[Lapg] Fw: Outrageous

[Joan Stevens]

This from the Environmental Working Group - they have are an incredible resource 
for sharing info about toxicity of common products.  Take the time to send the 
letter!  It can't hurt.
Joan
 "...the greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even 
if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is 
enough for everyone.
Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the 
very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and 
shelter." 



- Bill Mollison 



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: "Ken Cook, EWG" <ewg at ewg.org>
To: mamabotanica at sbcglobal.net
Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 1:08:48 PM
Subject: Outrageous


 
Dear Friend,
The government shouldn't fund disinformation campaigns!

Send an email to the USDA and CDFA today.



We know we did something right with EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides when 
conventional agribusiness targeted it with an expensive, misleading public 
relations attack campaign. The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF), a 
California-based public relations group of pro-pesticide, big agricultural 
producers made the unfounded charge that the EWG Guide is influencing people to 
eat fewer vegetables. Those bogus claims won't fool most people. Still, we were 
shocked when California and federal officials started handing out taxpayer 
dollars to support the industry's tactics.
That's right. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have awarded a $180,000 grant to an 
industry front group.
If you think attacking non-profit, independent, food safety watchdog groups, 
like EWG, that educate the public about pesticides in food is an outrageous way 
to spend taxpayer funds, the CDFA and the USDA need to hear from you today.
Click here to send an email telling USDA and CDFA officials they shouldn't fund 
disinformation campaigns!
According to the state's press release, the $180,000 grant aims to counter 
"claims by activist groups about unsafe levels of pesticides." The money is 
being channeled out of the USDA Specialty Crops Block Grant program -- a program 
intended to promote sales of fruits and vegetables. California and USDA 
officials are distorting this program to help chemical-dependent agribusiness 
fight back against increasing demand for organic and sustainably produced fruits 
and vegetables. The grant to the Alliance for Food and Farming is one of 63 USDA 
Specialty Crops Block Grants, totaling $17.5 million, issued to California food 
and agricultural organizations. Only one research grant is going to support 
organic agriculture in California.
The AFF has a long history of putting pesticide-dependent profits ahead of sound 
choices. When the EPA phased out methyl bromide -- a powerful pesticide that 
damages Earth's protective ozone layer -- representatives of the AFF called the 
phaseout "a big concern." They then embraced a replacement, methyl iodide, that 
EPA officials call "highly toxic."
This is not the type of group that should be getting taxpayer money. Help us 
convince California and USDA officials that the Specialty Crops Block Grant 
program should be used to promote locally grown, organic and sustainably 
produced fruits and vegetables, not to bulk up the public relations budget of 
pesticide-dependent corporate farming interests. The $180,000 grant to an 
industry front group should be rescinded.
Click here to send an email today.
Thank you for supporting organic farming.
Sincerely,

Ken Cook
President, Environmental Working Group     
REMEMBER TO ADD EWG at EWG.ORG TO YOUR CONTACT LIST. UNSUBSCRIBE | CHANGE OPTIONS 
The Environmental Working Group is a non-profit, non-partisan research 
organization dedicated to using the power of information to protect human health 
and the environment. The EWG Action Fund is a legislative advocacy organization 
that uses EWG research to promote healthy and sustainable policies.
HEADQUARTERS 1436 U St. NW, Suite 100 | Washington, DC 20009 | (202) 667-6982   
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