The Unknown Playwright Speaks

58th OBIE Awards

2013-05-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

The Lifetime Achievement Obie Award was presented to Lois Smith (l) by Meryl Streep and Frances Sternhagen (R)

Photo Emily Tan /The Village Voice

So last night I went to the OBIES. I ran into a few old friends, including the great Lee Breuer and his ever charming partner Maude Mitchell. Victor Maaog, the director of Sex! Drugs! & Ukuleles! was there. There was a bit of a pall over the ceremonies, as Michael Feingold, chief theater critic for the Voice for 42 years, announced his contract was being officially terminated beginning today. Sad.

But it was still a party. (Feingold claimed it was his retirement party, to lighten the mood.) People, especially the winners, had a great time. Thanks to my dear friend Gail Parenteau for the great job she does each year making the OBIES a celebration of the lives and struggles of theater artists.

And the winners are (as per the official announcement)::

2013 VILLAGE VOICE OBIE AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED

New York, NY – The 58th Annual Village Voice Obie Awards, celebrating achievement in the Off-Broadway and off-off Broadway theater, were given out at a ceremony last night at Webster Hall in Greenwich Village. The awards ceremony was co-hosted by Jessica Hecht and Jeremy Shamos. The awards were presented by Bobby Cannavale, Tracee Chimo, Cyndi Lauper, Judith Light, Krysta Rodriguez, Duncan Sheik, Meryl Streep and Courtney B. Vance.

A medley from the highly acclaimed new Off-Broadway musical, Here Lies Love, was performed by the cast. The Brazilian jazz-pop group Banda Magda also performed.

The Obies were judged by a committee that included the Voice’s Chief Theater Critc Michael Feingold as Chairman, Voice critic Alexis Soloski as secretary, and the following guest judges: Obie Award-winning playwright Erin Courtney; director-performer Mia Katigbak, Co-Founder of NAATCO; critic and Theater magazine editor Tom Sellar; and Obie Award-winning director Leigh Silverman.

Meryl Streep presented 2013 Obie Awards for Lifetime Achievement to Lois Smith and Frances Sternhagen.

In a tie vote, the judges accorded the award for Best New American Play to Lisa d’Amour’s Detroit (Playwrights Horizons) and Julia Jarcho’s Grimly Handsome (Incubator Arts Project), with each playwright receiving a $500. cash prize.

A complete list of the award winners follows:

Performance

Eisa Davis

Sustained Excellence

Brandon J. Dirden

The Piano Lesson (Signature Theatre)

Shuler Hensley

The Whale (Playwrights Horizons)

Matthew Maher

Sustained Excellence

Paul Thureen

Blood Play (The Debate Society/Bushwick Starr)

Playwriting

Ayad Akhtar

Disgraced (LCT3)

Annie Baker

The Flick (Playwrights Horizons)

Direction

Lear deBessonet

The Good Person Of Szechuan (Foundry Theatre/La MaMa)

John Rando

All In The Timing (Primary Stages)

Ruben Santiago-Hudson

The Piano Lesson (Signature Theatre)

Eric Ting

We Are Proud To Present A Presentation... (Soho Rep)

Design

Laura Jellinek

Sustained excellence of Set Design

Clint Ramos

Sustained excellence of Costume Design

Special Citations

David Levine and Marsha Ginsberg

HABIT (Crossing the Line Festival/FIAF & PS122)

Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin

NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 (Ars Nova)

Nature Theater of Oklahoma

LIFE AND TIMES: EPISODES 1-4 (Public Theater/SoRep)

Music/Lyrics

David Byrne & Fatboy Slim

HERE LIES LOVE (Public Theater)

The Ross Wetzsteon Award (with check for $1000.)

Clubbed Thumb

Grants

Fulcrum Theater ($1,000)

Half Straddle ($1,000)

Best New American Play (tie w/$500. to each playwright)

Lisa D’Amour, Detroit

Julia Jarcho, Grimly Handsome

Lifetime Achievement

Lois Smith

Frances Sternhagen

The Village Voice Obie Awards are presented by STELLA ARTOIS and benefiting A.R.T./ New York (Alliance of Residence Theaters). Additional sponsors include Smirnoff Sorbet Light, Academy of Dramatic Arts, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly and Fragoli. Congratulations to all of this years winners!

***

Porter's Pub This Saturday

2013-05-13T05:41:00.000-07:00

Uke Jackson -- resophonic ukulele and vox
Johnny Peppers -- bass and soprano saxophones
Paul Kendall -- clarinets

Organic Bytes 5/9/2013 Call for Unity

2013-05-09T09:42:00.002-07:00

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ESSAY OF THE WEEK

Food, Farms, Forests and Fracking: Uniting Our Movements to Survive

Droughts. Storms. Dying oceans. Scientists agree: We’re on a dangerous path to higher temperatures and greater climate instability. The climate movement is focused on curbing our use of fossil fuels. But we need to do more.
Agribusiness, with its genetically engineered, pesticide-drenched mono-crops and methane-emitting, water-polluting factory farms, plays a major role in climate change. And hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the oil and gas industry’s new darling, has become the second largest contributor of greenhouse gases in the U.S.
We can’t wait for top-down solutions that may never materialize. The climate change solution must come from the grassroots. But it will take cooperation and collaboration. It’s time for the powerful anti-GMO (genetically modified organisms), forest-protection, anti-fracking and anti-factory farming movements to join forces with the climate movement. Before runaway global warming destroys the conditions we need to grow food. And sustain life.
Read the essay

ACTION ALERT

Send Gut-Wrenching Additives Off into the Sunset!

TAKE ACTION: Get Gut-Wrenching Carrageenan Out of Organic!

Carrageenan, a commonly used food additive, is linked to colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and higher rates of colon cancer. So why is it allowed in certified organic foods and juices? And organic baby formula?
Because the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) approved it for use in organics. That approval is set to expire, or “sunset.” Unfortunately, despite scientific evidence refuting the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) claim that carrageenan is safe, the NOP is recommending it be allowed in organic for another five years.
Europe has banned the use of carrageenan in infant formula, organic or otherwise. But here in the U.S., it’s allowed in organic foods, including juices, chocolate milk and organic infant formula. Could the lobbying efforts of organic brands, like J.M. Smucker Co.’s Santa Cruz Organic and R. W. Knudsen Family, and Dean Foods’ WhiteWave and Horizon Organic, have something to do with that? It’s time to put an end to carrageenan in organics!
Learn more
TAKE ACTION: Get Gut-Wrenching Carrageenan Out of Organic!

ACTION ALERT

He Can Run. But Will He Be Able to Hide?

TAKE ACTION: Kill the Monsanto Protection Act: Force Senator Roy Blunt to Resign!

The last thing Senator Roy Blunt wants is a face-to-face meeting with a representative of the OCA. But that’s exactly what he’ll get, if we can collect 100,000 signatures on our petition demanding that he resign.
Sen. Blunt played a key role in helping Monsanto lobbyists write the Farmer Assurance Provision, aptly renamed the Monsanto Protection Act. This sneaky rider, slipped into the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act 2013, strips federal courts of their power to stop Monsanto from planting unproven, potentially dangerous crops.
The Monsanto Protection Act became law when President Obama signed the emergency appropriations bill. The good news: Like the spending bill it’s attached to, the Monsanto Protection Act expires on Sept. 30, 2013. The best way to make sure it doesn’t survive is to force Sen. Blunt to resign. And the best way for us to demand Blunt’s resignation is by camping out in his office until he agrees to accept our petition, signed by 100,000 angry consumers.
TAKE ACTION: Kill the Monsanto Protection Act: Force Senator Roy Blunt to Resign!

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

Donate by May 15 and We’ll Send You Some Seeds!

Nothing says hope better than a package of non-GMO, heirloom seeds.
In the spirit of hope and generosity, the folks at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, have donated a variety of beautiful seeds, just in time for spring planting. The list of seeds is too long to list, but it includes specialty varieties like Detroit Dark Red Beets, Atomic Red Carrots, Early Purple Vienna Kohlrabi and Persian Carpet Zinnias.
Here’s the deal. Make a donation of $50 or more by May 15, and we’ll send you four packages of seeds. Be sure to write “seeds” in the comment field with your online donation (or on the memo line of your check).
Let’s plant a little hope! Thank you!

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our legislative efforts in Washington, Vermont and other states)
If you need your donation to be tax-deductible, you can donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

Join the March Against Monsanto and Help Spread the Word!

“We will not stand for cronyism. We will not stand for poison.”
Where will you be on May 25, at 11 a.m. Pacific time? Tami Monroe Canal, a dedicated mom and grassroots organizer, hopes you’ll be marching against Monsanto. Along with tens of thousands of other protestors, on six continents, in 250 cities, in 36 countries around the world.
Tami organized the March Against Monsanto on behalf of her two daughters, and children everywhere, whose health is being threatened by the Most Hated Corporation in the World. She hopes you’ll join in!
If you’re organizing a march in your area, the OCA has flyers, posters and stickers available to help you spread the word about Monsanto’s poisonous takeover of the world’s seeds and crops. Please call our office, at 218-353-7651, if you need materials to hand out on May 25.
Join the march
Find participating cities
Start your own march
Learn more
Watch the video

ORGANIC RETAILERS AND CONSUMERS ALLIANCE

Last Chance: Nominate Your Favorite Retailer!

“Jimbo’s Naturally in Escondido is where I do a lot of my shopping (besides my local CSA and Primal Pasture’s in Temecula for eggs and chicken). They have four other stores though, and are completely committed to the Non-GMO project. They even provide a non-GMO shopping list." – On Jimbo’s Naturally, as nominated by Shelly Hackspiel
Why do you shop where you shop? What makes one farmers market or food co-op or health food store better than another? You tell us!
The OCA wants to acknowledge and promote the best practices of those retailers who are doing their best to promote organic and non-GMO products. Please talk to your local co-op or natural food store manager and email us about what your retailer is doing (or not doing) to support your right to know. After we read all your reports, and interview targeted grocers, we’ll announce the Top Ten Right to Know Grocers. But hurry! We’ll accept nominations until midnight, May 15, and announce the winners on May 30.
See who’s been nominated, and nominate your grocer

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Food Investigations: Welch's Fruit Juice Cocktails Contain More Corn than Fruit: 80% Water and High Fructose Corn Syrup

Is There Reason to Worry About New "Most Lethal" Bird Flu Strain?

Over 5,000 Children's Products Contain Toxic Chemicals Linked to Cancer and Hormone Disruption

Fracking Ourselves to Death in Pennsylvania

The High Price of Our Fertilizer Addiction

Climate Collision Course: CO2 Levels About to Hit 400 PPM

Organic Bytes 5/2/2013

2013-05-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

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ESSAY OF THE WEEK

End Climate Chaos: Boycott GMOs and Factory-Farmed Food

Farmers are sounding an alarm. As global warming heats up and crops are ravaged by droughts, flooding, disease and superweeds, the farm economy is taking a huge hit.

Scientists are clear: America’s chemical-, energy- and GMO-intensive industrial agricultural practices and factory farms have destroyed billions of acres of perennial grasslands, topsoil and wetlands. The result? Soil that has been robbed of its ability to naturally sequester billions of tons of CO2 every year. Until America’s farmers and ranchers turn away from the industrial and factory farm model that has severely damaged public health and the environment, and supersaturated the atmosphere with 395 ppm (parts-per-million) of CO2 greenhouse gas pollution, climate and farming conditions will deteriorate.

Read the essay

ACTION ALERT

Stinging: EPA Wants to Approve Yet Another Bee-Killing Pesticide

TAKE ACTION: Don't Let the EPA Approve New Toxic Insecticide

Europe has come to its senses on the matter of protecting honeybees. Here in the U.S.? Not so much. At least, not yet.

This week, the European Commission decided to ban certain pesticides, including those classified as neonicotinoids, known to destroy honeybee populations. The decision was backed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). But here at home, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is weighing approval of a new pesticide, sulfoxaflor, brought to us by Dow Chemical Co. This despite the EPA’s own admission that sulfoxaflor, referred to by some as a “next-generation neonicotinoid,” is “very highly toxic” to honeybees. If the EPA approves sulfoxaflor, beekeepers say commercial beekeeping will be extinct by 2018.

Will the EPA protect honeybees and our food supply? Or will our taxpayer-funded officials protect Dow’s bottom line?

TAKE ACTION: Don't Let the EPA Approve New Toxic Insecticide

We Came, We Swarmed . . . Will We Conquer?

Bee-decked in black and yellow and armed with 130,000 petition signatures, a swarm of activists, led by the OCA, Occupy Monsanto and GMO Free DC, buzzed the Washington D.C. headquarters of the EPA on Earth Day to demand a ban on Bayer, Dow and Syngenta's bee-killing neonicotinoid insecticides.

Neonicotinoid pesticides are blamed for Colony Collapse Disorder, which has already destroyed alarming numbers of honeybee colonies. Bees are exposed to these deadly insecticides primarily through Monsanto's genetically engineered "Bt" seeds. The seeds are coated in the pesticides to kill pests that the GMO Bt toxin can’t destroy on its own. In countries where neonicotinoids have been banned, bee populations are beginning to recover. Did the EPA hear us? Time will tell. Thanks to everyone who swarmed!

Long Overdue: Let’s Close Monsanto’s Revolving Door

TAKE ACTION: Demand Congress Investigate Monsanto’s Takeover of the USDA

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has never denied a single application from Monsanto for new genetically engineered crops. No wonder. Monsanto's board members have worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they’ve advised the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and they’ve served on President Obama's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Just recently, Congress gave Monsanto immunity from the federal courts under a law now commonly referred to as the “Monsanto Protection Act.”

Monsanto is responsible for environmental disasters that have destroyed entire towns, and for international waves of suicides among farmers whose lives it has ruined. The Biotech Behemoth has monopolized our food system largely by taking over regulatory agencies like the USDA. Our friends at Roots Action Network think it’s way past time Congress investigates the revolving door policy between the world’s most destructive chemical company, and the folks in Washington D.C. who are supposed to be representing us and looking out for our health and safety. If you agree, please sign their petition to Congress demanding an investigation.

TAKE ACTION: Demand Congress Investigate Monsanto’s Takeover of the USDA

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

We Are All Pirates. In a Good Way.

The Spanish Armada was once considered invincible, too big to fail. Until it did fail. After being outmaneuvered by Queen Elizabeth’s hodgepodge of crafty pirates.
Is today’s criminal food system facing the same fate? Will we, the hodgepodge of creative, determined pirates bring down the greedy armada of well-armed corporations that are poisoning our food, our soil and our democracy?
We just might, says Richard McCarthy, executive director of Slow Food USA. Speaking in Boulder, Colo., this week, McCarthy couldn’t resist the analogy. Or the sense of hope emanating from a room full of farmers and food activists hell bent on outmaneuvering a system we can’t possibly outgun.
We are all pirates. And though none of us alone can match the seeming invincibility of the armada-like corporate food system, together, in our own quick-thinking and hodgepodge-like fashion, we have the power to build a meaningful alternative. If we anchor together. Your donation today will do more than just keep us afloat. It will help us sail!

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our legislative efforts in Washington, Vermont and other states)
If you need your donation to be tax-deductible, you can donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

ORGANIC RETAILERS AND CONSUMERS ALLIANCE

What Do You Love About Your Food Store?

Native Sun Natural Foods Market, Jacksonville, Fla.: "We believe that GMOs have no place in natural food stores and we now have five people dedicated to our research. We meet together if there is a new ingredient in products that call for review. We discuss inert ingredients and their sources, and make a final call that is added to a handbook of what is allowed and banned. This list goes far beyond GMOs and includes chemically processed starches, titanium dioxide, grades of carrageenan, and caramel color, just to name a few."

In a day and age of slick marketing, toxic food ingredients and junk food manufacturers who will spend millions to keep you in the dark about what’s really in your food, it’s good to know there are decent, honest people out there who care as much about providing quality, healthful food as they do about running a business. We hope to shine a spotlight on some of those stores with our Top Ten ‘Right to Know’ Retailers contest.

So far, more than 225 of you have nominated more than 140 stores – so many, that we may have to rethink the whole “Top Ten” idea! If you haven’t yet nominated your favorite ‘Right to Know’ retailer, there’s still time. We’ll accept nominations until midnight, May 15, and announce the winners on May 30.

See who’s been nominated, and nominate your grocer

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We’re made in the image of our soil.” – Jerry Cunningham, Founder, Coyote Creek Mill, speaking at the Slow Money Conference on April 29, in Boulder, Colo.

OCA IN ACTION

OCA Upsets the GMO Apple Cart

Inside, the biotech industry was handing out an award to a biotech company salivating at the thought of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approving its patented genetically engineered apple. Outside, anti-GMO activists were marching, speaking, handing out organic apples and ceremoniously dumping apples in the street.

The protest took place outside the 2013 BIO International Convention, on April 23, where BIOTECanada was presenting its “Gold Leaf Award for Early Stage Agriculture” to Okanagan Specialty Fruits, Inc. (OSF), purveyor of the Arctic® Apple. The GE apple is engineered using an almost entirely untested genetic modification technology, called RNA interference, or double strand RNA (dsRNA). Scientists warn that this genetic manipulation poses health risks, as the manipulated RNA gets into our digestive systems and bloodstreams. Why should we take this risk? So we can have apples that never turn brown, say the bio-wizards behind the apple.

The Arctic Apple is slated for approval in the U.S. this year, despite warnings by scientists who say the bioengineering technology behind the apple is inherently risky at best, dangerous at worst. The FDA is expected to soon launch a second comment period on the apple’s approval. We’ll let you know when that happens, in case you’d like to give them an earful.

Watch the video

More on GMO Apples here and here

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

First ‘Ag-Gag’ Prosecution: This Utah Woman Filmed a Slaughterhouse from the Public Street

Top 12 Health Tips for a Better You

Are People Living Near Fracking Sites Getting Sick?

Michael Pollan: Americans Cook Less Than Ever, But Love Watching It on TV

Why Genetically Engineer Trees?

Study: Monsanto's Roundup Herbicide Linked to Cancer, Autism, Parkinson's

Cafe Lysistrata -- coming in papberback in May

2013-04-22T09:48:00.004-07:00

A musical sex comedy for five women on one set. Paperback readers' edition contains book, lyrics, and sheet music. Coming in the merry month of May.

You'll note the Universal Hat. If you'd like to hear the song Universal Hat, as performed by the New York Ukulele Ensemble, please go to the music and bands page on my website: http://ukejackson.com/Parcels/downloads.htm

Thank you for reading and listening.
Uke Jackson

Upcoming Gigs!

2013-04-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

Uke Jackson's Big Bottom Band will be playing on Friday April 26 and Friday May 3
from 9 pm - 1am

at

The Bookstore Speakeasy
336 Adams Street (corner West 4th)
Bethlehem, PA
610-867-1100

Monday May 6 at a private country club event from 6 pm - 8 pm

Saturday May 11 from 1 pm - 3 pm

at

Hotel Bethlehem
437 Main Street
Bethlehem, PA

Personnel on all 4 gigs:

Uke Jackson, vox and silver ukulele
Johnny Peppers, saxophones
Paul Kendall, clarinets
TnT Pete Reichlin, tuba and trombone

Uke Jackson's Big Bottom Band will play at your company picnic and make it hugely memorable.
If you're the boss, book us now. If you're a worker, tell the boss about us.

Don't know what we sound like? You can listen here:

http://ukejackson.com/Parcels/downloads.htm

Organic Bytes 4/11/2013

2013-04-11T08:29:00.002-07:00

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ESSAY OF THE WEEK

Why GMO Labels Won’t Cost Consumers a Dime

One of the biotech industry’s favorite arguments against GMO labeling is that it will be costly for small retailers and consumers. As if Monsanto actually cares about your economic well-being?
Playing to consumers’ fears of higher food costs makes good strategic sense, especially in tough economic times. But the argument doesn’t hold water. Trader Joe’s, a multi-billion dollar retailer of organic and natural foods, second in size only to Whole Foods Market, verifies that its private-label products are GMO-free. How? By using a system that involves chain-of-custody, legally binding affidavits. It’s the same system other manufacturers and retailers use for rBGH-free, trans fat-free, fair trade and country-of-origin. It works. And it doesn’t cost consumers a dime.
Read the Essay

Action Alert

A River Of Waste: The Hazardous, Heartbreaking Truth About Factory Farms

TAKE THE PLEDGE: I’m Boycotting All Products from Factory Farms!

There’s a good chance you’ve never personally seen a factory farm, or as the industry calls them, Confined Animal Feeding operations (CAFOs). With good reason. The poultry, pork, beef and dairy industries know you’d be so appalled, you’d never buy another chicken wing or gallon of milk produced using their reckless, poisonous and senselessly inhumane methods.
A River of Waste uncovers the ugly truth about factory farms in the U.S. Their flagrant disregard for human health and safety. Their reckless destruction of the environment. Their unconscionable treatment of animals.
The documentary also tells the heartbreaking story of how poultry farms in Prairie Grove, Ark., caused the deaths of at least four children in this small town of 2,500 people. By spreading chicken waste, containing arsenic, on the town’s lands. Not one of those farms, or the companies that own them, have yet been held accountable for those deaths.
The Worldwatch Institute calls factory farms “mini Chernobyls” because of the endless amounts of pollution they spew into the air, groundwater and soil. The American Public Health Association has called for a moratorium on new factory farm facilities. But the only way we’ll end factory farming? When consumers stop buying their products.
Learn more and watch the entire documentary
TAKE THE PLEDGE: I’m Boycotting All Products from Factory Farms!

ORGANIC RETAILER AND CONSUMER ALLIANCE

Have you Nominated Your Favorite Grocer Yet?

“When the list came out of organic companies with parent companies that funded opposition to GMO labeling in California this wonderful store immediately took items made by those companies off their shelves.”
– Helen Jankoski, in her nomination of Natural Food Co-op in Wakefield, R.I.
You told us you were happy to boycott the stores that helped defeat Proposition 37, the California Right to Know GMO labeling bill. But you wanted to know more about the stores that supported your right to know. So, the search is on for the Top Ten ‘Right-to-Know’ Grocers. Have you nominated your favorite yet? There’s still time. Deadline for nominations is midnight, May 1.
From Rhode Island to Oregon and everywhere in between, nominations have been rolling in. Along with the nominations, we’ve received some great comments from organic consumers about why they love their co-op, natural food store, farmers market or their local branch of a national chain. We’ve compiled the list of nominations so far, along with some of the comments you’ve sent in. You can read the comments, and more details about the contest, below.
Enter Your Grocer in the Top Ten ‘Right to Know’ Contest

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

You Are Our Cape

He’s one of those who knows that life
Is just a leap of faith
Spread your arms and hold your breath
Always trust your cape.
- Guy Clark
We put a lot of thought and planning into the work we do at OCA. Yet in the end, sometimes it just comes down to a leap of faith.
Can millions of consumers overcome the wealth and ruthless power of corporations like Monsanto? Can we convince the politicians who have influence over food and agriculture policy to ignore the lobbyists and vote instead for consumers’ best interests?
Will we be able to mobilize enough volunteers? Garner enough votes? Raise enough money?
We believe we will. With your help. Year after year, month after month, week after week, you always come through. You trust us to do this important work, to take this leap of faith, on your behalf. And we trust you to keep us going. Please consider making a gift to the OCA this week. Thank you!

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our legislative efforts in Washington, Vermont and other states)
If you need your donation to be tax-deductible, you can donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

ACTION ALERT

Let’s Swarm the EPA on Earth Day!

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Ban Neonicotinoid Pesticides before They Devastate the U. S. Bee Population
RSVP: Swarm the EPA on Earth Day
Over the past seven years, the honeybee die-off, known as "colony collapse disorder" (CCD), has claimed 5,650,000 hives, valued at $1.61 billion. Italy, France, Slovenia and Germany have taken action to limit the use of bee-killing pesticides. But here in the U.S.? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is getting ready to approve a deadly new neonicotinoid called Sulfoxaflor. Several environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the EPA, claiming the agency has failed in its obligation to protect one of the Earth's most vital pollinators from dangerous pesticides.
Here’s a disturbing, but perhaps not surprising fact: The EPA does not do its own testing of these pesticides. Instead the EPA relies on the pesticide-maker’s own testing to determine whether or not these chemicals can be released into the environment.
Congress needs to hear from all of us. Please take action below, and please sign on to join us in D.C. on Earth Day, Monday April 22, at noon as we swarm the EPA.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Ban Neonicotinoid Pesticides before They Devastate the U. S. Bee Population
RSVP: Swarm the EPA on Earth Day

Win a Trip to Peru!

Want to walk in the Sacred Valley of the Incas? Explore Cusco and the majestic Machu Picchu?
This World Fair Trade Day, May 11, OCA’s Fair World Project has joined with Alaffia, Alter Eco, Divine Chocolate, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, Equal Exchange, Farmer Direct Co-op and Maggie’s Organics, in partnership with Intrepid Travel, to offer you a chance to win a nine-day adventure for two to Peru this October.
By purchasing fair trade products you can help farmers and workers make a decent living wage. And send their children to schools, not factories. Support World Fair Trade Day!
Enter the World Fair Trade Day Sweepstakes
If you are a U.S. natural products retailer and would like to sign up for our World Fair Trade Day promotion, click here to learn more.

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Leafy Greens Essential for Immune Regulation and Tumor Resolution

Fracking Free Speech Rights

Monsanto’s Next Target: Democracy

Pimp the Pavement: A Brief History of Seedbombing

Ten Retailers Urged To Pull Potentially Toxic Products

The Future of Chocolate

Organic Bytes 4/4/2012

2013-04-04T11:22:00.003-07:00

Subscribe & Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Donate

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

As Earth Day Approaches, a Message of Hope: How Grazing Cows Can Reverse Global Warming

Could grazing large herds of cattle reverse global warming? Yes, according to ecologist Allan Savory. And nothing offers more hope for a planet in distress.

For years, environmentalists have believed that removing cattle from land protects the land from turning to desert. But we’ve had it wrong, says Savory and a growing movement of "carbon ranchers", organic consumers, and climate activists. Turns out that when we remove the cattle, that's when the land turns to desert. Deserts are not only bad for growing food, they give off carbon - a leading cause of global warming.
We need green technologies to help us reduce our use of fossil fuels. But we’ll never reduce our use of fossil fuels enough in time to avert a climate crisis. There’s another way. By grazing large herds of livestock on half of the world’s barren or semi-barren lands, we could take enough carbon from the atmosphere to bring us back to pre-industrial levels. And just think of all the other problems we’d solve if we raised cattle outdoors, instead of in factory farms which pollute our water and air, and ruin our health with their antibiotics and growth hormones.

Read the Essay

Earth Day

In Honor of Earth Day: A Cook Organic,
Not the Planet Kit!

Want to do something for Mother Earth on Earth Day? Head to your local farmer’s market or natural food store and choose sustainable, grass-fed beef for dinner. Or sustainably raised, free-range chicken. Because the fact is, that while we need to reduce our use of fossil fuels and find alternative, green technologies, we have the power, now, to drastically improve the climate. Just by boycotting any food – meat, dairy or eggs – that comes from a factory farm.

As climate activist Bill McKibben writes in his article, "The Only Way to Have a Cow," "We should simply stop eating factory-farmed meat, and the effects on climate change would be but one of the many benefits."
This Earth Day, we’re asking you to spread the word about the threat that factory farming poses to our health, the environment and the animals who are needlessly confined and tortured. To help you out, we’re offering a Cook Organic, not the Planet information kit for $10, plus some free downloadable leaflets, posters and stickers. Use the materials at your local Earth Day event, or just pass them out to friends and family!

Order the Cook Organic, Not the Planet materials
Tips for Climate-Friendly Eating

ACTION ALERT

Don’t Let the Senate Confirm
a Pro-Fracking Energy Secretary!

TAKE ACTION: Stop the Nomination of Pro-Fracker Moniz as Head of the DOE!

Over the protests of hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens, President Obama nominated Ernest Moniz, an ardent supporter of fracking, to be the U.S. Energy Secretary. No surprise, Moniz has a long history of ties to the oil and gas industry.

The Huffington Post reports that Moniz has spent the last decade serving on a range of boards and advisory councils for energy industry heavyweights, including some that do business with the Department of Energy. That includes a six-year paid stint on BP’s Technology Advisory Council as well as similar positions at a uranium enrichment company and a pair of energy investment firms.

Those most likely to hear our protests and scuttle Moniz’s nomination are Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). And of course, we need to keep pressuring the President.

TAKE ACTION: Stop the Nomination of Pro-Fracker Moniz as Head of the DOE!

Read the OCA Press Release

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

Dr. Bronner’s Matches Your $250,000. Thank You!

You did it. In just two weeks, you raised $250,000 for Washington State’s I-522 campaign, a citizens’ initiative to label GMOs. As promised, our generous donor – Dr. Bronner’s – has matched your donations. Dr. Bronner’s had already pledged $500,000 to the I-522 campaign. Now, with this additional matching gift, Bronner’s is donating $750,000. Add in the $250,000 you raised, and that’s $1 million that will go directly to help pass this critical initiative in Washington in November.

Through your generosity, you’ve proven what we’ve known all along: The GMO labeling movement is alive and well. We will not give up this fight until we have a label on every food product containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

We here at the OCA work tirelessly on the issues that we know matter most to you. When you come through for us in the way you did these past two weeks, it reminds us that without your support, we simply wouldn’t be able to do this work. To all of you who were able to pitch in this time around, thank you! For those who would still like to support our GMO labeling work, and our other campaigns around food and farming, your donations are always welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our legislative efforts in Washington, Vermont and other states)
If you need your donation to be tax-deductible, you can donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

Join the Right to Know GMO Fight
in Your State

Want to get involved in a GMO labeling campaign in your state? You can join Right to Know GMO, the coalition of 37 states collaborating on statewide GMO labeling laws. Right to Know GMO is a grassroots movement of mothers, farmers and citizens dedicated to regaining our basic right to know what we're eating and feeding our families.

At least 24 states have introduced GMO labeling laws this year. Connecticut just this week passed a bill out of the Public Health Committee, by an overwhelming majority vote of 23-4. Washington’s I-522, a citizens’ initiative, is making its way toward a November 2013 vote. Massachusetts has five bills pending, and Vermont bill, which passed out of the House Agriculture Committee on March 1, will be voted on this week.

Of course the opposition isn’t sitting idly by. The New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau has formed a front group, NM Food Feeding Families, even though the bill there died this year. And Monsanto is cranking up its propaganda machine in Oregon, behind a front group called the Oregonians for Food and Shelter.
US map of state Right to Know efforts
Update on state legislation to label GMOs

Reading List

Who Knew? Cows Save the Planet

Looking for a good read? Something to think about on the eve of Earth Day? Cows Save the Planet, by journalist Judith D. Schwartz, just might be the most important - and surprising - book you read this year. Did you know that undergrazing land is just as bad for the soil as overgrazing? And that while we love to blame SUVs and factories for all that carbon dioxide that’s burning up the planet, we should really be blaming our unsustainable agriculture system? Schwartz writes about the problems we face, and how we can turn these crises into opportunities. Think of her book as a call to action for the soil. And as gardeners, farmers and organic food consumers, what could be more important on Earth Day?

Learn more and order the book

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Yes, Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs Can Jump from Animals to Humans

The Corporate 'Predator State'

The Monsanto Protection Act? A Debate on Controversial New Measure Over Genetically Modified Crops

From Saccharin to GE Seed, Report Profiles Monsanto's History Peddling Chemicals for Food, Agriculture, War

A New Civil Rights Movement: Liberating Our Communities from Corporate Control

The Downside of Expecting America's Agriculture System to Feed the World

Final Thursday @ Bookstore Speakeasy

2013-03-28T10:24:00.001-07:00

Farewell to Thursday Nights

Bookstore Speakeasy
336 Adams Street
Bethlehem, PA

For reservations, please call 610-867-1100

This is our last Thursday night gig
9pm - 1 am

It's been a nice run. Every Thursday night for the last four months, Uke Jackson's Big Bottom Band played at the Bookstore Speakeasy. It's been fun. We made some new friends, saw some old friends, grew our email list a bit and, most important, played the best music that we are capable of playing.

All good things must come to an end, or so it's said. And in this case it's true.Tonight is your last chance to see us on a Thursday at the Bookstore Speakeasy. We're hoping for a good turnout.

Sitter inners, bring your ax if you know our music.

Tonight's personnel are:
Uke Jackson on resonator ukulele and vox
Johnny Peppers on saxophones
TnT Pete Reichlin on tuba and trombone

Come on out and see us, enjoy the music, partake of the cocktails and delicious food. I'll have copies of my books for sale, as well as a few CDs.

Thanks to George and all the staff at the Bookstore Speakeasy for being so gracious during our gigs. It's much appreciated.

Next week, God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be announcing some new gigs.

Happy Easter,
Uke Jackson

Mark your calendar -- March 16

2013-03-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

On Bolus Head
By Michael Carter and Brian Gromley
Launch for Book and Prints
Saturday, March 16, 5-7PM

Printed Matter and En Garde Books are pleased to announce a launch party and reading for the limited edition print book entitled On Bolus Head, by poet Michael Carter and artist Brian Gormley, Saturday, March 16, 5-7 pm. In addition to the printed books, select proofs of the original print series will also be on display and available for purchase.

Based on poems written by Mr. Carter during multiple residencies at the Cill Rialaig Project in Co. Kerry, the original On Bolus Head series, etched on 38 metal plates in an edition of 20 at the Cill Rialaig Print Center, is a collaboration between Mr. Carter and Mr. Gormley inspired by personal experiences and observations upon the lore and landscape of Kerry, particularly the environs of Cill Rialaig and Bolus Head, a point at the extreme southwest of Ireland.

Mr. Gormley offers visual interpretations of Mr. Carter’s texts, but what emerges through this collaborative process is an interplay between text and image, both as contiguous pages and within a larger narrative. Situating On Bolus Head in the context of visual practice by poets such as Mallarmé and Rimbaud, and etchings by Goya and paintings by Kokoschka (among others), David Scott of Trinity College notes in his preface to the print version:

“Like many artists’ books since their heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Michael Carter’s and Brian Gormley’s On Bolus Head, in setting out to explore one of the wildest and most magical corners of Ireland at the same time investigates the complementary relation between text and image. This is not to say that the relationship between the components is illustrative: it is rather a case of two different media mastered by two different artistic temperaments responding to a common environment – in this case that wild and romantic extremity of the Kerry coast that is Bolus Head -, aware of each other’s approach but exploring as much the potential of the medium in relation to a common scene as the potential of the landscape itself.”

The privately-printed, limited-edition hard-bound book represents a digitalized simulacrum of the print series that both documents and decodes the On Bolus Head project, aided by Dr. Scott’s preface and an appendix featuring type-text of Mr. Carter’s allusive, and sometimes lexically illusive, poems as etched.
This New York launch follows on the heels of a successful presentation of the On Bolus Head series at the National Library of Ireland in September 2012, and immediately precedes an exhibit in the Long Room of the Trinity College Library in Dublin, where selected prints will from the series will be on view March 25- April 30, 2013.

Michael Carter is an American poet, critic and essayist, and was publisher of the quintessential East Village arts and literary ‘zine redtape. Author of Broken Noses and Metempsychoses, his work has been published in numerous anthologies including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, Up Is Up, But So Is Down: New York’s Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992 and From A Terrace In Prague.

Brian Gormley is an internationally acclaimed painter and printmaker who has exhibited his prints at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and The Graphic Studio Dublin, and paintings at many galleries and venues worldwide. He has most recently exhibited work with Dublin’s Cross Gallery at Scope Miami, 2012.

Rising from the ruins of a pre-famine village near Bolus Head, The Cill Rialaig Project was founded in 1991 by Noelle Campbell-Sharp and has provided haven and retreat to thousands of international artists; it recently celebrated its 21st anniversary with multiple events across Ireland, including the presentation of On Bolus Head at the National Library of Ireland. The On Bolus Head collaborative book was also listed No. 2 of the top ten small press books of 2012 by Bart Plantenga for Karen the Small Press Librarian.

Organic Bytes March 7, 2013

2013-03-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

Subscribe & Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Donate

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

OCA Creates ORCA to Attack ‘Natural’ Products Labeling Fraud

Fed up with being deceived by food and cosmetic manufacturers who fraudulently claim their products are “natural”?
The OCA has long advocated on behalf of consumers for truth-in labeling, including banning the use of the word “natural” on products containing genetically modified ingredients. Beginning today, the OCA will work directly with public interest groups and food producers and retailers, including co-ops, natural food stores, farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) buying clubs and wholesalers, to promote organics and truth-in-labeling, and to increase public awareness about the difference between “natural” and organic.

What does the new Organic Retail and Consumer Alliance (ORCA) mean for you, the consumer? Over time, greater access to more organic and locally grown organic products. Because while we all wait for the FDA and the USDA to catch up to consumer demand for accurate labeling, a growing number of ORCA members will actively market truth-in-labeling practices, which will ultimately grow awareness, grow demand and grow markets.

What does ORCA mean for co-ops, CSAs, natural food stores and other groups that join the alliance? You’ll be able to market your products and businesses as part of an exclusive group that consumers can count on for the truth about what’s in the food they eat. And you'll benefit from growing consumer demand.

Learn more and sign up

Read the press release

SIGNON PETITION

Sell Off Public Lands and Farms
for Fracking? NO!

TAKE ACTION: Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Don’t Frack our Food and Farms!

You may not live in California, but chances are a lot of the food you buy, including organic produce, is grown there. California is the largest producer of food in the U.S. The state’s Mediterranean climate allows its 81,500 farms to grow over 450 different crops, some of which are exclusive to California. But what happens to our food if we frack and poison the groundwater that irrigates California’s farms?

The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has already auctioned off 1,750 square miles of California’s public lands to oil companies intent on fracking California’s Monterey Shale, a geological formation that extends from northern California to Los Angeles. The region is also home to cattle ranches, dairy farms, vineyards and organic farms. In May, the BLM plans to auction off even more of California’s farmland. We need California's farms. And California farms need our support.

TAKE ACTION: Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Don’t Frack our Food and Farms!

ACTION ALERT

No More Delays: Get Antibiotics out of Organics

Take Action: DEADLINE April 8: Tell the NOSB: No more antibiotics in organic apples and pears!

Hard to believe, but every time you bite into an organic apple or pear you get a mouthful – and gutful – of antibiotics. That’s because organic apple and pear growers are allowed to spray streptomycin and tetracycline on their trees to prevent a bacterial disease called fireblight.

Ingesting antibiotics with your food increases your chances of developing resistance to those antibiotics. Which means next time you need a cure for a respiratory infection, or something more serious, like tuberculosis, those antibiotics might not work so well. That’s why, in 2011, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) informed organic apple and pear growers that antibiotics would no longer be allowed to be used after October 21, 2014. But now, thanks to pressure from the organic apple and pear industry, the NOSB is considering pushing back that date until 2016. There are other, safer, ways to control fireblight. Please ask the NOSB to stick with the agreed schedule and get antibiotics out of organic apples and pears by October 2014.

Take Action: DEADLINE April 8: Tell the NOSB: No more antibiotics in organic apples and pears!

SUPPORT OCA & OCF

Patience. Perseverance. Commitment.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
– Nelson Mandela
If there’s anyone who gets the meaning of perseverance, it’s Nelson Mandela. Jailed for more than 30 years for standing up for his beliefs, he never gave up.
We may be fighting for a different cause than Mandela’s, but the process requires the same tools: patience, perseverance and commitment. Especially during a week like this last one, where President Obama nominated pro-Big Oil, pro-fracker Ernest Moniz to head the U.S. Department of Energy, and also moved one step closer to approving the Keystone XL Pipeline project – two moves that will prove devastating for our climate, our farms and our food.

And then there was the Governor of Vermont this week, suggesting once again that he won’t support a statewide GMO labeling law, apparently lacking the guts to stand up to Monsanto.

It’s enough to make you want to throw in the towel. But you won’t. And we won’t, either. Because the toughest battles, though they may tear us down on occasion, are the ones most worth winning. With your help, we will keep fighting for mandatory labeling of not only GMOs, but foods that come from factory farms. We’ll keep fighting against fracking, and for the rights of communities to decide what corporations can, and can’t, do to their land, air and water. As always, we’ll count on you to keep the fight strong. Thank you!
Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our legislative efforts in Washington, Vermont and other states)

Hungry for Some Food Democracy?

Who isn’t? That’s because the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), that government agency that’s supposed to be the watchdog for consumers, has consistently failed consumers while protecting industry and corporate interests. FDA policies have led to: lack of transparency, revolving door with industry, market bullying, widespread illness, seed privatization and well-documented risks to our health. And nowhere have those failures been more apparent than in the FDA’s policies regarding genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

On Monday, April 8, concerned citizens, farmers, families, students, food activists and food justice groups will head to the FDA, to face down the institution that chooses Monsanto’s industrial interests over policy transparency and public health.Want to make your voice heard, and help take back our food system? Join the Eat-In for GMO Labeling at the FDA, stone soup-style.

Read the OCA’s "5 Ways the FDA has Failed Consumers on GMOs"

Details on Eat-In

RSVP

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

What the Frack is Going On?

A catchy tune about water catching on fire. And how, thanks to a ruling by President George Bush in 2005, “before too long, it was “frack, baby, frack” until the break of dawn.”

Watch the video

Bravo! Fort Collins Defies Governor, Bans Fracking

We couldn’t resist. When we heard that the governor of Colorado and the oil and gas industry were both planning to sue the City of Fort Collins, Colo., if the city passed a ban on fracking within the city limits, we had to help. We sent emails to our OCA network in Fort Collins, urging folks to contact their city council members. We called residents and patched them in to council members. We sent an email to our network in the state, asking them to help us run an ad in the Coloradoan, in solidarity with the citizens of Fort Collins.

In the end, council members did the right thing. Following the lead of city officials in Longmont, Colo., who also passed a ban – and were consequently sued by the industry – they said, go ahead. Make our day. In the words of Mayor pro tem, Kelly Ohlson: “I believe the governor should spend his time protecting the health and safety and welfare of citizens of Colorado rather than acting like the chief lobbyist for the oil and gas industry. In fact, I think he should literally quit drinking the fracking Kool-Aid.” Governor Hickenlooper has taken a hard line against fracking bans in his state, claiming that the state alone has the authority to regulate the oil and gas industry. According to the governor, counties and cities may write their own regulations, but they must be in “harmony” with the state’s, and city regs cannot add conditions or requirements that would “harm the industry’s bottom line.”

And what about the “bottom line” of citizens’ health, and the health of their air, soil and water? It’s not lookin’ good. The industry says there could be up to 100,000 new wells in Colorado in the next 30 years, in addition to the 50,000 wells already working. That’s largely thanks to the 2005 Energy Act, crafted by President George Bush and Halliburton-Crony Vice President Dick Cheney. That industry-friendly piece of legislation exempts the oil and gas industry from just about every health and environmental law on the books.

Thanks to the thousands of you who called or emailed your city council members, or chipped in to run the advertisement! And congratulations to the City Council for taking a stand. We’ll be watching your progress!

Learn more here and here

See the ad

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Clean Air, Safe Communities, and Good Jobs? It's Ours If We Want It

How GMOs Contribute to Global Climate Change

8 Ways Corporations are Poisoning Our Food, Water, the Earth

Why You Don't Frack With John Lennon's Farm

Vermont Governor Backing Down Once Again on GMO Labeling in Face of Lawsuit Threat by Monsanto

Why America Has the Cheapest, Most Addictive and Most Nutritionally Inferior Food in the World

Citizens Overwhelm the Forces of Corporate Fascism

2013-03-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

Citizens Speak Out and Shut Down Meeting

as DRBC Attempts to Ignore Pipelines

West Trenton, NJ: Over 140 people from around the region showed up at the Delaware River Basin Commission’s (DRBC) March 6^th meeting to demand action on gas pipelines, including (1) urging a yes vote on the Petition submitted by 67 organizations and supported by over 2,000 citizens, and (2) exercising DRBC jurisdiction over the Tennessee Gas Pipeline/Kinder Morgan Northeast Upgrade Pipeline Project (NEUP).

Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, was joined by a large crowd of over 140 people demanding that the DRBC listen to those who turned out today for the meeting. She urged the Commissioners to take public comment and commit to voting to exercise their jurisdiction on pipelines. van Rossum told the commissioners that the crowd was going to hold a spontaneous people’s hearing on pipelines, and the testimony began. In response, the DRBC commissioners called a recess, and the crowd then broke into song, singing This Land is Your Land, and waving signs that said “Stop the Fracking Pipelines” and “Stop the Chainsaws.”

DRBC commissioners reconvened after a few minutes and announced they would move the public comment session up, in order to hear the public. For over two hours, attendees delivered testimony from their seats to enthusiastic applause, defying commands that they comply with a pre-determined order that they limit their comments to two minutes and speak from the front of the room at a microphone that the commissioners would turn off after each two-minute time allocation ended.

When the commissioners attempted to reconvene the business portion of their meeting, van Rossum, joined by the crowd, demanded that the DRBC take action and vote yes on a people’s resolution offered from the crowd, and not abdicate their responsibilities to the communities being harmed by the pipelines. Singing and chanting from the crowd continued, disrupting the business portion of the meeting. The meeting was unable to continue until 3:00 p.m., when it was ended by the commissioners with their exit from the building.

Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, said, “It is very important that the people took control of this meeting to ensure that our concerns and demands were heard. This regulatory body, the DRBC, is supposed to be about acting for and protecting the people. The gratuitous offer by the DRBC to give us an additional thirty minutes of public comment was meaningless without a commitment for a positive vote. So, while we didn’t get the votes for DRBC jurisdiction today, we spoke, and we showed the power of community and our commitment to securing DRBC jurisdiction.”

“Today we sent the DRBC a message that they have to do their jobs and protect the Basin not only from fracking, but also from the devastating impacts that these pipelines cause by cutting through our watersheds and leaving toxic chemicals behind, which threatens the drinking water for 17 million people. This is a message not only for the commissioners, but to the Governors of the Don’t Ruin the Basin Commission,” stated Jeff Tittel, Executive Director, NJ Sierra Club.

“We've tried to make the system work, to insist that the DRBC do the right thing so that gas pipelines do not slash and burn the watershed. But they haven't listened and taken the action their compact requires, so we had to seize the moment today to speak for the Delaware River Watershed," said Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

“Today the people have spoken up to protect our Delaware River. Concerned citizens will continue to hold the DRBC accountable for their decisions and actions regarding destructive shale gas development and infrastructure buildout. Democracy can be loud and a bit messy, but it is essential,” said Jill Wiener of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy.

“More than six years after the shale gas industry first began poisoning Pennsylvania's waters, the DRBC should be ashamed to hide from its responsibility to regulate fracked gas pipelines," said Iris Marie Bloom, Executive Director of Protecting Our Waters. “These pipelines, and with them compressor stations with rampant toxic emissions, are ramping up a whole new level of assault on our watershed. Protecting our water requires us to protect our forests, wetlands, air and overall ecological health. The DRBC must not abdicate their responsibility to regulate pipelines. Further, they have an ethical responsibility to stop every pipeline they can stop, because pipelines induce fracking, which accelerates climate change in addition to harming our health. DRBC, help us take a step back from the climate cliff instead of jumping off it!”

“The DRBC is mandated to protect the resources of the Basin and focuses on water, but without a total ecology you don't have clean water. The pipelines impact many aspects that the DRBC is required to oversee,” said B. Arrindell of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability.

“DRBC has a unique role to play in protecting the Delaware River Basin from the impacts of irresponsible gas production and development. Riverkeeper urges the Commission to grant our coalition's petition and exercise its clear authority over gas pipeline construction within the Basin as soon as possible," stated Mike Dulong, staff attorney of Hudson Riverkeeper.

The February 15^th hearing request was submitted by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network on behalf of its 11,000 members. The Pipeline Petition was submitted by 67 environmental, civic and religious organizations:

Delaware Riverkeeper Network,

NJ Sierra Club,

Guardians of the Brandywine,

Protecting Our Waters,

Brandywine Conservancy,

Berks Gas Truth,

Earthworks,

Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air,

Physicians for Social Responsibility Philadelphia,

Pipeline Safety Coalition,

Aquashicola / Pohopoco Watershed Conservancy,

Catskill Mountainkeeper,

Responsible Drilling Alliance,

Stop the Pipeline,

Cross County Clean Air Coalition,

Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy,

Clean Water Action,

Lakeland Unitarian Universalist Fellowship,

NYH20, Inc.,

NJ Environmental Federation,

The Mothers Project,

Mothers for Sustainable Energy,

Raritan Headwaters Association,

Citizens United for Renewable Energy (CURE),

CWA Local 1081,

Brandywine Watershed Regeneration Initiative,

GreenFaith,

the Delaware Chapter of the Sierra Club,

North Jersey Pipeline Walkers,

Grassroots Coalition for Environmental and Economic Justice,

Food & Water Watch,

The Raymond Proffitt Foundation,

Save Cummins Hill,

Clean Ocean Action,

Lehigh Valley Gas Truth,

Genesis Farm,

Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition,

Pennsylvania Forest Coalition,

Transition Newton & Northwest NJ,

Stewart Park and Reserve Coalition – SPARC,

Sanford Area Concerned Citizens (S-OACC),

Ramapough Lunapee Nation (Munsee),

Damascus Citizens for Sustainability,

Coalition Against the Rockaway Pipeline (CARP),

ClimateMama,

Clean Air Council,

Residents of Crumhorn,

Milford Doers,

Upper Unadilla Valley Association,

Citizens for a Clean Pompton Lakes,

Allegheny Defense Project,

Otsego 2000, Inc.,

United for Action,

Riverkeeper, Inc.,

American Littoral Society,

Westchester for Change,

New Jersey Conservation Foundation,

Sullivan Area Citizens for Responsible Energy Development (SACRED),

WATERSPIRIT,

Frack Action,

Natural Resources Defense Council,

Green Umbrella – NY Youth for a Just and Sustainable Future,

Crumhorn Lake Association,

The Shalom Center,

New Jersey Highlands Coalition,

North Jersey Public Policy Network,

Environment New Jersey,

M.U.S.T. (Mothers United for Sustainable Technologies)

Audubon Pennsylvania

#######

Porter's Pub, Easton, PA TONITE

2013-03-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

Porter's Pub TONITE 10 pm - 1 am Friday March 1. The pope and the economy may be sequestered but we're out playing music.

Porter's Pub, 700 Northampton Street, Easton PA. Great food and more beer varieties than hairs on a hound. Did I mention novelty music?

Organic Bytes Feb 21, 2013

2013-02-21T08:08:00.000-08:00

Subscribe & Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Donate

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

Fracking Our Farms: A Tale
of Five Farming Families

Their names are Carol, Steve & Jackie, Susan, Marilyn & Robert, and Christine. They share a bond. Two bonds, actually: They all own, or owned, farms. And those farms, along with their own health and the health of their farm animals, have all been ruined by fracking.

More than 600,000 fracking wells and waste injection sites have popped up all over the country, according to ProPublica. The oil and gas industry, along with federal regulators, would have you believe that injecting trillions of gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth is harmless. Tell that to Jacki Schilke of North Dakota, who lost two dogs, five cows, chickens – and her health – after 32 oil and gas wells sprouted up within three miles of her ranch. Or Christine Moore, a horse rescuer in Ohio who sold her farm after a well went up five miles from her farm, creating an oily film on her water and making her too sick to care for her horses.

You’ve heard it before. No farms, no food. As one farmer said, “If they frack all the farms, there isn’t going to be any organic.”

Read the essay
Get Involved: Stop the Frack Attack!
Have a fracking story to share? Want to become a better spokesperson for the anti-fracking movement? Like to learn more about clean energy alternatives, celebrate fracking victories, strengthen the national movement? Join others who share your concerns and motivation.

Join the OCA in Dallas, Texas, for the National Summit to Stop the Frack Attack, Mar. 2-4.
Learn more
Can’t make it? Help someone else attend!

No Brainer: Tell the EPA to Protect Our Water from Factory Farm Waste

TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA: Protect our water! Keep up the pressure on CAFOs for another three years! (Deadline: Feb. 27)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to know if it should continue to place a high priority on forcing factory farms to comply with the Clean Water Act. Or should it focus on something else in 2014-2016? Let’s see . . . animals raised on factory farms generate more than 100 times more waste than humans. Yet unlike human waste, raw animal waste isn’t treated in sewage systems. Even though it’s contaminated with antibiotics, growth hormones and disease-carrying pathogens and bacteria. Even though it causes dangerously high levels of nitrates in drinking water, a problem known to kill infants.

Animal waste from factory farms, or Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), is poisoning our drinking water and killing our lakes, rivers, streams – even the Gulf of Mexico. Yet thanks to the factory farm industry lobbyists, little is being done to stop them. The only tool in the toolbox is the loophole-riddled Clean Water Act. It ain’t great, but it’s all we’ve got. So . . . let’s let the EPA know we’re all for cracking down on factory farm pollution. High priority? Yes!
TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA: Protect our water! Keep up the pressure on CAFOs for another three years! (Deadline: Feb. 27)

Not So Fast! FDA Delays ‘Frankenfish’ Decision

TAKE ACTION: Tell the FDA to reject Frankenfish!

The FDA did its best to sneak genetically engineered (GE) salmon by us in late December, when it quietly announced a 60-day public comment period. Folks there thought we were all too busy to notice, what with the holidays and all. Not so. An outraged public responded by inundating the agency with thousands of comments. Now, the FDA says, the public comment period will be extended an additional 60 days while officials pore over the comments that have already come in.

Meanwhile, Ronald Stotish, the CEO and President of AquaBounty Technology, the company that wants to unleash “Frankenfish” into the environment and onto our plates, says he’s “frustrated” and “not pleased” with the delay. And he’s stickin’ to his story: that GE salmon is “indistinguishable from other Atlantic salmon, safe to eat and doesn’t pose a threat to the environment.” Of course, there’s no real science to back up Stotish’s claim, and plenty of science that says he’s wrong. But there’s more at stake here than just GE salmon. Other biotech companies are keeping an eye on the Frankenfish decision. If AquaBounty gets the green light, how many more GE animals will be on the menu?

Haven’t given the FDA a piece of your mind yet? You’ve got 60 more days to sign on.
TAKE ACTION: Tell the FDA to reject Frankenfish!

SUPPORT OCA & OCF

Look What You’ve Done!

You’ve lit a match. You’ve started a fire. And we’re all winning.

Last year, hundreds of thousands of you responded when we said we needed your help to pass the first GMO labeling law in the country, Prop 37, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act. Technically, we lost that battle. But because so many of you, from all across the country, donated to the campaign, shared articles and videos, talked to your family and friends about GMOs, we were able to get more than six million California voters on our side, and put politicians on notice: Consumers want the right to know!
But here’s the real win. Since January of this year, 18 states have introduced GMO labeling bills.Alaska has proposed a bill that would require the labeling of genetically engineered salmon, if the FDA approves AquaBounty Technology's AquAdvantage salmon. Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington have all introduced bills that would require mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. Hawaii has introduced multiple GMO labeling bills. Maryland and New Mexico also proposed GMO labeling laws, although those laws are dead (for now).

You made this happen. Your support put GMO labeling on the map. And now the map is literally covered in proposed GMO labeling laws. What’s next? We have to get one or two of these passed, as soon as possible. And then the rest will fall in place. Your donation today will help us do that. Thank you!

Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)

Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our legislative efforts in Washington, Vermont and other states)

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Give Us Some Truth: Artists Against Fracking

“Democracy is messy, that’s the way it works. And we need to take the time for something that’s this huge, to really make sure we think it through.” Watch Susan Sarandon, Yoko Ono and other Artists against Fracking tour Pennsylvania where hundreds of families’ water supplies have been polluted by fracking.

Watch the video

Tackling Climate Change: ‘Our Lunch Counter Moment’

They came in buses and cars, on planes and trains. They stood in the cold, flags and banners waving, babes in arms. They listened as leaders of indigenous tribes, climate activists and a senator from Rhode Island spoke about the devastation oil and gas companies have already caused in Canada and the U.S. And the obligation President Obama has to protect future generations by rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Feb. 17, “Forward on Climate” rally attracted between 40,000 – 50,000 people. It generated hundreds of articles and videos – not just in the alternative press, but in the mainstream media. It was, as the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, leader of the Hip Hop Caucus and the MC for event called it, the climate movement’s “lunch counter moment.” Yearwood was referring to that galvanizing moment in 1960 when black people said, “enough.” When they started sitting at “whites only” public lunch counters, enduring all manner of abuse, until they were finally heard, and the Civil Rights Act was born.

Have we all had enough? Did Obama hear us? We’re not sure yet about Obama, but clearly a few state politicians heard us – and they didn’t like what they heard. Lawmakers in Missouri, Mississippi, Michigan and Minnesota have proposed bills calling on Congress to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. The bills are lifted directly from a "model" American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bill and from TransCanada's own public relations talking points.

Will enough politicians come to their senses and vote for the future of life? Or will they vote with the natural gas and oil lobbyists? Time will tell. In the meantime, thanks to all of you who marched behind the OCA’s “Cook Organic, not the Planet” banner. Gives a whole new meaning to “lunch counter moment,” doesn’t it?

Read more about the rally Read more about the bills supporting Keystone XL

NEW REPORT

Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals: Disrupting Your Health and Environment

There are more than 800 chemicals capable of disrupting our endocrine systems and causing a host of health issues, including thyroid and adrenal disorders, hormone-related cancers, bone, metabolic and immune disorders, infertility, and attention deficit disorder in children. The chemicals are in our air and water, our food, our personal care products. They’re not only making us sick, they’re killing off wildlife. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, according to a landmark study just released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Unlike 10 years ago, we now know that humans and wildlife are exposed to far more endocrine-disrupting chemicals than just those found in organic pollutants (POPs), according to the study. We also know that levels of some newer POPs in humans and wildlife are still increasing. And we know now that we’re also being exposed to less persistent and less bio-accumulative chemicals – but they’re everywhere.

Read the study

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Reports: Shale Gas Bubble Looms, Aided by Wall Street

King Corn Mowed Down 2 Million Acres of Grassland in 5 Years Flat

Biotech Industry Ups Propaganda Efforts with Undercover Ambassadors?

Harvesting Justice: Transforming the Global Food Supply Chain - Food Sovereignty

Aspartame May Be More Toxic in Men than Women

Who Can Own Life? Farmer vs. Monsanto before US High Court

THE VILLAGE VOICE OBIE AWARDS ANNOUNCES MICHAEL FEINGOLD AS CHAIRMAN

2013-02-20T06:48:00.000-08:00

Two-Time Pulitzer Nominee & Voice's Chief Theater Critic

CEREMONY WILL BE HELD MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013 AT WEBSTER HALL
Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway’s Highest Honor Salutes Outstanding Theatrical Accomplishment

New York, NY – The Village Voice, the nation’s first and largest alternative weekly newspaper, announced today that esteemed critic and longtime judge of the awards will resume his former position as Obie chairman for the 58th Annual Village Voice OBIE Awards, replacing former Chairman Brian Parks who has moved on from The Village Voice.

"We are thrilled to have Michael Feingold back as Obie Chariman for our 58th annual Obie Awards ceremony," said Josh Fromson, Publisher of the Village Voice. “Michael brings his elevated skill and expertise as an icon of the New York theater community with a deep history and love for the Obies.”

Michael Feingold is the Voice’s chief theater critic, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and.a produced playwright and translator. He became OBIE Chairman in 2012 after chairing the OBIE awards from 2006 through 2011. He resumes his role of Chairman again this month.

Alexis Soloski will assist the committee handling some administrative duties and serve as an advisor for the awards ceremony. Alexis is a Post-Doctoral Lecturer in Literature Humanities at Columbia and a longtime drama critic at The Village Voice.

Joining Michael and Alexis as this years judge's are:

Erin Courtney. Erin is an OBIE Award–winning playwright for her work A Map of Virtue. Her other plays include Honey Drop, Black Cat Lost, Alice the Magnet, Quiver and Twitch, and Demon Baby. Her work has been produced and developed by Clubbed Thumb, the Flea, New York Stage and Film, Adhesive Theater, Soho Rep, the Vineyard, and the Public Theater. She is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a member of 13P, and a member of New Dramatists. Courtney teaches in the MFA playwriting program at Brooklyn College and is a co-founder of Brooklyn Writers Space. MFA, Brooklyn College, 2003. BA, Brown University, 1990.

Mia Katigbak. Mia is an award-winning artistic producing director and co-founder of the New York City–based, 22-year-old NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company). She is a founding member of the newly formed Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA), is the current president of its board, and chaired its Strategic Planning Subcommittee. Together with two other founding members, Jorge Ortoll of Ma-Yi Theater and Tisa Chang of Pan Asian Rep, she was one of the organizers of the 1st National Asian American Theater Festival in 2007, and along with Lloyd Suh of Second Generation, spearheaded the 2nd Festival held in October 2009. She is currently appearing at LaMaMa's Ellen Stewart Theater in the Foundry Theater's production of Brecht's [itals] Good Person of Szechuan.

Tom Sellar. Tom is the editor of Theater magazine, published by the Yale School of Drama, where he is also professor of dramaturgy and dramatic criticism. He has been a critic and journalist for The Village Voice since 2001.

Leigh Silverman. Leigh won a double directing OBIE Award in 2011 for her work on Lisa Kron's In the Wake (Public Theater) and David Greenspan's Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons). She recently directed the West Coast premiere of Chinglish (Berkeley Rep/South Coast Rep) after directing it at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago (Jeff nomination) and on Broadway.

Founded in 1955 by Voice cultural editor Jerry Tallmer, The Village Voice OBIE Awards annually honor the best of Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. Unlike most theater awards, the Obies do not publicize nominations or employ rigid categories. In the conviction that creativity is not competitive, the judges select outstanding artists and productions and may even invent new categories to reward artistic merit. Past winners have included such well-known stars as Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Morgan Freeman, Mos Def, Felicity Huffman, Kevin Kline, Nathan Lane, Olympia Dukakis, Denzel Washington, Glenn Close, Kevin Bacon, Alec Baldwin, Kathy Bates, James Earl Jones, Viola Davis, and Harvey Fierstein, to name a few.

Rosemary R. Jorda, event director for the Village Voice Obie Awards is managing the full OBIE Awards program. Longtime publicist for the Obies, since 1994, Gail Parenteau, is responsible for booking the co-hosts and presenters.

Stella Artois is the presenting sponsor of the 2013 Village Voice Obie Awards. Further details about the 58^th Annual OBIE Awards Ceremony, including the names of the co-hosts and presenters, along with information about how to purchase tickets, will be forthcoming. For further details visit obies.villagevoice.com

About The Village Voice:

Founded by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, and Norman Mailer in October 1955, The Village Voice introduced free-form, high-spirited, and passionate journalism into the public discourse. As the nation's original and largest alternative newsweekly, the Voice maintains the same tradition of no-holds-barred reporting and criticism it first embraced when it began publishing 57 years ago. The recipient of three Pulitzer prizes, the National Press Foundation Award, and the George Polk Award, among others, the Voice has earned a reputation for its groundbreaking investigations of New York City politics and for its expert coverage of New York's cultural scene. Writing and reporting on local and national politics, with opinionated culture, music, art, dance, film, and theater reviews, daily Web dispatches, comprehensive entertainment listings, and unrivaled classifieds, the Voice is the authoritative source on all that is New York.

The Village Voice has independently produced and created such celebrated events as the Choice Eats, Obies Awards, 4Knots Music Festival, Choice Streets, Web Awards, Brooklyn Pour, as well as the most anticipated issues and guides of the year including the annual Pazz and Jop music poll, Best of NYC, and its Spring, Summer, and Fall Preview guides. The Voice is New York's most influential must-read alternative newspaper in print and online. For more information on the Voice or its events, please visit us online at www.villagevoice.com.

Mardi Gras & Valentine's Day

2013-02-12T05:38:00.000-08:00

It's Thursday Again

2013-01-24T09:32:00.000-08:00

Uke Jackson on resophonic ukulele and vox
Pete Reichlin on Tuba and tromboe
Paul Kendall on clarinet and bass clarinet

Some bug knocked Johnny Peppers for a loop. He will be returning to the bandstand once he's well again. Meanwhile, take this opportunity to hear the lovely clarinet playing of our long time friend and sometimes band mate Paul Kendall.

From the Delaware Riverkeeper -- Stop Shale Gas Exports!

2013-01-21T21:14:00.003-08:00

Export Shale Gas — Without Even Considering the Devastation Inflicted by Shale Gas Development

Don't Let the Department of Energy Get Away With It.

Send Your Letter Today.

The Department of Energy has released a report it claims considers the economic ramifications of exporting natural gas, including shale gas, to other countries. It is seeking public comment on the report.

Upon review one quickly sees that the DOE has commissioned a very limited analysis that fails to paint atrue picture of the economic ramifications of increasing exports. The report fails totally to consider the community and environmental harms, and resulting economic harms, that will result from the increase in shale gas development that LNG exports will incite.

Please, send your comments to the Department of Energy today, and let them know that if they are going to consider increased exports then they need to look at the entire picture, including all of the harms that will be brought by increased shale gas development, and the lost opportunity of failing to invest in energy efficiency and truly sustainable energy sources.

For helping making the right points go to our urgent action page: http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=134

Deadline is Thursday the 24th.

Maya K. van Rossum

the Delaware Riverkeeper

2013-01-17T12:52:00.002-08:00

ANOTHER CRITICAL DEADLINE LOOMING

While those of us who live in New York were scrambling to meet the state’s deadline for commenting on proposed fracking regulations, another deadline is fast approaching – one that could affect every American, no matter where they live. January 24th is the last day to submit comments on a deeply flawed economic study that the Obama Administration will use to decide whether or not to permit gas corporations to export liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The consequences of this decision could have a major impact - if the gas industry can’t export gas overseas, it will, at least in the short term, have to scale back fracking because it’s already producing more shale gas than the U.S. market can readily absorb. On the other hand, if the industry is allowed to ship shale gas to countries where natural gas is four or five times more expensive than it is here at home, then the financial incentive to frack every square of inch America will be tremendous. Unfortunately it appears that the Obama Administration isn’t even considering the environmental and health impacts of fracking as it formulates export policy.

Tell the U.S. Department of Energy to reject the flawed economic study.

Tell the Obama Administration it must not permit fracked gas to be sold to foreign countries.

CATSKILL CITIZENS REACHES OUT
TO RESIDENTS OF “TARGET” COUNTIES

Governor Cuomo hasn’t leveled with New Yorkers, so no one can predict exactly when or where high-volume hydraulic fracturing may be introduced in the state. One thing is already clear: politically powerful constituencies like New York City will be given a measure of protection that won’t be extended to rural communities. Last summer the Cuomo administration leaked a plan to let the gas industry “frack” five Southern Tier counties while temporarily keeping other areas of the state off-limits. Now those five counties - Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Steuben and Tioga - are in the industry’s crosshairs.
Next week Catskill Citizens will begin mailing an informational brochure to over 190,000 households in these five target counties. It poses the question “Are you ready to be part of Governor Cuomo’s experiment?” The brochure describes industry exemptions from key environmental laws that can lead to drinking water contamination, and points out that individual property rights are no match for powerful gas drilling corporations.

Is your organization signed onto the American Clean Energy Agenda?
Contact info@catskillcitizens.org for more information.

Please share this Update link, cut and paste to Facebook and Twitter:

http://bit.ly/107Zcek

For more information email info@catskillcitizens.org or call (845) 468 7063

Two out of three people who find out about fracking think the risks aren't worth the rewards.
Public awareness is the key to our success, so spread the word!

FROM THE DELAWARE RIVERKEEPER

2013-01-07T11:20:00.001-08:00

Come rally at Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State Address, Albany, Jan. 9!

Tell him “Don’t Frack New York!”

Get your Comments on draft NY Fracking Rules in – deadline Jan. 11!

What: Rally to Stop Fracking in NY at the State of the State Address
When: Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
Time: 11AM – 3PM
Where: Empire State Plaza – Concourse near the entrance to The Egg, Albany, NY

SIGN UP FOR BUSES HERE:
From NYC (Stopping in New Paltz): http://bit.ly/UbIRhH

From Binghamton: http://bit.ly/12HDNYS
From Ithaca, Caroline and Whitney Point: https://www.wepay.com/donations/bus-to-albany

From Syracuse: http://bit.ly/12JK4Dx
Sign up for the bus from Rochester: http://bit.ly/TFfPMz
Sign up for the bus from Buffalo: http://bit.ly/W4Bj03

FOR MORE INFO IN THE FOLLOWING REGIONS CONTACT:
Capital District - Daniel Morrissey at daniel@nyagainstfracking.org
Hudson Valley - Forest Cotten at forest@nyagainstfracking.org or Kathy Nolan at kathy@catskillmountainkeeper.org
Westchester - Betta Broad at betta@frackaction.com
New York City - David Braun at david@nyagainstfracking.org, Corinne Rosen at crosen@fwwatch.org
Long Island - Eric Weltman at eweltman@fwwatch.org
Southern Tier - Isaac Silberman-Gorn at i.silbermangorn@gmail.com
Central New York- Syracuse Jessica Azulay at Jessica@allianceforagreeneconomy.org and/or Ursula Rozum at Ursula@peacecouncil.net
Finger Lakes- Ithaca Sara Hess at sarahess63@yahoo.com
Rochester - Zora Gussow at zora@nyagainstfracking.org
Buffalo - Rita Yelda at ryelda@fwwatch.org

To sign up for the rally: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dFdIdEtPR1YxUVpXVEZDSEJjR3B3NHc6MQ

Please submit your comments NOW on the proposed New York State fracking regulations; deadline is close of business Friday, January 11.

There’s lots of good ways to do this including Sandra Steingraber’s terrific and simple link: http://www.thirtydaysoffrackingregs.com/

To get details about the draft rules and find out the why’s and how’s go to: http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/about/event.aspx?Id=310

Make 2013 a Live Music Year!

2013-01-02T14:09:00.001-08:00

The Bookstore Speakeasy is a 1920s theme nightclub and restaurant. They offer a splendid menu of tasty dishes artfully prepared to order, and all sorts of exotic and traditional cocktails, as well asan impressive selection of beers. The staff are helpful and friendly. The crowds arew amiable and fun. And the music -- well, come some Thursday and judge for yourself. There is a $2 (two bux) music charge. We're there as a trio every Thursday night until further notice, 9pm - 1 am.

Happy New Year!

Uke Jackson's $5 New Year's Eve Bash!

2012-12-28T11:10:00.002-08:00

Uke Jackson

New Year's Eve Bash

Hotel Bethlehem
Downtown Bethlehem PA
437 Main Street,
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18018 610-625-5000

Uke Jackson's Ginseng Roots Band
from 10 pm - 1 am

$5 Admission Cash Bar

Join us on New Year's Eve for a memorable end to 2012
and a musical beginning to 2013.

If you want to have dinner before the music, please call 610-625-5000. Everything is fully booked for dinner before our 10 pm show. However, if you call in advance and ask for a restaurant reservation, and you mention that you are on Uke Jackson's mailing list, they promise to get you a table.

No reservations are required to come in for the music and party. There is a $5 cover charge and it's a cash bar. It's going to be an amazing celebration and we really hope you will join us.

Band members are:
Uke Jackson on vox and silver ukulele
Johnny Peppers on soprano, bass and contrabass saxophones, and bass clarinet
Tuba Pete Reichlin on tuba and trombone
Lenny Pucciatti on percussion.
Some of our stellar jazz musician friends may come by to sit in, as well.

So please join us and ring in 2013 with live music and great people.

Thank you and Happy New Year!
Uke Jackson

Andrew Cuomo says "Frack your drinking water"

2012-12-26T09:04:00.000-08:00


ANDREW CUOMO'S FRACKING FARCE It seems the Cuomo Administration is unwilling or unable to get even the simplest things right when it comes to fracking. It shouldn't be that hard; first you assess the environmental and health risks, then you write regulations to minimize the harm. That's the way it's supposed to work; but that's not the way it is in Andy's Albany. Although The DEC still hasn't completed its environmental review, and outside experts haven't publicly released their comments on health impacts, Cuomo went ahead and issued draft fracking regulations on December 12th, thereby triggering a thirty-day public comment period that just so happens to coincide with the holiday season. What's wrong with the regs? Plenty. We've prepared a number of letters that highlight some of the major flaws. Please take a minute or two to submit each one; we'll print them out and mail them in on the very last day of the public comment period. Our goal? To bury Albany in a blizzard of paper on January 11th. TAKE ACTION NOW! SAY 'NO' TO FLAWED FRACKING REGS! DEADLINE JANUARY 11th *Don't stop now!* Our friends at GRASSROOTS Environmental Education have created a wonderful present for us all – 30 Days of Fracking Regs, which is designed to help concerned citizens submit a “comment a day” during the month long public comment period. For information on how to write your own comments, see NY Fracking Regulations. www.thirtydaysoffrackingregs.com Is your organization signed onto the American Clean Energy Agenda? Contact info@catskillcitizens.org for more information. Please share this Update link, cut and paste to Facebook and Twitter: http://bit.ly/RLbRkK For more information email info@catskillcitizens.org or call (845) 468 7063 Two out of three people who find out about fracking think the risks aren't worth the rewards. Public awareness is the key to our success, so spread the word! Please donate to Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy.

Uke Jackson's Big Bottom Holidaze

2012-12-09T18:18:00.001-08:00

Since my band is getting booked mostly as a trio in the winter months, we've decided to give the trio a name: Uke Jackson's Big Bottom Band. It's me on resophonic ukulele/vox, JJ Peppers on Bass sax and Pete Reichlin on bass. "Two bass instruments in a trip?" you ask. Yes indeed. And hence the "Big Bottom".

And to start things off with a bang, so to speak, we're playing every Thursday at our favorite 1920s theme night club / restaurant -- The Bookstore Speakeasy, where the food is always delicious and the selection of exotic drinks and great beers is exceptional. Reservations strongly advised.

Looking for stocking stuffers? Please check out my books and ebooks on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Uke-Jackson/e/B005CLEAJY/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Using an ereader that's NOT a Kindle? So far 3 of my books have been formatted to suit other ereaders. Please check 'em out on Smashword.com: More coming in 2013!

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/UkeJackson

Books make great gifts. Thank you for a great 2012! Happy Holidaze!
Uke Jackson

Are NEA Literary Fellowships Unconstitutional?

2012-12-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

What Would Mark Twain Say?

By Uke Jackson

On November 30, 2012, the 177th anniversary of Mark Twain’s birth, the National Endowment for the Arts posted the eligibility requirements for applying for a tax-payer funded NEA Literary Fellowship. I’m not eligible but that puts me in good company. Mark Twain could not have applied either.

You see, Mark Twain was a self-published author. Twain, as Sam Clemens, ran his own publishing enterprise and paid to have his books printed. Either and both of these facts would have left him out in the cold as far as today’s federal grant-making bureaucracy.

Today, there’s a pretty good chance the old man from Hannibal would have whole-heartedly embraced the technologies for self publishing such as Amazon’s KDP platform and CreateSpace. However, using these innovations disqualifies writers from applying for an NEA Literary Fellowship.

The bureaucrats at the NEA are not Luddites by any means, though. Applications are only accepted online and the NEA arbiters of literature will not accept hard copy anything from applicants. Some might say the reason for these restrictive eligibility requirements are the overwhelming numbers of individuals availing themselves of the new technologies.

Isn’t that tantamount to saying the NEA cannot do its job without being elitist or anti-democratic? It’s interesting to note that any author published by Simon & Schuster or Penguin also should be disqualified, as both those companies have started divisions which will publish authors who pay to bring out their books. Will the NEA make exceptions for authors bound by contract to these corporate entities?

With hundreds of thousands of authors choosing to bypass the traditional gatekeepers, and with ongoing negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff, the NEA Literature bureaucrats are treading awfully close to the edge. As word of their egregious and undemocratic approach to awarding tax payer money spreads, the vast number of indie authors who are also taxpayers may choose to make a ruckus, and rightfully so.

The NEA has long been a bugaboo for Republicans. Democrats could win the current round of negotiations by throwing the entire NEA under the bus. It would be the sort of symbolic gesture (the $146 million overall annual NEA budget is minuscule in Federal terms) that would allow Republicans to save face and take home a butchered sacrificial lamb. That would be a damn shame.

The NEA supports all sorts of great programs, including music education efforts, small museums, and historic buildings and neighborhoods, as well as cultural institutions like symphony orchestras, operas, and regional theaters. Yet, as word of the NEA’s elitist approach to dispensing writers’ fellowships spreads, the potential hue and cry from a very verbal constituency could be devastating to the entire agency.

The NEA has no business carrying water for corporations and academe. Frankly, their eligibility requirements for creative writers smack of a violation of the Bill of Rights First Amendment prohibition against restricting freedom of the press. Corporations may be people under the law. But no one ever said they are the only people allowed to publish books with de facto government subsidy.

With Kickstarter.com this past year dispensing twice as much money to artists as the NEA (keep in mind that NEA money often goes to administrators and other purposes as well as creatives), a good argument can be made for doing away with all Federal grants/fellowships for individuals in any creative discipline.

The NEA Literary Fellowship administrators cannot be allowed to both embrace and reject 21st century technology just to make their jobs easier. Rocco Landesman, the outgoing NEA Chairperson, should suspend the NEA Literature Fellowships immediately. As currently restricted, they have no place in our constitutional democracy.

The Unknown Playwright Speaks

58th OBIE Awards

2013 VILLAGE VOICE OBIE AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Porter's Pub This Saturday

Organic Bytes 5/9/2013 Call for Unity

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

Food, Farms, Forests and Fracking: Uniting Our Movements to Survive

ACTION ALERT

Send Gut-Wrenching Additives Off into the Sunset!

ACTION ALERT

He Can Run. But Will He Be Able to Hide?

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

Donate by May 15 and We’ll Send You Some Seeds!

Join the March Against Monsanto and Help Spread the Word!

ORGANIC RETAILERS AND CONSUMERS ALLIANCE

Last Chance: Nominate Your Favorite Retailer!

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Organic Bytes 5/2/2013

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

End Climate Chaos: Boycott GMOs and Factory-Farmed Food

ACTION ALERT

Stinging: EPA Wants to Approve Yet Another Bee-Killing Pesticide

We Came, We Swarmed . . . Will We Conquer?

Long Overdue: Let’s Close Monsanto’s Revolving Door

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

We Are All Pirates. In a Good Way.

ORGANIC RETAILERS AND CONSUMERS ALLIANCE

What Do You Love About Your Food Store?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

OCA IN ACTION

OCA Upsets the GMO Apple Cart

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Cafe Lysistrata -- coming in papberback in May

Upcoming Gigs!

Organic Bytes 4/11/2013

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

Why GMO Labels Won’t Cost Consumers a Dime

Action Alert

A River Of Waste: The Hazardous, Heartbreaking Truth About Factory Farms

ORGANIC RETAILER AND CONSUMER ALLIANCE

Have you Nominated Your Favorite Grocer Yet?

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

You Are Our Cape

ACTION ALERT

Let’s Swarm the EPA on Earth Day!

Win a Trip to Peru!

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Organic Bytes 4/4/2012

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

As Earth Day Approaches, a Message of Hope: How Grazing Cows Can Reverse Global Warming

Earth Day

In Honor of Earth Day: A Cook Organic, Not the Planet Kit!

ACTION ALERT

Don’t Let the Senate Confirm a Pro-Fracking Energy Secretary!

SUPPORT THE OCA & OCF

Dr. Bronner’s Matches Your $250,000. Thank You!

Join the Right to Know GMO Fight in Your State

Reading List

Who Knew? Cows Save the Planet

LITTLE BYTES

Essential Reading for the Week

Final Thursday @ Bookstore Speakeasy

Farewell to Thursday Nights

Bookstore Speakeasy 336 Adams Street Bethlehem, PA

For reservations, please call 610-867-1100

This is our last Thursday night gig 9pm - 1 am

Mark your calendar -- March 16

Organic Bytes March 7, 2013

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

OCA Creates ORCA to Attack ‘Natural’ Products Labeling Fraud

SIGNON PETITION

Sell Off Public Lands and Farms for Fracking? NO!

ACTION ALERT

No More Delays: Get Antibiotics out of Organics

SUPPORT OCA & OCF

Patience. Perseverance. Commitment.

Hungry for Some Food Democracy?

In Honor of Earth Day: A Cook Organic,
Not the Planet Kit!

Don’t Let the Senate Confirm
a Pro-Fracking Energy Secretary!

Join the Right to Know GMO Fight
in Your State

Bookstore Speakeasy
336 Adams Street
Bethlehem, PA

This is our last Thursday night gig
9pm - 1 am

Sell Off Public Lands and Farms
for Fracking? NO!

Fracking Our Farms: A Tale
of Five Farming Families

CEREMONY WILL BE HELD MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013 AT WEBSTER HALL
Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway’s Highest Honor Salutes Outstanding Theatrical Accomplishment

CATSKILL CITIZENS REACHES OUT
TO RESIDENTS OF “TARGET” COUNTIES

Hotel Bethlehem
Downtown Bethlehem PA
437 Main Street,
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18018 610-625-5000

Uke Jackson's Ginseng Roots Band
from 10 pm - 1 am