How Much of Your Food Labeled as Organic Is Actually Organic?
The Atlantic By Barry Estabrook The USDA keeps a list of inorganic products that can legally go into foods labeled organic, but new board members could change things When is “USDA Organic” not organic? More often than you probably realize. The USDA keeps a “National List” of inorganic products that can legally go into foods […]
Monsanto Spent $2 Million Lobbying Gov’t in 3Q
Bloomberg BusinessWeek Associated Press WASHINGTON: Monsanto Co. spent $2 million in the third quarter to lobby the federal government on issues including regulations for genetically engineered crops and patent reforms, according to a recent disclosure report. That’s slightly more than the $1.9 million Monsanto spent a year earlier and up almost 18 percent from the […]
Carrots in the car park. Radishes on the roundabout. The deliciously eccentric story of the town growing ALL its own veg
The Daily Mail – UK By Vincent Graff Admittedly, it sounds like the most foolhardy of criminal capers, and one of the cheekiest, too. Outside the police station in the small Victorian mill town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, there are three large raised flower beds. If you’d visited a few months ago, you’d have found […]
Monsanto Spent $2 Million Lobbying Gov’t in 3Q
Business Week WASHINGTON — Monsanto Co. spent $2 million in the third quarter to lobby the federal government on issues including regulations for genetically engineered crops and patent reforms, according to a recent disclosure report. That’s slightly more than the $1.9 million Monsanto spent a year earlier and up almost 18 percent from the $1.7 […]
Newsletter – Winter 2011
Our hardcopy newsletter for Winter 2011 is now available online. Please see it at the below link. In it you’ll find: School Snacktime: Toxic Exposure? GE Crops in Refuges Challenged Organics at a Crossroads Pesticide Residues Exceed Safe Levels in Kids Foods Update on Raw Almond Sales Ban Farmer Profile: Klesick Family Farm in WA […]
Enforcement Hammer Falls on Giant Arizona Organic Factory Farm Dairy
USDA Action Spurred by Industry Watchdog’s Investigation CORNUCOPIA, WI – An industrial-scale organic dairy, located south of Phoenix in the desert Southwest, is poised to lose its USDA organic certification. The enforcement action at Shamrock Farms is the result of a USDA investigation into organic livestock management practices that was triggered by a formal complaint […]
National Organic Standards Board Meeting Report
Economic Power/Corporate Lobbyists Manipulate the System The National Organic Standards Board November meeting in Savannah, GA, held Nov. 29 to Dec. 2, revealed the deep divide that exists in the organic industry between public interest groups (like Cornucopia), farmers and consumers fighting for a strong and meaningful organic label and corporate executives and their paid […]
Veterans Sowing Seeds of Farming Success
USA Today By Jens Manuel Krogstad, The Des Moines Register With help from a growing national network of farmer support groups, the 26-year-old Albers plans to graduate from college next year and grow organic vegetables on a four-acre plot at his family’s farm in northeast Iowa. Farmer-Veteran Coalition planted the seed for his venture this […]
Aroostook Farmer the Face of Organic Growers’ Fight Against Monsanto
[NOTE: The Cornucopia Institute is also part of the lawsuit challenging Monsanto’s patenting of life.] Bangor Daily News By Kathrynn Ohmstead I have wanted to catch up with Bridgewater organic farmer Jim Gerritsen ever since he was named in October to the 2011 list of 25 visionaries who are changing the world by the national […]
EPA Weighs New Rule on Factory Farm Data
PEW Charitable Trusts Much of the pollution in U.S. rivers and streams today comes from improperly handled manure generated by CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), which confine thousands of animals on a single site. But unlike many other industries, CAFOs do not regularly disclose facility-specific information to the EPA—and the powerful interests behind CAFOs want […]
Oregon Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Corn Falsely Labeled as Organic
U.S. Department of Justice Defendant Sold 4.2 Million Pounds of Conventional Corn Falsely Labeled As Organic Eugene, Ore. – Harold Chase, 54, of Springfield, Oregon, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud for selling more than 4.2 million pounds of corn falsely labeled as organically grown. By falsely labeling the corn as organic, defendant doubled his […]
USDA Appoints New Members to the National Organic Standards Board
Agricultural Marketing Service – USDA Soo Kim WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2011 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture appointed five new members to the National Organic Standards Board today, adding significant depth of experience and a wide range of perspectives to the advisory organization. “As the board serves a critical role in the direction of the […]
