Family Farmers Amplify Legal Complaint Against Monsanto’s GMOs
Biotechnology Giant Fails to Provide Binding Legal Protection; Farmers Threatened by Contamination from Genetically Modified Organisms NEW YORK: New threats by Monsanto have led to the filing of an amended complaint by the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) in its suit on behalf of family farmers, seed businesses, and organic agricultural organizations challenging Monsanto’s patents on […]
Putting Dairy Cows Out to Pasture: An Environmental Plus
USDA, Agricultural Research Service Every year, a hefty dairy cow tucked away in a snug barn produces more than 20,000 pounds of milk, along with an impressive amount of manure and an array of gases. New modeling work by an Agricultural Research Service team in University Park, Pennsylvania, suggests that a dairy cow living year-round […]
Cans Bring BPA to Dinner, FDA Confirms
The vast majority of tested U.S. canned goods were tainted Science News By Janet Raloff Federal chemists have confirmed what everyone had expected: that if a bisphenol-A-based resin is used to line most food cans, there’s a high likelihood the contents of those cans will contain at least traces of BPA. A hormone-mimicking compound, BPA […]
Second Vermont Town Passes Food Sovereignty Measure
Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty (link not available) Quietly slipping under the radar last week the Town of Barre was the second municipality in the state to pass a measure supporting food sovereignty. The first was Barre City on March 4, 2011. In both towns food sovereignty was expressed as the “right to save seed, grow, […]
Cash Crops Under Glass and Up on the Roof
The New York Times Guy Calaf When Lufa Farms began selling produce to customers in Montreal in late April, it signaled what could be the beginning of a tantalizing new era in the gastronomic fortunes of that Canadian metropolis. In all but the short summer season, the availability of fresh, locally grown fruit and vegetables […]
The Changing of the Guard at Cornucopia
Economic Justice Watchdog in Agriculture Announces New Leadership CORNUCOPIA, WIS: The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research group dedicated to promoting economic justice in the Good Food Movement, recently announced the appointment of several nationally prominent leaders to their Board of Directors and Policy Advisory Panel. “From the beginning, Cornucopia has endeavored to build a […]
Meat Glue Turns Scraps into Prime Cuts of Meat
International Business Times by Kelsey Murray When I go to the grocery store and buy steak, I assume that what I’m buying is a prime cut piece of meat. However, a new report shows that consumers are being misled about the quality of their meats and even lied to about what it is that they […]
Henning Combines Political Savvy With Her Love of the Land
Des Moines Register (link no longer available) Written by DAN PILLER Cooper, Ia. – When Chris Henning left Des Moines and a 17-year career with Meredith Corp. in 1991 to farm 145 acres she bought in Greene County near where she had grown up, she took her ideals with her. Some of her attitudes can be […]
For Bob Hill, Growing Bananas Has Certain A ‘Peel’
Morris Plains gardener does what others say is “impossible.” Morris-Plains Patch, New Jersey (link no longer available) By Liz Alterman When Bob Hill set out to grow bananas in the backyard of his Morris Plains home, fellow gardeners thought he was, well, bananas. Having discovered his green thumb as a kindergartner when he was able to […]
The New Geopolitics of Food
From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars. Foreign Policy BY LESTER R. BROWN In the United States, when world wheat prices rise by 75 percent, as they have over the last year, it means the difference between a $2 loaf of […]
Fields of Watermelon Burst in China Farm Fiasco
Associated Press By ALEXA OLESEN BEIJING (AP) — Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of “land mines.” About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 […]
Genetically Modified Crops in the Food Supply: The Threat to Your Health
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund by Judith McGeary, Esq. The case against genetically modified (GM) crops has been growing for years. While there are no long-term studies on the health effects of eating food from GM crops, even short-term studies have raised very troubling questions. For example, a panel of scientists in India recently reviewed studies […]
