Pandora’s Lunchbox, by former New York Times business reporter Melanie Warner, offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the processed foods industry.  

- Charlotte Vallaeys, Director, Farm and Food Policy

By exploring exactly how the edible concoctions sold to us as “food” are made, the book sheds light on why we would all be better off eating real food, grown in soil and raised on farms, rather than the creations of food chemists in lab coats that are assembled in factories rather than cooked in kitchens.

As I read Pandora’s Lunchbox, I thought often of an assertion made by Sir Albert Howard, one of the organic movement’s founding fathers: solutions to agricultural problems must come from the field, not the factory.  Howard was talking about soil fertility—rich and healthy soil is the result of careful and conscious farming practices that value and respect natural processes, rather than of the application of synthetic fertilizers produced in a factory from the same starting materials used to create explosives.  I was reminded of Howard’s observation often while reading Warner’s book.  Whereas Howard applied this principle to farm fields, Warner applies it to food processing.

If you are reading this book review and are a Cornucopia member, chances are that you already make an effort to avoid conventional processed foods.  But many of the lessons from Warner’s book apply to organic processed foods as well (after all, aren’t we all at times too busy or tired to cook from scratch, and reach for that certified organic frozen pizza or TV dinner?). Read Full Article »

Posted in Cornucopia News

NOSB Votes to Disallow Material in Apple and Pear Production After 2014

By Pamela Coleman, PhD

The headlines predicted a “Food Fight” over the use of antibiotics in organic agriculture at the spring meeting of the National Organic Standards Board in Portland, Oregon. Some orchardists who wanted the option to use antibiotics for plant disease control squared off with consumers and public interest groups that want fruit grown without antibiotics.

The USDA organic regulations currently allow the use of streptomycin and tetracycline antibiotics in organic apple and pear orchards, but this allowance is scheduled to expire on October 21, 2014. At their spring 2013 meeting, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) considered a petition to extend the use of tetracycline until October 21, 2016. Antibiotics are not allowed in organic food production except for this one instance—apples and pears.

Antibiotics have been allowed for use in apples and pears ever since the national standards came into effect. This meeting could change that. With the pressure, would the NOSB vote to extend the allowance for antibiotics? Read Full Article »

Posted in Cornucopia News

Mischa Popoff After hearing from scores of concerned organic stakeholders about his scheduled show with Mischa Popoff, radio host Michael Olson of the syndicated show Food Chain Radio asked Mark Kastel to join Popoff in the interest of providing balance. The result was an impromptu debate challenging Popoff’s credibility and his scheme for replacing certification with wholesale testing.Mischa Popoff is a self-published author and ideologue who has spent the last few years attempting to undermine the credibility of the organic label.

Mark Kastel Kastel is the Codirector and Senior Farm Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute. The national organization, based in Wisconsin, acts as a corporate and governmental watchdog in the organic industry.Michael Olson’s hour-long show, Food Chain Radio, airs live and is syndicated on a number of commercial stations nationwide. A podcast, just over a half hour long without most of the advertising, is available at http://metrofarm.com/mf_Food_Chain_Radio.php. (Please note that you should not click on this link if you have iTunes installed on your device. It has caused problems for iTunes users only.) For many years, The Cornucopia Institute has monitored and responded to attacks on organics by a handful of “think tanks” that have received funding from corporate agribusiness and biotechnology (Monsanto, DuPont and others). These groups include the Hudson Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Hoover Institution and the Heartland Institute, which Mr. Popoff is presently affiliated with.

Posted in Cornucopia News

Beware Corporate Agribusiness in Sheep’s Farmers’ Clothing

Recently, the Organic Trade Association (OTA) announced that they are forming a “Farmer Advisory Council.” This comes at a time when the OTA has received widespread, sharp criticism from organic farmers and ranchers and the organizations that represent them.

The OTA is a trade/lobby group representing, primarily, processors, marketers and retailers in the organic industry. The organization’s leadership and financing is dominated by giant agribusinesses that gain the majority of their sales and profits by selling conventional and/or “natural” food rather than certified organic products (Dean Foods/WhiteWave, General Mills, Smuckers, Groupe Danone, Campbell’s, Kellogg’s, etc.) and giant corporations more focused on organics (Earthbound Farms, UNFI and Hain Celestial).

To lift the veil and see “Who Owns Organics” please click here: http://www.cornucopia.org/who-owns-organic/.

These are powerful corporate players that buy commodities from real organic farmers.

The OTA and some of its members have repeatedly been accused of selling-out the values that the organic movement was founded upon and diluting the working definition of the organic label by supporting gimmicky synthetics in organic foods, de facto confinement of organic livestock and, more recently, promulgating a sophisticated legislative scheme in Washington that will result in an organic “check-off,” taxing farmers to, in part, fund industry public relations efforts.

In the best tradition of corporations that set up “employee councils” while fighting labor unions, or the Rockefeller family that funded the startup of the Farm Bureau Federation when other family farm groups threatened control during the robber baron period, it can reasonably be predicted that OTA’s new Farmer Advisory Council will help deflect criticism of corporate organics.

OTA’s new counsel is chaired by a farmer (and OTA board member) who has done publicity work for Dean Foods/WhiteWave when its Horizon label was receiving criticism in the media. Its co-chairperson works for United Natural Foods Incorporated, a multibillion-dollar near-monopoly engaged in organic food distribution.

And I wish I was making this up, but the council already includes members of the “Organic Egg Farmers of America.” This group is made up of large industrial egg producers, with a majority of their production in conventional eggs. They are either vertically-integrated operations, with as many as 100,000 birds in a building, or they contract with farmers. This group is anything but a farmer organization.

One of its farmer-members, Greg Herbuck, has been nominated to join the OTA board. An image below represents what the OTA must think is an “organic farm” (an operation with, reportedly, 600,000 birds — see all the room between buildings for adequate outdoor access — required by federal law).

Members of the Farmer Advisory Council will also come from organizations that have entered into a “strategic alliance” or executed a “memorandum of understanding” with the OTA. As an example, CCOF, Inc, chartered as a trade organization and operating as a multimillion-dollar certification organization (certifying many of the nation’s largest agribusinesses/OTA members), will nominate four farmer-members to the OTA council. Read Full Article »

Posted in Cornucopia News

[Note:  The Cornucopia Institute is one of 125 organizations supporting this initiative]

Image courtesy of Ikescs

At stake are many important issues, including funding for the historic Outreach and Assistance Program for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers.  Without passage of the UDALL (NM) amendment #1055, funding for the next five years will be slashed in half! 

Call your Senators at the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senators’ offices.   Ask for the name and email of the Agriculture Legislative Assistant for your Senator and to speak to them.  Please leave a message if they are not available.

The Message: ”I support and ask you to also support equity amendments to the Senate Farm Bill outlined in the letter, including  Senator Udall’s (NM) amendments #1055 training for socially disadvantaged and Veteran Producers Training, Amendment #1045 Receipt for Service, #1048 community irrigation, and #1049 EQIP Irrigation Water Saving and others (see more on these amendments below).  I have a letter signed by 125 organizations and a longer list of amendments to support and oppose that are important to farm, ranch and rural, and urban communities we as members and allies of the Rural Coalition serve. I will email it to you now if you give me your email.”

More Details

Download the Equity letter with list of more amendments and 121 groups signed on here http://tiny.cc/zhw7xw Read Full Article »

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