Natural Bytes E-newsletter #881: Farms Shouldn’t Be Poisonous Sewage Sludge Dumps

Inform Your State Legislators: Farms Shouldn’t Be Poisonous Sewage Sludge Dumps
In a traditional kick-the-can-down-the-road transfer, on January 14, 2025, the Biden Administration’s Environmental Safety Company lastly admitted “ceaselessly chemical compounds” are contaminating U.S. farmland due to the EPA’s personal long-standing coverage of selling poisonous sewage sludge “fertilizer” as the way in which to get rid of waste from water-treatment crops.
President Donald Trump’s new EPA may take the logical subsequent step of banning sewage sludge from farmland, however given his EPA nominees, state legislators aren’t holding their breath ready. As a substitute, they’re taking motion. Already in 2025, a number of states have launched payments just like the regulation Maine handed in 2022 to ban sewage sludge from farmland.
The outgoing Biden Administration EPA has marshaled the details on why poisonous sewage sludge shouldn’t be dumped on farmland.
Will the Trump Administration’s new EPA take the logical subsequent step and implement a ban? Unlikely. Trump has nominated David Fotouhi because the second-most highly effective particular person on the EPA. Fotouhi is a lawyer who has spent his profession defending polluters, together with these answerable for making sewage sludge so poisonous! In 2021, he represented Worldwide Paper, one in every of a number of paper-mill firms which have contaminated Maine’s consuming water and farmland with PFAS “ceaselessly chemical compounds.”
Study extra and TAKE ACTION! Inform Your State Legislators, Farms Shouldn’t Be Poisonous Sewage Sludge Dumps!
Watch and find out how farmers are struggling the results of this sewage sludge disaster

COMING CLEAN
Toxicologist Ideas for Shopping for Cleansing Merchandise
By Chiana Dickson, Houses & Gardens:
“As we turn out to be extra acutely aware of the affect our on a regular basis selections have on each our well being and the planet, the way in which we clear our properties and the merchandise we use are coming ever-sharply underneath the highlight.
The detrimental affect of PFAS and different poisonous chemical compounds present in frequent cleansing merchandise is effectively documented, with the physique of analysis rising. With it comes a rising demand for more healthy, greener alternate options that sort out grime with out compromising our well-being.
Right here, main toxicologist Samara Geller, senior director of cleansing science and shopper security science at EWG reveals her cleansing ideas for smarter, safer housekeeping that can enable you create a more healthy house with a greater environmental footprint.
Inexperienced cleansing doesn’t all the time imply having to make DIY cleansing options or solely ever cleansing with vinegar, and it definitely doesn’t imply having to accept less-than-impressive outcomes. Fairly, it’s about realizing which cleansing product elements to keep away from, why, and what to make use of as a substitute.”
Learn extra

AGRICULTURE
Concern of Deportation Empties California’s Farm Fields, Upending Lives, Threatening U.S. Meals Costs
Supply: Xinhua, Editor: Huaxia:
“Agricultural specialists warned that the present farm labor scarcity, when mixed with a attainable 25 % tariff on Mexican and Canadian imports threatened by the Trump administration, may drive up meals costs nationwide.
Concern of deportation has led to a pointy drop in farm employee attendance throughout California’s agricultural heartland, leaving crops unharvested following U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, native information shops have reported.
In Bakersfield, situated in Kern County, California, residents reported sightings of U.S. Border Patrol brokers in unmarked Chevrolet Suburbans allegedly concentrating on discipline staff.
Sara Fuentes, a supervisor at an area fuel station, informed the California non-profit information web site CalMatters that plainclothes brokers detained people outdoors her retailer and solely stopped those that “appeared like they labored within the fields.”
Fuentes added {that a} typical morning rush of farm staff shopping for breakfast by no means materialized that day — a sign that worry stored them away from work.”
Learn in regards to the heartbreaking shockwaves operating by means of the whole neighborhood. Individuals aren’t going to work, and youngsters aren’t going to high school.

ENVIRONMENT
Can Hemp Repair Agriculture’s PFAS Drawback?
By Libby Leonard, Ambrooke Analysis:
“After the 2018 Farm Invoice legalized hemp manufacturing for the primary time because the Nineteen Seventies, Chelli Stanley began in search of out polluted land for an experiment. Hemp is a hyperaccumulator, which means toxins from soil will be absorbed by means of the plant’s roots. Impressed by Indigenous activist John Trudell, the journalist and environmentalist needed to develop hemp to see if it may clear up contaminated soil. She ultimately met Richard Silliboy, Vice Chief of the Mi’kmaq Nation. In 2009, the Tribe acquired the previous Loring Airforce Base. Situated within the small city of Limestone, Maine, the navy beforehand used the land for over 40 years as a firefighting testing space. Upon inspection, the Tribe discovered the soil and groundwater was completely contaminated with PFAS from poisonous firefighting foam. It was so polluted, actually, that the EPA deemed it a Superfund web site, placing it on the nationwide precedence record for hazard clean-up.
Desirous to collaborate, Silliboy partnered with Stanley in 2019 and co-founded Upland Grassroots alongside neighborhood activists, Tribal members, and researchers at a wide range of establishments. The aim: to attempt utilizing fiber hemp to take away the PFAS.
Whereas industrial hemp has been used for phytoremediation efforts earlier than on heavy metallic toxins and radioactive isotopes — one in every of its giant successes was on agricultural lands in Chernobyl after the 1986 nuclear catastrophe — hemp’s potential with PFAS is a more recent topic.”
Learn how industrial hemp has been efficiently used for phytoremediation on agricultural lands in Chernobyl and rather more

HEALTH
How Gradual Respiration Alters Mind Circuits to Crush Nervousness
Evaluation by Dr. Joseph Mercola:
“STORY-AT-A-GLANCE
* Analysis has recognized a mind circuit involving the anterior cingulate cortex, pons and medulla that hyperlinks gradual respiration to cut back nervousness. Activating this circuit in mice led to slower respiration and decreased nervousness, whereas shutting it off elevated stress and respiration charges
* The invention of this mind circuit supplies a neurological foundation for practices like yoga and mindfulness
* One other research discovered that torso stiffness, a standard stress response, limits venous return and cardiac output, exacerbating nervousness signs. Cardio train and correct respiration cut back torso stiffness, enhance circulation and stop destructive results in your cardiopulmonary system
* Understanding the biomechanics of how the physique responds to nervousness is useful for growing holistic remedy methods. Strategies that promote muscle leisure and improve circulation, similar to cardio train and managed respiration, are helpful for nervousness remedy plans
* By addressing each the neurological and bodily points of tension, it permits for a extra complete method to managing nervousness. This contains integrating respiration methods and bodily train to alleviate signs and promote general well-being”
Study extra

SUPPORT OCA & RI
Cease Poisonous Sewage Sludge From Contaminating Our Soil
You in all probability know by now that yearly, tragically, tens of millions of tons of poisonous sewage sludge, misleadingly labeled as “biosolids,” are dumped on and contaminating agricultural land and gardens throughout the U.S.
It incorporates a cocktail of PFAS, different hazardous chemical compounds, heavy metals, and pathogens which might be poisoning our soil, air, and water.
It’s a recipe for catastrophe, threatening the very basis of our lives, the land, water, our meals system and our collective well being.
The OCA is preventing again towards this poisonous follow, and has been since 2010, however we’d like your assist!
Your donation right now will assist us:
* Expose the reality in regards to the risks of sewage sludge
* Educate to encourage farmers and gardeners to cease this harmful follow
* Advocate for insurance policies that ban using biosolids on agricultural land
* Give individuals the chance to take motion and inform their State Legislators to ban poisonous PFAS
Collectively, we are able to create a safer, extra natural and regenerative meals system.
Are you able to be a part of us on this battle?
Donate now, if you happen to can, and assist us battle towards the poisonous sewage sludge assault on our soil!
Make a tax-deductible donation to Natural Shoppers Affiliation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Make a tax-deductible donation to Regeneration International, our international sister organization
Make a long-lasting affect by means of month-to-month giving, inventory donations, deliberate giving, and IRA charitable distributions

NEW STUDY
What Occurred To Hanging Out on the Road?
David Zipper writes for Bloomberg:
“Are metropolis streets locations for pedestrians to hang around, or are they routes to be traversed as rapidly as attainable?
Individuals are more and more treating them because the latter reasonably than the previous.
That’s the placing implication of a current interdisciplinary research revealed by the Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis. Making use of fashionable synthetic intelligence methods to outdated video footage, the researchers in contrast pedestrian exercise in 1980 and 2010 throughout distinguished places in Boston, New York Metropolis and Philadelphia. Their unsettling conclusion: American ambulators walked quicker and schmoozed lower than they used to. They appeared to be having fewer of the casual encounters that undergird civil society and strengthen city economies.
The research was carried out by a staff of eight researchers with various backgrounds, together with Harvard economist Ed Glaeser, Michigan State communications professor Keith Hampton, and MIT city technologist Carlo Ratti. Its lead creator, Yale Faculty of the Surroundings professor Arianna Salazar-Miranda, informed me she was impressed by the work of William H. Whyte, a journalist and concrete observer who examined how individuals in cities used slivers of public house.
Whyte turned his insights into a movie in addition to a 1980 ebook, The Social Lifetime of Small City Areas, which has turn out to be a traditional of city planning. Amongst his different influences, you may credit score (or blame) Whyte for the widespread public house deployment of moveable metallic chairs, which he typically praised for his or her malleable utility.”
Learn how streets are locations the place we should pause and meet each other for alternatives to come up

BAN PFAS
‘Ceaselessly Chemical substances’ in U.S. Ingesting Water Linked to Most cancers, Scientists Discover
By Jess Cockerill, Science Alert:
“A brand new research has discovered that US communities uncovered to consuming water contaminated with ‘ceaselessly chemical compounds’ have as much as 33 % greater charges of sure cancers.
Scientists have good purpose to imagine a lot of compounds known as PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) are linked to most cancers: they’ve already been implicated in kidney, breast, and testicular most cancers, with at the very least one of many chemical compounds, PFOA, labeled as a carcinogen by the Worldwide Company for Analysis on Most cancers.
They’re in our raincoats and fabric, meals packages, non-stick pots and pans, and fire-fighting foams. As this stuff disintegrate and turn out to be peppered all through our environments, they’ve wound up in our meals, our consuming water, and our our bodies, too.
The brand new analysis relies on knowledge collected between 2016 and 2021 from 1,080 counties in the US, which equates to about 156.1 million individuals, roughly half of the nation’s inhabitants.”
Learn how the staff estimates that PFAS from consuming water could contribute to between 4,000 and seven,000 instances of most cancers every year and extra

HEALTH & WELLNESS
8 Happiness-Boosting Meals You Ought to Be Consuming In 2025
By Nasha Addarich Martínez, CNET:
“For those who’re one to eat your emotions away or just crave meals that makes you’re feeling good, the winter climate in all probability isn’t serving to you’re feeling significantly better. Or possibly you began the yr with bold well being objectives however aren’t precisely thrilled by your new “clear consuming” routine (for weight reduction or in any other case) don’t fear, we’ve obtained you coated.
Imagine it or not, the important thing to a greater temper isn’t only a pep discuss or an angle adjustment. It’d really be in your plate. The meals you’re consuming (or not consuming) play a much bigger function in how you’re feeling than you suppose. So if you happen to’re prepared to show issues round, these tasty, mood-boosting bites are right here that will help you enhance your happiness. C’mon, get glad.
Research linking vitamin and psychological well-being have emerged up to now decade. Sure meals, as an illustration, are related to elevated serotonin in our brains, and serotonin, often known as the “glad hormone,” is a chemical that performs an essential function in regulating our temper — low ranges can result in temper instability.
Listed here are our favourite meals for a carry.”
Take a look at these 8 meals to spice up your happiness

APPETITE FOR A CHANGE
What Is Meals Dye?
By Alexandra Hopkins, EWG:
“From popsicles to pistachios and from meat to mac and cheese, artificial meals dyes are in all places. Their vibrant colours make meals interesting and improve our urge for food.
However many dyes additionally pose severe well being dangers.
Made with petroleum-oil-based chemical compounds, synthetic coloring has been related to numerous well being harms. Well being issues embody behavioral and developmental points in some youngsters and the potential for elevated threat of most cancers.
The U.S. is without doubt one of the few industrialized international locations with out strict laws on these dangerous chemical compounds. Many international locations, together with Australia, Japan and people inside the European Union, both limit or ban these chemical compounds from use.
EWG is especially involved with the possibly dangerous results of seven meals dyes: Blue Dye No. 1, Blue Dye No. 2, Inexperienced Dye No. 3, Purple Dye No. 3, Purple Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5 and Yellow Dye No. 6.”
Study in regards to the makes use of of synthetic meals coloring and the particular well being dangers related to these 7 meals dyes
TAKE ACTION: Inform the FDA to Ban Carcinogenic & Neurotoxic Meals Dyes!

STOP WEAPONIZING PATHOGENS
Organic Dangers to Well being in Bio Labs
Ana Cláudia Coelho, Juan García Díez, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology:
“There are lots of organic dangers in well being biotechnology, similar to micro organism, viruses, rickettsiae, fungi, and parasites (Liberman et al., 1990; World Well being Group (WHO), 2004). Relating to biosafety and biosecurity in biomedical laboratories, there may be nice concern about new vaccines, diagnostic instruments, or therapeutic brokers, a few of that are made by genetic engineering (Doblhoff-Dier and Collins, 2001). Presently, a essential concern of biosafety is because of the emergence of recent ailments or the re-emergence of ailments that had been already underneath management (Brown, 2004; Jones et al., 2008). In laboratories, there are lots of duties that contain quite a few dangers to the laboratory workers. Thus, any incident related to a given microbiological hazard might be almost definitely to occur in a microbiology laboratory. Nevertheless, incidents aren’t related to a single issue however the interplay of a number of of them (Sewell, 1995; Kozajda and Szadkowska-Stanczyk, 2010).
The analysis will contain the manipulation of pathogenic microorganisms that would have dangerous results on public well being and the setting.”
Find out how gain-of-function (GOF) analysis or twin use analysis have arisen as an essential concern, not solely among the many scientific neighborhood but in addition among the many inhabitants, whereas GOF is related to the acquirement of a brand new exercise or the enhancement, a earlier operate, DUR, is related to a misuse of science
TAKE ACTION: Inform Congress to Ban “Achieve-Of-Perform” Bioweapons Analysis!
Learn the Memo

MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTO
February 7: Get the Navy-Pharmaceutical-Industrial Advanced Out of Meals & Farming
The identical firms that make poisonous pesticides and genetically-engineered Frankenfoods make chemical and organic weapons–and have colonial pursuits that contain them in U.S. war-making. These are additionally the businesses peddling the prescribed drugs that, by some estimates, are the main reason behind demise within the U.S.
The key navy historical past of Bayer and Monsanto goes again to World Conflict I when an invention that will win the Nobel Prize for its use in agriculture was examined on the battlefield, killing 1000’s with poison fuel. Through the Holocaust, Bayer ran medical analysis laboratories and large factories out of the focus camps the place its Zyklon B was used within the fuel chambers. Monsanto was instrumental in growing the bombs that needlessly murdered a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals in Japan and remained a nuclear weapons contractor till its crops grew to become superfund websites within the Nineteen Nineties. At the moment, Bayer and Monsanto, which merged in 2018, are the monopoly Pentagon provider of the white phosphorus weapons Israel is utilizing in Gaza and Lebanon.
Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of Natural Shoppers Affiliation, is giving a chat on this topic on the Dorothy Day Catholic Employee Home in Washington, DC, on Friday, February 7 at 7:30 pm. You’re welcome to affix in particular person if you happen to’re on the town. In any other case, please watch on-line on OCA’s Rokfin or Rumble channels.

LITTLE BYTES
Different Important Studying and Movies for the Week
The U.S. Is Dumping Extra Than Tariffs on Mexico
Turning into a Accountable Ancestor
Memos to Trump: Coverage Suggestions the New President May Truly Like
The Soil Summit: Revive Your Soil and Grow More with Less
Understanding Glyphosate’s Rising Presence in Agriculture and Its Results on Human Well being
Songbirds Being Killed by Pesticides Present in Pet Fur Flea Remedies
The Restoration Advantages of Turmeric You Have to Know
This 300-12 months-Outdated Farming Village Was Deserted within the Nineteen Sixties. Now Residents Are Transferring Again
7 Locations Microplastics Are Hiding in Your Kitchen and Simple Swaps to Get Them Out
In Coverage Reversal, Trump Eliminates Assist for Black and Latino Communities Hit Tougher by Air pollution
A Full Information to Chaos Gardening
8 Meals That Are Incredible for Reducing Blood Sugar
Construct a Hearth-Proof Dwelling With Hemp Blocks
These Midwest Cities Are Slicing Pesticides From Public Parks With the Assist of a Nationwide Nonprofit
The publish Natural Bytes E-newsletter #881: Farms Shouldn’t Be Poisonous Sewage Sludge Dumps appeared first on Natural Shoppers.