The Food & Drug Administration has proposed a rule that would require food companies to give them notice when they intend to avoid safety testing a new ingredient by moving it through a loophole the FDA created known as “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS).

Every year about 75 new ingredients never eaten before end up in our food through the GRAS loophole. These ingredients, made with petrochemicals, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, lab-grown cells, or modified microbes, are never safety tested as required by the 1958 Food Additives Amendment.

The proposed rule is a huge disappointment. The hope was that the FDA would close the GRAS loophole, not just make its use more transparent.

Really closing the loophole would mean the FDA has to sign off on a new ingredient, under the safety review the 1958 Food Additives Amendment requires, before it reaches your plate, not just receive a notice that a company plans to sell it. It would mean an independent safety review. And it would mean the safety data is made public, so people can find out what’s actually in their food.

TAKE ACTION BEFORE DECEMBER 9: Tell the FDA to Close the Loophole That Lets Frankenfoods Escape Safety Testing!

OCA staff has viewed the stunning new documentary by Galassia Grassetto, The Sludge War. The film exposes how sewage sludge affects every one of us. We unknowingly bring it into our own gardens, where it is sold to us as organic compost. Our food is grown on land where it has been spread, and it is applied to our schools, parks and athletic fields without our knowledge.

You can watch the trailer here.

The film is currently on a 20-state tour across the country in partnership with local theaters and community spaces, bringing the film directly to affected communities.

The goal of the film is to raise massive public awareness and finally expose a practice that has been intentionally hidden from the public for decades. We believe Netflix can bring The Sludge War to millions of viewers and help make that possible.

We are asking you to click the link below and suggest The Sludge War Documentary to Netflix. In the title field, write The Sludge War Documentary. You do not need to be a subscriber. Netflix allows anyone to suggest titles.

Toxic sludge dumping is a global crisis.  Imagine the impact this film could have if Netflix made it available to the 325 million Netflix subscribers in 190 countries. It only takes a few seconds, and your request could make a huge difference.

Please ask Netflix to air The Sludge War Documentary.

Alison de Souza, The Straits Times:

“The wrong lighting can be as bad for you as junk food, raising the risk of obesity, heart disease and certain cancers.

That is the stark warning from former Harvard professor Martin Moore-Ede, a pioneer in the field of circadian biology – the study of the biological ‘clocks’ inside the cells of almost all living things, which follow approximately 24-hour cycles, in keeping with the sun.

Most artificial lighting today, whether from light bulbs or screens, delivers the wrong wavelengths to our brains and bodies, and often at the wrong time, he explains. The crux of the problem is that ‘lighting today is so different from the natural light in which the human race evolved’, the 80-year-old English scientist and lighting consultant tells The Straits Times in a phone interview from Boston, Massachusetts.”

Until about a century ago, we were mostly outside and exposed to daylight, which is a full spectrum that contains ultraviolet, all the colors of the rainbow and, importantly, infrared.

REGIONAL INDIGENOUS NUTRITIONAL GUIDE

Sean Sherman:

“Let’s be clear about what the federal guidelines have always been, no matter which party has been in charge– a food guide with good intentions for health, especially kids, but tainted by corporate dollars and a lack of love for food itself. Food should be healing and something to connect to, and a healthy diet should be built on understanding the individual, their tastes, their ancestry, their regions, dietary preferences, and health concerns.

The USDA Dietary Guidelines are not written in a vacuum, and they are not designed in a scientific lab. They are written inside the same building that exists to move American commodity crops. Corporate Agribusiness spent a record $178 million on federal lobbying in 2023 (roughly $523 million from 2019 through 2023). There are 22 USDA-overseen programs pulling in around $885 million a year to sell you commodities through campaigns you can probably still hear in your head. ‘Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.’ Independent research found that 95% of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee had ties to the corporate food or pharmaceutical industry.

I don’t want you to take my word for it. I want you to look at facts. Because when people picture the folks writing the nation’s nutrition advice, they might picture doctors and scientists in white coats. The reality is that it looks a lot more like a boardroom.”

The RING Diet is a living guide, and one you could actually use.

SAVE THE DATE: Hear more from Sean Sherman and others at this year’s People’s Food Summit.

Public Health is under attack by out-of-control scientists, corporations, media giants, and politicians. Your right to safe, healthy food, a stable climate, and a clean environment is under attack. Chemical and pesticide manufacturers, industrial factory farm corporations, and junk food manufacturers are piling up profits at your expense.

With billions of dollars to spend on influencing politicians, corporations skirt and rewrite the laws that were supposed to protect you, using regulatory loopholes to slip untested ingredients into the marketplace.

The FDA just proposed a rule that could have closed this loophole for good. But instead of requiring real independent testing and FDA approval before these ingredients reach your plate, it only requires companies to notify the FDA after they’ve already decided to use them. We cannot accept that.

We educate consumers so you know what’s actually in your food and can demand better. We take corporations to court when they lie and force them to be accountable. And we fight Congress and state legislatures to close loopholes, like GRAS, and vote out the politicians who sold you out.

This fight takes resources and know how, and it takes people who refuse to accept the burgeoning corporate control of our food system. People who know that real change comes from supporting local farmers and growing the organic regenerative food system.

Will you support OCA’s work?

Make a tax-deductible donation to Organic Consumers Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Make a tax-deductible donation to Regeneration International, our international sister organization

Have you considered making a gift from your IRA?

Ashley Fike, VICE:

“Most people don’t describe their problem as being indoors too much. They say they’re exhausted. Anxious. Wired at night and foggy during the day. Sleep doesn’t fix it. Rest doesn’t feel possible. According to Dr. John La Puma, that cluster of symptoms has a common root we’ve gotten very good at ignoring.

He calls it digital obesity. Not a productivity problem or a motivation failure, but a biological state.

‘What’s getting overfed is the brain’s alerting system,’ La Puma explained to VICE in an email, and details in his upcoming book Indoor Epidemic. Screens, artificial light, constant novelty, and cognitive demand keep the nervous system switched on for most of the day. The inputs that normally allow it to recover, daylight, darkness at night, distance vision, and time outside, barely show up anymore.”

His prescription is intentionally modest. Seven percent of your time outdoors. About 100 minutes a day, or two to five intentional hours per week.

TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL ACT

Julie Zenderoudi, The New Lede:

“A group of over 30 scientists, health professionals, and public health advocates is urging the Senate not to weaken the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a move they say will put children in harm’s way from toxic chemicals and pollutants.

In a letter sent Monday to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), the group, known as Project TENDR (Targeting Environmental Neuro-Development Risks), expressed concern that scientific and health voices are being sidelined when it comes to America’s chemical safety law, putting children’s health at risk.

In March, Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released a draft discussion bill aimed at loosening TSCA with the goal of faster federal chemical reviews. The proposed changes align with industry concerns around the law, which gives the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate new and existing chemicals.”

The letter urged the Committee to hear from children’s health experts before marking up the bill.

Weilong Zhang, The Conversation:

“Could how much sugar you consumed before your second birthday shape your health decades later – even into your 70s?

A new study that my colleagues and I conducted suggests the answer could be yes. People who had less sugar exposure during the first few years of life were much less likely to develop several different cancers later in life, and they also showed signs of slower biological ageing. We also found that even in adulthood, they continued to consume less sugar and had healthier diets overall.

To track cancer cases, we used the UK Biobank – a huge health database that follows participants for decades and records, among other things, who develops cancer and when.

We found that people who experienced longer periods of sugar rationing during their first 1,000 days had a lower incidence of five types of cancer: breast, prostate, liver, rectal and lung cancer.”

What is most surprising, however, is not the cancer results or the biological markers of ageing. It’s how early-life sugar exposure continued to affect people’s diets even 50 years later.

by David Nield, Science Alert:

“We’re still at the early stages in terms of understanding the mechanisms, but the results show that acupuncture can be effective at reducing the symptoms of depression – and it works through different neural pathways than conventional medications do.

That’s particularly significant for the sizable chunk of people with depression that don’t respond to standard treatments. Acupuncture could be an alternative route.

‘This pattern suggests that acupuncture may offer complementary mechanisms for patients who exhibit hippocampal non-responsiveness or reward-circuit dysfunction – a common phenotype in treatment-resistant depression,’ write the researchers.

The next steps here are to test the effects of acupuncture in larger, more diverse groups of people than this analysis was able to, and over a longer period of time. The different methods of acupuncture varied over the seven trials that were analyzed, which is something that could be standardized in future work.”

It’s also going to be important to study in more detail the chemical processes that are driving the neural rewiring.

by Sarah Reinhardt, MPH, RDN, Environmental Working Group (EWG):

“Companies use a range of tricks to make your food taste more flavorful. Many of these tactics come straight from the tobacco industry playbook – and they’re so effective that some ultra-processed foods, or UPF, are considered addictive.

But companies are not just targeting your taste buds. They’re tricking your other senses, too. It’s all part of a sales strategy to make their food products as appealing as possible, and most people never even realize it.

From the time you see a packaged food to the smell you get when you open it to the sound it makes when you bite into it – you’re subject to marketing ploys the food industry has spent decades and millions of dollars perfecting.”

Here’s how companies use these tactics to sell ultra-processed products, from cream cheese to chips to cheese puffs.

A Few Minutes of Sprinting Could Make a Bigger Impact Than 90 Minutes of Moderate Running
High intensity interval training packs the fitness benefits of a long workout into just a few minutes of all-out effort. Read more at Eurek Alert.

The Organic Seal on Your Honey May Not Mean What You Think
That organic seal on your honey might not mean what you think. Equivalence agreements let imports from countries with weaker standards slip through without real oversight. Read more at Organic Insider.

What to Know About the New Wave of Biotech Beauty
Lab-grown ingredients are flooding the beauty market as a greener alternative to natural sources, but the picture is way messier than companies claim. Read more at EWG.

Six Easy Swaps to Help You Avoid Ultra-Processed Foods
You don’t have to overhaul your diet overnight. Swap a few things—whole grains instead of processed ones, reading labels—and you’ll cut back on ultra-processed foods without the stress. Read more at BBC Future.

U.S. Agency Did Not Perform Safety Checks of More Than 100 Food Ingredients, Analysis Finds
The FDA never safety-tested over 100 food additives already on shelves. It’s a pretty wild gap in what’s supposed to be keeping our food safe. Read more at The Guardian.

Ban on Destruction of Unsold Clothes and Shoes Enters Into Application
Europe just made it illegal to destroy unsold clothes and shoes. Companies now have to donate or recycle what doesn’t sell. Read more at European Commission.

Everything You Believe About Taking a Full Course of Antibiotics and Bacterial Resistance Is Wrong
You’ve probably heard you need to finish all your antibiotics to prevent resistance, but the science behind that advice is shakier than you’d think. Read more at Nautilus.

Welcome to Bison Country
Bison are returning to grasslands across North America, bringing ecosystems back to life in ways we’re still learning about. Read more at Imagine5.

The Quest to Understand the Forgotten Psychedelic
Psilocybin got all the attention, but researchers are quietly studying other psychedelics that might actually help treat disease. Read more at Nautilus.

Why Farmers May Be Able to Continue Fertilizing Fields With PFAS-Contaminated Sewage Sludge
“Forever chemicals” from wastewater are ending up on farmland, and current regulations may not do much to stop it. Read more at Inside Climate News.

Scientists Calculated How Much Money and Lives ‘Medicare for All’ Might Save—It’s a Lot
A new study found that universal healthcare could prevent over 100,000 deaths a year and save roughly a trillion dollars. Read more at Scientific American.

We May Finally Know Why Mysterious Mushroom Fairy Rings Grow in Circles
Scientists finally figured out why mushrooms grow in those mysterious circles. Turns out it’s way more interesting than we thought. Read more at ScienceAlert.

Snug With Your Bugs? How Microbes Control Your Sleep
Your gut bacteria have way more say in how you sleep than you’d think. Turns out your microbiome’s a lot more powerful than we realized. Read more at BBC Future.

AI Needs Public Feedback at Scale Before It’s Too Late
If we want AI systems to actually reflect what people want, we need to hear from more than just tech workers and ethicists. Read more at Noema Magazine.

‘This is What’s Working’: Indigenous Leaders on Environment Solutions in Their Communities
Indigenous communities aren’t just facing environmental challenges, they’re solving them. Here’s what they’re doing that actually works. Read more at Mongabay.

How Octopuses Won a Fight Against Factory Farming
Octopuses aren’t going to be factory farmed. After years of pushback from animal welfare advocates, the industry hit a major roadblock. It turns out there’s a limit to how much suffering we’re willing to industrialize. Read more at Sentient Media.

As Temperatures Get Hotter, Pesticides Are More Dangerous to Farmworkers
Heat makes pesticides way more toxic to the people spraying them. As summers get hotter, farmworkers face a double threat: the poison itself plus the weather that makes it deadlier. Read more at Ars Technica.