Center for Food Safety

NOC is hosting a "Pre-NOSB meeting" for organic community members on Monday, October 21, at the Ecotrust Building in Portland, OR! Join us to: 👩🌾 hear directly from regional farmers, 🧐 discuss NOSB agenda items, 🏦 talk about how to advance organic agriculture with Congress and USDA after the fall elections, 🌱 hear abour organic seed challenges & opportunities AND MORE! This meeting is held in connection with the Fall 2024 National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting. We hope you can join us! Learn more & register here >> https://lnkd.in/egfUDMZ3 We are so grateful for our organizational co-sponsors who are helping make this meeting happen: Center for Food Safety Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) Organic Farmers Association Organically Grown Company Organic Seed Alliance Oregon Organic Coalition Oregon Tilth

We're excited to be at Newtopia Now from August 25-28th in Denver, CO! You can find us at Booth #622 on the floor. We’d love to connect while we're in Denver! If you'll be in town, come enjoy drinks, snacks, and great conversations with our Co-Executive Director Sylvia Wu and Senior Attorney Amy van Saun. Event Details: Date: Monday, August 26 Time: 5:00 PM - 8:30 PM Location: Harry's at Hotel Magnolia, 818 17th St, Denver, CO 80202 RSVP HERE: https://lnkd.in/givqfcKb The work we do at the Center for Food Safety is essential to defend and protect the meaning of organic and regenerative foods. We’re fighting to ensure proper regulation of our food supply, monitoring it closely, and working tirelessly to ban harmful pesticides and unsustainable food production methods. CFS is what makes cleaner, healthier food products possible, and we’re excited to share more about our impact with you!

CFS successfully pushed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to order an emergency suspension of the deadly pesticide DCPA. Via Grist -- 'The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced an emergency order this week suspending all use of an herbicide known to cause irreversible developmental damage to human fetuses. The now-banned pesticide — dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, or DCPA, marketed under the trade name Dacthal — stops the growth of certain annual grasses and weeds, and was registered for use with broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and onions, among other crops, as well as turf. But mounting evidence has shown the chemical is dangerous to people — ”so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately,” as Michael Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a statement. Amy van Saun, a senior attorney for the nonprofit Center for Food Safety, commended the EPA’s decision to no only stop the sale of DCPA but order companies not to use the Dacthal they already have on hand: “No more sale or transport unless you’re giving it back to the manufacturer to dispose of,” she said. “If the EPA does a good job of telling everybody that this is happening, that you can no longer use this, then farmworkers who are working around [DCPA] will immediately not have to be exposed anymore.” She added that farmworkers represent the “backbone” of the United States’ agricultural system but have historically “been treated extremely unfairly.”' Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gBV3bv-C EPA Emergency Order link: https://lnkd.in/eApSGuZ7 EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Statement link: https://lnkd.in/er9EFwqH

Wisconsin-based salmon and leafy greens producer Superior Fresh has agreed to buy AquaBounty’s land-based salmon farm in Albany, Indiana, for $9.5 million! 🎊 This is a major victory, as this facility will now be sold to be used for non-GE purposes! 🙌 🐟 Hopefully another step toward ultimate victory in the GE Salmon fight (going on 20+ years now). ✊ ‘Superior Fresh, situated near Northfield, around 100 miles east of Minnesota, uses an aquaponics system that utilises nutrients from its land-based salmon farm as fertiliser for salad greens grown with their roots in water. The process cleanses the water which can then be returned to the fish tanks. Unlike AquaBounty, the company doesn’t see the advantage of genetic engineering, even in plants, and states on its website that its fish east a non-GMO, organic diet. It says its fish contain twice the omega-3 content of other salmon, and “ are not fed like most farmed fish, which are too often fed with formaldehyde, pesticides, antibiotics, and GMOs”. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ezPPPVC4

📢 The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the decades-old “Chevron deference” legal doctrine that has given agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a whole lot of leeway to interpret ambiguous laws when writing regulations. Swipe 👈 through for a quick explainer from Clark Mindock of Landmark to help us understand what the doctrine is, its history and some quick takeaways.‘ The court’s 6-3 decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, hands a major victory to conservatives who have long been interested in reigning in the power of the so-called administrative state. And it shifts the balance of power between executive agencies and the courts, handing the latter a greater opportunity to wade into policy. The landmark decision, issued along ideological lines, threatened regulations made by virtually every federal agency including the EPA, the Interior Department and others to address everything from power plant pollution to logging projects in federal forests.’ Chevron has been used to defend rules on all sorts of issues from tax policy to health care, as well. https://lnkd.in/eYs27Vrg

🌿 👐 Support Organic through the Farm Bill 📢 Right now we have the single greatest opportunity to strengthen and support the organic sector for years to come. Congress is crafting the next Farm Bill, which sets our nation’s food and farm policies for the next five years!The US Farm Bill is not just about farming – it's about our entire food system, from seed to fork. It determines what ends up on our supermarket shelves and eventually, on our plates. This bill has enormous potential to shape a healthier, more climate-friendly food future for the next 5 years with organic at the front and center. 🍎 🤝 @centerforfoodsafety & @naturespathorganic have proudly joined forces throughout 2024 to make sure Congress passes a bill that elevates organic agriculture as the primary solution to address our food systems biggest pitfalls.But to make it happen, it will take all of us speaking out, demanding our elected officials prioritize organic. ✍ Take action, urge your Congressional representative to support a Farm Bill that puts organic first! Join the movement via link in bio, or visit here:  https://lnkd.in/ewvBZ2pA  🌎

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s potential registration of toxic pesticides, including those with active ingredients such as dicamba and acephate, flies in the face of peer-reviewed science and documented evidence of harms against farmer, farm worker, general public health. New registration of dicamba-based herbicides are sought after by industry in the aftermath of a federal court decision in April that struck down EPA’s registration of three dicamba-based products for their violation of Endangered Species Act and Federal Insecticide, Rodenticide, and Fungicide Act. In a case led by Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, National Family Farm Coalition, and Pesticide Action Network North America, the court agreed that widespread exposure of non-target crops for farmers who don’t buy into dicamba-tolerant soybeans and produce. U.S. District Court, District of Arizona recognizes the importance of listening to farmers, farm workers, and pesticide handlers who describe their experiences in dealing with pesticide drift and the subsequent economic, ecological, and health consequences. “While states indicate incidents may occur due to drift, several reported landscape level injuries, which indicates dicamba volatility was widespread,’ with some states reporting dicamba sources more than a mile away from the injured crop, and reported incidents suggesting people are being impacted for multiple years.”[] Adopting organic land management principles and the National List of Allowed and Prohibited substances would transform the current system by replacing general- and -restricted use pesticides with organic approved inputs that thousands of farmers, ranchers, and producers nationwide and worldwide already use. Submitting comments for individual pesticides underscores their role as poster children of a failed regulatory system that doesn’t incorporate cumulative risk of toxic substances and failure to adopt systems change. Learn more at some of the resources below and consider submitting comments to EPA👇 #nontoxic #organic #dicamba #pesticidedrift #acephate #usa #epa #court

Globalization, as we know it today, has no future. Around the world, communities are reclaiming their economies, fostering resilience, autonomy, and diversity. At the heart of this movement is the creation of local food systems grounded in ecology and food sovereignty. This local future weaves together globalized markets that don’t extract from communities, but rather build resilience and the growth of ‘economies of happiness’. Big business and agriculture have long dominated our food systems, demanding servitude over sovereignty and promoting monocultures that impoverish soils and communities. This approach, focused on global distribution without local resilience, strips local landscapes of their nutrients under the guise of “feeding the world.” It marginalizes smallholder farmers and indigenous peoples, failing to address land access, community health, and food justice. How can we nurture the soul of Mother Earth and the communities that depend on her? Simply improving the soil isn’t enough if we ignore the people and cultures living upon it. We need systems that honor biodiversity, LOCAL knowledge, and ecological realities. We believe it’s time for global food systems to innovate or make way, allowing human-scale, disruptive, diverse, and localized collectives to emerge and feed the world. One community at a time. Imagine: communities where food is not just consumed but celebrated, where each meal tells the story of its origin. Many of us now explore international cuisines and ingredients. Reflecting on this growing appreciation for global food cultures, what better way to understand and honor a culture than through its food? By delving deeper into the history and practices of localized food systems, we can better appreciate and contribute to this important movement. Curious to learn more about these themes or how you can be part of change? Here are some insightful reads + resources: ⊕ Cuisine and Culture, Linda Civitello ⊕ Local is Our Future, Helena Norberg-Hodge ⊕ Food Culture Around the World Series, Bloomsbury ⊕ localfutures.org ⊕ slowfood.com Join us in celebrating the power of localization. For long we have needed a new story 🌱 #WorldLocalizationDay #FarmersFootprint #NANA #LocalFood #Community #Culture #FoodSovereignty

THREE THINGS * One of three bites of food we eat depends on pollinators, but they are in great peril. * At current rates, 40% of insect pollinators face extinction. * Toxic pesticides are a big reason for this unfolding tragedy. Yet, millions of crops every year are still treated with toxic pesticides. ACTION Please tell Target and tell them to STOP SELLING these super-toxic chemicals. We desperately need their help in protecting our precious bees. https://lnkd.in/e6yGMgsM? #organic #bees #pollinators Center for Food Safety

June 7 is World Oceans Day and we are grateful to be part of a worldwide effort to inform the public of the devastating effect of farming salmon, sea bream, sea bass, and other carnivorous fish. It is an unsustainable business model that consumes more wild fish than is produced, yet the industry continues to promote the myth that the so-called blue revolution is "feeding the world." Polluting our waters and coastlines, fish farms decimate communities both where the fish are farmed and where the wild fish are taken for fish meal. As we have learned more and more about the effects of fish farming on coastal communities and marine ecosystems, we have met extraordinary people and groups from around the world that are leading the opposition to this destructive industry, many of whom are listed below. If you love nature and care about the natural world our children will inherit, please watch this video produced by the amazing Mike Sampey and visit fishfarmsout.org to join a coalition of coastal communities, NGOs and scientists from 6 continents that have signed on to a letter to the Food and Agricultural Org (FAO) of the United Nations to tell them: #FISHFARMSOUT Eva Douzinas Fay Orfanidou Andrianna Natsoulas North American Marine Alliance Don't Cage Our Oceans Leslie Hatfield GRACE Communications Foundation Catalina Lopez Catalina Cendoya Agustina Copello The GSFR Joanna Sullivan Hannah Kapff Curious PR Conscience Consulting Nikos Kopsidas Natasha Hurley Feedback Patagonia Frederik W. Mowinckel Living Oceans Society Mission Blue / Sylvia Earle Alliance Blue Marine Foundation Seastemik Seas At Risk Aquatic Life Institute One Fish Foundation Center for Food Safety Animal Legal Defense Fund DOWNEAST SALMON FEDERATION Slow Food USA BEYOND PESTICIDES CFFA Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements Francesco De Augustinis Watershed Watch Salmon Society WildFish Mangrove Action Project (MAP)