(ALERT OVER) Emergency Organic Rally — Reminders/Directions/The Lay of the Land

Hello all, Just a reminder and some particulars on the emergency rally for organic dairy farmers this coming Thursday, July 16. The rally will be held from 11 AM through noon. The event will take place at the La Crosse Interstate Fairgrounds in West Salem, Wisconsin. The fairgrounds are located on County M just north […]

Organic Tomatoes, Part 1, Greater Health Benefits

Stephanie Robbins SF Organic Food Examiner Reducing our food down to its micronutrients is the most unromantic way to look at food we’ve come up with yet. Gone are the descriptions that tempt us and make our mouths water. We’ve tossed out the sweet, tang of a tomato on our lip and replaced it with […]

Economic Strife in Farming Communities Leads Some to Tragic Ends

Bangor Daily News By Sharon Kiley Mack AUGUSTA, Maine — It’s the one topic a lot of farmers are keenly aware of but won’t talk about. They’ll discuss weather, milk prices, the cost of equipment, cow genetics and bull semen, but they never talk to each other about suicide. Increased suicide among farmers is a […]

Organic Dairy Farmers to Rally July 16, Meet with USDA Secretary Vilsack

Symbolic Milk Dump Planned as Tidal Wave of Milk from Factory Dairies Drowns Family Farmers WEST SALEM, WIS: A glut of organic milk, fueled by giant factory farms, threatens to wash family farmers off their land. Farmers and their advocates are calling an emergency rally this coming Thursday, July 16, in an effort to demonstrate […]

Organic Vs. Natural A Source of Confusion in Food Labeling

Labeling of food a growing source of confusion, critics say Chicago Tribune By Monica Eng At first it may seem only right for Dean Foods, the nation’s largest organic dairy producer, to roll out a line of yogurts and milk marketed as “natural.” But Dean’s announcement last week alarmed advocates of organic food, who say […]

Obama Administration Takes Action on Food Safety

Washington Post (link no longer available) By David Alexander Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Tuesday ordered tougher steps to curb salmonella and E.coli contamination of U.S. food and created a post of deputy food commissioner to coordinate safety in the wake of a major salmonella outbreak. The administration, concerned by delays in identifying […]

Street Farmer

New York Times By ELIZABETH ROYTE Will Allen, a farmer of Bunyonesque proportions, ascended a berm of wood chips and brewer’s mash and gently probed it with a pitchfork. “Look at this,” he said, pleased with the treasure he unearthed. A writhing mass of red worms dangled from his tines. He bent over, raked another […]

Message to Obama: Please Fix the USDA’s Organic Mess Overhaul of Management and Culture Needed

Washington Post investigative story a scathing indictment of Bush Administration tenure at the National Organic Program Cornucopia, WI – President Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack are being urged to take immediate action to repair the USDA’s increasingly dysfunctional National Organic Program (NOP). Suspect imports of grains, nuts, and vegetables from China and other […]

Market For Organic Milk Goes Sour

By Georgina Gustin ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH When a group of organic dairy farmers in Missouri and neighboring states banded together to sell their milk through a cooperative a few years ago, they thought they had stumbled onto a dairying gold mine. The industry had been a bumpy ride for a decade. Prices fluctuated wildly. But […]

Purity of Federal ‘Organic’ Label Is Questioned

By Kimberly Kindy and Lyndsey Layton Washington Post Staff Writers Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in […]

Profit over Organics: Nation’s Largest Dairy Marketer Sets Up Competing Market Category

Dean Foods Creates “Natural” Dairy Products Using Conventional Milk BOULDER, CO: A division of Dean Foods, the organic industry’s largest namebrand manufacturer, rocked the organic world this week when it was reported that the agribusiness giant intended to create an entirely new, lower-priced, product category, “natural dairy,” aimed squarely at pirating away organic customers. If […]

Southern Minn. Organic Farm Attracts Wildlife

Daily Globe GIBBON, Minn (AP)- It has all the markings of a working farm — 70 milk cows, crop fields, tractors, hay baler, combine. But there is so much more on the Martin and Loretta Jaus farm northwest of Gibbon. Marshes are humming with the spring nesting activity of wood ducks, teal and mallards, while […]