Farmers Markets Bloom at Hospitals

(CNN) — For years, hospitals have embodied a paradox. As patients are tethered to dialysis machines, and many lay bedridden from obesity-related diseases, the hospitals’ fast food joints and cafeterias dispense fried goodies and slick burgers that contributed to such conditions. “With fast food establishments, hospitals are sending a message that food is not important […]

USDA Report Indicates American Organic Farmers Being Sold Out

Domestic Producers Hurt by Growing Corporate Imports On the heels of the release of The Cornucopia Institute’s study exposing the import-dependent organic soy industry, a report by the United States Department of Agriculture substantiates Cornucopia’s findings. Using different research methods, the two reports reach similar conclusions: organic manufacturers and farmers are facing escalating competition from […]

Battle Over Beets

Corvallis Gazette-Times By Bennett Hall Organic seed producer Frank Morton has been warning people for years that genetically modified organisms pose a serious threat to the Willamette Valley’s vegetable seed industry. Now he thinks his worst GMO nightmare may be coming true. Roundup Ready sugarbeets – a patented variety engineered by Monsanto to tolerate the […]

Fertilized by Growing Power, veggie tales become the latest story at businesses

By Karen Herzog of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Vegetable stands lush with asparagus and salad greens are sprouting in corporate parking lots. Kohl’s Corp. is planting vegetable gardens to help the less fortunate. And City Hall next week will get its own version of the White House kitchen garden. Nonprofit urban farm Growing Power is […]

(ALERT OVER) — Want Better Oversight of Genetically Engineered Crops?

Now’s your chance! National Organic Coalition In the waning months of the Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a proposal to completely overhaul regulation of genetically engineered (GE)crops. The plan significantly weakens USDA oversight. The proposed rules would virtually ensure that contamination of organic and conventional crops will become even more frequent, […]

Scandal Fuels Meltdown in Organic Dairy Industry

Farmers Seek Justice from Obama, USDA; Consumers Headed Back to Court St. Louis, MO – A slowdown in the sales of organic milk and dairy products, attributed in recent articles by the New York Times and other media outlets to the weakened economy, has organic dairy farmers from coast to coast at or near financial […]

Eat, Drink, Think, Change

The New York Times By KIM SEVERSON MOVIES about food used to make you want to eat. The decade that spanned the mid-1980s to mid-1990s was particularly fruitful. It took heroic resolve to walk out of the Japanese spaghetti western “Tampopo” and not head directly to a ramen bar. Cooks spent entire months trying to […]

Organic Bread Found to Cause 25% Less CO2 Emissions

Bakeryinfo.co.uk A new study has claimed that the environmental impact of the production, packaging and distribution of organic bread is far less than that of conventional bread, with organic bread emitting as much as a quarter less CO2 into the atmosphere. The research, conducted by the Öko-Institut in Freiburg, Germany, was part of comprehensive research […]

Buying The Farm: A Good Bet For Rural Retirees

NPR (listen here) by Howard Berkes All Things Considered, June 3, 2009 – When the economy suffers, the nation’s farmers also suffer – including those close to retirement. At least, that’s been the pattern in the past. But in the current recession, those who invested in farmland – and not 401(k) retirement accounts – made […]

Organic Food and a Healthier Future

The Organic Center Overweight, obesity and diabetes are collectively the nation’s number one public health problem. Effective interventions are urgently needed, especially among children and adolescents, in order to improve human well being and to slow, and hopefully soon, reduce growth in health care costs. Now, a new report from the Organic Center describes six […]

The Food Industry’s Newest Smell Test

From Cornucopia’s farming and food policy analyst, Charlotte Vallaeys: “Wasn’t there a reason why our sense of smell is so acute when we eat — what was it again… oh yes, to avoid rotten food! Well, good thing that now we can have rotten food that smells fresh. What genius. Especially for tasteless, nutritionless, overly […]