‘People’s Choice’ open for audience vote Real Food Media Contest The Real Food Media Contest is pleased to announce the remarkable finalists in its second short films competition featuring stories about food, farming, and sustainability. From a backyard bread baker to farmworker organizers to an entrepreneurial snail farmer, the ten finalist films cover a huge… Read more »
How Fish Could Change What It Means For Food To Be Organic
NPR – The Salt by Kristofor Husted Source: andyabides When it comes to organic certification, food producers must follow strict guidelines. For an organic steak, for instance, the cow it came from has to be raised on organic feed, and the feed mix can’t be produced with pesticides, chemical fertilizers or genetic engineering. Now, the U.S…. Read more »
Farming Science, Without the Conscience
The New York Times by the Editorial Board Source: Aurel You don’t have to be a vegan to be repulsed by an account in The Times revealing the moral depths to which the federal government — working as a handmaiden to industrial agriculture — has sunk in pursuit of cheaper meat and fatter corporate profits…. Read more »
Ag Industry At Odds Over Pesticide Studied In Bee Deaths
A class of pesticides commonly used on Midwest farm fields that have been linked to the destruction of bee colonies may not be as effective against corn and soybean pests as once thought, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report. NET Nebraska by Kristofor Husted, Harvest Public Media Source: Seth Sawyers Initially, the pesticides, called… Read more »
‘Suppressed’ EU Report Could Have Banned Pesticides Worth Billions
Science paper recommended ways of identifying hormone-mimicking chemicals in pesticides linked to foetal abnormalities, genital mutations, infertility and other diseases including cancer The Guardian by Arthur Neslen Source: US EPA As many as 31 pesticides with a value running into billions of pounds could have been banned because of potential health risks, if a blocked… Read more »
Persistent Organic Pollutants, Pesticides Linked to Early Menopause
Beyond Pesticides Source: IFPRI – IMAGES Extensive exposure to common chemicals may be linked to an earlier start of menopause, according to a new study out of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Researchers of the study found that women whose bodies have high levels of these chemicals, including three pesticides, experience menopause… Read more »
Leading Wisconsin Farm Group Rejects Industry-Led “Organic Check-off”
Grassroots Farmers Rebuff “Robin Hood in Reverse” Proposal from Corporate Lobby Group Wisconsin Farmers Union members overwhelmingly voted no on the proposed organic check-off program at their recent annual convention, held in Eau Claire, Wis. The scheme, being advocated by the industry’s largest lobby group, the Organic Trade Association (OTA), would create a mandatory tax… Read more »
Proposed Bill Demands Mandatory GMO Labeling in R.I.
Proposition, similar to those in Maine and Connecticut, responds to increase in public awareness The Brown Daily Herald by Alon Galor Source: Wikimedia Commons Legislation introduced Jan. 15 would require genetically engineered products in Rhode Island to be clearly labeled “produced with genetic engineering,” and would also specify what the term “genetically engineered product” —… Read more »
Take Paradise, Put up an Animal Feedlot
Manure Sprayed on Fields Source: Socially Responsible Agricultural Project CAFOs. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Sometimes people say Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Here in northeastern Wisconsin, we have 16 CAFOs in Kewaunee County, second only to our neighboring Brown County which has 20. Most of these operations have 5,000-10,000 animals living in the closed quarters of… Read more »
CSA Farms: Actual Farm-Community Alliance or Alternative Marketing Strategy?
The Call of the Land by Steven McFadden Source: Tavis Ford Agrarians often remark in one context or another that they feel farming went off course when people started trying to run farms as a business instead of as a way of life. At that point they say farming was no longer a culture of… Read more »
