Produce Safety Bill May Make Farmer’s Markets A Thing Of The Past
The Raleigh Telegram By Olivia Barrow RALEIGH – With the U.S. Senate preparing to overhaul the nation’s food safety laws through a bill that passed committee called the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (S510), Senator Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) has co-sponsored an amendment to exempt small farmers from the added safety requirements of the bill. […]
The New Frontier: Genetically Modified Oil Wars
GMO Journal Consumer Beware: the next generation of biotech crops focus directly on you. Unlike most of GM crops currently on the market, which are genetically altered to be herbicide and pesticide resistant, the new generation of GM crops are designed to express alleged nutritional benefits. Focusing on soybean oil — the fastest way to […]
Saving the World, One Morsel At a Time
Wausau native pens book, promotes sustainable food practices Wausau Daily Herald Keith Uhlig Many people become immersed in the organic food movement because they are interested in nutrition, health and diet. Wausau native Temra Costa came to it from an environmental angle. Growing up mostly in the town of Stettin, the 1997 graduate of Wausau […]
Calif. Aims to Boost Enforcement of Organic Rules
Capital Press (link no longer available) ROBIN HINDERY, Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — It’s been barely a year since Luis Miranda began selling organic produce at farmers markets near his home in California’s Central Valley, but he’s already seen every trick in the book. Scanning the stands recently at a market in downtown Sacramento, Miranda […]
Safeway Pulls Plug on Mock Farmers’ Market
Triple Pundit.com Leon Kaye In a doomed marketing move that some would find cheeky and others, deceitful, a Safeway store in Kirkland, Washington, decided to sell its fruits and vegetables “farmer-market” style. A huge yellow banner announced the new parking lot market, and tents were set up to greet weekend shoppers. No word yet whether […]
Dead Zone in Gulf Linked to Ethanol Production
San Francisco Chronicle Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau Washington – — While the BP oil spill has been labeled the worst environmental catastrophe in recent U.S. history, a biofuel is contributing to a Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” the size of New Jersey that scientists say could be every bit as harmful to the gulf. […]
Gardening ‘Can Boost Literacy and Numeracy’
Gardening should be added to the curriculum because it can improve children’s literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills, it is claimed. Telegraph.co.uk By Graeme Paton, Education Editor Pupils should be encouraged to grow vegetables and tend flowerbeds because gardening boosts a child’s development and improve standards in other subjects. Academics from the National Foundation for Educational […]
The Nitrogen Fix: Breaking a Costly Addiction
Over the last century, the intensive use of chemical fertilizers has saturated the Earth’s soils and waters with nitrogen. Now scientists are warning that we must move quickly to revolutionize agricultural systems and greatly reduce the amount of nitrogen we put into the planet’s ecosystems. Yale, Environmental 360 by Fred Pearce A single patent a […]
Crop Mobs’: Local-Food Movement Plus Social Networking
Sacramento Bee By KIM PALMER, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) MINNEAPOLIS — It was a rainy Saturday – a perfect day for sleeping late or lingering over a latte. But graduate student Sarah Burridge of Minneapolis was in a farm field getting wet and dirty with a bunch of people she didn’t know. They got a quick […]
Organic Farms Win at Potato Pest Control
Why ecological evenness is as important as relative richness. Nature News Daniel Cressey A study suggesting that organic agriculture gives better pest control and larger plants than conventional farming is sure to reignite longstanding debates about the merits of organic versus conventional agriculture. It also highlights an often-neglected aspect of biodiversity. “Organic agriculture promotes more […]
