By Dr. Mercola
Our annual GMO Awareness Week is upon us, and in this interview,
Ronnie Cummins, founder of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA)
details the current state of the opposition to genetically modified
organisms (GMOs).
We first met about six years ago, when we collaborated to create the direct ballot initiative to label GMOs in California.
A lot has happened since then, including the passing of what's colloquially known as the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act,
ironically misnamed "The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act" — this
despite a full 90 percent of consumers supporting mandatory labeling.
The Trump administration has also selected or appointed notorious
cheerleaders for GMOs and factory farms to his cabinet — Mike Pompeo as
head of the CIA, Sonny Perdue as USDA Secretary, and Rick Perry as
Energy Secretary.
Meanwhile, his Tea Party allies in Congress have called for the abolition of the entire National Organic Program!1
On the upside, in 2016 we saw, for the first time in nearly 20 years, a
decrease in the amount of genetically engineered (GE) crops grown around
the world, in terms of acreage.
As noted by Cummins, "This represents the fact that this technology
is failing, in the sense of superweeds and superpests are popping up all
over the world." In the U.S., three-quarters of farmers growing GE
crops like soybeans, corn or canola are having problems with these
herbicide- and pesticide-resistant pests.
Market Rejection of GMOs Has Grown
Even more importantly, consumers around the world have become aware of the many problems associated with GE crops and the toxic herbicides and pesticides used on them, and do not want any of it on their plates.
In other words, the market has started rejecting GMOs, and that's
what we've been fighting for all along. Nothing can or will change
unless consumers apply pressure in the form of refusing to buy GMOs.
In the European Union (EU), which is the biggest agriculture market
in the world, few if any GMOs are found on supermarket shelves.
In the U.S. — despite industry spending hundreds of millions of
dollars to manipulate market preference — about 40 percent of Americans
still believe GE foods and GE ingredients are dangerous. Another 20
percent are unsure whether GMOs are dangerous or not.
"This combination of consumer rejection and, basically, Mother Nature's resistance, has caused a drop-off," Cummins says. "I think this is the beginning of the end of at least this generation, the first generation, of GMO crops.
Now, industry is saying, 'Don't worry about the fact that we're
using more and more toxic pesticides and herbicides … Don't worry about
these pests spreading across the fields. We've got a new generation of
GMO crops where we can just do gene editing.
We don't have to pull some DNA from a foreign species and haphazardly splice it into a corn or a soybean crop.'
But the bottom line is that this gene-splicing and this so-called
new gene editing are unnatural processes that disrupt the genetic
structure, the natural workings of living organisms. These aren't going
to work either."
Organics and Grassfed Are Increasing in Popularity
Worldwide, we're also seeing strong growth in organics and grassfed farming
and ranching. In the U.S., the organic sector grew 11.5 percent in
2016. Grassfed grew about 50 percent. In France, organics grew by 20
percent.
"This is because people understand this public health crisis has
now spread worldwide, and this environmental crisis and its relationship
to the climate crisis are all due to an out-of-control, industrial,
chemical-intensive GMO agriculture. People are turning away," Cummins says.
In the U.S., we now also have a brand new grassfed certification by
the American Grassfed Association (AGA), which is the highest
certification you can get for dairy, beef and poultry, including
chickens, sheep and goats.
In short, we're seeing a massive demand for healthier foods. A lot
more people now know about the drawbacks of factory farmed beef and
dairy, for example, and are aware that when herbivores are grazed
naturally, without hormones, antibiotics and other drugs, you end up
with a far healthier product.
"What's been driving the growth of the grassfed beef and dairy industry are health concerns," Cummins says.
"But also, people have become aware over the years that the factory
farm system … is not right. You don't have to be an ethical vegan to
have feeling for animals.
Animals are sentient beings … Industry says if you want cheap
food, you've got to go with factory farms. But I think more and more
consumers are saying, 'I don't want cheap food if it means it's going to
harm my health and the environment, and if you have to be that cruel to
animals.'
I think we're seeing the beginning of the end of the factory farm
model, which actually has only existed [for] 40 years or so. Most
animals used to be raised naturally …
It's this wonderful coming together in the United States of the
American Grassfed Association, merging in the dairy sector with dairy
farmers who are already organic, to produce a higher quality 100 percent
grassfed dairy.
In the beef industry, there has been a tremendous growth in the
demand for 100 percent grassfed, grass-finished beef. Unfortunately,
most other grassfed beef in the United States is still coming from
overseas, from countries like Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Uruguay
and Brazil …
We still don't have the infrastructure in the United States that
we had 50 years ago with processing plants in every region of the
country and so on, but we're catching up."
Challenges Involved in Organic Grassfed Beef Production
Indeed, the lack of processing plants is really slowing down the
reversal of the system. While American farmers have the capacity to
provide an ample supply of grassfed cattle, the problem is there aren't
enough processing plants to accommodate a massive increase.
In all, the U.S. has about 500,000 ranchers raising livestock, but
there are only three or four major buyers. Ranchers may raise the
animals on pasture and treat them well, but after a year and a half or
so, they must be sold.
The cattle are sold at auction, and the buyers, such as JBS (a
Brazilian firm that has bought out a large part of the beef industry in
the U.S.), Cargill and Tyson Foods, will offer you the lowest possible
price, regardless of how much you spent on the cattle's health and
wellbeing.
This cartel-like system effectively prevents farmers from recouping
what they've invested, and slows down the pace at which a farmer can
possibly make positive changes that require greater expenses.
Once sold, the animals are transported to gigantic feedlots —
basically animal factories — where they're placed in tiny pens. GMO
grains and drugs are routinely used to fatten the animals up as quickly
as possible. However, in doing so, the animals' health and wellbeing
suffer. For example, E. coli 0157H, a virulent pathogen, can thrive in
the animals' intestines under these conditions.
"The reason why it's illegal for journalists or concerned
citizens to go in and film in these giant feedlots is because the
industry … don't want you to see the filth and the cruelty involved," Cummins says.
Factory Farmed Meat Is No Bargain
Next, the animals are sent off to mega slaughterhouses, of which
there are only a few dozen in the entire country. As in the feedlots,
these are hellish places where photographs and video taping is often
illegal. As noted by Cummins:
"The workers are immigrant workers typically, who don't have
citizenship papers. Why is this? Because U.S. citizens will not take
this kind of job. They would not work under these conditions … They have
terrible health problems, terrible psychological problems. They're
underpaid and overworked.
What comes out on the other end is meat that might appear to be
cheap … but it's not cheap in terms of what it does to your health … It
clogs up your veins. You're ingesting pesticide and hormone residues.
You end up supersizing yourself … Yeah, you've got your cheap burger.
You've got your cheap steak. But you have damaged your health. That's
going to be very costly over time.
You also contributed to massive supply chain damage to the
environment. The GMO corn and soybeans that make up the bulk of the feed
in the feedlots, they have been sprayed with a horrendous amount of
chemicals. These factory farms are the No. 1 contributors to water
pollution … You're part of a long chain of animal cruelty, exploitation
of workers, destruction of the environment …
This paradigm is going to end. But we need more awareness [among]
consumers, and we need more ranchers to be able to directly come into
contact with consumers who want to buy their products so they can cut
out the cartel middlemen …"
Via Organica Paves Way for Organic Chicken and Egg Production
Mercola.com and OCA are both founding members of an international
network called Regeneration International, which is seeking to replace,
among other things, the outdated factory farm system with a natural
humane system, whereby herbivores are raised on perennial grasses under a
system of holistic management.
The same problems exist in poultry and pig farming, yet innovative
farmers like Cummins and many others have proven there are far better
ways of raising chickens and pigs on a larger scale as well.
Cummins' farm, Via Organica, located in the high desert of Central
Mexico, uses a system based on the traditional raising of poultry. In
the first phase of the project, they installed a couple of thousand
laying hens, which live outside all day in a 2.5-acre paddock filled
with 400 olive trees and other crops. While the trees offer protection
against predators from above, chicken poop acts as a natural fertilizer
for the trees, making additional fertilizer use unnecessary.
By eating the insects, they also eliminate pests that might otherwise
pose a threat to the trees and other crops. "If you're a small farmer,
it's very difficult to make a living off just your eggs. But if you've
got another cash crop in the paddock where the chickens roam, you're
going to be bringing in twice as much money over time," Cummins says.
The chickens roam free all day, pecking in the dirt for worms,
insects and other foraged foods. At sunset, they come into the chicken
house, which is where they roost and lay their eggs. The feed provided
in the chicken coop, given as a supplement to their foraged diet, is
grown by local farmers using traditional, non-GMO seeds and regenerative
methods.
"We have a special plow developed in Australia that's now spreading all across the world," Cummins explains.
"It's called a Keyline plow. It doesn't disturb the earth the way that
traditional plows do. It creates an environment in your field to where
when it rains, there's a built-in filtration of the rain into the soil.
It turns the soil into a sponge …
There are no chemical fertilizers. We work with the farmers to be
able to have natural compost … [I]f you look at our eggs, one thing you
notice is the yolk is bright orange. They taste really good. If you do a
nutritional analysis of these eggs and compare them to the factory
farmed eggs in the grocery store, there's a world of difference. If
animals can live outside or live in a natural environment and exercise
their natural behaviors, it ends up being a superior product."
Why Vegetarianism May Not Be the Most Environmentally Conscious Choice
Quite a few people have embraced veganism or vegetarianism as a way of bowing out of the factory farm system that abuses animals for per-pound profit. Cummins was a vegetarian for 40 years for this reason.
"I was a vegetarian between 1970 and 2010 … until I had some
ranchers in New Mexico explain to me this whole system of holistic
management and rotational grazing, 100 percent grassfed … [T]hey said,
'Hey, you're an environmentalist, right? You're an animal welfare
proponent, right? … You're not any of those things. You're a hypocrite,
Ronnie.'
Because conscious consuming of a moderate level of meat and
animal products — where the animals have been raised humanely, where
they've been raised naturally, where the end product, the food, is good
for your health — is [also] good for the environment. Yes, that last
instant of their life, when they're sacrificed for our food, that's not a
good moment [for these animals]. But we're all going to have a bad
moment at the end of our lives. We're going to physically die.
When we're in the ground, guess what's going to happen? The
little animals eventually are going to eat us. It's all part of this
great chain of being. It's natural. There are vegans starting to
understand, like David Bronner [CEO of Dr. Bronner's] … David's been a
vegan for many years, but he's coined this term — instead of vegetarian —
"regenetarian."
Why Become a Regenetarian?
A regenetarian is a person who never, ever eats factory farmed meat
or dairy products, just like a vegan. A regenetarian will however
consume grassfed beef, grassfed dairy and other grassfed animal products.
"We're talking about fish here, too. Most of the fish in the
world are now coming from these factory farm fish operations — horrible
industrial trawlers in the oceans that are ripping up everything and
killing everything in sight … A conscious consumer who wants to preserve
their health, but also knows that we want to preserve the health of the
planet — we want regular rainfall. We want climate to be normal again —
we have to become regenetarians," Cummins says. "I never eat meat or animal products in a restaurant unless that
restaurant has on the menu, and has a convincing story, that this is
grassfed or genuinely pastured. As soon as enough people start doing
that, this system is going to change."
The average American spends a mere 10 percent of their income on
food, which is ridiculously low when you consider what the highest
quality, most nutritious food would cost. You cannot expect to get the
highest quality at this rock-bottom price. At that level, all you're
getting is cheap corn-based meals. As Cummins says, it would be
reasonable to spend twice as much on food.
To pay for it, you may have to consider cutting down on other wasteful spending, such as the trend of treating clothing as single-use, disposable items. Organic foods cost more,
and must cost more, because doing it right and not cutting corners
costs money. It's the cost-saving measures that have resulted in
hormone-laced milk and pesticide-ridden produce. It's cost-saving
measures that have turned beef into a metabolic wrecker. Cheap food is
cheap for a reason.
Current State of GMO Movement in the US
Last August, the so-called "DARK Act" was passed. And while many have
placed their hopes on President Trump making sweeping changes, we're
not likely to see any difference under Trump when it comes to GMO labeling.
As before, the U.S. Congress doesn't seem to care that 90 percent of
Americans want to know whether their food has been genetically
engineered or not, or contains GMO ingredients.
To summarize last year's events, on July 1, 2016, Vermont's state law
for mandatory GMO labeling took effect, forcing major food companies to
start labeling their wares. Alas, the food industry basically bought
Congress, sweeping a 100-year tradition of states' rights to implement
food safety rules at the state level under the carpet. That's what the
DARK Act did. It revoked states' right to impose mandatory labeling of
GMOs, and with that, the Vermont law was made null and void.
In its place, the federal law replaced clear GMO labeling with quick
response (QR) codes which, when scanned with your smartphone will bring
you to the company's website, where you may or may not find information
about the presence of GE ingredients.
"The only difference under Trump, looks like that we're not even going to have these QR codes, which were ridiculous anyway," Cummins says.
Where does this leave us as consumers? I think there's a growing
recognition among conscious consumers in this country that right now, we
can't count on Congress.
We can't count on regulatory agencies like the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) or the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, or the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or
the Federal Trade Commission.
These people are in the pockets of the 1 percent. They do what
their financial backers tell them to do. We're left with our power in
the marketplace. That is, they can't pass a law that tells you what to
do when you pull out your wallet. We still have free choice to choose
organic or grassfed foods or non-GMO foods in the marketplace …
At the rate we're going now, most food in the United States will
be organic within three decades. It's taken us three decades to get to
the 5 to 10 percent range. Most of the food will be organic and grassfed
within 30 years. However, when you look at our public health crisis and
our climate crisis and all these other things that the economic crisis
in rural areas, we can't wait 30 years."
New Goal: Double Organic Sales in Four Years
The consumer revolution platform now is an ambitious one — double
organic sales in the next four years. At current rates of growth, we
could expect it to increase by about 50 percent. Instead, we need to
quadruple sales of organic and grass-fed. As noted by Cummins, by
speeding up the rate at which we reach the tipping point where 15
percent of our food supply is organic or grassfed, the acceleration will
multiply exponentially thereafter.
"That's our answer to the gridlock in Washington, to the failure of federal government," he says.
"Let's get active in the local and state level where we have more
power, [and] intensify our impact in the marketplace where no one can
tell us what to do. We're going to bring about our revolution in health
and nutrition in the marketplace if they won't let us do it with public
policy."
It's time to launch a #ConsumerRevolution boycott that is larger and
more powerful than ever. And at the same time, we apparently have no
choice but to launch a #PoliticalRevolution, especially at the local and
state level, that will "throw the bums out" from Main Street to
Washington D.C. — those politicians and the army of lobbyists and PR
gunslingers who continue to represent the corporate and financial elite,
the "1 percent," instead of the rest of us.
In order to carry out this "Resist and Regenerate" strategy, the OCA and
its closest allies have come up with an Action platform called Consumer
Revolution/Political Revolution 2017-2020, which includes the
following.
#Consumer Revolution 2017-2020
Overarching goal: Force corporations that sell consumer products, including food, clothing, drugs and personal care products,
to respond to consumer demand for truthfully labeled products that have
a positive impact on human health and are produced using regenerative
processes and practices that not only prevent harm to human health and
the environment, but also measurably improve soils and combat global
warming.
Move toward making organic, 100 percent grassfed and regenerative
food and farming the norm, not just the 5 percent alternative in the
marketplace, by doubling sales of organic to $80 billion by 2020, and by
increasing sales of U.S. grassfed meat and dairy, and organic and
pastured poultry and pork by at least 400 percent by 2020.
Achieve a 50 percent reduction in sales of GMO food and animal feed
by 2020, with the aim of driving GMO animal feed off the market.
Force major food brands and companies that fraudulently label their
products as "natural," "organic" or "GMO-free" to remove misleading
labels and/or transition their products and production methods to
organic and/or regenerative practices.
Increase market share for clothing made from organic cotton, wool and other natural fibers through a high-profile "Care What You Wear" campaign that encourages consumers to boycott GMO cotton and synthetic fibers.
#PoliticalRevolution 2017-2020
Overarching goal: Reform
the current political process to create a democracy that works for all
people, not just wealthy corporations and the 1 percent, by uniting the
food, climate, economic and social justice, natural health and peace
movements in a coordinated effort to support candidates, elected public
officials and policies at the local, state and federal levels, that
support our common goals.
1. Lobby candidates and elected public officials to support OCA's #ConsumerRevolution platform 2. Lobby candidates and elected public officials to support the "Our Revolution" platform, with the addition of:
• On food: a focus on
food policy that supports consumer health and consumer right to know,
and acknowledges the role food production plays in environmental and
climate policy • On health care: a
focus on "Medicare for all" that includes coverage for preventive,
natural and alternative health care solutions, and health freedom on
vaccines and all medical treatments • On living wage: a
focus on raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour so that lower-income
Americans can afford organic food and natural health products and
practitioners • On climate: a focus on regenerative agriculture and soil carbon sequestration as a global warming solution, in addition to fossil fuel emissions reduction and renewable energy
3. Organize local grassroots meet-ups and coalitions to run candidates, for local and state offices, who support our issues 4. Oppose any candidates or policies that
promote racism, sexism, homophobia, militarism and all forms of
discrimination, whenever and wherever they arise 5. Oppose any laws or illegal attempts to disenfranchise voters 6. Support the decriminalization of drug use, including the legalization of marijuana, and oppose the war on drugs 7. Promote candidates and policies that
advance regenerative food, farming and land use, in addition to fossil
fuel emissions reduction and renewable energy
Biodynamics — The Highest Organic Standard
Biodynamic farming,
which originated with Rudolf Steiner in the early 1920s, is also
starting to gain recognition, and might even change or modify the
organic standard. There are actually two different types of organic
certification in the U.S.
There's the USDA Organic label standards, which are decent but still
allow producers to meet only minimum requirements, and then there are
the biodynamic standards, which have always been the highest in terms of
organic certification. The biodynamic organic certification is
indicated with a Demeter sign.2 "What you need to realize is this is absolutely grade A+ organic," Cummins says.
Many didn't understand the implications of 100 percent grassfed until
very recently. Fortunately, we're now starting to see a merger of the
Biodynamic Demeter certification and the AGA's grassfed certification.
Many farmers, even those certified organic by the USDA, are now stepping
it up to the next level by implementing biodynamic or regenerative
methods, which in terms of cattle and other herbivores is the 100
percent grassfed way of doing things.
"I think biodynamic and regenerative are the wave of the future.
We need to still seek out organic products, but more and more conscious
consumers are realizing that if you're buying a bottle of wine, look for
the organic label on it, because that means it doesn't have any added
sulfides.
It means that the farmer was really conscientious in the way
they raised those grapes. But look for the biodynamic label as well. In
OCA … we're really happy to be working with the next stage of organics,
which is biodynamic and grassfed."
Routing Out GMOs by Expanding the Net
Over the past two decades, the majority of the anti-GMO movement was
focused on GMOs found in processed foods and a small number of whole GE
foods.
Yet that's only 20 percent of the GMOs in the human food chain. Twice as
much (40 percent) goes into the making of animal feed for factory
farms. The only way to change that trend is by not buying factory farmed
animal products, be it poultry (including eggs), pork or beef.
Another 40 percent of GMOs grown are used to make ethanol, "which is
this crazed idea that it's environmentally sound … to produce an
additive for gasoline from GMO corn," Cummins says. In essence, Monsanto
makes money every time you drive your car, unless you're buying premium
gas, which doesn't have ethanol in it. So, the less gas you use, the
less money Monsanto makes. Cutting off your contributions to Monsanto is
yet another reason for buying an electric vehicle.
Most also forget (or failed to understand in the first place) that 95
percent of non-organic cotton clothing is made from Monsanto's GE
cotton. You may be boycotting Monsanto's food, but if you buy clothes
without thinking about what it's made from, you're still feeding the
beast. In short, we have to significantly widen the net and consider all
the different ways GE crops sneak their way into our lives.
"My T-shirt's organic. My jeans are organic. My underwear is
organic. My socks are organic. I'm trying to consciously fight against
Monsanto with everything I do, not just what I eat," Cummins says.
"We've got to expand into the full realm of GMOs. Even more
importantly, we need to stop talking about GMOs as if it's some abstract
technology that poses this kind of really-hard-to-understand danger,
gene splicing, disruption of the genome and all that …
There is no GMO crop that isn't sprayed with large amounts of
poisonous chemicals … Or else it's impregnated with a poison, like the
Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) toxin in the plant that expresses itself in
every cell of the plant. When we're talking about pesticides,
herbicides, fungicides, we're talking about GMO plants. There's no way
to fight against GMOs unless we fight at the same time against
chemical-intensive, energy-intensive agriculture and factory farms."
Many Legislative Changes Are Needed
We also need to continue fighting for legislative changes that help
and support organic farmers. The reason France was able to grow the
organic sector by 20 percent last year, compared to 11.5 percent in the
U.S. was because the French government started paying farmers who quit
using pesticides and use compost instead of chemical fertilizers.
In a nutshell, France decided to pay farmers to do the right thing,
whereas the U.S. rewards farmers who agree to do the wrong thing. France
also passed a law that at least 40 percent of food for schools must be
organic and purchased from local farmers.
"I mean what kind of rules do we have regarding [this]? We have
the worst school lunch programs in the entire industrialized world. Our
food stamp program for poor people is basically junk food that the
companies would have disposed of, but they get a tax break for giving us
their factory-farmed cheese and milk, and so on.
We do need to change policies as well as the marketplace. But
looking at the federal government, our best way to influence public
policy is to get involved at the local level — city council, county
board, state legislature, our school boards. We have some power there."
Become Active in Local Government and Expand Alliances
OCA is also calling for people of different stripes to start working
together more — people in the local food movement, the slow food
movement, the natural health movement, the environmental movement, the
animal welfare movement, even church and spiritual movements. If you're
involved in any of these, consider setting up joint meetings with other
groups to discuss what you're doing, how and where your concerns
intersect and how you may help each other.
To volunteer to set up or attend a Regenerative House Party or
Community Meet-up in your local area this spring with other organic
consumers or natural health activists, contact OCA at campaigns@organicconsumers.org.
Big corporations are trying to stamp out organic, grassfed, natural
health, alternative therapies, environmental protections — you name it.
As long as we remain divided, they can conquer. By banding together, by
connecting the dots between all of our crucial issues, we will prevail.
"If the food movement united with these other movements, they
couldn't have passed the DARK Act even at the federal level. But because
it was just the 30, 40 million people who were most conscientious about
what they buy, that wasn't enough to scare the hell out of the
politicians to do the right thing," Cummins says.
"If we're going to get involved politically, and I do think we
have to, let's get involved where it makes a difference right now, which
is the local level. Let's understand that what we do in the
marketplace, whether it's the Bush administration, the Obama
administration, the Trump administration, these people are not
determining your food choices. These people are not forcing you to
consume dangerous Big Pharma drugs.
Get educated. Take control of your health. Take control of your
diet. Meet up with the people in your local community who feel the same
way. We can have, down the road, the kind of democracy that people have
dreamed about for hundreds of years. We've never had it but it doesn't
mean that we can't get it down the road."
Take Control of Your Health by Making Wiser Choices
For the first time in two decades, the average lifespan in the U.S. has decreased,
and the U.S. is the only country in the developed world where this is
happening. I for one am convinced our emphasis on factory farmed foods
play a major role in this decline. Moreover, if we persist with this
industrial farming model, we will eventually run out of topsoil and
potable water, and that day is approaching at a rapid clip. Some
estimates suggest we have less than 60 years of topsoil left if we keep
going as we have been.3
We're causing potentially irreparable environmental damage. If we
destroy this infrastructure for future generations, how can they
possibly grow food? This is a serious issue and I'm glad so many of you
are beginning to appreciate the enormity of the problem — and are
embracing the solutions. As Cummins says, your greatest power lies in
your choice of spending.
By avoiding food not grown in accordance with regenerative measures,
non-organic cotton clothing, and ethanol-infused fuel, you help cut off
the lifeblood of corporations that are destroying your children and
grandchildren's chance of a healthy future. When it comes to food,
choose organic produce, ideally biodynamic certified organics, and look
for the AGA's grassfed certification for animal products.
The goal of the AGA is to promote the grassfed industry through
government relations, research, concept marketing and public education.
Their website also allows you to search for AGA approved producers
certified according to strict standards that include being raised on a
diet of 100 percent forage; raised on pasture and never confined to a
feedlot; never treated with antibiotics or hormones; born and raised on
American family farms.
Also, seriously consider making a generous donation to the OCA. Your
previous support has been instrumental in catalyzing major changes in
the organic and health world. And, please remember that I will match
your contributions dollar for dollar.
No comments:
Post a Comment