Reject the Roundup Spring

Thanks to Big Oil and Big Coal, we're suffering the earliest spring in memory. "Suffering" because not only did we have to mow the lawn in March, but we're already having to deal with weeds invading the patio, sidewalk and driveway.

Put the Roundup down and back away slowly.



The label is a lie; that shit is deadly.

If you ever turn over a bottle of Roundup, one of the most popular chemical weed killers in the world, you’ll see glyphosate listed as the active ingredient. What you won’t see is a list of inactive ingredients. And that’s problematic. Because researchers who recently (2009) tested the product’s active ingredient in combination with certain inert ones found the combo makes this weed killer much more toxic than previously disclosed. “It’s not as benign as people are led to believe,” says Greg Bowman, editor of the Rodale Institute’s New Farm online publication, which focuses on nontoxic farming methods. And even the listed ingredient may be more dangerous than was previously thought. “More and more studies by medical and agricultural specialists are revealing the subtle, low-level impact that Roundup’s main ingredient, glyphosate, has on wildlife, soil life, and—directly and indirectly—people themselves,” Bowman says.

But you don't have the read the study or even the label. All you have to know is that Roundup is manufactured by Monsanto.



Roundup is, indeed, the least of Monsanto's crimes. I'll be visiting those over the next several days.

But in the meantime, no, you don't have to use toxic chemicals to fertilize your garden or kills weeds or pests. Safe alternatives are plentiful, cheap and not as difficult as you think.

Find out more here.

Stop FrankenFood Salmon in the U.S.

Bad enough we have to endure farmed salmon poisoned by mercury and antibiotics; genetically deformed is where I draw the line.

From Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, and Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Stonyfield Farm:

The FDA is on the brink of approving genetically engineered salmon for human consumption. This would be the first genetically engineered animal on supermarket shelves in the United States.

The salmon is engineered to produce growth hormones year-round that cause the fish to grow at twice the normal rate. The government already requires labels to tell us if fish is wild-caught or farm-raised—don't we also have a right to know if our salmon is genetically engineered? Without labels, we'll never know.

More than forty countries, including Russia and China, already require labels on genetically engineered foods. As Americans, we firmly believe that we deserve the same right to know what we are eating.

That's why I created a petition to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on SignOn.org, which says:

Commissioner Hamburg, we urge the FDA to require the mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. We have a right to know about the food we eat and what we feed our families, but under current FDA regulations, we don't have that ability when it comes to genetically engineered foods.

Polls show that more than 90% of Americans support mandatory labeling. Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare. Please listen to the American public and mandate labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Will you sign the petition? Click here to add your name, and then pass it along to your friends:

Click here to sign the petition.

Thanks!

–Eric Schlosser and Gary Hirshberg