Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

While the 2007-08 food price crisis has been a catalyst for important policy reforms, governments have yet to address its underlying causes, finds a new report from IATP and the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE) at Tufts University. In the report, authors Timothy A. Wise and Sophia Murphy warn that the international community is avoiding deeper structural reforms, leaving the world at risk of another devastating spike in global food prices. Read Full Article »

Bloomberg
By Alan Bjerga

Consumer demand for organic foods has helped Uncle Matt’s Organic Inc. grow from 5 acres of oranges in 1999 to become Florida’s biggest organic-citrus producer. Further expansion is being hampered by the federal crop insurance program designed to help farmers, says the company’s founder, Matt McLean.

Organic producers pay a surcharge on many of those policies, and payouts often don’t reflect their higher costs, which may inhibit farm development and contribute to shortages of some naturally grown products, producers and industry analysts say. Read Full Article »

OSA will host the 6th Organic Seed Growers Conference January 19 – 21, 2012, in Port Townsend, WA. Join their newsletter and follow them on Facebook to receive updates.

Download the full agenda here. This includes conference working sessions, keynote highlights, and details on the pre-conference field tour of the Skagit Valley seed region. Read Full Article »

MinnPost
By Cristeta Boarini and Kyle Richard Sando

Jim Degiovanni has been a lawyer for more than 20 years. Spending most of his days in an office, Degiovanni saw myriad cases come across his desk — from local-government law to real-estate and banking transactions. But for someone who loves hunting deer and taking canoe trips in the Boundary Waters, something was missing.

“I really enjoy the outdoors, you know, experiencing the seasons change and working with my hands, taking care of animals,” Degiovanni said. “When I got tired of private practice, I started working for a single client. I suddenly had more time to start growing things.” Read Full Article »

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, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.”
-Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

In the last years of his life King received criticism not just from the segregationists in the South but even from Democratic Party leaders in the North and black leaders in the civil rights movement. He had started talking about worker’s rights, a more equitable distribution of wealth, and how unjust the war in Southeast Asia was.

The most polite thing I can recall him being called by his enemies was “troublemaker.” Read Full Article »