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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:15 am 
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Location: Dallas,Texas
The 40 year-old organic movement to promote and expand the market for organic and locally produced food and products may not seem to be much of a threat to the powers that be. After all, what possible threat can the creation of new healthy products and market opportunities be to the capitalist system?

However, make no mistake, the organic movement IS a revolutionary movement. It is a revolutionary movement, because it is working to undermine and eventually replace a rich, powerful, and politically connected industry based upon life-threatening chemicals and GMOs. America's chemical-industrial companies poses major threats to our food, public health and the environment.

If everyone opted to buy - or produce themselves - only organic locally produced agricultural products, many chemical based companies would soon be out of business. The organic means of food and fiber production and consumption would be in our hands.

The organic revolution is the ultimate consumer boycott. Once we move past the tipping point, U.S. agricultural production and household nutrition will be radically transformed. Monsanto and Corporate Agribusiness will no longer be able to poison the water and the air. Organic production methods will clean the water, air, soil, and our bodies and sequester billions of tons CO2 from the atmosphere. Safe, healthy, nutritious organic foods will become the norm while junk foods will gradually disappear.

When the organic revolution is complete worldwide, we'll have a clean, healthy environment, economic self-sufficiency, food security and good-health for all. That's what the organic revolution is all about.

Companies like Monsanto, Scotts-Miracle Gro and Bayer are the worst enemies of the organic movement.

Adapted from the Organic Consumers Asssociation


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:09 pm 
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Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:09 pm
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Location: Cedartown, GA
I agree that it's in our hands! We consumers tend to forget the power of our $$$$.

I committed myself to this effort several years ago, to the extent to which I am able. I live in Oregon, and until a year ago, in the Willamette Valley. Our farmers market is nothing short of incredible and is open most of the year. I bought almost all my fresh produce there from local organic farmers.

I no longer buy products made of a fiber that's not natural -- cotton, wood, bamboo, hemp, metal, wool, silk, flax. When it comes to furniture, I prefer flea market or old but not quite antiques. No fiberboard or plywood or chipboard in any of them. No chemicals. If my budget allows, I buy organic cotton and such for clothing.

It's not an easy lifestyle -- you really have to make an effort, hunt down things that fit the criteria and sometimes, as in the case of a computer or peripherals, and some kitchen appliances, you have to cave in because plastic is just the order of the day.

I've just bought a little house in north Georgia with about 1/4 acre of lawn that I'll be turning into organic gardens and, if I can get the city to change its ordinances, raise a few chickens for eggs. With fresh produce, including fruit trees and bushes, beans to dry, and eggs, I won't have to give big agriculture a penny. The rivers are filled with fish and I'm sure I can find a producer of natural beef and other meats within reasonable driving distance. I'm looking forward to that.

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Old age needs wisdom and grace


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:53 am 
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Well, here in Dallas, they are trying to regulate the surging local farmer's markets out of existence. Partly, to protect the unweildy (and chock full of wholesale produce) downtown Farmer's Market, but also because the City is afraid they won't be able to get their piece of the pie through inspection of storefronts, increased leases, etc.

Personally, I think supporting the local markets can support all the things they fear:
1) change the shopping paradigm of citizens to want to shop locally at markets--increasing traffic to the downtown market
2) be an incubator for small businesses who can grow into larger businesses that will have store fronts,and leases, and employees (and paying the city grafts they are so afraid to miss out on).

See my threads about it in the "in the news" section...this audience could really help by telling your City Council person that you support local markets and community gardens here in BigD.


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:57 am 
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Location: Dallas,Texas
Our voices and buying will make a difference.

If we just start buying natural organic products - today! - then we can dramatically reduce the presence of toxic, chemical products from our lives.

For example, today there is a steady stream of greenwashing and false solutions that encourage waste production instead of toxic, chemical product reduction that is coming at us from corporate marketing departments and the federal government.

Let's look at household and industrial sewage sludge. For decades sewage sludge (the end product of the nation's thousands of Wastewater Treatment Plants) was dumped in the oceans and rivers, now it is spread on non-organic farms and rangelands, while current industry plans include burning it and turning it into an energy source; but the fundamental problem isn't what to do with billions of pounds of toxic sewage sludge produced every year, but rather how can we stop producing it in the first place. Household sewage, contaminated as it is with chemical, toxic household and garden products, is poured into toilets, kitchen sinks and sewer systems. Household waste is funneled into a vast underground sewage system, where it joins a toxic stew of industrial wastes and rainwater runoff from our streets and highways. Allowing corporations to flood the environment and the waste stream with 100,000 synthetic, mostly toxic chemicals is a form of insanity. Besides contaminating the water and soil, this irrational so-called "sewage treatment" process wastes enormous amounts of potable water. There are plenty of natural organic products in the marketplace today. Make the choice to buy these natural organic products instead of the toxic, chemical ones and we can immediately reduce the presence of these unhealthy pollutants from our lives and environment.


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:25 am 
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Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:09 pm
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Location: Cedartown, GA
I guess I've become something of a fanatic about all of this, but here in Oregon, I'm certainly not alone.

I really go out of my way to avoid anything that contains chemicals of any kind. The only cleaning product I use is a true orange oil derivative (not the pseudo kind that many big corporations are passing off as 'natural'). I'm not perfect -- I can't afford to be 100% pure because I'm on a low income -- but I do all I possibly can.

I haven't bought paper products other than TP for years. I just refuse. Cotton hankies, cotton napkins in the kitchen, cheap cotton terry washcloths that serve as dishrags and changed out daily. All these things go in the washer and don't require any other effort. I buy about one roll of recycled paper towels per year because there are just some rare occasions where they will do the job best.

I shopped for a long time until I found a computer table made of glass and metal -- no plastic other than tiny supports. Later, I found a solid wood table top and supports for a large computer desk. I bought a mattress made of 100% pure, natural latex rubber, covered with organic wool and cotton. Even the flame retardant was non-chemical. Not ONE chemical of any kind and it's great.

Yes, just as with chemicals, we can also control waste in landfills by not producing the waste in the first place. Buy bulk. Avoid packaging when you can. Let the grocer know why you aren't buying what's on his shelves. We do have power and we need to use it.

OK -- end of this rant. I did say I was obsessed with this topic!

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Old age needs wisdom and grace


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