Fight USDA corruption/corporate payola with your dollars…

Roger Blobaum, maybe the organic movement’s first true expert and ally in Washington, DC

“An idea is a powerful thing.”

Dear Good Food and Farming Advocates,

Roger Blobaum, the eldest of eight children, grew up working on his family’s small Iowa farm starting at the age of five. He went on to become one of the most respected advocates of organic farming in Washington, DC. My long-time friend and mentor passed away last month at age 94, after a long illness.

When speaking of the organic farming movement and my own advocacy work, he often told me, “An idea is a powerful thing.”

Unfortunately, that powerful organic idea is becoming corrupted.

Other nonprofits are accepting money from agribusinesses and the USDA. They are partnering with the lobbyists at The Organic Trade Association, cheerleading rulemaking that weakens livestock standards and a bill in Congress that will give lobbyists the ability to rewrite all the organic rules every five years.

Certifiers that were originally founded by farmers are now taking payola from corporations they certify. They have morphed into multimillion-dollar business enterprises certifying multibillion-dollar corporations — the same BIG FOOD companies that we were trying to create an alternative to with the passage of the Organic Foods Production Act in 1990.

Meanwhile, the USDA consistently lets “organic” livestock factories off the hook, even when we have presented strong documentary evidence that they are skirting the law. The National Organic Program can’t seem to punch its way out of a wet paper bag in terms of bringing the enforcement hammer down on fraud.

On this national day of charitable giving, I invite you to contribute to a cause I know you’re passionate about: protecting good food and good farmers.

In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, a generous foundation backing OrganicEye’s work has offered to DOUBLE all donations in support of authentic organic and local food and farms.

I hope you’ll take this opportunity to double your impact with a gift to OrganicEye today.

Supporting OrganicEye amplifies your voice. Together we are demanding:

• Authentic, high-integrity, organic food products — and fighting the corporate takeover so consumers don’t get ripped off by phony organic food!
• Truly ecologically-sound agriculture — and fighting “organic” factory farms.
• Humane animal welfare — with legitimate pasture and outdoor access.
• Economic justice for family-scale farmers and ethical food companies.
• Produce grown in nutrient rich, organically stewarded soil rather than by hydroponic production in sealed buildings, under artificial light, and in a liquid fertilizer solution (predominantly derived from conventional soybeans).

OrganicEye’s research, watchdogging, legal tactics, and marketplace education/activism work informs and empowers lovers of real food to stand up to corrupt foreign imports, corporate “organic” hydroponic (soil-less) operations, and livestock factories, and reward the most ethical farmers and businesses. 

They may have the lobbyists, but we have people power — farmers and eaters united!

Any gift you give today will double your impact defending the good food movement. Please donate now and encourage your friends to join you in standing up with us on this day celebrating the American spirit of generosity.

In organic solidarity,

Mark A. Kastel, Director
OrganicEye

OrganicEye is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity. Your donations are deductible to the full extent of law.