No Farms No Food Rally in Albany

Yesterday, I participated in the American Farmland Trust‘s Rally up in Albany, meeting with state senators and assemblyman asking them to support New York farms and farmers. The three main talking points that we were focusing on were: To protect farmland from real estate development. To encourage state agencies to buy food in New York and, To help the next generation of farmers to secure farmland. It was a productive day and I felt like we were making a difference. I encourage all of you to join us next year!

Tell President Obama to Put the Brakes on Fracked LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) Exports

Right now, communities across the country are already fighting climate change and the fracking industry for clean air and clean water. And the stakes have gotten even higher the potential for more fracking so the natural gas industry can export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to other countries. President Obama is only hearing one side of the story from the Department of Energy, and it favors the natural gas industry. DOE’s recent study on the economics of fracked gas exports completely ignores the public health, environmental, and climate costs of an export rush. Let’s remind President Obama of all the other costs — the cost of buying drinking water because your well is polluted with fracking chemicals, lost work days because your child is sick due to respiratory problems, and increasing utility bills to heat our homes while communities are left to pay the price for fracking. Send your letter today. Tell President Obama to put the brakes on exporting fracked gas.

Tell the USDA No Way on Genetically Engineered Trees!

The USDA is accepting public comments on a request by GE tree company ArborGen to commercially sell hundreds of millions of freeze tolerant genetically engineered eucalyptus trees annually for vast plantations across Texas, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.? Government approval of GE eucalyptus trees would set a dangerous precedent that could lead to the legalization of GE versions of native forest trees, including poplar and pine, that would inevitably and irreversibly contaminate native forests with destructive GE traits, devastating forest ecosystems and wildlife.? Once GE trees escape, there is no way to call them back.? Tell the USDA that GE freeze tolerant eucalyptus plantations pose an unprecedented threat to forests and wildlife in the US and around the world.? Tell them to reject ArborGen’s request to commercially sell billions of GE eucalyptus tree. Sign the STOP GE Trees Campaign petition to the USDA demanding a ban on GE trees!? and/or Submit comments to the U.S. government. The USDA comment period includes two online public meetings on the GE eucalyptus trees on Wednesday, April 17 from 7:00-9:00 PM EDT, and Thursday, April 18 from 4:00-6:00 PM EDT. Go to www.APHISVirtualMeetings.com to register for these public meetings.

Demand Country of Origin Labeling for Our Food

The USDA is considering taking steps to strengthen Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements for meat. The USDA?s proposed rule will help families know where the meat in their supermarket came from by eliminating the vague and misleading ?mixed origin? country of origin labels. This commonsense approach will improve the usefulness of the information consumers receive from the label and allows livestock producers to distinguish their products in the marketplace. With food safety and other concerns about how food is produced, it’s more important than ever to know what country the food you buy is coming from. Unfortunately, international food corporations think this is unfair, and the WTO agrees with them. Last year, the World Trade Organization (WTO) told the U.S. that we had to get rid of mandatory country of origin labeling for food. Now it is up to President Obama to decide what to do about the WTO ruling. The right decision is to reject the WTO ruling and stand up for American consumers and farmers by maintaining strong standards for this labeling program. Please ask President Obama and Secretary Vilsack to protect country origin labeling.