“The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment made the decision in July.

“The agency said Wednesday it followed proper procedures in listing the herbicide and ‘stands by its decision.’

“California’s Proposition 65, a ballot initiative passed in 1986, requires the state to protect drinking water sources ‘from being contaminated with chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.’

“It also requires businesses to warn California users about their chemicals’ dangers…

“Monsanto sued the California agency in 2016 to block glyphosate’s potential listing. The case was dismissed in March, but the seed and chemical company is appealing the ruling.”

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/2017/11/15/iowa-farm-groups-monsanto-sue-california-roundup-glyphosate-cancer-causing-chemical/866446001/

“Organic food is in danger of losing its meaning, so farmers and activists rallied today to stop corporate interests from destroying the last vestiges of ethical organic farming.
Corporate lobbyists are pushing the National Organic Standards Board to include hydroponic production in the Organic label. While the details can seem esoteric, the implications are already rippling through the food system…

“’For over one hundred years, organic farming has been synonymous with nurturing the soil and thereby providing the success of organic farmers in growing strong, healthy plants and nutritionally superior food. Soil-less, artificial production, regardless of how politically powerful Industrial Hydroponics may be, has no place in honest organic. And it never will’ – Jim Gerritsen, ME organic farmer, Wood Prairie Family Farm; President, Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, Bridgewater.”

http://halalfocus.net/usa-nationwide-rallies-to-fight-for-organic-food/

“Amazon recently sent state and city officials across the country scrambling to respond to its announcement that it was seeking enticements to build a second headquarters, promising 50,000 new jobs and $5 billion in investment to the winning location. Governments are mobilizing to devise lucrative incentive packages. I know how this works, because I spent eight years supporting these types of incentives as the governor of Delaware.

“Amazon’s public encouragement of a bidding war highlights a competition that state and local governments engage in every day. I became very familiar with this process: A big business promises thousands, hundreds or even dozens of jobs and waits for offers from mayors and governors eager to demonstrate to voters that they are bringing them jobs. In Delaware, our economic development office, with my full approval, was busy calculating direct subsidies to corporations through grants and tax breaks.

“I was as guilty as any elected official at playing this game. But it’s a game that should stop. There’s a better way to compete for business.

“A New York Times investigation in 2012 found that states, counties and cities were handing out more than $80 billion a year in incentives to attract and retain companies. Amazon, for example, has already benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies as it expanded its warehouse network around the country, according to a report last year by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance…

“The solution is straightforward: Congress should institute a federal tax of 100 percent on every dollar a business receives in state or local incentives that are directed specifically to that company. This would not include investments in public infrastructure, work force development or other investments that can attract employers while also providing a significant long-term benefit to taxpayers.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/opinion/incentives-businesses-corporations-giveaways.html

“One of the wealthiest men in the world is thinking of ways to give back. But he’s still taking from the very people who helped him build his fortune…

“But as Bezos, whose worth now exceeds $80 billion, loosens his pockets, it’s important to put his charitable giving — and the philanthropy of the super-rich — into perspective: Many people worked hard for Bezos to help make him so rich, and he has a record of treating them poorly…

“Amazon’s history of dodging taxes, its mistreatment of workers, and its ruthlessness toward even the smallest competitors have been well documented. It put ambulances outside distribution centers rather than install adequate air conditioning. It broke up a union organizing effort by closing the call center and dismissing everyone who worked there. The New York Times documented its punishing work environment in a front-page exposé. The company’s actions, as Forbes put it, hark back to an earlier time when workers were treated as ‘replaceable cogs in the machine’…

“No wonder Bezos would prefer to turn people’s attention toward philanthropy. It’s nothing new. The Rockefeller family perfected the strategy more than a century ago…

“But as with other multi-billionaires, Bezos should remember that his vast wealth came in part from labor, and he should do more to share that wealth with workers. As the owner of an institution that’s critical to democracy, he should go out of his way to set a tone of progressive stewardship toward employees in all his businesses.

Instead, Bezos has shown that he views his employees as parts in a high-tech machine, that income inequality is someone else’s problem, and that modern corporations owe little more to their employees than a paycheck.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-bezos-workers_us_59a7220fe4b07e81d354e6e3

“The company plans to present data at the summit that it says show user error was behind the damage, contrary to academics’ findings that dicamba products can vaporize and move off target under certain conditions in a process known as volatilization…

“Reuters contacted 10 scientists who were invited. Of these, three said they would attend and seven said they would not, for reasons including scheduling conflicts…

“Monsanto’s critiques of experts follows past accusations by farmers and activists that the company improperly influenced science.

“In March, farmers and others suing Monsanto claimed in court filings that Monsanto employees ghostwrote scientific reports that U.S. regulators relied on to determine that glyphosate, a chemical in its Roundup weed killer, did not cause cancer.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pesticides-monsanto/u-s-scientists-to-skip-monsanto-summit-on-controversial-weed-killer-idUSKCN1C13CK

“In 2003, I accompanied a small business agricultural client on a trip down to East Texas to visit one of his suppliers. East Texas is the site of the largest oil discovery in the lower 48 states. Over nine billion barrels have been extracted from it. We had time to visit an oil museum in the town of Kilgore. Our tour guide told us that in 1932, East Texas crude oil sold for 10 cents a barrel, and water was selling for one dollar per barrel. Imagine, water was ten times more expensive than oil!

“On our way back to Maine, my Aroostook County client and I discussed a few compelling facts: water was more expensive than wine, beer and milk; it takes 1000 tons of water to raise one ton of grain; and in the future, with a growing world population, fresh water will be in short supply. My client and I agreed that those who control fresh water would control life as we now know it. It became clear to me that we should regard Maine’s water as Maine’s oil. I needed to know more. I needed to know if the State of Maine, in its role as trustee for the citizens of Maine, was actually protecting Maine’s fresh water supply.”