1. 30,000 ha to come under organic farming in Kerala
The Hindu Business Line
2. Indian State of Sikkim’s Farms to be Entirely Organic by 2015
Treehugger, by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY
An interesting history of industrial hemp production on American farms, specifically in Wisconsin, as the pressure to lift the prohibition on hemp production in the United States ramps-up. Read Full Article »
Washington Post
By Melissa Bell
The plastic soup can looks as if it’s a single-size meal, a healthful lunch option for one hurried customer. But the nutrition label on the back says otherwise. Gummy fruit snacks show a shower of strawberries on the label, which reads “naturally fruit flavored.” Customers would be hard-pressed to find any strawberries in the ingredient list.
Because of rising obesity rates and a push for more healthy living, many new products in the supermarket claim to be low-fat, immunity-boosting, vitamin-added foods. Some brands have become more healthful. But many manufacturers are promoting a product’s healthful ingredients while playing down its less nutritional qualities. Read Full Article »
San Jose Mercury News
By Jane Palmer
Tom Willey is so concerned about food safety he is willing to bet the farm on it.
Literally.
Willey and his wife, Densesse, own an organic farm just outside of Madera in the central San Joaquin Valley, where they grow lettuce, carrots, cabbage and nearly 50 other hand-harvested vegetables. They supply 800 local families and West Coast retailers with a year-round supply of fresh produce.
But in the last three years, a dark cloud has gathered over Willey’s farm. He and other organic farmers say stricter food-safety regulations, developed after a cluster of outbreaks of bacterial contamination in spinach and lettuce in 2006, threaten the principles upon which their farms are based. Read Full Article »
LaCrosse Tribune
By Chris Hubbuch, Tribune writer and SCOTT BAUER Associated Press Writer
Citing concern for public health and the state’s dairy industry, Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have regulated the sale of unpasteurized milk.
State Rep. Chris Danou, one of the bill’s cosponsors, said he was disappointed and blamed a “well coordinated insider campaign against the bill.”
Danou, a first-term Democrat from Trempealeau, said despite bi-partisan support for the bill, which would have allowed on-farm sales of raw dairy products until 2012, corporate interests won out. He vowed to introduce the bill again next year.
“What’s frustrating to me is the will of the people is so clearly ignored,” Danou said, noting that of nearly 700 people who turned out for a March hearing in Eau Claire, only a few dozen opposed the bill. “The real issue was the economics for a lot of the corporate ag groups… The middle men didn’t like it.” Read Full Article »
