BOOK REVIEW: Barry Estabrook’s ‘Tomatoland,’ an indictment of modern agriculture — Washington Post
The Washington Post By Jane Black Barry Estabrook’s ‘Tomatoland,’ an indictment of modern agriculture Lucas Mariano Domingo came to the United States from Guatemala hoping to find a job that would pay him enough to send money home. But he was soon broke and homeless. And so it must have seemed like a lucky break […]
USDA and Corporate Agribusiness Continue to Push Animal ID Scheme
Consumers and Independent Producers Lose if Big Ag Wins on Animal Traceability WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expected to issue its new proposed rule for mandatory animal traceability very shortly. While USDA already has traceability requirements as part of existing animal disease control programs, the proposed framework goes much further […]
Suit Alleges Cosmetics Falsely Labeled
San Francisco Chronicle An environmental group is suing Kiss My Face and about two dozen other cosmetic companies on accusations that they falsely label products as organic. The Center for Environmental Health filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court. The center alleges the companies are violating a California labeling law requiring organic […]
Chemical Trespass
Pesticide Action Network Many U.S. residents carry toxic pesticides in their bodies at levels above what the government says are “acceptable.” The Pesticide Action Network of North American (PAN) details this issue in its new report,Chemical Trespass: Pesticides in Our Bodies and Corporate Accountability. Chemical Trespass is an analysis of pesticide-related data collected by the […]
Roundup Birth Defects: Regulators Knew World’s Best-Selling Herbicide Causes Problems, New Report Finds
Huffington Post By Lucia Graves WASHINGTON — Industry regulators have known for years that Roundup, the world’s best-selling herbicide produced by U.S. company Monsanto, causes birth defects, according to a new report released Tuesday. The report, “Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?” found regulators knew as long ago as 1980 […]
Latest Kastel Speech
Local, Healthy, Sustainable Food Systems: Hyperbole or Sensation? How the Choices We Make in the Grocery Impact Our Health, Our Environment, and the Economic Vitality of Our Communities Videography and editing done by Larry Sleznikow
Who is Mischa Popoff?
Reigniting Organic Attack by Corporate Agribusiness Interests CORNUCOPIA, WIS: When The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research group, officially launched in April 2004, one of its primary issue areas was what it referred to as “The Corporate Attack on Organic Agriculture.” At the time, Cornucopia’s focus was on the father and son team of Dennis […]
Cheap Food: Not What’s for Dinner Anymore?
Welcome to the era of neocolonial agriculture Mother Jones By Tom Philpott Remember when gas was a dollar a gallon? The era of the fast-food “dollar menu” may be going the same way. Cheap food has been with us for a while. After World War II, global grain prices fell steadily for decades. US and European […]
The Growth of the Urban Farming Movement
Flint River Farm is one of more than 200 urban gardeners partnering with the Edible Flint co-op The Flint Journal By Sarah Schuch FLINT, Michigan — What sat as empty lots within the city of Flint littered with trash and pieces of concrete just nine months ago are now blooming with crops and possibilities. For […]
The High Cost of Cheap Meat
The New York Times The point of factory farming is cheap meat, made possible by confining large numbers of animals in small spaces. Perhaps the greatest hidden cost is its potential effect on human health. Small doses of antibiotics — too small to kill bacteria — are fed to factory farm animals as part of […]
NEWS ADVISORY: 90% Sprout Contamination Conventional, Not Organic (Linked to Factory Farm Livestock Production)
AP 6-6-11: “In a surprising U-turn, German officials said initial tests published Monday provided no evidence that sprouts from an organic farm in northern Germany were the cause of the country’s deadly E. coli outbreak.” Quotations attributable to Mark A. Kastel, Codirector and Senior Farm Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research […]
Tests From German Farm Show No E. Coli
Bloomberg By Allison Connolly The rate of new cases of E. coli slowed in Germany as officials struggled to pinpoint the cause of the world’s deadliest outbreak of the infection. Initial tests from an organic farm near Uelzen, Germany, showed no traces of the bacteria that killed 22 people, authorities in Lower Saxony state said. […]
