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For Immediate Release
January, 18 2021, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Sylvia Wu, 510-434-4871, swu@centerforfoodsafety.org
Public Oral Argument in Lawsuit Challenging the Labeling of Hydroponically-Grown Foods as Organic
On Thursday, January 21st, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California will hear arguments in Center for Food Safety's (CFS) ongoing lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) "soil-less" loophole that permits the labeling of hydroponically-grown foods as USDA Certified Organic, even though the Organic statute and regulations clearly mandate all organic crop producers foster soil fertility in order to obtain organic certification.
WASHINGTON
On Thursday, January 21st, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California will hear arguments in Center for Food Safety's (CFS) ongoing lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) "soil-less" loophole that permits the labeling of hydroponically-grown foods as USDA Certified Organic, even though the Organic statute and regulations clearly mandate all organic crop producers foster soil fertility in order to obtain organic certification.
WHAT: Oral Argument in Center for Food Safety's Lawsuit Challenging the Labeling of Hydroponically-Grown Foods as Organic
WHEN: Thursday, January 21, 2021, at 1:30 PM PST
(Note: the Court's afternoon session starts at 1:30 PM, and is currently listed as the first of the two cases scheduled for hearing that afternoon, but the Court can hear the cases in any order it wishes)
WHERE: District Judge Richard Seeborg's Virtual Courtroom via Zoom. Join here >>
CFS filed a petition requesting USDA to prohibit organic certification of hydroponic operations that do not work with or build soil in 2019. After USDA denied the petition, CFS, along with a coalition of organic farms and stakeholders, filed a lawsuit challenging USDA's decision to allow hydroponic operations to continue to be certified organic in March 2020. The lawsuit claims that hydroponic operations violate organic standards for failing to build healthy soils, and asks the Court to stop USDA from allowing hydroponically-produced crops to be sold under the USDA Organic label.
Hydroponic operations, or "hydroponics," describes methods of growing crops using water-based nutrient solutions without any soil. CFS's lawsuit cites the federal Organic Foods Production Act, which requires farms to build soil fertility in order to be certified organic. Hydroponics cannot comply with federal organic standards because hydroponic crops are not grown in soil. Allowing hydroponics to be certified organic is another attempt to weaken the integrity of the Organic label, and has resulted in market confusion and inconsistent organic certifications.
Thursday's hearing on summary judgment will be the only time the Court will hear oral arguments on whether hydroponic operations that do not work with soil meet the mandatory requirements to be sold under the USDA Organic label, and whether USDA violated the federal Organic Foods Production Act when it decided to exempt hydroponic operations from the Organic Label's soil-building requirements.
The plaintiff coalition in the lawsuit includes some of the longest-standing organic farms in the United States, including Swanton Berry Farm, Full Belly Farm, Durst Organic Growers, Terra Firma Farm, Jacobs Farm del Cabo, and Long Wind Farm, in addition to organic stakeholder organizations, such as organic certifier OneCert and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.
Center for Food Safety's mission is to empower people, support farmers, and protect the earth from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture. Through groundbreaking legal, scientific, and grassroots action, we protect and promote your right to safe food and the environment. CFS's successful legal cases collectively represent a landmark body of case law on food and agricultural issues.
(202) 547-9359LATEST NEWS
Investigation Reveals Israel 'Evaporated' Nearly 3,000 Palestinians With Thermal Weapons in Gaza
“We found nothing of Saad. Not even a body to bury. That was the hardest part.”
Feb 10, 2026
An investigation conducted by Al Jazeera based on evidence collected by the Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip has concluded that nearly 3,000 Palestinians have been "evaporated" by Israel through the use of thermal weapons—some of them supplied by the US.
As reported by Al Jazeera on Tuesday, the investigation found that 2,842 Palestinians were killed due to Israel's "systematic use of internationally prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons, often referred to as vacuum or aerosol bombs, capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius [6,332 degrees Fahrenheit]."
The heat generated by these weapons is so intense, investigators noted, that they leave behind almost no detectable human remains other than blood stains or pieces of flesh.
Israel's use of such weapons was flagged last year in a social media post by Omar Hamad, a Gaza pharmacist who posted a video purportedly showing a thermobaric bomb being detonated in Beit Hanoun.
Israel is using thermobaric (vacuum) bombs in Beit Hanoun. These are shock waves that spread in a circular and low pattern near the ground surface, preceding the appearance of the dust cloud by far, indicating a speed faster than the speed of sound.
This is genocide. pic.twitter.com/tA7jC61g33
— Omar Hamad | عُـمَـرْ 𓂆 (@OmarHamadD) July 13, 2025
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Gaza Civil Defense, said hat the investigation was not a mere estimate of Palestinians incinerated by thermal and thermobaric weapons, but the result of painstaking forensic work.
"We enter a targeted home and cross-reference the known number of occupants with the bodies recovered," Basal explained. "If a family tells us there were five people inside, and we only recover three intact bodies, we treat the remaining two as ‘evaporated’ only after an exhaustive search yields nothing but biological traces—blood spray on walls or small fragments like scalps."
Unlike the explosions caused by traditional bombs, the thermobaric weapons used by Israel in Gaza first disperse clouds of fuel in a given area that are then ignited to create an enormous and intense fireball.
The investigation found that the fuel typically used in Israeli thermobaric weapons was tritonal, a mixture consisting of 80% TNT and 20% aluminum powder often found in US-manufactured weapons such as the Mark 84 aircraft bomb.
Dr Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the heat generated by these weapons is so intense that any living creatures' bodily fluids will immediately boil.
"When a body is exposed to energy exceeding 3,000 degrees combined with massive pressure and oxidation, the fluids boil instantly," al-Bursh explained. "The tissues vaporize and turn to ash. It is chemically inevitable."
Gaza resident Yasmin Mahani told Al Jazeera that her son, Saad, was incinerated by a 2024 Israeli strike that hit a school in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City.
“We found nothing of Saad," Mahani said. "Not even a body to bury. That was the hardest part.”
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'War by Another Means': Union Movement Condemns Trump Economic Siege of Cuba
"Recent actions by the Trump administration have further exacerbated an already US-manufactured humanitarian crisis," said Public Services International Inter-America.
Feb 10, 2026
The inter-American branch of a global labor federation representing tens of millions of workers issued a statement Monday condemning the Trump administration's intensifying economic assault on Cuba and threats of regime change, calling such actions "war by other means" and violations of international law.
"They are incompatible with peace, the human right to dignity, and the principle of national sovereignty," said Public Services International (PSI) Inter-America as the Trump administration's blockade of oil imports fueled a worsening humanitarian crisis for the island nation, bringing rolling blackouts, straining hospitals, and causing shortages of food and other necessities.
The labor federation said Monday that the Trump administration's policies are an extension of the catastrophic, decades-long economic US blockade on Cuba, "which constitutes a violation of the United Nations Charter and has been condemned year after year by the overwhelming majority of the international community."
"Recent actions by the Trump administration have further exacerbated an already US-manufactured humanitarian crisis," PSI Inter-America said, pointing to the White House's blockade of Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threats of economic retaliation against any country that provides the island nation with fuel.
"These measures deliberately deepen suffering and place lives in danger," the union federation said. "The blockade itself causes avoidable hardship, illness, and death among the Cuban people every year. Its intensification follows months of sanctions, seizures, and interference targeting Venezuelan oil shipments, further depriving Cuba of essential energy supplies."
The federation called on all of its affiliates worldwide and trade unions in the Americas to:
- Stand in active solidarity with the people of Cuba and publicly oppose the US blockade by raising their voices in protest, in every possible arena, to condemn this arbitrary and immoral measure;
- Demand that their governments take immediate and concrete action to defend international law, continue trade relations with Cuba, and ensure the delivery of all contractual and humanitarian goods;
- Advocate in all multilateral bodies for continued support for Cuba in the face of this ongoing economic aggression.
- Mobilize members to contact elected representatives through coordinated phone calls, emails, and letters demanding an end to the blockade;
- Press national labor centers to carry these demands forward on behalf of the entire labor movement;
- Organize and collect humanitarian and solidarity aid for Cuba; and
- Where possible, organize delegations to Cuba, including participation in the May 1 demonstrations in Havana and the Solidarity Conference on May 2, and consider earlier solidarity visits.
During a news conference on Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the Trump administration's escalating economic warfare against Cuba as "deeply unjust" and vowed to "continue supporting Cuba"—even as her government halted oil shipments to its ally amid the US president's threats.
"You cannot strangle a people in this way," said Sheinbaum, who this past weekend authorized a shipment of more than 800 tons of humanitarian aid to Cuba, including food and other necessities.
"No one can ignore the situation that the Cuban people are currently experiencing because of the sanctions that the United States is imposing in a very unfair manner," the Mexican president added.
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Israel's US-Backed Assault on Gaza Set Stage for Collective Punishment in Cuba, AOC Says
"This is a new kind of era of depravity opened up," said the congresswoman. "There was this stated commitment on human rights—that innocent civilians were almost exempt from the rules of war, from blockades."
Feb 10, 2026
As the Cuban government announced Monday that the Trump administration's oil blockade on the country would soon leave airlines without jet fuel, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that the international community has become far too accepting of acts of economic warfare that collectively punish an entire population, not just government officials.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told Drop Site News reporter Julian Andreone that the stage for the worsened suffering of Cuban people was set in Gaza, where both Republican and Democratic US officials have backed Israel's starvation policy and military assault since October 2023.
"This is what we've seen with Gaza, right, this is a new kind of era of depravity opened up, where there used to be—or there was this stated commitment on human rights—that innocent civilians were almost exempt from the rules of war, from blockades," Ocasio-Cortez said.
🎥 WATCH | Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) reacted to Drop Site News reporting on internal divisions in the Trump administration’s Cuba policy by pointing to Gaza as evidence of a broader collapse in Western human rights norms.
She said the “entire Western world” is looking… pic.twitter.com/SnI4niD8JH
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) February 10, 2026
Cuban people have long been victimized by the US government's decadeslong, illegal trade embargo. But Trump's decision to cut off Cuba's oil supply from Venezuela, which was its largest energy supplier, and threaten to slap tariffs on any country that provides oil to the island nation, has left families facing lengthy blackouts and the threat that Cuba's healthcare system could soon grind to a halt without fuel to keep hospitals running.
Trump has claimed he aims to punish the Cuban government, which he said last month constitutes "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to the US. He accused the country, without evidence, of harboring terrorists. Cuban officials have vehemently condemned the accusations.
Ocasio-Cortez compared Trump's economic attack on Cuba to the catastrophe the US-backed Israeli military has imposed on Gaza since 2023, when it began its assault and humanitarian aid blockade in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. A "ceasefire" deal was reached in October, but hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces since then and Israel has continued to block aid.
While persistently claiming Hamas is the target of the assault—which international experts and human rights groups have called a genocide—the Israeli military, with US support, has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians and has bombed homes, schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure.
"What has transpired is that now it's kind of become acceptable that the entire Western world will look the other way as they starve and deprive a people because they find political actors or political regimes in that country to be objectionable," said Ocasio-Cortez. "What we are seeing here is the possible precipice of hospitals running out of fuel... We're talking about innocent children, women that could be put in harm's way."
"It's incumbent upon all of us to defend human rights no matter where they are," she added.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, agreed with the congresswoman's analysis.
"Gaza was not just a genocide," he said, but was meant to further Israel's goal "to destroy much of international law and the norms around the use of force in order to make increasingly inhumane use of violence and coercion against CIVILIANS permissible."
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, added that Ocasio-Cortez was "rightly picking up the banner of a rules-based international consensus" on human rights, which was abandoned by the Biden administration when it gave financial and political support for Israel's assault on Gaza.
Ocasio-Cortez echoed the concerns voiced earlier this week by Pierre-Emmanuel Dupont, an international expert on sanctions law, who told the Cuban storytelling outlet Belly of the Beast that the Trump administration was "posing the risk of imminent humanitarian collapse in relation to the lack of fuel, which may gravely affect basically all human rights of the civilian population there."
“Sanctions should be expected to be limited to officials," said Dupont. "They are not supposed to apply bluntly to the whole population—which they do. They constitute collective punishment to the extent that they hit each and every Cuban citizen irrespective of their relationship with the government or regime.”
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