Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty
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, process, consume and exchange food and farm products.” Read Full Article »
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 is why the book CHEESEMONGER: A LIFE ON THE WEDGE by Gordon Edgar (Chelsea Green; 2010) is a cut above most books about food. Not merely a cheese brochure with “flavor profiles” of various cheeses (though it does offer great info about various cheeses at the end of each chapter), CHEESEMONGER is like having beer with a smart friend who knows cheese so well that you want to keep buying drinks to hear everything he knows.
Gordon Edgar is the eponymous “cheesemonger,” the head buyer and seller of cheese at San Francisco’s famous Rainbow Co-op grocery store. Read Full Article »
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 couple years. Stars like Rosario Dawson, Amy Smart, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and Nicole Ritchie have generously adopted Los Angeles schools, visiting the schools and helping the children garden. What the celebs didn’t know is that their organization’s corporate donor – Kellogg Garden Products – sells both organic compost and soil amendments and ones made from sewage sludge. Seventy percent of Kellogg’s business is products made from sewage sludge. Sewage sludge is not allowed on organic farms and gardens. Read Full Article »
The following comments concern the potential deregulation of Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa. They are provided by Jim Munsch, a certified organic beef farmer and The Cornucopia Institute’s key advisor on this important issue. We are posting these as an aide to others still composing comments to the USDA and for those who seek to know more about this issue that is so critical to organic and conventional farmers.
Comments on Draft Environmental Impact Statement
Glyphosate-Tolerant Alfalfa
Docket No. APHIS-2007-0044
We own and operate Deer Run Farm, a certified organic beef-producing farm. This is a grass and forage based cow/calf to finished beef operation. It has been certified organic since 1999. Prior to 1995 we farmed conventionally. In addition I have a business consulting company specializing on performance analysis methods and general management for organic and small farms.
As an organic animal farmer I have easily co-existed with neighbors choosing to use genetically engineered (GE) corn and soybeans and the industry that supports them. This is done with simple – although costly – measures to minimize genetic contamination of my crops and the crops of seed producers. Six years ago I heard of the possibility of GE alfalfa from an alfalfa seed grower. I was concerned that because alfalfa is a perennial, is pollinated over long distances and seed is grown in geographically confined areas with shared equipment that there is high probability of significant contamination between GE and non-GE varieties especially in seed production. This would have the effect of eliminating alfalfa from the organic production model. Read Full Article »
We have become so disconnected from nature that we have forgotten what real food is. It is time to relearn how to live with the planet.
The Mark News
by Alexandra Morton – Professional biologist; Founder of non-profit Salmon Coast Field Station for research.
As I stand behind a young mother at the market checkout counter, the biologist in me wonders if my species no longer recognizes food. Item after item bears no resemblance to any food item that our species evolved to consume. Even the apples in the plastic bag were too toxic for any insect to touch. This would be like watching a mother bear trying to feed her cubs rocks and empty shells. I would not give that bear’s lineage high potential for survival. I look sadly at the mother, who without a doubt is trying her best to please and feed her children. She is just too distant from her roots as a living creature on planet earth to recognize what real food looks like. Read Full Article »
