Non-GMO Report
By Ken Roseboro

Hans Herren, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized scientist specializing in sustainable agriculture. He is president of the Millennium Institute, a non-profit development research and service organization dedicated to sustainable development. Dr. Herren co-chaired the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science & Technology (IAASTD), an initiative sponsored by the World Bank and United Nations in partnership with the World Health Organization that assessed global agriculture and recommended agroecological solutions to world hunger. Read Full Article »

Posted in Media/News

The New York Times
By Elisabeth Rosenthal (David Agren contributed reporting)

TODOS SANTOS, Mexico — Clamshell containers on supermarket shelves in the United States may depict verdant fields, tangles of vines and ruby red tomatoes. But at this time of year, the tomatoes, peppers and basil certified as organic by the Agriculture Department often hail from the Mexican desert, and are nurtured with intensive irrigation.

Growers here on the Baja Peninsula, the epicenter of Mexico’s thriving new organic export sector, describe their toil amid the cactuses as “planting the beach.”

Del Cabo Cooperative, a supplier here for Trader Joe’s and Fairway, is sending more than seven and a half tons of tomatoes and basil every day to the United States by truck and plane to sate the American demand for organic produce year-round.

But even as more Americans buy foods with the organic label, the products are increasingly removed from the traditional organic ideal: produce that is not only free of chemicals and pesticides but also grown locally on small farms in a way that protects the environment. Read Full Article »

Posted in Media/News

Worth digesting: Educator teaches that food closest to nature is best

Texas Co-o Power Magazine
By Kevin Hargis

When is a blueberry not a blueberry? In some processed foods, the answer is: when it’s a glob of artificially flavored, sugar-laden food starch and oil.

A recent report by the nonprofit Consumer Wellness Center found that some food companies routinely depicted cereals, muffins and other products as containing blueberries when in reality, there were none present or there were just small amounts far down the ingredients label.

The practice is legal because the labels of ingredients show there is little to no actual fruit in the product. But how many of you read the labels on foods you buy? Read Full Article »

Posted in Media/News

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 $1.7 million it spent during previous quarter. Read Full Article »

Posted in Media/News

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 them overflowing with curly kale, carrot plants, lettuces, spring onions — all manner of vegetables and salad leaves.

Today the beds are bare. Why? Because people have been wandering up to the police station forecourt in broad daylight and digging up the vegetables. And what are the cops doing about this brazen theft from right under their noses? Nothing. Read Full Article »

Posted in Media/News