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Organic Bytes #89: New Directions for Organic Consumers

• Organic Consumers Association
  Straight to the Source

Special Issue of Organic Bytes: New Directions

8/3/2006

Subscribe: http://www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes.htm

Thanks to millions of conscious and ethical consumers like yourself, we are transforming the marketplace--voting with our dollars, Euros, and pesos for health, justice, and sustainability. A growing army of health and eco-minded global citizens have the unprecedented potential to change the world.. The sixty-year reign of chemical and energy-intensive industrial agriculture in North America and Europe appears to be drawing to a close:

• Seventy-five percent of consumers say they have begun shopping for healthier foods.
• Twelve cents of every grocery store dollar are currently being spent on products labeled as natural or organic.
• The relentless drive by transnational corporations to monopolize seeds, crops, food, drugs, and intellectual property is faltering.
• Millions of health-minded consumers are turning away from Big Pharma and patented drugs, toward traditional remedies, herbs, and ecological/preventive medicine.

The bad news is that we are all locked down passengers on a runaway train, curtains drawn, headed straight for a cliff. Those at the controls tell us not to worry about global warming, climate chaos, out-of-control technology, massive poverty, permanent war, the End of Oil, or stolen elections. It's time to wake up and stop this train--before it's too late. The Organic Consumers Association will not go quietly into the night . We are moving in New Directions to help build a Movement that can make a difference. But we need your volunteer participation and support more than ever.

Here are several New Directions the OCA has begun to take:

GETTING POLITICAL- WHO ARE THE "ORGANIC CANDIDATES" IN THE UPCOMING 2006 ELECTIONS? The first step for organic consumers to make long-term positive changes, is to know where our elected public officials and their challengers stand on the key issues of health, justice, and sustainability. After we know where they stand, we'll know who deserves our support and who needs to be removed from office. Next week, in conjunction with our lobbying ally, the Organic Consumers Fund (OCF), we will email you the Organic Consumers 2006 Political Candidate Survey. This Survey will help you identify candidates seeking office in 2006 who are willing to shift government resources from our current self-destructive path toward a healthy, greener and re-localized economy, a stabilized climate, a more democratic media and electoral process, and peace and justice--with organic agriculture and Fair Trade leading the way.

The Organic Consumers Candidate Survey will tell us who supports the following New Directions:

• Adequate funds for American farmers to make the transition to organic
• Universal health care with a focus on prevention, complementary medicine, and good nutrition
• 80% greenhouse gas reductions
• Increased access for low-income communities to organic information and food
• Internet freedom
• Publicly funded elections, and a guaranteed paper trail for electronic voting
• A thorough re-localization and greening of the economy, transferring funds from the current annual $500 billion military budget
  

For a sneak preview of the 2006 Candidate Survey, click here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1387.cfm. If you are willing to help us circulate this Candidate Survey via email to the campaign organizations of politicians in your area and state (including Congressional candidates) please email us here: volunteer@organicconsumers.org

GOING LOCAL- OCA LAUNCHING 50 STATE "CHAPTERS" Starting soon OCA's website will have 50 U.S. state sections, as well as pages for Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. These pages will provide important local and state news and opportunities to take action. We are looking for volunteer news scouts and editors who are willing to regularly email us news, Action Alerts, and upcoming events for your areas. We will also be adding state blogs and discussion forums for each area. At the same time we will start to customize Organic Bytes, so that at least some of the news and content in each issue will relate to your local area or state. We will also be recruiting local or state businesses as advertisers or sponsors. Click here if you can help us build up our local and state editions of Organic Bytes, or the state sections of our website. volunteer@organicconsumers.org

BROADENING OUR FOCUS- PROVIDING A HEALTHY & POSITIVE DAILY ALTERNATIVE TO THE MASS MEDIA As many of you have probably noticed, we have qualitatively expanded the scope and subject matter of our huge and daily updated website OrganicConsumers.org. We now cover not only organics, farming, and Fair Trade issues better than just about anyone else on the web, but have built up new, carefully selected sections on Health, Environment, Peace, and Politics. So we invite you, for your enlightenment, as well as your mental health, to turn off your TV, cancel your subscriptions to the corporate media, and tune into our website, today and everyday. http://www.organicconsumers.org

MAKE A DONATION TO OCA NOW AND DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT Don't have time to volunteer, but still want to support our efforts? OCA really needs money to move in New Directions. So it's up to you to help OCA "stop the train" and move in a positive direction. Several anonymous supporters have offered to match every dollar donated over the next two weeks week to jumpstart the Organic Consumers Voter Guide and New Directions. OCA does not accept money from publicly traded corporations or the government, and relies on the donations of thousands of individuals like yourself. Every dollar helps, so please make a donation today online or call us at our toll-free number 888-403-1007 and donate by phone. http://www.organicconsumers.org/donations.htm

Regards & Solidarity,

Ronnie Cummins--National Director-Organic Consumers Association

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Please forward this publication to family and friends, place it on websites, print it, duplicate it and post it freely. Knowledge is power!
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ORGANIC BYTES is a publication of:
ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION
6771 South Silver Hill Drive
Finland, MN 55603
Phone: (218)- 226-4164 Fax: (218) 353-7652
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Subscribe: http://www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes.htm