The Physicality of Farming

The Atlantic By Jeff Fisher “Your hands are going to bleed.” Anne Cure, owner of Cure Organic Farm in Boulder, Colorado, said this softly while looking off into the distance as Jack, one of the other farmers, described the day’s task of transplanting thousands of seedlings from the greenhouse into the field. The “bleeding hands”… Read more »

NPR Tuesday: The Diane Rehm Show for Discussion with Former USDA Sec. Dan Glickman and the Cornucopia’s Mark Kastel on Organic Food Standards

If your local National Public Radio station does not carry the Diane Rehm show, which broadcasts live from Washington DC every weekday, please click on the link above. The show will be broadcast at 11 AM (Eastern). In addition to Miles McEvoy and Mark Kastel, New York Times reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal, who covered industrial-scale organic… Read more »

Please Take 15-20 Min. Today to Consider the Words of Doctor King

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular,… Read more »

Just Label It! So We Know When it’s GMO

The Huffington Post Green by Maria Rodale, CEO and Chairman of Rodale, Inc. and book author I demand organic. It’s that simple. I know, you’re thinking, “Of course you demand organic. You wrote the Organic Manifesto and grew up on an organic farm.” True, but, even if I didn’t, I would demand organic and so… Read more »

Farmer And Philosopher Joel Salatin

Boston’s NPR – On Point With Jane Clayson in for Tom Ashbrook Aired 11:00am EST Monday, October 10, 2011 Farmer/philosopher Joel Salatin says get off your laptop, get in the dirt and live with it. Joel Salatin is heralded as the high priest of the pasture. And for good reason. The Virginia farmer speaks the… Read more »

Pesticide Drift May Give Rise to Claims of Trespass, Nuisance and Negligence Per Se When Organic Crops Are Contaminated

Larkin Hoffman Attorneys by Jennifer Singleton Minnesota’s organic farmers may now have greater protection against neighboring farmers’ pesticide use. The Minnesota Court of Appeals recently held that when chemical pesticides drift from one farm to another, the resulting damage may provide a basis for claims of trespass, nuisance and negligence. The decision reverses the lower… Read more »

Farmers Talk Genetically Modified Crops

Michael Hart, a conventional livestock family farmer, has been farming in Cornwall for nearly thirty years and has actively campaigned on behalf of family farmers for over fifteen years, travelling extensively in Europe, India, Canada and the USA. In this short documentary he investigates the reality of farming genetically modified crops in the USA ten… Read more »

Second Vermont Town Passes Food Sovereignty Measure

Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty (link not available) Quietly slipping under the radar last week the Town of Barre was the second municipality in the state to pass a measure supporting food sovereignty. The first was Barre City on March 4, 2011. In both towns food sovereignty was expressed as the “right to save seed, grow,… Read more »

Book Review: Say Cheesemonger!

Fair Food Fight Barth Anderson It must be tough writing a book about good food. Because you can’t give readers a literal taste of what you’re talking about, all you can do is try and convince people that you have a superfine palate and keep using words like “delicious” and “yummy” over and over. This… Read more »

I Never Promised You an Organic Garden

La Vida Locavore by: Jill Richardson A story has been developing over the past month involving lies, toxic sludge, Hollywood celebrities, and poor, inner city school children. It centers around the Environmental Media Association (EMA), a group of environmentally conscious Hollywood celebs, and the “organic” school gardens they’ve been volunteering at for the past past… Read more »