Grist Makenna Goodman Beekeeping is rising in popularity -- from urban rooftops to backyard hives, the world is abuzz with interest in homemade honey. And who better to comment on the nature of bees than the former president of the Vermont Beekeepers Association, Ross Conrad. He's led bee-related presentations and taught organic beekeeping workshops and classes throughout North America for many years, and Conrad's small beekeeping business supplies friends, neighbors, and local stores with honey and candles among other bee related products, not to mention provides bees for Vermont apple pollination in spring. I talked to Conrad about organic beekeeping, the state of pollination, and tips for aspiring bee farmers.

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Scientific American By Katherine Harmon Currently abundant on most grocery store shelves, seals of approval for purportedly healthful food selections may become scarcer in the coming year. Some labels claiming foods are "smart choices" or "heart healthy" are patently misleading, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has threatened to prohibit such promotional labeling when it ignores unhealthy aspects of a product. "There are some foods that have gotten the Smart Choices check mark that are almost 50 percent sugar," Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner of the FDA, said in a Tuesday call with reporters, the Associated Press reported.

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The Boston Globe By Will Allen AUTUMN HAS arrived in the Northeast. The leaves are turning colors, the days are getting shorter, and the weather has a hint of the chill to come. It’s a time of change in many ways. Our nation is grappling with the daunting challenges of health care and global warming. Another change is coming as well. It's called the good food revolution. By bringing locally grown, organic, nutritiously rich food to a table near you, the good food revolution can help us tackle these larger societal issues, and benefit us all. We need a revolution in our food delivery system because the global $3.2 trillion processed-food industry is undermining our health and significantly contributing to our carbon footprint. Let's take a quick look at how produce in Massachusetts makes it to our grocery store shelves.

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SustainableBusiness.com A report from GRAIN discusses how agriculture can put back much of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into the soil. Soils contain enormous amounts of carbon, mostly in the form of organic matter. The report shows that industrial agriculture, and thus the global food system, has spewed large amounts of this carbon into the atmosphere. Policies focused on restoring soil fertility - restoring the organic matter in the soil which has been lost - would make a huge contribution to resolving the rapidly escalating climate crisis. In 50 years, soils could capture about 450 billion tons of carbon dioxide - more than two thirds of the current excess in the atmosphere.

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Oregon Live By The Associated Press CHARLESTON, Ore. -- Aiming to capitalize on a growing demand for raw, organic produce, the Coquille Tribe is taking the hard route to harvesting cranberries this season. To harvest deep red berries in the raw, the tribe will put its back into the year's bountiful crop through a technique called dry-picking, which hasn't been practiced in about 10 years.

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