestock sector produces more emissions than transportation and, by some estimates, could be generating as much as 51% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Dismantling CAFOs, reducing meat consumption, and transitioning to "pasture-based" farming systems would significantly reduce greenhouse gases.
Contact your Senators and urge them to place organic and sustainable food and farming front and center.
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Haiti's New Earthquake: USAID Delivers Monsanto's Poison Pills
Take Action in Solidarity with Haitian Farmers Who Vow to Burn Monsanto's Seeds
Monsanto will be giving Haiti 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. Hybrid seeds have to be purchased and planted every year.
Monsanto's seeds will be distributed by the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) WINNER program. USAID is a tax-payer funded agency that promotes the United States' interests abroad. It is run by Dr. Rajiv Shah, an Obama appointee that the Organic Consumers Association opposed because of his work with the explicitly pro-GMO Gates Foundation, a frequent Monsanto collaborator.
Haitian peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called Monsanto's poison pills Haiti's “new earthquake.” The MPP vowed to burn Monsanto’s seeds and called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day. Roughly 10,000 peasants gathered for a massive march in Central Haiti.
Like other US efforts to deprive Haiti of food security, dumping Monsanto’s seeds on Haiti's farmers will seriously undermine Haitian farmers’ independence, force an industrialized agriculture model on the impoverished nation and seriously threaten public health in the country.
Haiti’s farmers need support and solidarity to rebuild their local food and farming economy, not profit-driven industrial agriculture and hybrid seeds. Since independence more than 200 years ago, Haitian farmers have protected their seeds. They know that true food security is maintained by the farmers who save, trade and breed indigenous seeds using traditional methods.
As Jean-Baptiste said earlier this year, "We need to establish seed banks and have silos where we can store our Creole seeds. Local, organic seeds are the basis of food sovereignty. … It’s urgent that Haitians buy local seeds. ... What's the danger we face today? It’s that food aid from USAID and others is getting dumped in the country."Please use the form below to contact President Obama and USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah today to tell them to support Haitian farmers' demands for sustainability and food security, not Monsanto's poison pills.
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Stand up for human rights--Boycott Arizona!
Arizona’s controversial Senate Bill 1070 is a law that legalizes and promotes racial profiling. SB 1070 undermines basic civil rights in the United States, obliging law enforcement agencies to demand documentation from all (non-white) people who might be undocumented workers or immigrants lacking a visa.
Racial profiling has a long and sad history in the United States. SB 1070 unjustly targets the Latino community--many of whom work in the food and farming sector. Immigrant farmworkers are the hardworking backbone of our food system and have been unfairly demonized for decades. This law will create a climate of fear in the state of Arizona and pave the way for continued exploitation of farm workers, food processing workers, retail clerks, restaurant workers, as well as their families and children.
Please join us in telling Gov. Brewer that consumers and tourists will boycott Arizona until this unjust law is repealed. -
Stand up for human rights--Boycott Arizona!
Arizona’s controversial Senate Bill 1070 is a law that legalizes and promotes racial profiling. SB 1070 undermines basic civil rights in the United States, obliging law enforcement agencies to demand documentation from all (non-white) people who might be undocumented workers or immigrants lacking a visa. The law was reportedly drafted by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
Racial profiling has a long and sad history in the United States. SB 1070 unjustly targets the Latino community--many of whom work in the food and farming sector. Immigrant farmworkers are the hardworking backbone of our food system and have been unfairly demonized for decades. This law will create a climate of fear in the state of Arizona and pave the way for continued exploitation of farm workers, food processing workers, retail clerks, restaurant workers, as well as their families and children.
Please join us in telling Gov. Brewer that consumers and tourists will boycott Arizona until this unjust law is repealed. -
Survey of the Week: Do You Support the Rights of Mother Earth?
During his presentation at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, President Evo Morales of Bolivia proposed a global referendum that would tackle the root causes of climate change. If you agree with these propositions, please sign your name and circulate widely! -
Stand up for human rights--Boycott Arizona!
Racial profiling has a long and sad history in the United States. SB 1070 unjustly targets the Latino community--many of whom work in the food and farming sector. Immigrant farmworkers are the hardworking backbone of our food system and have been unfairly demonized for decades. This law will create a climate of fear in the state of Arizona and pave the way for continued exploitation of farm workers, food processing workers, retail clerks, restaurant workers, as well as their families and children.
Please join us in telling Gov. Brewer that consumers and tourists will boycott Arizona until this unjust law is repealed. -
Sign the Petition to Chef Alice Waters
Please, Alice, Speak Out Against Growing Food in Toxic Sewage Sludge!
Legendary organic chef Alice Waters is an outspoken opponent of using genetically engineered foods. OCA has asked her to take the same strong stand opposing the use of toxic sewage sludge to grow food. The City of San Francisco in the Bay Area where she lives has been deceptively giving away toxic sludge to gardeners and farmers, calling this hazardous material "organic biosolids compost." We want Alice, as the founder of the famous Chez Panisse Restaurant, to add her powerful voice to the fight to stop using gardens and farms as dumps for toxic sewage sludge.
It is especially important because the Executive Director of Alice Water's Chez Panisse Foundation is Francesca Vietor, who is also the Vice President of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the agency that has been giving away tons of toxic sludge and deceiving recipients.
The Chez Panisse Foundation promotes Edible Schoolyard's organic gardens. Obviously its Executive Director, who was appointed to the PUC in 2008 by the Mayor of San Francisco, is conflicted on this issue. She is working for both Alice Waters' Foundation and for the Public Utilities Commission and the Mayor. Mayor Newsom calls the sewage sludge "very healthy and safe."
Neither Alice Waters nor her foundation have ever made a public statement flatly opposing the growing of any food in toxic sewage sludge.
Join us in asking Alice Waters to publicly oppose growing food in toxic sewage sludge.
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Tell Newsom to Stop Poisoning SF with Toxic Sludge!
In 2008, Organic Style Magazine called San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom the World's Greenest Mayor. Apparently, Organic Style wasn't aware that the "World's Greenest Mayor" is, in the guise of giving something valuable to its citizens, giving toxic sewage sludge to city gardeners touting it as "organic biosolids compost."
Bay Area wastewater treatment plants produce more than 2,000 wet tons of sewage sludge per day. San Francisco - like just about every other city in the country - contracts with a sewage sludge disposal company to take its sludge away. But getting rid of sludge is no easy task. Most of San Francisco's sludge is dumped in landfills in Solano and Santa Clara counties, but righteous local opposition to the expansion of the Potrero Hills landfill could change this.
So, with the "sustainability" of its sludge disposal threatened, San Francisco has launched an aggressive PR offensive to get their citizens to help them dispose of toxic sludge -- in their gardens!
This campaign involves falsely labeling the sewage sludge as "organic biosolids compost" and holding well-publicized free giveaways of sludge-in-disguise to gardeners who then unwittingly turn their own gardens into hazardous materials dumps.
Federal and state law actually allows toxic sewage sludge to be used to grow food, but USDA organic standards forbid sludge-based fertilizers. The only sure way to avoid toxic sludge is to eat organic. That's what makes San Francisco's use of the term "organic" to push its toxic sewage sludge is so infuriating!
If the World's Greenest Mayor can get away with this, watch out, because there's no telling what the toxic sludge industry will do in your town!
That's why we're putting out a national call to all of our members and readers to encourage organic consumers across the country to help us stop San Francisco's toxic sewage sludge giveaways. Please take action today!
