Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
by: JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY

Court rules pesticide drifting onto organic farm constitutes trespass.

Oluf Johnson’s 1,500-acre farm in Stearns County is an organic island in a sea of chemically treated corn and soybeans.

Improperly applied pesticides repeatedly drift over from neighboring farms, often with dire consequences for Johnson. But now, thanks to a new court ruling, he and other farmers can sue to recover their losses. Read Full Article »

Posted in Media/News

Kevin Brussell, 56, a long time organic activist, researcher and working organic farmer, was tragically killed on Saturday, June 11. Kevin’s wife, Juli, has established a scholarship fund in memory of her husband. The scholarship fund will support beginning farmers.

Kevin was the superintendent of Organic Dairy Research at the University of New Hampshire, overseeing the first working organic dairy farm at a land grant University. Through the Midwest Organic Farmers Cooperative, under OFARM (Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Marketing), Kevin provided leadership in the volatile area of organic commodity crop production and sales. Kevin received the Spirit of Organic Award from the Organic Trade Association in 2008, recognizing his broad influence on the expansion of organic agriculture. Read Full Article »

Posted in Media/News

Our hardcopy newsletter for Summer 2011 is now available online. Please see it at the below link. In it you’ll find:

- Animal Welfare Standards Delayed
- Farmers and Seed Producers Launch Preemptive Strike Against Monsanto
- New Additions to Cornucopia’s Board of Directors and Policy Advisors Panel
- Who is Mischa Popoff?
- New USDA Rule on Beef & Lamb Maintains Organic Integrity
…. and more here Read Full Article »

Posted in Newsletter Archive

One of the Largest Scandals in the Organic Industry’s History is Over

We are proud of The Cornucopia Institute’s role in bringing this scofflaw to justice.  For years, many in the industry suspected Promiseland Livestock was “laundering” conventional animals as organic (replacement heifers mostly going to giant factory dairy farms and beef cattle).

Cornucopia’s formal complaint, concerning illegal conventional cattle being transferred to the giant Aurora Dairy complex in Platteville, Colorado, eventually led to the downfall of Promiseland (USDA investigators later found Aurora had “willfully” violated 14 tenets of the organic regulations).

Just like Al Capone was not convicted of murder or racketeering, but rather of tax evasion, Promiseland was brought down by their unwillingness to share records with investigators from the USDA, as required by law, that would’ve proven the organic origin of their cattle.

It is sinful that this operation has, literally, been able to operate for years while going through this appeals process.  Organic farmers do need the right to due process, Read Full Article »

Posted in Cornucopia News

Michael Hart, a conventional livestock family farmer, has been farming in Cornwall for nearly thirty years and has actively campaigned on behalf of family farmers for over fifteen years, travelling extensively in Europe, India, Canada and the USA.

In this short documentary he investigates the reality of farming genetically modified crops in the USA ten years after their introduction. He travels across the US interviewing farmers and other specialists about their experiences of growing GM. Read Full Article »

Posted in Talking Points, Video Gallery