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Vandana Shiva to March with Organic Consumers Association ‘Cook Organic, Not the Planet’ Activists at the People’s Climate March in New York

• Organic Consumers Association, August 28, 2014

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2014

CONTACT: Organic Consumers Association, Katherine Paul, 207.653.3090

FINLAND, Minn. – The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today announced that Vandana Shiva, anti-GMO and climate activist, and author of more than 20 books, will march with the OCA’s “Cook Organic, Not the Planet” contingent in the People’s Climate March, on September 21, 2014, in New York City.

“Vandana Shiva is known the world over for her tireless activism on behalf of the anti-GMO movement, organic agriculture, food justice and food sovereignty,” said Ronnie Cummins, international director of the Organic Consumers Association and its Mexico affiliate, Via Organica.

“It is our hope that by joining with OCA in the People’s Climate March to promote our ‘Cook Organic, Not the Planet’ message, Vandana will further our mutual mission of drawing attention to the destructive impact industrial agriculture has on global warming, and the very real potential of organic, regenerative agriculture to reverse global warming by naturally sequestering carbon in the soil.”

The OCA is inviting its network of more than one million consumers to march under the “Cook Organic, Not the Planet” banner as part of the Food Justice contingent of the People’s Climate March. The march will take place Sunday, September 21, 2014. Marchers will convene at 11:30 a.m. in the area just north of Columbus Circle.

The People’s Climate March is taking place in conjunction with the United Nations Climate Summit 2014, which will take place on September 23, 2014, at UN headquarters in New York.

In 2013, the UN Conference on Trade and Development published a report, “Wake Up Before It’s Too Late” calling for a “paradigm shift” away from an industrial agriculture model that relies heavily on mono-crops and chemical inputs, toward a sustainable, organic model.

A recent study by the Rodale Institute suggests that if regenerative agriculture were practiced globally, 100 percent of current, annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would be sequestered.

….(read more).

Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

Hillary Clinton is Just Plain Wrong on GMOs

• By Katherine Paul and Ronnie Cummins
  Organic Consumers Association, August 28, 2014

For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Millions Against Monsanto page and our Environment and Climate Resource Center page.

In her June 25 keynote address to the BIO International Convention in San Diego, Calif., Hillary Clinton voiced strong support for genetic engineering and genetically engineered crops. She earned a standing ovation that day by stating that the biotech industry suffers from a public perception problem and that it just needs “a better vocabulary” in order to persuade GMO skeptics who don’t understand “the facts” about genetic engineering.

And then Hillary proceeded to get the facts wrong.

Why does it matter what Hillary, who holds no public office and has not (yet) declared her candidacy for president, says or believes about genetic engineering and genetically modified crops and foods?

It doesn’t—unless she throws her hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination. And then it matters not just what her position is on GMOs, not just how deep her financial ties to the biotech industry run, not just how much she distorts the facts about the “promise” of biotech crops.

It matters, deeply, to more than 90 percent of Americans, what her position is on laws requiring mandatory labeling of GMOs in food and food products.

If elected, will Hillary support consumers’ right to know? Or will she support the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, a bill introduced in Congress earlier this year, which if passed, will preempt state GMO labeling laws?

Hillary has been coy about announcing her candidacy. But when it comes to clarifying her position on GMO labeling laws, she’s been dead silent.

As she soon heads to Iowa—the testing ground for presidential candidates—Hillary’s presidential aspirations will no doubt become more clear. If she runs, as the pundits predict, it will be up to the GMO labeling movement to demand that she take a stand on GMO labeling laws.

Meanwhile, here’s why Hillary’s speech to the BIO convention was just plain wrong.

Wrong on the science of genetic engineering

…(read more).

Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

BBC News – Millions knocked offline in US by Time Warner Cable fault

28 August 2014 Last updated at 03:09 ET

Time Warner Cable is in the process of being taken over by Comcast
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A fault with Time Warner Cable’s network left millions of people cut off from the internet in the US.

The firm said the problem affected customers in all 29 of the states in which it offered broadband connections.

The problem started in the early hours of Wednesday morning, which will have limited its effect.

The company said that most, but not all, of its 11.4 million internet subscribers were back online within four hours of the problem’s start.

“Unfortunately, I do not have an estimate time of repair,” the service’s Twitter account responded to one user who asked when his home connection would be restored.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice