A Must See!

A wonderful informative satire by Infomatic Films.

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NOSB to USDA: Keep Nanotechnology Out of Organic! Please Ask the USDA to Enforce the National Organic Standards Board’s Recommendation

A major reason why consumers shop for products that are certified organic is to avoid the hazardous and unlabeled Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), toxic chemicals, and now the most recent, and likely most dangerous hi-tech poison of them all: nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is now a multi-billion dollar Frankenstein monster industry churning out a vast menu of untested and unlabeled products containing tiny nanoparticles including non-organic vitamin supplements, food packaging, processed food, cosmetics and sunscreens.

Over the objections of the OCA and thousands of our members, in November 2009, the National Organic Standards Board decided to table therecommendation to prohibit nanotechnology in organic. The NOSB member who fills the scientist slot, Katrina Heinze of General Mills, delayed the process by insisting that the Board consider a compromise position that wouldn’t exclude nanotechnology from organic altogether, but would classify it as a “synthetic” that could be petitioned for use in specific instances.

In advance of the October 2010 NOSB meeting, over 13,000 Organic Consumers Association activists sent letters demanding stronger language and OCA Political Director Alexis Baden-Mayer presented comments at the October meeting warning that anything less than a full ban would be percieved as the door being left open to nanotechonology in organic. In large part because of our comments, the NOSB ended up passing a recommendation that asked the USDA National Organic Program to explicitly prohibit nanotechnology in organic “as expiditiously as possible.”

Read the rest of this entry and take action if you choose.

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U.S. should follow Europe and put the brakes on nanotech food and other products

One month ago, the Committee on Environment, Health and Consumer Protection of the European Parliament voted in favor of excluding nanotechnology from the EU list of novel foods allowed on the market. This committee vote represents one of the first times ever that a legislative body has weighed in on the issue of nanotech particles in food. (Nanotechnology refers to materials or devices developed on an atomic or molecular scale, sized between 1 to 100 nanometers — basically, really, really, really tiny novel particles that our skin and other organs have never before encountered at this scale.)

For those of us watching how government views nanotechnology, this was welcome news.

Whether we are focusing on food or other consumer goods, so far more than a thousand products containing nanoparticles are currently available in the U.S. These nano-enabled products have been put on the market without testing their possible impacts on human health or the environment. And, without stringent government review and without regulation, these products are foisted on an unsuspecting public. People are using nanotechnology, such as sunscreen containing nanoparticles of zinc oxide, on a daily basis, almost completely unaware of what they’re putting on their bodies.

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SOS: Safeguard Organic Standards

Over the last twelve years the OCA has been forced to organize a series of national campaigns to safeguard organic standards. While the OCA and our allies have basically been able to prevent the standards from being significantly watered down, constant vigilance and mobilization have been necessary.

Read the rest of this entry.  Take action.

 

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Tell the National Organic Standards Board to Prohibit Nanotechnology in Organics

Organic is under threat yet again.  This time it’s by the use of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies in organic production systems.  The National Organic Standards Board has as of yet failed to recommend a ban on nanotechnologies and nanomaterials in organic, despite strong evidence of health and environmental risks from some nanomaterials and overwhelming public sentiment that use of the technology, like genetic engineering, goes against the core principles of organic.

Nanotechnology is the deliberate engineering of materials, structures, and systems at the atomic and molecular level.  It is a platform technology that will work hand-in-hand with genetic engineering and pesticides to further entrench our current industrial agricultural systems.  Examples already in progress include nano-engineering of food and food packaging to allow further transport, nano-encapsulating of substances in food and nano-size pesticides, increasing their toxicity. There are also huge health and environmental risks (Click here for more information on nanotechnology and food).

Many of the world’s leading food companies are investing heavily in nanotechnology applications for food and food packaging.  The European Parliament has called for nanotechnology to be prohibited for all food.  U.S. regulators have so far ignored nano-food regulations. This is despite a growing presence of nano-enabled food packaging, the beginnings of a nano-food market, and calls for reform by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Read the rest of this entry which includes an opportunity to tell the NOSB to do the right thing and prohibit nanotechnology in the Organic Standards now.

 

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Keep Nanotechnology Out of Organic!

A major reason why consumers shop for products that are certified organic is to avoid the hazardous and unlabeled Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), toxic chemicals, and now the most recent, and likely most dangerous hi-tech poison of them all: nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is now a multi-billion dollar Frankenstein monster industry churning out a vast menu of untested and unlabeled products containing tiny nanoparticles including non-organic vitamin supplements, food packaging, processed food, cosmetics and sunscreens.

Read the rest of this entry.

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