Environmental for Food Justice

Changing sector involves expansions, acquisitions and concentration PEPSI AMONG THE TOP CORPORATIONS GETTING INTO ORGANIC FOOD Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | February 23, 2014 Professor Phil Howard of Michigan State University has been tracking the growth of corporate organics since 1997 and most recently by creating diagrams of the structure of the organic industry. These diagrams are based on the acquisitions by the top 30 food processors in the United States. Comparing the trajectory from 2003 through 2013, a very interesting set of patterns emerges from Howard’s diagrams.   There are obvious changes like the addition of Pepsico (a.k.a. Pepsi), the nation’s largest food and beverage processor. Pepsi’s direct presence in the organics market appears to have been initiated in November 2006 with the acquisition of Naked Juice; compare the 2003 and 2013 diagrams immediately below . Diagram 1. Structure of Corporate Organics (2003)   Diagram 2. Structure of Corporate Organics (Au...

Moderator’s Note: During the 2012 election voters in California narrowly defeated Proposition 37, a citizen-initiated referendum to require the labeling of foods made from or with ingredients containing genetically-engineered organisms (GEO or GMO). The biotechnology corporations and their allies in the retail grocery chain business poured record-breaking millions into defeating the proposal with a battering ram of misinformation and lies. Many of us felt the labeling law in Prop. 37 was poorly written and confusing for too many voters. Now, the California state legislature is considering its own version of a labeling law for GMOs. We are posting yesterday’s press release from the group, Californians for GE Food Labeling. To track the progress of the legislation, SB 1381, please use this link: California State Legislature – SB 1381 , and enter the bill number in the search box. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 21, 2014 CONTACTS: Paul Towers, 916-216-1082 Stacy Malkan, 510-848-5701 Cali...

Moderator’s Note: We have received this update from our colleagues in the anti-GMO movement in Mexico as part of our continuing coverage of the social movement known as Sin Maíz, No Hay País (Without Corn, There is No Country). The remarkable court victory against Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer CropScience, and other so-called ‘Gene Giants’ in Mexico City federal court last October by the civil society organizations in Mexico was unprecedented. We have never before seen a Mexican federal court hand down a ruling in which the nation’s commitment as a signatory to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and the Cargtegena Biosafety Protocol trumped application of the investor-state treaty known as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with its purely symbolic and ultimately meaningless voluntary recommendations under the absurd framework of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). There is still work to do in Mexico and as our colleagues here note, “ Multinational seed com...

Attributed to Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Jr. From ‘Keep on Pushing’ to ‘Pushaman’ & Back Again ORGANIC INTELLECTUALS • DIRECT ACTION • FIFTY YEARS PAST CHICAGO’S ‘WAR ON POVERTY’ Pancho McFarland | Chicago. IL | February 16, 2014 Originally prepared for the “50 Anniversary of the War On Poverty” Chicago State University   February 11, 2014 I teach a “Class and Stratification” course for the Sociology Program at Chicago State University.   In the course we focus on inequality, the global capitalist economic system, critiques of it and examinations of alternative economic systems.   We examine the problems of inequality caused by the capitalist economy and then focus on our city, Chicago, as a means to understand our places in the economy as working class people of color.   To learn about ourselves in Chicago I use a text written by the Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce.   The book, Urban Renewal or Urban Removal? is volume one of a planned eight.   ...