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Largest Organic Factory Farm Operator Once Again Accused of Illegal Activity

Family Dairy Farmers Appeal to Obama Administration for Swift Enforcement WASHINGTON, DC: Aurora Dairy, based in Boulder, Colorado, the nation’s largest organic dairy producer, is once again facing allegations of improprieties. Aurora had previously been found in “willful” violation of multiple federal organic standards by USDA investigators in 2007. This week an organic industry watchdog, […]

Produce Trucks to Make Fresh Foods More Accessible

Detroit Free Press By Joe Rossiter A pilot program designed to offer Detroiters healthier food choices and easier access to fresh fruits and vegetables was announced Tuesday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm outside Peaches & Green, a produce store in Detroit. Operating much like ice cream vendors, trucks bearing fresh fruits and vegetables and sporting logos […]

Native Bees Play Bigger Role as Honeybees Decline

The Seattle Times By Linda V. Mapes Bumblebees assiduously comb the purple blooms of thistles, seeking nectar. Native pollinators such as these fat, fuzzy bumblebees, once an overlooked sideshow in the insect world, are gaining widespread appreciation among everyone from backyard gardeners to big-time farmers. That’s because European honeybees, the pollination mainstay of commercial agriculture, […]

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

Time Magazine By Bryan Walsh Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won’t bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste […]

Food for the Soul

The New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF YAMHILL, Ore. — On a summer visit back to the farm here where I grew up, I think I figured out the central problem with modern industrial agriculture. It’s not just that it produces unhealthy food,mishandles waste and overuses antibiotics in ways that harm us all. […]

Independent Farmers Feel Squeezed By Milk Cartel

National Public Radio Behind that pure, wholesome, nourishing glass of milk, there’s an insurgency. The price of raw milk paid to farmers has dropped to its lowest level in 40 years. Dairy farms are going under across the country, and a few dairymen have grown so desperate they’ve taken their own lives. As the crisis […]

Antibiotics in Ethanol

In July, IATP (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy) published “Fueling Resistance? Antibiotics in Ethanol Production“ by Julia Olmstead. The paper reported on the widespread and unnecessary use of antibiotics in ethanol production. “The epidemic of antibiotic resistance threatens every one of us,” said IATP’s David Wallinga, M.D. “The best way to keep our existing […]

Organic Foods: Big Companies Swoop In to Capitalize on Lucrative Market

chicagotribune.com By Steve Mills Buying organic doesn’t always mean food is from local, sustainable producer For years, Michael Potter has gotten regular offers to buy his organic foods company near Ann Arbor, Mich., although now, he said, he gets three or four every week. “Every food company you have ever heard of has tried to […]

Do Seed Companies Control GM Crop Research?

Scientists must ask corporations for permission before publishing independent research on genetically modified crops. That restriction must end. Scientific American By The Editors Advances in agricultural technology, including, but not limited to, the genetic modification of food crops, have made fields more productive than ever. Farmers grow more crops and feed more people using less […]

As Farmers Age, Plans Match Aspirants With Pros

Omaha World Herald By SHARON COHEN AP National Writer RICHLAND, Iowa (AP) – He quit his job and drove his wife and their four young daughters across country, a 21st-century pioneer lured to these faraway farm fields by the promise of a life-changing deal with an older stranger. Isaac Phillips always wanted to be a […]

Monsanto Faces Fight Over Phosphate Mine

The Spokesman Review John Miller / Associated Press Geologic riches About 240 million years ago, southeastern Idaho was covered by a warm sea where dead fish and plankton piled up, creating a prehistoric muck that hardened to phosphate- and selenium-rich rock. Today, phosphate mined there provides raw materials that help keep teeth white, doughnuts rise, […]