1,000 Women Sue Pfizer Over Alleged Birth Control–Brain Tumor Link
+ good news for regenerative farming
Good morning everyone.
This week I’m back up in Washington State performing our annual Christmas show with my family, a tradition that goes all the way back to my infancy.
You see, my family—the Voetbergs—are basically Von Trapp wannabes. The Sound of Music was/is a canonical work in our household, so much so that I did a tribute to the show at my senior recital. I even flew to Salzburg to hop those steps from the “Do-Re-Mi” scene. Plus, my mom went to Catholic elementary school, so she’s essentially Fraulein Maria.
Really, the only major difference between our families is that we’re not trying to flee the Nazis and that my dad couldn’t sing Edelweiss to save his ten children’s lives.
Anyway, the Voetberg shows are going down this weekend, and if you were lucky enough to snag a ticket, I’m sure you’d love to see me in the flesh, Mr. Chief Buttercup. Maybe I’ll do an autograph or something.
For those of you less fortunate to miss out on the tickets, we’re allegedly going to livestream our final performance on Saturday. When I get the link for the stream, I’ll be dropping it here so you can watch me in my musical glory.
The USDA is launching a regenerative farming pilot program to help American farmers adopt smarter, more sustainable farming practices. The USDA is putting $700 million into the program, which looks good, but in government finances, that’s basically like forty bucks.
Speaking of saving Mother Earth, the leading science journal Nature retracted a paper published last year that claimed climate change will reduce global economic output by 62% by the end of the century. It was the second most-cited climate paper of 2024, and it turns out that when people dug into math, it looked like my girlfriend (not good with numbers) was manning the spreadsheet. Whoopsies! I didn’t realize I moved that decimal too far over. My bad!
I used to think that the phrase “there’s no such thing as a dumb question” was good and true. But then I started reading the New York Times, and now I realize that there are indeed questions that should go unasked—and unprinted.
intentionally separates children from their mothers,
commodifies women’s reproductive capacities,
prioritises adult desires over the rights of the child, and
exposes women to heightened physical, psychological, and financial risks.
Researchers are seeing more aggressive breast cancer in young women. It’s critical to remember that lifestyle is the driving force behind this rise. Obviously nutrition and exercise matter, but the main culprit in this case is the toxic milieu of synthetic chemicals mimicking estrogen that are omnipresent in American women’s lives. Think: standard makeup, shampoo, hairspray, etc. For the female Buttercups not sure where to start on non-toxic, non–breast-cancer-causing cosmetics, check out my friend Suzi of Gurl Gone Green. She’s a Buttercup and clean beauty queen.
What a privilege it is to be living at the same time as Mikaela Shiffrin, who just won her 104th skiing World Cup title. Running On Butter will be reporting diligently as she represents Team USA in the upcoming Winter Olympics.
Over 1,000 women are suing Pfizer, claiming that the company's birth control caused brain tumors.
Substack put on a delightful pie contest with an all-star judge line-up. Need that shaker lemon pie recipe.
