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Wal-Mart in Trouble Again Over Organic Marketing Practices

Home Pesticide Manufacturer Misrepresenting Products as Certified “Organic” The Cornucopia Institute has filed legal complaints with the USDA alleging that Wal-Mart, and a North Carolina-based company, HOMS LLC, are violating the USDA organic standards by using conventional agricultural oils, and other ingredients, in pest control products that bear the word organic and the green “USDA […]

Mayor’s Agriculture Plan Soon to Bear Fruit

San Francisco Chronicle by Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer Vegetable gardens will soon be sprouting in unlikely places throughout San Francisco including a building that produces steam to heat the Civic Center, Department of Public Works land in the Bayview, outside McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park and at the San Francisco Police Academy in […]

Direct Farm Marketing Still Offers Great Rewards In a Depressed Economy

AgriNews (link no longer available) By Carol Stender STAPLES, Minn. — Despite challenging growing conditions, bad weather and a lackluster economy, many direct marketers had a good year last year. How did they do it? Good advertising, including use of Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Good demand for locally grown foods helped sales, said direct marketing expert […]

Should Whole Foods, like Google, get out of China?

The Energy Collective by Marc Gunther Google is exiting China for a number of reasons, including the hacking of its data, but fundamentally, Google found that it couldn’t live up to its values of openness in a repressive society. Whole Foods Market has a different China problem: The company imports lots of organic food from […]

Bill Introduced to Improve Meat Traceback

Food Safety News by Helena Bottemiller Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced a bill yesterday to overhaul the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) protocol for tracing contaminated meat back to the source to protect public health and hold “the right people accountable when something goes wrong.” Tester’s bill, the Meat Safety and Accountability Act, would require […]

Local Slaughterhouses Come Back to Life

The Washington Post By Samuel Fromartz HARRISONBURG, VA. — Huddled in a small pen in the slaughterhouse, the four sheep and two goats were quiet and still. A few men nearby in thick rubber aprons cut away at still-warm carcasses hanging on hooks. “They don’t seem to know what’s going on,” a visitor remarked. “Oh, […]

The Breadbasket of America: New England?

The Atlantic by Leah Koenig On a recent Friday morning, Wheatberry Bakery in Amherst, Massachusetts, was humming with activity. Behind hand-built wooden counters set with delicate French tiles, co-owner Adrie Lester dealt a brisk business in organic scones and muffins, loaves of fragrant artisanal bread, soups, and sandwiches. In the bakery’s kitchen, her husband, Ben, […]

Nominations for Members of the National Organic Standards Board

Federal Register The U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking nominations to fill five upcoming vacancies on its key advisory committee, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). SUMMARY: The Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990, as amended, requires the establishment of a National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). The NOSB is a 15-member board that is […]

Waiter, There Is Toxic Sludge in my Organic Soup!

(Sewage sludge is specifically, by federal law, prohibited in certified organic production. In today’s marketplace labeling fertilizer as “ORGANIC,” when it would be banned from use on organic farms, is exceedingly misleading.) PR Watch . org by John Stauber Fifteen years ago, the Center for Media and Democracy in my book Toxic Sludge Is Good […]

USDA Inspector General Finds Bush Administration Ignored Organic Laws

New Management at USDA Reforms, Strengthens National Organic Program WASHINGTON, DC: After an extensive audit and investigation of alleged improprieties at the USDA’s National Organic Program, the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) made public their formal report, dated March 9, substantiating the allegations of prominent organic industry watchdog groups — that under the Bush […]

Organic Manifesto, by Rodale Chairman & CEO Maria Rodale

Rodale EMMAUS, Pa.– Rodale has announced the release of Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe by Rodale Chairman & CEO Maria Rodale. Organic Manifesto cuts through the confusion and misinformation to provide an indispensable and highly readable look at why chemical-free farming unquestionably holds the […]