Creating a Sweatfree World

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Committee chosen to develop ANSI sustainable agriculture standard

Food Chemical News
08/04/2008

Excerpt from article:

The Wisconsin-based Leonardo Academy has chosen a committee to develop a sustainable agriculture standard for adoption by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Organic and small-scale farming are strongly represented on the panel,  which also includes representatives of major agribusiness trade associations and well-known food companies such as Kellogg and General
Mills (see below).

Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on Sen. John McCain's Trip to Colombia and Mexico

AFL-CIO
07/01/2008

Sen. John McCain's trip to Colombia and Mexico is yet one more example of how out of touch he is with working families, and how close he is to corporate special interests. Working people have seen bad trade deals send their jobs overseas and decimate their communities, yet McCain enthusiastically supports the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and celebrates the effects of NAFTA.

Prius Envy and the Greening of Wal-Mart: A Blind Spot for the Human Cost

GreenBiz.com
06/30/2008

Can it be that our green heroes Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt care about the cachet of owning a Prius but not about the abused workers making these feel-good cars?

A report from the National Labor Committee released earlier this month alleging abusive working conditions in Japanese Toyota Prius plants provides a much needed jolt to the environmental and business communities about the danger of viewing environmental concerns as separate from human concerns.

Financial Services Committee hears evidence for SEC rule change to level international playing field in oil, gas and mining

Publish What You Pay Coalition Press Release
06/26/2008

For Immediate Release

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Contact: Allison Lenthall, 703-600-9324, allison [at] kelleycampaigns.com

Sarah Pray, 202-721-5623, spray [at] pwypusa.org

Witnesses explain benefits of EITD Act for U.S. businesses, energy security and international human rights

Amnesty condemns forced cane labor in Brazil

Reuters
05/28/2008

Amnesty International criticized poor working conditions and forced labor in Brazil's fast-growing sugar cane sector on Wednesday, as the government tries to promote the cane-based ethanol industry as a way to reduce poverty.

The human rights group said Brazil's government has taken steps to improve working conditions in rural areas, but it has confirmed cases of forced labor throughout the country.

Human cost of Brazil's biofuels boom

Los Angeles Times
06/16/2008

For as far as the eye can see, stalks of sugar cane march across the hillsides here like giant praying mantises. This is ground zero for ethanol production in Brazil -- "the Saudi Arabia of biofuels," as some have already labeled this vast South American country.

But even as Brazil's booming economy is powered by fuel processed from the cane, labor officials are confronting what some call the country's dirty little ethanol secret: the mostly primitive conditions endured by the multitudes of workers who cut the cane.

Burger With a Side of Spies

New York Times
05/07/2008

While the Patriot Act has raised fears about government spying on ordinary citizens, the growing threat to civil liberties posed by corporate spying has received much less attention. During the late 1990s, a private security firm spied on Greenpeace and other environmental groups, examining activists’ phone records and even sending undercover agents to infiltrate the groups, according to an article in Mother Jones. In 2006 Hewlett-Packard was caught spying on journalists. Last year Wal-Mart apologized for improperly recording conversations with a New York Times reporter.

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