Chinese Import Moratorium Needed to Protect Consumers/Farmers Cornucopia, WI—After years of ringing the alarm bell about fraudulent Chinese organic production, the nation’s preeminent organic farming watchdog, The Cornucopia Institute, applauded the federal government’s current approach to enforcement and its transparency. On February 11, The Department of Agriculture (USDA) publicly released evidence of attempted fraud by… Read more »
U.S. Corn Pile Getting Squeezed to 15-year Low
Reuters By Sam Nelson CHICAGO (Reuters) – America’s supply of corn is expected to keep shrinking as offtake from ethanol makers expands, dropping the 2010/11 supply to its lowest in 15 years even as use for feed and export stabilizes or wanes. “Ending stocks will have declined in eight of the past nine months as… Read more »
Free trade: As U.S. corn flows south, Mexicans stop farming
McClatchy Washington Bureau Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers SAN JERONIMO SOLOLA, Mexico — Look around the rain-fed corn farms in Oaxaca state, and in vast areas of Mexico, and one sees few young men, just elderly people and single mothers. “The men have gone to the United States,” explained Abel Santiago Duran, a 56-year-old municipal… Read more »
Skyrocketing Prices Point To Looming Global Food Crisis
NPR Michel Martin and Marilyn Geewax Listen to the Story Global food prices hit a record high in January, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). They are expected to continue to rise in the months ahead. Surging prices in 2007 and 2008 lead to protests in scores of countries, and Algerians… Read more »
A Chance on Organic
AgWeb By: Top Producer Editors In an about-face, Tracy Doonan took his conventional Illinois grain farm off of chemicals and fertilizers and now grows organic wheat for a local distillery. Nearly a decade ago, Tracy Doonan of Reynolds, Ill., was faced with a tough decision. Without a successor to take over the family farm, Doonan… Read more »
Helping Soldiers Trade Their Swords for Plows
New York Times By Patricia Leigh Brown VALLEY CENTER, Calif. — On an organic farm here in avocado country, a group of young Marines, veterans and Army reservists listened intently to an old hand from the front lines. “Think of it in military terms,” he told the young recruits, some just back from Iraq or… Read more »
USDA Partially Deregulating Biotech Sugar Beets
Reuters By Carey Gillam and Chuck Abbott KANSAS CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. agricultural regulators on Friday said despite a court ban, they would allow commercial planting of genetically modified sugar beets under closely controlled conditions while they complete a full environmental impact statement. The move marks the second-such boost by the United States for contested… Read more »
USDA Asked to Decide: Does Organic Mean Outdoor?
Bloomberg.com CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — When the doors to the hen house open, the 14,000 chickens on Edwin Blosser’s organic egg farm make a mad dash for the pasture outside, where they can scratch and peck in the dirt. “It’s just like an ocean of birds going out the doors — zoom!” Blosser said. Greg… Read more »
85 Groups to USDA: Make a Rule to Prohibit Meatpackers from Leveraging Captive Supply Livestock to Lower the Price-Discovery Market
R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America – “Fighting for the U.S. Cattle Producer” Contact: R-CALF USA Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson-Chambers Washington, D.C. – Today, R-CALF USA, along with 84 other organizations, sent formal correspondence to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to request that the agency take additional steps beyond the GIPSA (Grain Inspection, Packers Stockyards Administration) rule… Read more »
OCA and Their Indictment of Stonyfield, Whole Foods and Organic Valley: Did “Organic Elites” Sell out to Monsanto and the USDA?
The following is what we have said in response to many e-mail inquiries and questions we have received from Cornucopia members, food cooperatives and others in the organic community: Hello, The three companies in question decided to split with most of the organizations in the organic community, like Cornucopia, that recommended not approving genetically engineered… Read more »
