But on Monday when hundreds of people from all parts of the Mid-Atlantic region converged on Trenton, N.J. for a rally to protect the Delaware River from fracking, McClendon’s “well-funded” opponents traveled by bus, carrying their signs and their bag lunches with them. And yet in a time of economic crisis, this dedicated citizenry is making itself heard over the better funded corporate P.R. and advertising campaigns.

With a surprise setback to fracking occurring late last week, the rally on the steps of the War Memorial, and the walk to the State legislature was one part cautious victory celebration, one part rededication rally.

“You won this round. You brought us back from the brink of total devastation. But there’s still more work to do,” Josh Fox, director of the Oscar-nominated film, Gasland, told the gathering, which was originally scheduled for attendance at a meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC.) Slated to ratify fracking regulations agreed to in private sessions, the five person commission representing four states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) and the President (represented by the Army Corps of Engineers) had issued guidelines to permit fracking in the Delaware River Basin, which supplies water to millions of people. The DRBC public meeting was to have formally ratified those guidelines, launching the fracking of the Delaware. But the session was cancelled at the last minute.

According to Maya K. van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network that lead the coalition of grass roots groups organizing the event, the DRBC decision-making process “offered no real opportunity for public feedback. The decisions were all made behind closed doors,” despite the pro-forma vote at public sessions.

But the public had its say nevertheless. Through over twenty-thousand phone calls to the President and the four governors, “well-informed, well-educated, well-versed citizens voiced their concerns and educated their elected officials,” says van Rossum. On Thursday night, moved by the public outcry, Delaware’s Governor Markell announced his decision to vote no, joining New York’s Governor Cuomo. With PA Governor Corbett and Governor Christie likely to approve, if the vote came down to a Democrat vs. Republican standoff, the President’s representative would have been in position to cast the deciding vote. “They wanted more of a consensus,” the Delaware Riverkeeper said.

With the cancellation, there’s no outright ban, but fracking in the Delaware is now stalled for an indeterminate amount of time. “As more about this practice comes to light, what politicians had treated as a political issue now becomes better recognized as a public health threat, making them more reluctant to allow fracking’s risks,” van Rossum predicts.

At the rally podium, Fox placed a call to PA Governor Corbett. The phone rang and rang, without any answer. “No one’s home in the Governor’s mansion,” Fox quipped, a reference to Pennsylvania’s lack of taxation or oversight of fracking, with little recourse for citizens who claim harm.

Actor Mark Ruffalo told the crowd that the political temptation to trade life basics, like water, air, land, and food for energy amounts to a “spiritual crisis” for the U.S. He characterized Dimock, PA, as the “Ground Zero” for fracking devastation.

The water supply of Dimock (located in the Northeastern portion of the state) was visibly contaminated after fracking, and has been without water for three years. Craig Sauter of Dimock told the rally that in their drilling leases, residents were guaranteed restoration of water in the event of contamination. But the PA State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) failed to follow through on an agreement to compel Cabot Energy to build a water pipeline to the town. Instead, Cabot has trucked water buffaloes to Dimock residents but recently announced that they’ll stop in a few weeks. Last week, a capitol district policewoman phoned Sautner to say that if he persists in calling the governor and the DEP, he will be arrested for harassment.

“We’ll call for you, we’ll call for you!” chanted the rally participants, echoing the “human mike” used in OccupyWallStreet.

A pair of teachers leading a group of New Jersey school children on a tour of the State Capitol passed the fractivists on their walk to the legislature. The teachers asked what was going on. As I told them that people had gathered to protect the Delaware River, (and why) I noticed the still, intent faces of the ten year olds. They had pressed forward and were taking in every word. I felt a pang of sadness that children had to feel concern for the safety of their world.

But as the crowd surged along on the walk, they began the OWS chant, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Oh well, I thought, they came for a civics lesson, and they got one.

For health + environmental coverage, radio and activism, sign up in the box for for my ezine atwww.healthjournalistblog.comhttp://www.healthjournalistblog.com Coming up on Connect the Dots radio, an interview with Sandra Steingrabber, author of Raising Elijah.

Back when President Obama was a Senator, he promised to label GMO foods, to support the consumer right to know “where their food comes from. Americans should know what they are buying,” he said  (see video here.) But despite these promises, it hasn’t happened. Family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations filed suit against Monsanto in New York court over six months ago, but still no action from the President. According to the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) which filed on their behalf, the plaintiffs were forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from future accusations of patent infringement when Monsanto’s genetically modified seed contaminates their crops, something which cannot be prevented once GM seeds are released.

“It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

A broad array of family farmers, small businesses and organizations from within the organic agriculture community, representing some 270,000 members are plaintiffs in the suit, and many explained the need for the suit in a statement issued by PUBPAT.

“Some say transgenic seed can coexist with organic seed, but history tells us that’s not possible, and it’s actually in Monsanto’s financial interest to eliminate organic seed so that they can have a total monopoly over our food supply,” said Ravicher.

The release of GM canola contaminated organic canola, leading to its near extinction. Organic corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar beets and alfalfa now are now under threat. The agricultural monolith plans to develop GM seed for many crops, which farmers claim threatens the future of food.

“We are rapidly approaching the tipping point when we will be unable to avoid GMOs in our fields and on our plates,” said Dr. Carol Goland, Ph.D. of one of the plaintiff organizations. “That is the inevitable consequence of releasing genetically engineered materials into the environment.”

The challenge to Monsanto’s patents rests on evidence of the negative economic and health effects of GM seed, which the organic groups argue invalidates the legal requirement for “usefulness” under patent law.

“None of Monsanto’s original promises regarding genetically modified seeds have come true after 15 years of wide adoption by commodity farmers,” said David Murphy, founder and Executive Director of plaintiff Food Democracy Now! “Rather than increased yields or less chemical usage, farmers are facing more crop diseases, an onslaught of herbicide-resistant superweeds, and increased costs from additional herbicide application.”

In “The Battle for Biodiversity: Monsanto and Farmers Clash,” an article in the Atlantic, Anna Lappe asks, “Does genetic modification lead to more and better crops? Or will it destroy the foundations of our food systems?”

“Corporate control of seeds and relaxed laws for biotech promotion spur innovation and productivity. That may sound good,” Lappe writes. “But many other groups around the world look at the real-world effects of 20 years of patent approvals and the spread of biotech crops. These critics argue that corporate power over seeds has actually undermined biodiversity and food-system resilience.”

While the jury is out on the health effects of these novel foods, some feel concerned that these novel foods could contribute to an increase in allergies, and learning disabilities. But while many health oriented people emphasize eating organic foods, it remains to be seen whether the health conscious will step to take action to protect the foods they champion. Many are unaware that GMOs are undermining their food options.

“Crop biotechnology has been a miserable failure economically and biologically and now threatens to undermine the basic freedoms that farmers and consumers have enjoyed in our constitutional democracy,” said Murphy.

“It is outrageous that one corporate entity, through the trespass of what they refer to as their ‘technology,’ can intimidate and run roughshod over family farmers,” said Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for The Cornucopia Institute, one of the plaintiffs. He contends that Monsanto and the farmers licensing its technology should be the ones required to ensure that genetically engineered DNA does not trespass onto neighboring farmland.

“This debate is significant,” Lappe contends. “Which side we listen to will largely determine just how well we can continue to feed the planet.”

Although saving seeds from one year to the next is a farming tradition as old as agriculture, due to Monsanto’s aggressive legal action, “Farmers are being intimidated into not saving seed for fear that they will be doggedly pursued through the court system and potentially bankrupted,” detailed Kastel.

“We must protect our world by protecting our most precious, sacred resource of seed sovereignty. People must have the right to the resources of the earth for our sustenance,” said Rose Marie Burroughs of plaintiff California Cloverleaf Farms.

“The building blocks of life are sacred and should be in the public domain. The private profit motive corrupts pure science and increasingly precludes democratic participation,” claimed Jill Davies, Director of plaintiff Sustainable Living Systems.

“Monsanto, and the biotechnology industry, have made great investments in our executive and legislative branches through campaign contributions and powerful lobbyists in Washington,” Kastel points out. “We need the court system to offset this power and protect individual farmers from corporate tyranny.”

Ravicher noted that “Monsanto is the same chemical company that previously brought us Agent Orange, DDT, PCB’s and other toxins, which they said were safe, but we know are not. Now Monsanto says transgenic seed is safe, but evidence clearly shows it is not.”

“Today is Independence Day for America. Monsanto’s threats and abuse of family farmers stops here. Monsanto’s genetic contamination of organic seed and organic crops ends now.” Declared Jim Gerritsen, a Maine family farmer, who is President of the lead plaintiff Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association. “Americans have the right to choice in the marketplace — to decide what kind of food they will feed their families — and we are taking this action on their behalf to protect that right to choose.”

More information about the lawsuit, including list of participating organizations.

To support the plaintiffs’ cause, go to selected links for Food Democracy Now, the Cornucopia Institute,
and Organic Seed Growers.
For radio shows, blogs, and health and environmental activism links, go to www.healthjournalistblog.com

Come hear me present at Green Festival L.A. http://www.greenfestivals.org/la/social-media-hub I’ll be speaking at #greenfestivals about how to promote environmental health activism via social media. @AlisonRoseLevy Connecting the Dots for Health

Back when President Obama was a Senator, he promised to label GMO foods, to support the consumer right to know “where their food comes from. Americans should know what they are buying,” he said  (see video here.) But despite these promises, it hasn’t happened. Family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations filed suit against Monsanto in New York court over six months ago, but still no action from the President. According to the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) which filed on their behalf, the plaintiffs were forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from future accusations of patent infringement when Monsanto’s genetically modified seed contaminates their crops, something which cannot be prevented once GM seeds are released.

“It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

A broad array of family farmers, small businesses and organizations from within the organic agriculture community, representing some 270,000 members are plaintiffs in the suit, and many explained the need for the suit in a statement issued by PUBPAT.

“Some say transgenic seed can coexist with organic seed, but history tells us that’s not possible, and it’s actually in Monsanto’s financial interest to eliminate organic seed so that they can have a total monopoly over our food supply,” said Ravicher.

The release of GM canola contaminated organic canola, leading to its near extinction. Organic corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar beets and alfalfa now are now under threat. The agricultural monolith plans to develop GM seed for many crops, which farmers claim threatens the future of food.

“We are rapidly approaching the tipping point when we will be unable to avoid GMOs in our fields and on our plates,” said Dr. Carol Goland, Ph.D. of one of the plaintiff organizations. “That is the inevitable consequence of releasing genetically engineered materials into the environment.”

The challenge to Monsanto’s patents rests on evidence of the negative economic and health effects of GM seed, which the organic groups argue invalidates the legal requirement for “usefulness” under patent law.

“None of Monsanto’s original promises regarding genetically modified seeds have come true after 15 years of wide adoption by commodity farmers,” said David Murphy, founder and Executive Director of plaintiff Food Democracy Now! “Rather than increased yields or less chemical usage, farmers are facing more crop diseases, an onslaught of herbicide-resistant superweeds, and increased costs from additional herbicide application.”

In “The Battle for Biodiversity: Monsanto and Farmers Clash,” an article in the Atlantic, Anna Lappe asks, “Does genetic modification lead to more and better crops? Or will it destroy the foundations of our food systems?”

“Corporate control of seeds and relaxed laws for biotech promotion spur innovation and productivity. That may sound good,” Lappe writes. “But many other groups around the world look at the real-world effects of 20 years of patent approvals and the spread of biotech crops. These critics argue that corporate power over seeds has actually undermined biodiversity and food-system resilience.”

While the jury is out on the health effects of these novel foods, some feel concerned that these novel foods could contribute to an increase in allergies, and learning disabilities. But while many health oriented people emphasize eating organic foods, it remains to be seen whether the health conscious will step to take action to protect the foods they champion. Many are unaware that GMOs are undermining their food options.

“Crop biotechnology has been a miserable failure economically and biologically and now threatens to undermine the basic freedoms that farmers and consumers have enjoyed in our constitutional democracy,” said Murphy.

“It is outrageous that one corporate entity, through the trespass of what they refer to as their ‘technology,’ can intimidate and run roughshod over family farmers,” said Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for The Cornucopia Institute, one of the plaintiffs. He contends that Monsanto and the farmers licensing its technology should be the ones required to ensure that genetically engineered DNA does not trespass onto neighboring farmland.

“This debate is significant,” Lappe contends. “Which side we listen to will largely determine just how well we can continue to feed the planet.”

Although saving seeds from one year to the next is a farming tradition as old as agriculture, due to Monsanto’s aggressive legal action, “Farmers are being intimidated into not saving seed for fear that they will be doggedly pursued through the court system and potentially bankrupted,” detailed Kastel.

“We must protect our world by protecting our most precious, sacred resource of seed sovereignty. People must have the right to the resources of the earth for our sustenance,” said Rose Marie Burroughs of plaintiff California Cloverleaf Farms.

“The building blocks of life are sacred and should be in the public domain. The private profit motive corrupts pure science and increasingly precludes democratic participation,” claimed Jill Davies, Director of plaintiff Sustainable Living Systems.

“Monsanto, and the biotechnology industry, have made great investments in our executive and legislative branches through campaign contributions and powerful lobbyists in Washington,” Kastel points out. “We need the court system to offset this power and protect individual farmers from corporate tyranny.”

Ravicher noted that “Monsanto is the same chemical company that previously brought us Agent Orange, DDT, PCB’s and other toxins, which they said were safe, but we know are not. Now Monsanto says transgenic seed is safe, but evidence clearly shows it is not.”

“Today is Independence Day for America. Monsanto’s threats and abuse of family farmers stops here. Monsanto’s genetic contamination of organic seed and organic crops ends now.” Declared Jim Gerritsen, a Maine family farmer, who is President of the lead plaintiff Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association. “Americans have the right to choice in the marketplace — to decide what kind of food they will feed their families — and we are taking this action on their behalf to protect that right to choose.”

More information about the lawsuit, including list of participating organizations.

To support the plaintiffs’ cause, go to selected links for Food Democracy Now, the Cornucopia Institute,
and Organic Seed Growers.
For radio shows, blogs, and health and environmental activism links, go to www.healthjournalistblog.com

Come hear me present at Green Festival L.A. http://www.greenfestivals.org/la/social-media-hub I’ll be speaking at #greenfestivals about how to promote environmental health activism via social media. @AlisonRoseLevy Connecting the Dots for Health

With his wife, Holly, Richard Giles typifies this new breed. He owns and runs Lucky Dog Farms, (in Hamden, New York). Sited near the West Branch of the Delaware River, the region of one of New York City’s two watersheds, the farm supplies Swiss chard, kale, and other greens to downstate farmer’s markets, restaurants, wholesalers, and the Park Slope Food Coop. As Irene approached, Giles and his farm staff were up before sunrise harvesting all they could. As the storm hit, they worked in fields in standing water up to their ankles, within two hours, the water had risen to their knees, and a half hour later they had to evacuate waters six feet high, that had yet to fully subside when I spoke with Giles ten days later. Lucky Dog lost nearly the entire Fall crop.

“When Irene happened, most of the group of farmers in our area were saying, “We just have to suck it up,” Martin Stosiek
rt of Markristo Farms in Hillside, New York explained. “Then when Hurricane Lee happened, it was even worse.” Some lost crops but with a whole lot of hard work will survive the coming winter. Some may not. Stosiekrt who sells organic greens to restaurants, farmer’s markets, and wholesalers downstate, detailed his losses: cabbage unsaleable, green beans sitting in a swamp of water, un-harvestable, leafy greens, diseased due to the damp.

But will such losses register with the farmer’s customers, New Yorkers, the poster children for the busiest people on earth? Although NYC has a strong dining out tradition, for everyday meals, NY-ers are famed for eating on the run. No one has the time to look beyond the local farmer’s market to the plight of the farmers who grow New York’s food. While the rains may have passed from the headlines, their impact on area farmers is long-term.

“We can’t plant cover crops (like rye) in flooded fields, which we usually do to protect the soil over the winter months,” says Stosiek
rt. With weeds going to seed just now, com Spring, this unprotected soil will yield a weed, rather than a vegetable harvest. “An organic farm can’t use pesticides for weed management,” Stosiekrt says.

A few winters back, I attended a special dinner at Park Slope’s Applewood Restaurant, which featured the produce grown at Lucky Dog. After a wonderful dinner, that blend of organic sustainable and New York connoisseurship that makes for a delicious meal, the chef told us diners that, “You can vote with your pocketbook to support organic and sustainable farms in our region by going to the farmer’s market and eating at restaurants that use regionally grown food.”

Back then that suggestion still made good sense.

Flash forward two years: In Lucky Dog’s region, entire towns (like Fleischmann’s and Prattsville) were leveled by rains andwinds. “This is the worst flood in everyone’s living memory,” Giles told me. “We didn’t lose our house and the kids are okay. But the fields were flooded. We lost all our crops — lettuce, cabbages, and greens. We’re losing the root vegetables, like potatoes, and onions, which are sitting in water and deteriorating underground.”

Unfortunately, “The crop we lost is the crop we use to pay large bills,” Giles told me. “Like the farm loans, financed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA).”

Farmers don’t fall under FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Administration), but are administered by the FSA. Obviously, a renegotiation of loans will be needed. But will it be forthcoming in the current political climate? And who will notice when these crucial matters of public policy, impacting New York’s foods, are determined?

“People don’t expect a product like cars to just appear. There are industries and infrastructures that make that happen,” Giles says. “Because we farmers love farming, we put forth that effort. But it shouldn’t be our sole responsibility to supply New York’s food in the absence of policies that sustain that.”

“I choose to farm here and it’s really good soil, and it’s my choice and with these weather changes, it’s becoming a poorer and poorer choice,” Giles ruminates. “But if we admit it, we all know we have contributed to changing weather and flood patterns. We stand by and allow the gas drilling upstate to proceed. We leave it to farmers to go through whatever hardships to get the food to us. We cross our fingers and hope it will be okay.”

“Is this really what food’s worth?” he asks.<strong>So my question to you is this, do <em>you</em> still believe that acting as a consumer and showing up to buy sustainable and healthy food is all you need to do to help farmers make that food available? If so, why? If not, why not?</strong>

To support Lucky Dog Farms and other upstate sustainable farms harmed by the flood, please contact them.

To get the coverage of health, environment, food, public policy, and activism I’ve supplied on Huffington since 2007, please sign up for me free ezine at http://www.healthjournalistblog.com

Come hear me present at Green Festival L.A. http://www.greenfestivals.org/la/social-media-hub I’ll be speaking at #greenfestival about how to promote environmental health activism via social media. @AlisonRoseLevy  or Join me on Facebook at Connecting the Dots for Health

Back when President Obama was a Senator, he promised to label GMO foods, to support the consumer right to know “where their food comes from. Americans should know what they are buying,” he said  (see video here.) But despite these promises, it hasn’t happened. Family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations filed suit against Monsanto in New York court over six months ago, but still no action from the President. According to the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) which filed on their behalf, the plaintiffs were forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from future accusations of patent infringement when Monsanto’s genetically modified seed contaminates their crops, something which cannot be prevented once GM seeds are released.

“It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

A broad array of family farmers, small businesses and organizations from within the organic agriculture community, representing some 270,000 members are plaintiffs in the suit, and many explained the need for the suit in a statement issued by PUBPAT.

“Some say transgenic seed can coexist with organic seed, but history tells us that’s not possible, and it’s actually in Monsanto’s financial interest to eliminate organic seed so that they can have a total monopoly over our food supply,” said Ravicher.

The release of GM canola contaminated organic canola, leading to its near extinction. Organic corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar beets and alfalfa now are now under threat. The agricultural monolith plans to develop GM seed for many crops, which farmers claim threatens the future of food.

“We are rapidly approaching the tipping point when we will be unable to avoid GMOs in our fields and on our plates,” said Dr. Carol Goland, Ph.D. of one of the plaintiff organizations. “That is the inevitable consequence of releasing genetically engineered materials into the environment.”

The challenge to Monsanto’s patents rests on evidence of the negative economic and health effects of GM seed, which the organic groups argue invalidates the legal requirement for “usefulness” under patent law.

“None of Monsanto’s original promises regarding genetically modified seeds have come true after 15 years of wide adoption by commodity farmers,” said David Murphy, founder and Executive Director of plaintiff Food Democracy Now! “Rather than increased yields or less chemical usage, farmers are facing more crop diseases, an onslaught of herbicide-resistant superweeds, and increased costs from additional herbicide application.”

In “The Battle for Biodiversity: Monsanto and Farmers Clash,” an article in the Atlantic, Anna Lappe asks, “Does genetic modification lead to more and better crops? Or will it destroy the foundations of our food systems?”

“Corporate control of seeds and relaxed laws for biotech promotion spur innovation and productivity. That may sound good,” Lappe writes. “But many other groups around the world look at the real-world effects of 20 years of patent approvals and the spread of biotech crops. These critics argue that corporate power over seeds has actually undermined biodiversity and food-system resilience.”

While the jury is out on the health effects of these novel foods, some feel concerned that these novel foods could contribute to an increase in allergies, and learning disabilities. But while many health oriented people emphasize eating organic foods, it remains to be seen whether the health conscious will step to take action to protect the foods they champion. Many are unaware that GMOs are undermining their food options.

“Crop biotechnology has been a miserable failure economically and biologically and now threatens to undermine the basic freedoms that farmers and consumers have enjoyed in our constitutional democracy,” said Murphy.

“It is outrageous that one corporate entity, through the trespass of what they refer to as their ‘technology,’ can intimidate and run roughshod over family farmers,” said Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for The Cornucopia Institute, one of the plaintiffs. He contends that Monsanto and the farmers licensing its technology should be the ones required to ensure that genetically engineered DNA does not trespass onto neighboring farmland.

“This debate is significant,” Lappe contends. “Which side we listen to will largely determine just how well we can continue to feed the planet.”

Although saving seeds from one year to the next is a farming tradition as old as agriculture, due to Monsanto’s aggressive legal action, “Farmers are being intimidated into not saving seed for fear that they will be doggedly pursued through the court system and potentially bankrupted,” detailed Kastel.

“We must protect our world by protecting our most precious, sacred resource of seed sovereignty. People must have the right to the resources of the earth for our sustenance,” said Rose Marie Burroughs of plaintiff California Cloverleaf Farms.

“The building blocks of life are sacred and should be in the public domain. The private profit motive corrupts pure science and increasingly precludes democratic participation,” claimed Jill Davies, Director of plaintiff Sustainable Living Systems.

“Monsanto, and the biotechnology industry, have made great investments in our executive and legislative branches through campaign contributions and powerful lobbyists in Washington,” Kastel points out. “We need the court system to offset this power and protect individual farmers from corporate tyranny.”

Ravicher noted that “Monsanto is the same chemical company that previously brought us Agent Orange, DDT, PCB’s and other toxins, which they said were safe, but we know are not. Now Monsanto says transgenic seed is safe, but evidence clearly shows it is not.”

“Today is Independence Day for America. Monsanto’s threats and abuse of family farmers stops here. Monsanto’s genetic contamination of organic seed and organic crops ends now.” Declared Jim Gerritsen, a Maine family farmer, who is President of the lead plaintiff Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association. “Americans have the right to choice in the marketplace — to decide what kind of food they will feed their families — and we are taking this action on their behalf to protect that right to choose.”

More information about the lawsuit, including list of participating organizations.

To support the plaintiffs’ cause, go to selected links for Food Democracy Now, the Cornucopia Institute,
and Organic Seed Growers.
For radio shows, blogs, and health and environmental activism links, go to www.healthjournalistblog.com

Come hear me present at Green Festival L.A. http://www.greenfestivals.org/la/social-media-hub I’ll be speaking at #greenfestival about how to promote environmental health activism via social media. @AlisonRoseLevy Connecting the Dots for Health

Mark Ruffalo defends the waters of life from fracking. Fran Drescher urges women, industry and government to prevent cancer and save lives. Russell Simmons shifts the conversation from traditional notions of power to compassion as real strength. This coming week at DeepakHomeBase in New York City, Deepak Chopra will engage in three conversations on three different nights with these three stars, people who care. Russell Simmons will join Chopra on September 12th.  Mark Ruffalo will appear on September 14th, and Fran Drescher on September 15th. All programs will be available on livestream during the event, and following it as well. I’ll cover the events and report on them here.

I interviewed Ruffalo on my radio program, Connect the Dots (on the Progressive Radio Network on Saturdays at Noon ET), and he is a knowledgeable champion, probing how to meet our energy needs without allowing hydraulic fracturing for gas (aka fracking) to pollute our water, food, and air. Ruffalo debunks the notion that gas (as opposed to coal) can help to de-accelerate global warming. He points to recent research by Cornell University climate experts showing that gas has a greater greenhouse gas footprint.  Moreover, the same study reveals that flowback water from gas wells carries large quantities of methane, which may be spread far and wide in the hurricane and flood prone Northeast– which in areas upstream from two major cities, just got more flood prone in the last two weeks.

Fran Drescher, who founded Cancer Schmancer in 2007 points out that after a forty year “War on Cancer,” American health is still being held hostage because we aren’t addressing the causes of cancer. She believes that “prevention and early detection should be on equal footing with the search for a cure. Why not triple the weapons in our arsenal?”  Like Ruffalo, Drescher urges citizen action. Drescher wants to “turn the tide on cancer through asking Congress to support the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011.” Ruffalo urges that citizens ask President Obama to protect the drinking water of 15 million people (in New York and Philly)  through preventing fracking in river basin of the Delaware River. To learn more, people are invited to tune in to DeepakHomeBase to this series of events, follow my reporting on green health activism, and discover why activism is the newest health regimen for healthy people, a healthy society, and a healthy planet.

Become part of the solution by Connecting the Dots on Health. You’re warmly invited to sign up for weekly blogs, radio shows, and activist opportunities in the sign in box on the upper right side of this page.

There were warning signs aplenty. From the outset, the co-option of the Native American sweat lodge for the goal of achieving personal “success” was disrespectful, colonial and “spiritually materialist.” “Spiritual materialism” is a term coined back in the 1970s to denote teachings that conflate and confuse spiritual evolution with material attainment. With so much marketing of spiritual philosophy and practice nowadays, it would be helpful for people to recognize this corruption of spirituality.

In spiritual materialism, people enlist spirituality to reach material goals, such as success, money, fame, relationships, confidence or a book deal. In dedication to their goal, they rely upon the teacher, the “answer,” the secret, the manna, or the universal recipe for eternal wellbeing and protection, not to humbly better themselves for the sake of all, but to get what they want. As a compensation for the stresses of a success-oriented, but immature and often inhumane society, this “have it your way” spirituality may feel good. Temporarily, like any addiction. Yet the danger is that the inhumanity we flee can manifest in our chosen haven.

This is not to “blame the victim” but to reveal that the “real law of attraction,” is the law of unconscious attraction to repeat the same harmful patterns by selecting people (or groups) who will constellate them for us. Any authority (including spiritual ones) wields power, and all groups exert pressure to conform. Fortunately, in most cases, investing trust in teachers will not entail undue health risks. But in all relationships, it’s appropriate to acknowledge our needs, use critical thinking, see the other party’s clay feet, and avoid getting lost in fantasy and idealization. And we can still receive the gifts of the relationships, presuming that there are any.

Paradoxically, Sam Sommers, Ph.D., in his new book, “Situations Matter” (Riverhead, 2011) contends that much behavior is context dependent. People are also prompted to act more by group pressure than is commonly believed. This may account for those at the Ray event who went along with the miserable and deadly scenario in which fellow participants became ill, fell unconscious and died. Studies done by Stanley Milgram at Yale in the 1960s demonstrated that even so-called “independent-minded” Americans are all too ready to follow authority even to the point of seriously harming others. In the study, because they were told to do so, test subjects administered what they believed to be lethal shocks to someone with cardiac problems who was screaming in an adjacent room.

Under the leadership of someone like Ray, this conformist tendency can segue imperceptibly into unquestioning submission to authoritarian control. Specific techniques encourage it. It’s not just the Tea Party folks who feel tempted by the Kool-Aid. It comes in different flavors. Instead of cotton candy, it’s coconut. While those who describe themselves as spiritual are certainly not the only Americans vulnerable to giving it up for charismatics toting a microphone, we are not exempt from the tendency either.

Some warning signs:

• If everything has to be perfect, and positive, and anything less is banished, watch out. Life has many colors and they aren’t all pretty.
• Where someone else’s ground rules supercede yours, be alert.
• If people spend a lot of time rationalizing, reframing or denying the leader’s inconsistent or unkind behavior, pay attention. For example, he wasn’t acting punitively towards his ex, he was “helping her to know God.”
• If you don’t feel free to speak up, that should tell you something.
• If the crowd is going along, don’t assume that that means a teacher “must” be OK.
• If you have patterns or a family history of disempowerment, punishment or abuse and are unsure whether or not a new group is safe to participate in, check with friends or counselors to assure that you will be safe.

It also helps those seeking to evaluate a teacher, when spiritual teachers of integrity and established repute are selective in their appearances and programming. Participation in joint seminars with a questionable teacher, for example, will be interpreted as validation. There will always be some who criticize anyone they categorize as “new age.” But teaching some form of Buddhist or yogic wisdom is not a common risk factor for authoritarian leadership. But certain things are, such as having a substantial following bifurcated into two hostile camps: the “true believers,” and those requiring therapy, chat rooms and years to recover from their traumatic experience as the Great Hoo-Ha’s student.

If you see that a friend is investing money, damaging his reputation, leaving a relationship, neglecting her children, endangering his health, incurring substantial debt or doing other high risk behavior because of a divine call from someone high on a podium, consider how to considerately and calmly issue a caution.

But the fundamental flaw often lies in the core philosophy. As Julian Walker points out in an excellent current article in The Elephant Journal, it’s no surprise that spiritually materialist beliefs, like “The Secret,” promote the

inaccurate, psychologically damaging and spiritually un-compassionate perception that victims of oppression, violent crime, poverty, incest, catastrophic illness etc are entirely to blame for their own plight, because they have at some level “created this reality” through the “power of their intention” and the “Law of Attraction. … (This is) an ironic distortion of what real spirituality should do — namely make us more humble, more honest and more compassionate toward the reality of suffering in our own and other’s lives.

>More ‘Connect the Dots’ on cultural attitudes, health, society and environment with blogs, radio shows and action links at: HealthJournalistBlog.com and on Facebook.

The signature of McTaggart’s journalism and writing is her keen interest in frontier science, and her ability to synthesize complex findings in a way that resonates with core human needs. In her previous books — the bestseller, “The Intention Experiment” — and book before that, “The Field” — McTaggart explored the farthest reaches of quantum physics. But in following the unfolding research at the pioneering edge of science, McTaggart learned that once science penetrates into the sub-atomic particles at the core of all matter, they found (surprise) “relationships.” The relationship between particles defines matter more than anything inherent in the particles themselves. “It’s a bond, a relationship so intrinsic and profound that you cannot separate where one thing ends and the other begins,” McTaggart explains.

This realization lead McTaggart back to sociology, psychology, human beings and relationships. The core of the modern dilemma, as McTaggart sees it is that “We see ourselves as individuals in competition, striving to the death for survival, rather than working together for survival.” She wondered, “Were we meant to be this competitive?”

When McTaggart investigated the scientific research, she found that the answer is that we aren’t.

The way we live is in contradiction with nature. We’re in crisis because we’re not living the way we’re designed to by nature. We’ve got it backwards. We believe we’re strong when we compete. But the truth is that we’re weak when we compete, and we are strong when we cooperate. Nature has a drive for wholeness, and when we ignore that, we operate against nature, and against ourselves. We’ve been operating on the wrong story.

We’ve been operating on the story that we are separate things, fighting for survival, but it’s not true. We’re designed to care, share, and be fair. It’s the survival of the Fairest, not the fittest. Unfortunately, we are living in the opposite way so it’s no wonder we’re trouble.

According to McTaggart, we’re neither relating, acting, nor seeing in ways that will allow us to survive and thrive. The way out? “To live as connecters, givers, car-ers, and shar-ers.”

“Taking our turn is wired into us. If someone is talented, and makes more money, people don’t mind that,” McTaggart says. “People mind when the banking industry executives pay themselves record bonuses after they engineer things that cost others their jobs and homes,” she says. “Right now, all Western countries are at the unfairest they’ve ever been in history. According to studies, we have the same levels of fairness as those countries in the Middle East that have just had major upheavals.”

Studies show that “The more unfair any society, the worse the health care, and the higher the rates of crime, violence, and mental illness, the worse the survival statistics.” McTaggart claims that this effects everyone in the society.

People’s natural tendency is to give and to share, but when someone is given to, but interrupts the give-and-take process by not giving back, greed develops. There evolves an ethos of ‘keeping what’s mine.’ This mindset undermines the cohesion of a society, to everybody’s detriment. We’ve been following the wrong story. Our heroes are the lone wolves — but they are perfect candidates for a heart attack.

Surprisingly, this increased heart attack risk is not due to known risk factors, like smoking, diet, or high blood pressure. The key factor is social cohesion. Social cohesion and support are stronger protectors, and the lack of them, stronger risk factors for developing heart disease than any of these other physiological determinants, according to a triad of studies McTaggart uncovers in “The Bond.”

Lynne McTaggart’s book, U.S. book tour schedule of events, and programs can be found on her website.

More Connect the Dots on cultural attitudes, health, society, and environment with blogs, radio shows, and action links, at: www.healthjournalistblog.com

The GMO Roundup Ready crops are designed to be used with the Monsanto herbicide, Roundup, a glyphosate that leads to severe micronutrient deficiencies in soil, that scientists now say are leading to increased crop failure. Scientists have detected a higher prevalence of the opportunistic pathogen in the depleted glyphosate treated soil. It is also found in higher rates in the livestock that feed off of the Roundup crops. Infertility and spontaneous abortion are on the rise within these cattle and dairy populations, with infertility at 20% and a 45% abortion incidence in certain animals. “It’s infectious to cattle, pigs, poultry and horses, and will kill a fertilized egg,” says Huber in one of a series of video interviews posted on YouTube. “It can readily reproduce, and it’s compatible with other organisms.” Watch video here: http://youtu.be/nzlwAAf9DRg

In his January 2011 letter Huber cautioned against expanding GMO into alfalfa, which he characterizes as “the Number One forage crop” that nourishes livestock. “Why place it in jeopardy?” Huber asked in the series of videos, predicting that “In five years you won’t have anything but Roundup Ready alfalfa. If we see a new organism which makes it a hazard to animal survival–what’s the urgency?”

Organic farmers have sued Monsanto pre-emptively to protect themselves from legal action from the GMO producer, when the GMO alfalfa contaminates organic seed, which cannot be prevented once GMO alfalfa is planted. Food Democracy Now is circulating a letter asking President Obama and Secretary Vilsack to “halt the sale and planting of Monsanto’s recently approved Roundup Ready® GMO alfalfa and sugar beets until independent, peer-reviewed studies can be conducted to determine whether or not these products pose a threat to plant, animal and human health.”

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