NY Times
By Jim Robbins

HELENA, Mont.

THE world’s worrisome decline in biodiversity is well known. Some experts say we are well on our way toward the sixth great extinction and that by 2100 half of all the world’s plant and animal species may disappear.

Yet one of the most important threats to biodiversity has received little attention — though it lies under our feet.

Scientists using new analytical techniques over the last decade have found that the world’s ocean of soil is one of our largest reservoirs of biodiversity. It contains almost one-third of all living organisms, according to the European Union’s Joint Research Center, but only about 1 percent of its micro-organisms have been identified, and the relationships among those myriad life-forms is poorly understood.

Soil is the foundation on which the house of terrestrial biodiversity is built. Without robust soil ecosystems, the world’s food web would be in trouble.

To understand more, scientists recently embarked on what they call the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative to assess what is known about soil life, pinpoint where it is endangered and determine the health of the essential ecosystem services that soil provides.

They are not just looking at soil in remote, far-off landscapes. One of the more intensive studies is taking place in New York’s Central Park. Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

Food Safety News
By Dr. Charles Benbrook

There have been dramatic changes in the transgenic composition of GE corn and soybeans over the last five years, coupled with a substantial increase in reliance on pesticides and Bt toxins. Compared to the first five years of commercial use (1996-2000), today’s GE corn and soybeans in the U.S. require:

• About twice as much herbicide per acre, with glyphosate/Roundup accounting for essentially all the growth;
• In corn, two to six Bt toxins to deal with European corn borer and the corn rootworm complex;
• Delayed release, systemic seed treatments including at least two insecticides and two fungicides, one of which is a nicotinyl implicated in honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder;
• A return to corn soil insecticide use as a component of Bt-gene, resistance-management programs (eroding a portion of the reduction in insecticide use brought about by Bt corn);
• Significant and historically unprecedented increases in fungicide use on corn (11 percent of crop acres were treated in latest USDA pesticide use survey [2010], no more than 1 percent was treated previously); and
• Approval and commercial planting in the U.S. of the first GE crop that will be consumed in significant quantities by humans in a largely unprocessed form – Bt and RR sweetcorn. Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

New York Times
By David A. Kessler

Image Courtesy of Cumi & Ciki

But this is only part of the story. While the F.D.A. can see what kinds of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are coming out of livestock facilities, the agency doesn’t know enough about the antibiotics that are being fed to these animals. This is a major public health problem, because giving healthy livestock these drugs breeds superbugs that can infect people. We need to know more about the use of antibiotics in the production of our meat and poultry. The results could be a matter of life and death. Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

By Jill Ettinger

Image Courtesy of Sweden Creek Farm

Meet Carole Anne Rose and Curly Miller of Sweden Creek Farm. While they started out as neighboring farmers, who had “come together from very different paths,” it was their commitment to eating and growing organically and to the organic “lifestyle,” along with their mutual love of music, that brought them together, says Carole Anne.

After many years of gardening and selling herbs in New Jersey, Carole Anne decided to grow herbs and edible flowers herself. “I retired from my computer job at AT&T and bought a farm in Arkansas,” she explains. It turns out the property was right next to Curly Miller’s. Curly had been a fan of mushrooms his whole life. After attending a seminar in 1986, he quit cutting firewood commercially and got started growing shiitake mushrooms. The two merged their business models (and lives) delivering shiitakes, herbs and flowers locally. Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

Sparks really flew at the National Organic Standards Board meeting in Portland, Oregon yesterday. In one of the most contentious issues to come before the organic community in many years, the continued use of antibiotics (oxytetracycline) on tree fruit was on the agenda.

Photo Courtesy of Skånska Matupplevelser 

Apple growers from Washington State petitioned the USDA to allow for the continued use of oxytetracycline to control fire blight on apple and pear trees. The current conditional use is set to expire in October 2014. Some farmers testified that they would go out of business, or exit organics, if the antibiotic, which is the same material as is used to treat human illness, is prohibited from use.

Public interest groups provided over 55,000 signatures from concerned consumers. It was disturbing that certain members of the corporate sector in organics, even before the meeting started, attempted to discredit and devalue the outpouring of sentiment from consumers (mostly accomplished through web-based petitions). Even Consumers Union, the respected publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, was challenged on the propriety of their findings.

Medical experts testified that environmental contamination, by using air blast sprayers to apply the same antibiotics as humans depend on, over wide acreage, is a significant danger in developing antibiotic resistant bacteria. Consumers are understandably concerned when measurable residues of drugs are found in certified organic fruit (or any food for that matter).

Please consult The Cornucopia Institute website and Facebook page for updates on the final outcome of today’s voting in Portland.

MAK

LATEBREAKING NEWS:

We thank the NOSB for voting to prohibit the following non-organic or synthetic substances that are not essential to organic production and/or dangerous to human health or the environment (in some cases the manufacturers of these materials refused to transparently share their production methodology in order to fully evaluate their products).

1. Conventional sugar beet fiber – unanimous against
2. DBDMH (antimicrobial treatment in meat processing) – unanimous against
3. Sulfuric acid (preprocessing seaweed as a nutraceutical) – unanimous against
4. Conventional barley fiber (as a nutritional additive) – 12 against; 3 for: prohibited in organics

Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial