'Everything I said to my fellow seedsmen, the judge has now agreed with' Capital Press By Mitch Lies PHILOMATH, Ore. -- Frank Morton said he was told he should sue the USDA if he didn't like Roundup Ready sugar beet seed being produced in Oregon's Willamette Valley. "I was literally told three times that if you don't like that, you'll have to sue USDA," Morton said. In January 2008, the Philomath-area organic vegetable seed grower contacted the Center for Food Safety and helped instigate the suit that has put in question the future of transgenic sugar beet production.

Posted in Cornucopia News

CORNUCOPIA, WI – Enjoying fresh apple cider is a wonderful fall tradition in Wisconsin. But lately, some individuals have noticed that fresh cider seemed absent from farmer’s markets and farm stands around the state. After some Wisconsin food safety inspectors misinterpreted state laws as prohibiting the sale of raw apple cider at farmers markets, many apple growers shied away from bringing their freshly pressed cider to public markets. Through the efforts of The Cornucopia Institute, a national family farm research group based in Wisconsin, the confusion has been cleared up by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). Their Bureau of Food Safety & Inspection clarified that apple growers are indeed allowed to sell raw apple cider at farmers markets, when several criteria are met. Growers may sell unpasteurized apple cider at farmers markets, only if they have pressed and bottled the cider at their own farms. In addition to farmers markets they can sell cider directly off their farms, at farm stands they operate, through community sponsored agriculture programs (CSAs) and even door-to-door.

Posted in Cornucopia News

Corporate Agribusiness Proposes Regulating Itself Instead of Stricter Governmental Food Safety Oversight CORNUCOPIA, WI: USDA hearings begin this week on a proposal that would authorize the development of production and handling regulations for a long list of fresh vegetables, primarily leafy greens. The first of seven national hearings starts Tuesday, September 22 in Monterey, California, and then will shift to other locations across the country. The proposed marketing agreement would allow leafy green handlers to attach a USDA-backed "food safety seal" to lettuce, spinach, cabbage and other vegetables while prohibiting most organic and local farmers selling through farmers markets, CSAs, roadside stands, and those selling directly to retailers from using the same seal. The plan, hatched and promoted by some of the nation’s largest corporate agribusinesses that distribute vegetables, is similar to a controversial California agreement that was put into place after spinach, contaminated with E. coli bacteria, sickened 199 people in 26 states and left three dead in September, 2006. "This proposed food safety agreement will do nothing to tackle the root cause of the food safety problem, which is, in most cases, manure from confined animal feeding operations that is tainted with disease causing pathogenic bacteria," said Will Fantle, of the Wisconsin-based farm policy group, The Cornucopia Institute.

Posted in Cornucopia News

Since founding The Cornucopia Institute in 2004, one of our prime messages has been that the USDA's National Organic Program needed new competent leadership with deep experience in the organic community. We have been highly critical of the past leadership and its lack of understanding of organics and reluctance to stand for integrity and ethics in organics. We have also suggested that new leadership would probably best be found outside the agency. We repeated that message as part of our Change@USDA campaign, launched earlier this year, hoping to convince the new administration in Washington that an overhaul was needed at the National Organic Program (NOP). We are delighted to note that a new administrator for the NOP has been hired.

Posted in Cornucopia News

Family Dairy Farmers Appeal to Obama Administration for Swift Enforcement WASHINGTON, DC: Aurora Dairy, based in Boulder, Colorado, the nation's largest organic dairy producer, is once again facing allegations of improprieties. Aurora had previously been found in "willful" violation of multiple federal organic standards by USDA investigators in 2007. This week an organic industry watchdog, The Cornucopia Institute, filed a formal legal complaint with the USDA in Washington alleging that one of the five industrial-scale dairies operated by Aurora, its High Plains dairy near Kersey, Colorado, is failing to graze their dairy cattle as required by the federal organic standards.

Posted in Aurora Factory Farm Operations, Cornucopia News