Tuesday, November 22, 2011

BE PART OF THE CALIFORNIA GMO LABELING BALLOT INITIATIVE!!


Get Trained to Gather Signatures

November 22, 2011

Join the Campaign for GMO Labeling

Last week we wrote to tell you the great news about the filing of our coalition's "Right to Know" initiative, which will require labeling of GMO ingredients in food. Over 1500 of you have enlisted in this historic battle by volunteering to collect signatures. That's a great start and we're confident that we can get this on the ballot but our strategists calculate that we need 8,000 volunteers in order to reach our goal of 850,000 signatures by April. If you haven't yet, please send us an email with the following information:
Full Name:
Mailing Address:
Zip Code:
Phone Number:
Email Address:
A local leader from your area will contact you by phone with all the information you will need to attend a signature gathering activist training session.
 
 
 

Upcoming Events

Attend a Signature Gathering Training in Your City

Trainings are lead by ballot initiative signature gathering guru Ken Masterton who has succeeded in getting every initiative he's worked with on the ballot. Come to learn, ask questions, and meet other volunteers. See you there!
Humboldt County
Thursday, December 1, 4pm- 5pm
Garberville Veterans Hall, Garberville, Ca
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=175721885851596
Chico
Thursday, December 1, 7PM
Location TBA

Nevada City/Grass Valley

Saturday, Dec 3rd, 10:00 AM to Noon
RSVP to gvlabelgmo@gmail.com
Livermore
Monday, December 5th, 7-8pm
6262 Patterson Pass Rd, Ste B, Livermore
Please feel free to contact Ashley with any questions at labelgmoslivermore@gmail.com
RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=196152967129707
Fairfax
Wednesday Dec 7th , 6:45-8PM
Fairfax Library
2097 Sir Francis Drake Blvd
Sacramento
Thursday, December 8, 7-8pm
Sacramento Grange Hall located at 3830 U St
Corte Madera
Saturday, Dec 17th, 10am - 11am
Sunrise Center
645 Tamalpais Drive, Suite A
To learn more about the initiative and the process, please visit the Organic Consumers Fund website.

Monday, November 21, 2011

WHO OWNS OUR WATER - HINT: NEW YORKERS NO LONGER OWN THEIR N.Y. WATER...

Bottled Water Companies Target Minorities, Poor

by Elizabeth Whitman
NEW YORK - Water is the lifeblood of this planet, whose inhabitants are watching its accelerated spiral into crisis mode even as they struggle to address the issues and lifestyles that are stretching the earth's resources thin.
A 2008 investigation by the Environmental Working Group found bottled water to be "chemically indistinguishable from tap water". Outwardly, the global water crisis appears straightforward - people simply consume too much water. A key factor in this spiral is the fact that water has been morphing from a natural resource into a marketable - and costly - product, experts and reports have shown.
Exploring different aspects of the global water crisis, from privatization of water to corporations marketing to minorities, reveals that water - as a human right, as a product, as a natural resource - is firmly entangled with a host of issues in areas, including public health.
By 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in areas with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world's population - projected to reach eight billion by then - will be under stress conditions. Some 1.4 billion currently lack access to safe water.
Humans consume water at a rate more than twice that of population growth, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In 60 percent of European cities with a population greater than 100,000, groundwater is used more quickly than it is replenished, said the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Yet even though humans consume more water than is sustainable, some would say that people do not drink enough water, and when they do, they're often being tricked into doing so.
Water, the commodity
Early in November, the watchdog group Corporate Accountability International (CAI) accused the Swiss transnational Nestle of manipulative marketing.
"Pure Life marketing specifically targets Latino immigrants in the United States, many of whom have suffered the consequences of poor public water infrastructure in other parts of the world," said a fact sheet from CAI.
"For the past 30 years, bottled water corporations like Nestle, Pepsi and Coke have helped build a 15 billion dollar U.S. bottled water market by casting doubts on public drinking water systems," a CAI press release added.
An article published in Forbes Magazine in August also pointed out how corporations including Coca Cola, Las Oleadas and Ravinia Partners create brands that are Latino-specific, for instance, or target minority mothers.
It also noted how water companies' slogans often promise water that is utterly natural, pure or fresh. A label on an ordinary Poland Springs bottle, for instance, which is produced by a Nestle subsidiary, reads "Pure Quality" and "100 percent natural spring water" and features a picturesque mountain peak and in the background.
When asked whether Nestle does market specifically to minority communities, Jane Lazgin, director of corporate communications for Nestlé Waters North America, told IPS, "That's correct."
"Nestle Pure Life is a meaningful brand in the Hispanic population," she said, but added that it is "widely distributed across many, many different audiences".
Lazgin acknowledged that Nestle Pure Life water "comes from wells or municipal systems", but emphasized that it undergoes an "intensive purification process".
Still, a 2008 investigation by the Environmental Working Group found bottled water to be "chemically indistinguishable from tap water", the summary of the investigation said.
"But with promotional campaigns saturated with images of mountain springs, and prices 1,900 times the price of tap water, consumers are clearly led to believe that they are buying a product that has been purified to a level beyond the water that comes out of the garden hose," it added.
Water v. soda
Targeting minorities can be seen as exploitation - a recent study found that Latino and black parents are three times more like to choose bottled water over tap water for their children - but the situation is not so black and white.
Hispanic children, according to the New York Department of Health, are at a higher risk of obesity than other groups.
"Marketing for sugary drinks also may be targeted disproportionately more often to minority and low-income youth who consume more of these products and are at higher risk of obesity and related diseases," found a recent report by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
In addition, beverage companies spend 948 million dollars in advertising sugary drinks and energy drinks in 2010, according to the report. Coca Cola alone spent nearly 180 million.
By comparison, Nestle Pure Life spent 9.7 million dollars in advertising expenditures in 2009, according to a Food and Water Watch report.
No longer is the problem merely the fact that bottle water has become a commodity that is marketed to a targeted audience.
Water is inarguably a healthier alternative to soda, so perhaps marketing water, albeit bottled, to the very audiences who are at higher risk of obesity, for instance, serves as a meager counterbalance to companies selling sugary drinks, even if many believe water should not be sold as a commodity in the first place.

POPEYE WAS RIGHT! GREEN VEGGIES - DIRECTLY LINKED TO STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM!

Green vegetables directly influence immune defences and help maintain intestinal health

13th October 2011

Marc Veldhoen
Leafy greens, widely recognised as containing essential ingredients for ensuring optimum health and wellbeing, have been shown to influence our intestinal health by delivering a protective factor to certain cells of the immune system. These findings, reported today online in the journal Cell, have implications for better understanding the basis of intestinal inflammatory disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and may offer new opportunities for therapeutic intervention.
The collaboration between UK-based researchers at the Babraham Institute, which receives strategic funding from the BBSRC, and the Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research provides new insight into how one chemical component found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, governs the survival of a special type of white blood cell, part of the body's front line defence against infections and important in wound repair.
The cells in question, known as intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IELs), exist as a network just beneath the epithelial cells that form the barrier along the body's surfaces.They play a critical role in monitoring the large number of sections micro-organisms present in the intestine, keeping infections at bay and maintaining a healthy gut. The research shows for the first time that mice fed a diet low in vegetables rapidly lose these specialised immune cells (IELs) lining the intestinal tract, but not other immune cells.
“This was surprising, since the new diet contained all other known essential ingredients such as minerals and vitamins,” said Dr Marc Veldhoen, senior author of the paper who conducted a large part of these studies in Dr Brigitta Stockinger’s department  at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research prior to taking up a position as Group Leader at the Babraham Institute. “I would have expected that cells at the surface would play some role in the interaction with the outside world, but such a clear cut interaction with the diet was unexpected. After feeding otherwise healthy mice a vegetable-poor diet for two to three weeks, I was amazed to see that 70 to 80% of these [protective] cells disappeared."
IELs are involved in maintaining the integrity of the intestinal surface by preventing bacteria from entering and by stimulating epithelial cell growth. Dr Veldhoen explained, “The consequences of losing these immune cells are two-fold. There is a failure to control the tightly regulated make-up of the intestinal bacteria, normally composed of beneficial species that aid digestive processes but which now contains more opportunistic, potentially harmful bacteria. It also results in a more fragile intestinal lining, elevating the risk of intestinal inflammation.”
The team discovered that a particular receptor molecule present at high levels on IELs – the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) – is central to understanding the connection between diet, numbers of IELs and a healthy gut. Earlier studies showed that the receptor’s activity can be triggered by dietary ingredients found at high levels in vegetables from the mustard or cabbage families; indole-3-carbinol (I3C) for instance can activate AhR, especially after contact with stomach acid.
Mice fed a purified synthetic diet almost completely devoid of vegetables showed a significant decrease in AhR activity and a loss of IELs, compared to those fed a normal diet, while supplementation of the low vegetable diet with I3C only maintained the intestinal IELs. Mice genetically lacking the AhR receptor were found to have no IELs and to lose control over the microbes living on the intestinal surface, both in terms of their numbers and composition. While the presence of AhR on IELs is directly important for their survival in the intestine, it is not needed for their generation or positioning in the intestine.
Animals lacking AhR activity for either genetic or dietary reasons showed lower levels of antimicrobial proteins, heightened immune activation and greater susceptibility to injury. And when the researchers mildly damaged the intestinal surface in animals eating a diet lacking in vegetables, the mice were not as quick to repair that damage.
Dr Brigitta Stockinger, Head of Division of Molecular Immunology at the National Institute for Medical Research added:  “The food we eat plays a crucial role in influencing our immune system and we have been looking at the intricate biology that determines how  cells in our intestines maintain an intrinsic protection against microbes. This study in mice is an important step towards increasing our understanding of how environmental signals shape immune responses at barrier sites such as the intestine. Marc Veldhoen's continuing studies at the Babraham institute will no doubt take this onto the next step.”
The implications to human intestinal immunity are currently not known. However, as an immunologist, Veldhoen says he hopes the findings will generate interest in the medical community, since some of the characteristics observed in the mice, on either a low vegetable diet or lacking AhR, are consistent with some clinical observations seen in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. These include increased levels of immune inflammation, increased susceptibility to intestinal damage, an altered composition and number of the intestinal bacteria and changes in the production of bactericidal factors. Interestingly, epidemiological studies have correlated a diet low in fruit and vegetables with an increased risk of IBD.
"It's tempting to extrapolate to humans," he said. "The problem is that there are many other factors that might play a role. It’s already known to be a good idea to eat your greens. Our results provide a molecular basis for the importance of cruciferous vegetable-derived phyto-nutrients as part of a healthy diet."
The discovery will also enable scientists to ask fundamental questions about the frequent interactions of cells of the immune system with external environmental factors. This was highlighted with the additional finding that IELs present in the mouse skin also crucially depend on the activation of AhR. While the nature of the interactions preserving skin IELs is currently unknown, it may provide a rationale for the reported association between some intestinal and skin disorders, the most frequent of which is psoriasis, as well as diet choices.
The research was funded initially by MRC and also by BBSRC at the Babraham Institute, which undertakes world-leading life sciences research to generate new knowledge of biological mechanisms underpinning ageing, development and the maintenance of health.
Professor Michael Wakelam, Director of the Babraham Institute said, “This research, in collaboration with the National Institute for Medical Research, is giving important insight into how dietary insufficiencies can adversely impact the immune system. This is also providing a greater understanding of the mechanisms behind intestinal inflammation, which is of direct relevance to promoting a healthier lifespan, supporting BBSRC’s mission to drive advances in fundamental bioscience for better health and wellbeing.”
Publication details:
Li Y, Innocentin S, Withers DR, Roberts NA, Gallagher AR, Grigorieva EF, Wilhelm C, Veldhoen M (In press)
Exogenous stimuli maintain intraepithelial lymphocytes via aryl hydrocarbon receptor activation.
Cell
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2011.09.025

Contact details:
Dr Claire Cockcroft    
Head, External Relations
Email:   claire.cockcroft@babraham.ac.uk
Tel:       +44 (0)1223 496260
Mobile: +44 (0)7786 335978
Dr. Marc Veldhoen
Email:   marc.veldhoen@babraham.ac.uk
The Babraham Institute
Babraham Research Campus
Cambridge CB22 3AT
United Kingdom

Notes to Editors:
The Babraham Institute
The Babraham Institute, which receives strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), undertakes international quality life sciences research to generate new knowledge of biological mechanisms underpinning ageing, development and the maintenance of health. The institute received £22.4M investment from BBSRC in 2010-11.The Institute’s research provides greater understanding of the biological events that underlie the normal functions of cells and the implication of failure or abnormalities in these processes. Research focuses on signalling and genome regulation, particularly the interplay between the two and how epigenetic signals can influence important physiological adaptations during the lifespan of an organism. By determining how the body reacts to dietary and environmental stimuli and manages microbial and viral interactions, we aim to improve wellbeing and healthier ageing. (www.babraham.ac.uk)
About BBSRC
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) invests in world-class bioscience research and training on behalf of the UK public. Our aim is to further scientific knowledge, to promote economic growth, wealth and job creation and to improve quality of life in the UK and beyond.
Funded by Government, and with an annual budget of around £445M, we support research and training in universities and strategically funded institutes. BBSRC research and the people we fund are helping society to meet major challenges, including food security, green energy and healthier, longer lives. Our investments underpin important UK economic sectors, such as farming, food, industrial biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
For more information about BBSRC, our science and our impact see: www.bbsrc.ac.uk
For more information about BBSRC strategically funded institutes see: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/institutes

About the Medical Research Council (MRC)
For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including one of the first antibiotics penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. www.mrc.ac.uk
Source:  http://www.babraham.ac.uk/news2011/oct-13.html

HARVARD'S GREEN FOODS STUDY - IT'S ANYTHING BUT PIZZA SAUCE

Eat Your Greens, or Your Gut Gets It
| Wed Nov. 16, 2011 4:00 AM PST
While Big Food rams its Tater Tots and frozen pizza school lunch agenda through Congress, we're learning more about the effects of diets high in starchy foods and low in green vegetables. And it's not pretty.
I pointed yesterday to a vast recent Harvard study finding that heavy consumption of potatoes—even in nonfried forms—leads to unhealthy weight gain.
Now, from UK scientists, comes a study (press release here; abstract here) suggesting that green vegetables may have even more dietary importance than we previously thought. (Hat tip Atlantic Life.) The researchers subjected mice to a diet stripped of vegetables and found that after just three weeks, the mice lost 70 to 80 percent of a kind of white blood cell called intraepithelial lymphocytes, which, the press release states, "play a critical role in monitoring the large number of micro-organisms present in the intestine, keeping infections at bay and maintaining a healthy gut."
One of the researchers, Marc Veldhoen, remarked that, "since the new diet contained all other known essential ingredients such as minerals and vitamins," the results surprised him.
Image: Babraham InstituteImage: Babraham Institute
But I'm not surprised at all. Foodstuffs are complex; they are not the sum of their vitamins and minerals, calories and fiber, fat and protein, or any other isolated substance currently being fetishized or demonized by the food industry. As this study shows, you can't calculate the level of vitamins and minerals found in leafy greens, synthesize them, combine them in a vitamin pill, and then happily dispense with leafy greens. Whole foods interact with our bodies in ways we are only beginning to understand.
I predict someone will be inspired by this study to isolate indole-3-carbinol, synthesize it for a mass-produced pill, and market it as an immune-enhancing wonder supplement. If it happens, I'm willing to bet that that researchers will find that indole-3-carbinol supplements don't do the work of leafy greens, either. Recall that when scientists discovered the benefits of antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables, the supplement industry rushed out with all manner of antioxidant potions—which proved to be worthless. It turns out that isolated beta-carotene added to a pill or a can of soda doesn't offer the same benefits as beta-carotene in the context of a carrot. Unfortunately, a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that more than two-thirds of US adults fail to meet the recommended daily intake of at least five fruits and vegetables per day.
"Eat real veggies" is something we could be teaching kids in school cafeterias. Instead, we're going to keep teaching them to scarf down stuff like "potato smiles."
Source:   http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/11/eat-your-greens-or-your-gut-gets-it

Sunday, November 20, 2011

BAN US TAX $$$ - THAT STEAL FISH FROM OUR OCEANS - SELL THEM BACK TO US FOR HUGE PROFIT?

Occupy the Ocean, Occupy the Delta 

by: Dan Bacher, AlterNet | News Analysis

As the Occupy movement spreads throughout the nation and world, sustainable fishing communities, consumer groups and grassroots environmentalists have mobilized to stop the 1 percent from stealing ocean public trust resources from the 99 percent. 
This week the U.S. Congress is expected to vote on a critical bill that would continue a recently instituted ban on a wasteful government program that gives large corporations control of the nation’s fishery resources, in effect privatizing the ocean’s public trust resources. 
The Obama regime is promoting a “catch shares” program for fisheries that, like the Wall Street bailouts, will concentrate money and natural resources in fewer hands. Corporate environmental NGOs promoting the catch shares fiasco are heavily funded by the Walton Family Foundation (WalMart) and other foundations that represent the 1 percent (http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/08/19/wal-marting-the-oceans). 
The ban has broad bi-partisan support. On November 3, nineteen Members of Congress from seven Eastern Seaboard states signed a letter urging Congress to not fund the Obama administration’s catch shares program. 
Drafted by Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House Appopriations Committee and the Commerce subcommittee, the letter asks that “language be included in the final FY 2012 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill to restrict the use of funds for development or approval of new ‘catch share’ programs for any fishery under the jurisdiction of the New England, Mid Atlantic or South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils.” (http://www.savingseafood.org/washington/19-members-of-congress-ask-appropriations-and-authorizing-committees-not-to-fund-new-catch-share-pro-3.html
“The last thing the American government should be doing in these economic times is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to expand programs that will put even more Americans out of work,” the letter stated. “But that’s exactly what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is attempting to do by requesting $54 million in its FY 12 Budget to accelerate implementation of new fisheries catch share programs across the U.S.” 
Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, is one of the organizations leading the charge to ban catch shares. “In recent years the government has been ramping up spending of taxpayer dollars on catch share programs,” according to Zach Corrigan, Fish Program Director of Food & Water Watch. “These programs divide up our nation’s fishery resources for exclusive use by the biggest and fastest fishing operations and then allow corporations and banks to buy and sell these ’shares’ for profit.” 
“Catch shares turn the opportunity to go fishing into a commodity, requiring commercial fishermen to buy shares before being able to go fishing. As has happened with family farms on land, the added costs push smaller-scale fishermen out of business and consolidate the industry, paving the way for industrial fishing methods that can destroy sensitive ocean habitats,” Corrigan noted. 
Make your voice heard now! 
Last year, Congress passed a one-year measure to stop new catch share programs on the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, but industry proponents are attempting to end this ban this week, noted Corrigan. 
“Congress needs to hear that you oppose making small-scale fishermen a relic of the past and increasing our reliance on corporate-controlled food production. Can you ask your member of Congress to keep this ban on “catch share” programs?” urged Corrigan. 
If you don’t want what’s happened to our housing, banking, health care and other industries to happen to our ocean, send a letter today! 
On a similar note, the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (http://namanet.org) is circulating a graphic entitled, “Occupy the Ocean?” warning of the increasing consolidation of fisheries in the hands of a few. 
“In 2010, 20% of vessels accounted for about 80% of the gross nominal revenues from groundfish sales in New England,” the alliance states. “Diversity matters when it comes to who catches our fish, grows our food, banks our cars or keeps us healthy.” 
Privatization of the public trust and conservation is bad for fish, communities 
The increasing corporate control of public resources that has occurred wherever “catch shares” have been introduced has devastated fish populations and fishing communities. 
“The current focus of U.S. policy for managing our fisheries, called catch shares, is destroying the way of life of our nation’s fishermen and coastal communities,” according to a groundbreaking Food & Water Watch event released in August. (http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/Fish-Inc.pdf). “This time-honored trade is being replaced by a privatized system that often leaves the future of our nation’s fish, one of our most precious natural resources, in the hands of a small number of larger operations, whose primary goal is often immediate profit rather than sustainable use and long-term conservation.” 
In California, the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private corporation, has funded the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. The MLPA Initiative, overseen by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests, creates so-called “marine protected areas” that fail to protect the ocean from oil drilling and spills, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wind and wave energy projects and all other human impacts other than fishing and gathering. 
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), was chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force that oversaw the development of these questionable “marine protected areas” on the Southern California coast. She also served on the panels for the North Central and North Coast. Reheis-Boyd has lobbied for new oil rigs off the California coast and tar sands drilling in Canada – and is no friend of the environment. 
Yet MLPA advocates refused to question or oppose the appointment by Schwarzenegger of a big oil lobbyist – and falsely claimed that the rigged process was “open, transparent and inclusive,” while it was anything but. For more information, go to: http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/01/13/why-is-a-big-oil-lobbyist-in-charge-of-californias-marine-protection-program
Occupy movement message spreads to the California Delta 
Meanwhile, the same Obama administration that is promoting the catch shares program and the same Brown administration that has continued Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s MLPA Initiative are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the peripheral canal to export more water from the California Delta to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies. Delta residents, family farmers, Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, conservationists and environmental justice advocates are opposing the enormously expensive government boondoggle because it would likely lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and green sturgeon populations. 
In a public meeting held by the Department of Fish and Game on November 8 regarding the Department’s striped bass eradication proposal, Dawn Gulick, owner of Eddo’s Harbor, echoed the theme of the Occupy Wall Street protests taking place throughout the country. Gulick said the water contractors, including Stewart Resnick, the politically connected Beverly Hills billionaire who has made tens of millions of dollars annually from buying and reselling water back to the state for a big profit, are waging “class war” against the people of the Delta. 
“This is a class war and they’re winning,” she stated, followed by a person next to her shouting, “Occupy the Delta!” Others joined in shouting, “Occupy the Delta.” 
“It’s our Delta. Big Money has big influence over our government and it’s time to take our government back!” she continued as people in the crowd applauded. 
After reading my article on the meeting, an editor of the San Francisco Chronicle decided to interview Gulick (http://blog.sfgate.com/opinionshop/2011/11/11/occupys-message-heard-in-the-delta) regarding the water contractors’ war on the Delta. 
“It’s the 1 percent coming after our water, our fish and our farms,” Gullick told the Chronicle. The real elephant in the room is pumping, not bass predation, she said. “The pelagic organisms decline the more water they pump from the delta.” 
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and one of the most outspoken opponents of the peripheral canal and state and federal plans to export even more water out of the Delta, urged support for the Occupy movement as the police were raiding the Occupy Oakland encampment Monday. 
“All California people need to keep up with what is happening to the 99%! That is US, we are the 99%!” she emphasized. 
Her Tribe is pushing for an innovative plan to restore native winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta with eggs provided by the Maori and New Zealand governments. Although extinct in their native habitat on the McCloud, the salmon are now thriving in the Rakaira and other rivers in New Zealand. 
I believe it is time to “occupy the oceans,” “occupy the Delta,” and stand up for local communities and our oceans against the privatization of conservation and public trust resources. The 99 percent must rise up against the 1 percent that only care about their profits as they greenwash their privatization plans.