Tag Archives: petitions

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Don’t let Congress junk the Farm Bill


 

 
 
 
Tell Congress to Pass a Healthy Farm Bill
Farmers growing healthy food items such as organic milk often face hurdles that others do not. Congress is past overdue in passing legislation that would address these imbalances. Tell Congress you want a Farm Bill that invests in organic dairy & healthy-food farmers, NOW!

A Farm Bill for Organic Dairy & Healthy-Food Farmers

Imagine this: billions of taxpayer dollars support the production of unhealthy processed foods and sugary drinks, while farmers supplying healthier items such as organic milk are overlooked or even penalized. Worse, despite an overdue and ticking timeline, Congress is sitting on its hands instead of passing legislation to address these imbalances.

Sound like a bad dream? Unfortunately, it’s reality—but it doesn’t have to be.

Recent reports from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) showed how smarter agriculture policies can help farmers grow more of the healthy fruits and vegetables we need and boost local economies along the way. Now, a new UCS study, Cream of the Crop: The Economic Benefits of Organic Dairy Farms, reveals that public investment in organic dairy farmers would pay off in multiple ways. In addition to producing a healthier product and safeguarding the environment, organic dairy farms generate greater economic opportunity and more jobs in rural communities compared with conventional dairies.

But current agriculture policy favors big polluting CAFOs (confined animal feed operations) over organic dairy farms. And because Congress has failed to act on the now-overdue 2012 Farm Bill—the 5-year legislative package that shapes U.S. agriculture—the limited programs that currently help organic dairy farmers are at risk.

We can change this, but we need quick action. Tell Congress: pass a Farm Bill—one that calls for investments in organic dairies and other healthy-food farmers—NOW.

Sincerely,
Ashley Elles
Ashley Elles
National Field Organizer
UCS Food and Environment Program
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

EXCLUSIVE: Morgan Freeman’s marriage equality message

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Human Rights Campaign

Morgan Freeman is the voice behind equality in a new ad for HRC – our team was so moved to work with Morgan on it, and the ad gives me chills.

Here’s part of what Morgan had to say:

“Freedom, justice and human dignity have always guided our journey toward a more perfect union.

Now across our country, we are standing together for the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love. And with historic victories for marriage, we’ve delivered a mandate for full equality.”

Check out Morgan Freeman’s entire ad now, and then share the video far and wide with your friends, family, and neighbors.

There’s so much left to do, and it’s up to each of us to keep our momentum going.

Together, we fight so full equality reaches every single person in every corner of this vast country.


For equality everywhere,

Chad Griffin
Chad Griffin
President, Human Rights Campaign

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Support Family Caregivers


November is a time to acknowledge and celebrate family caregivers. These individuals provide long-term care and make an extraordinary difference in the lives of their loved ones.

Learn about the kinds of support family caregivers provide and get resources to assist caregivers.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

RainForest Action Network


 

Rainforest Action Network
 

All year you stand with us and tackle the hard, serious and often challenging crises our planet is facing.

In the process, we’ve shown you some painful images: photos of orangutans left to die on palm oil plantations, tigers pushed out of their natural habitat. Images that are often horrifying and hard to look at. But these images also represent what’s really happening to the world’s rainforest creatures, and you’ve never flinched. Instead, you step into action with us.

But that’s not all there is to show. These animals are also hilarious, ridiculous, the cutest things you’ve ever seen…and just totally awesome. We thought we would show you that side for a change, to remind all of us why we work so hard to protect animals and the places they call home—and to thank you for giving this work all you have.

Thank You Video from RAN

Thank you for all the emails and phone calls you’ve made this year. Thank you for all the rallies and marches you showed up at. Thank you for the donations you made, the direct actions you took part in, and the work you did to spread the message.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

For the planet,
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

More celebs help tribes’ push for sacred SD land …Get INVOLVED!


By KRISTI EATON

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — More celebrities are backing an online campaign to raise money so that Native American tribes in South Dakota can purchase land they consider sacred.

FILE - This 2007 file photo provided by South Dakota Magazine shows Reynolds Prairie in the Black Hills of South Dakota. An online campaign to raise money so Native American tribes in South Dakota can purchase land they consider sacred has gained steam with a growing list of celebrities backing the effort. P Diddy and Bette Midler have tweeted their support for the effort to purchase nearly 2,000 acres in the Black Hills of South Dakota. They join actor Ezra Miller and hip-hop producer Sol Guy, who appeared in a recent video online with drawing attention to the effort. (AP Photo/courtesy South Dakota Magazine, Bernie Hunhoff, File)

P Diddy and Bette Midler are the latest big names to throw their support behind a fundraising effort to buy nearly 2,000 acres of pristine prairie grass in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Three days after the campaign began, P Diddy tweeted: “Help save the Sioux Nation! Click here,” and linked to the website. Midler also lent her voice, tweeting: “Incredible story re the Sioux Sacred Grounds. Donate what you can.”

More than $18,000 had been raised as of Sunday afternoon — $6,000 flowed in immediately after P Diddy’s tweet. The campaign will last through Nov. 30, when the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation must have $9 million in order to purchase the land.

The tribes have raised $7 million so far for the 1,942 acres, which they call Pe’ Sla (pay shlaw), or “old baldy.” There are Sioux tribes in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska and Canada.

The property is important to their creation story, and tribal members have long held ceremonies there. When the land was put up for sale, tribal members worried it would be developed because of its proximity to Mount Rushmore.

Landowners Leonard and Margaret Reynolds canceled a public auction of the property earlier this year after tribal members expressed outrage. The Reynolds then accepted the tribes’ bid to purchase the land for $9 million if they have the money by Nov. 30.

The couple has repeatedly said they will not speak publicly about the land sale.

P Diddy and Midler join actor Ezra Miller and hip-hop producer Sol Guy showing their support for the cause.

Miller, who appears in the recently released movie “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” and Sol Guy flew to South Dakota last month to film a nine-minute documentary-style video about the land that is being used as part of the online campaign.

Miller said the three days he spent in South Dakota learning about the land and the Lakota tribes was life-altering.

“From the moment I arrived to the moment I departed, I was struck repeatedly by an unshakable sensation that this land truly carried something unspeakably important,” Miller said in an email interview with The Associated Press. “There is a motion and a beauty out there in those hills that words cannot do justice.”

He said the fact that the Lakota tribes have done Sundance ceremonies on the land for thousands of years is a “magical reality,” and that America has erased too much of the land’s true history.

Sol Guy, whose TV show “4Real” airing on MTV Canada and the National Geographic Channel has taken celebrities such as Cameron Diaz to Peru and Joaquin Phoenix to the Amazon, said he has been busy sharing the information with his various networks to get the word out and is confident the tribes will be successful in raising all the money.

“My first hope is not to demand people to give money,” Sol Guy said. “If they can afford it, great. But I think what’s more important is that people take it in and learn the history and spread the word and have the conversations about it.”

Chase Iron Eyes, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who started the online campaign and appeared in the video, said he wants the celebrity endorsements to help raise money, but more than anything, he hopes it will widen the network of people who are thinking about the land and what it means for the tribes.