Honey bees vs pesticides; Boom in organics; Monsanto Tribunal

By Catherine Haug, July 26, 2017 (image, right, from organic.org (2))

I subscribe to the Montana Organic Association “Organic Matters” magazine (1); the Spring issue this year has a couple articles I’d like to share with our ESP readers in the form of transcriptions of each article:

  • Bee Victory
  • Organic Agriculture Research Act
  • International Monsanto Tribunal Verdict

Note that I have added comments – in square brackets – to these transcriptions, and include links to related articles on this site. 

Bee Victory

(Source: Center for Food Safety)

In response to a case the Center For Food Safety (CFS) filed four years ago, a Federal Court ruled recently that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) systematically violated the Endangered Species Act – a key wildlife protection law – when it approved bee-killing insecticides known as neonicotinoids [or neonics], finding that EPA had unlawfully issued 59 pesticide approvals between 2007 and 2012. Now, CFS is headed back to court to determine the correct remedy for EPA’s illegal actions.

See also (this site):

Boom in Organic Agriculture and the Organic Agriculture Research Act

(Source: Organic Seed Alliance)

The organic industry continues to boom, and not just in the way of increased sales, which now exceed $43 billion per year, but in the form of a higher return for organic farmers. Organic farmers are 35% more profitable than the average farm, and, in some cases, this difference makes staying on the farm possible. Unfortunately, domestic production isn’t keeping up with the consumer demand for organic products.

One problem is that increased consumer demand hasn’t been met with an increase in public research investments. For example, funding for the Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), the USDA’s flagship organic research program, has been relatively stagnant since 2010. In May, a few members of Congress announced that they aim to change that. Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) introduced the Organic Agriculture Research Act to support continued growth of the organic industry. The bill would more than double funding for OREI, increasing it from #20 million to $50 million annually.

See also (this site):

International Monsanto Tribunal Verdict

(Source: AlterNet.org, April 24, 2017 (3)) [bold emphasis is by Cat]

In April, representatives of the Organic Consumers Association and AlterNet’s Regeneration International project gathered in The Hague, Netherlands, along with members of other civil society groups, scientists and journalists. They assembled to hear the opinions of the five judges who presided over the International Monsanto Tribunal.

After taking six months to review the testimony of 28 witnesses who testified during the two-day cities’ tribunal held in the  Hague last October, the judges concluded that Monsanto has engaged in practices that have violated the basic human right to a healthy environment, the right to food, the right to health, and the right of scientists to freely conduct indispensable research. The judges also called on international lawmakers to hold corporations like Monsanto accountable, to place human rights avocet the rights of corporations, and to “clearly assert the protection of the environment and establish the crime of ecocide.”

See also (this site):

See also (other sites):

  • Monsanto Has Violated the Basic Human Right to a Healthy Environment and Food (3)
  • Monsanto Dealt Devastating Blow as California Declares Glyphosate Weed Killer a Cancer-Causing Poison (4)

References

  1. Montana Organic Association’s newsletter: Organic Matters (montanaorganicassociation.org/publications.htm)
  2. image: organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-201
  3. AlterNet article: Monsanto Has Violated the Basic Human Right to a Healthy Environment and Food (alternet.org/environment/international-tribunal-says-monsanto-has-violated-basic-human-right-healthy-environment)
  4. AlterNet article: Monsanto Dealt Devastating Blow as California Declares Glyphosate Weed Killer a Cancer-Causing Poison (alternet.org/environment/monsanto-dealt-devastating-blow-california-declares-glyphosate-weed-killer-cancer)

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