NPR – The Salt by Dan Charles Source: USDA Here’s an exercise in deductive logic, with implications for our food supply. Fact: Insects such as bees and butterflies are helpful, and sometimes essential, for producing much of our food, including a majority of our fruits, vegetables and nuts. Fact: Many of these pollinators, especially wild… Read more »
Decline of Pollinators Poses Threat to World Food Supply, Report Says
The New York Times by John Schwartz Source: Ingrid Taylar The birds and the bees need help. Also, the butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles and bats. Without an international effort, a new report warns, increasing numbers of species that promote the growth of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of food each year face extinction. The… Read more »
A Town Demands Protection from Pesticides
National Geographic by Elizabeth Grossman Source: Santiago Nicolau Almost a year ago, National Geographic told the story of Aixa, now eight years old, who lives in Avia Terai, a town in Argentina surrounded by soybeans and other crops treated with pesticides. Included was a photograph by Marco Vernaschi that showed tumors and blotches covering Aixa’s face and body (see image here). The dramatic photograph… Read more »
This Maryland Guy is Making Money on Food Waste, While Also Feeding the Hungry
Modern Farmer by Brian Barth Source: Hungry Harvest An absurd quantity of food goes to waste in the United States every year, resulting in frittered resources used to produce the food and lost profits for farmers. About six billion pounds goes into farmers’ compost piles and local landfills each year, half of it in an… Read more »
Features from the Farm: Making a Difference for Organic Dairy Farms
Morris Sun Tribune by Esther Jordan Source: Jon Anderson Brad Heins is a bit of a problem solver, especially when it comes to organic dairy farms. “I enjoy figuring things out; being able to answer questions that farmers have,” said Heins, assistant dairy professor at the University of Minnesota West Central Research and Outreach Center… Read more »
Chickens Weren’t Always Dinner for Humans
The New York Times by James Gorman Source: Malcolm K Chickens get no respect. Ask any chicken researcher. When the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain decided to give about $3 million to a number of academic figures, including Greger Larson, to study the “Cultural & Scientific Perceptions of Human-Chicken Interactions,” the grant… Read more »
FDA to Begin Testing for Glyphosate Residue
Feedstuffs Source: Chafer Machinery Recently, the Food & Drug Administration developed streamlined methods to test for glyphosate. The agency is now preparing plans for fiscal 2016 to measure glyphosate in soybeans, corn, milk and eggs, among other potential foods, according to FDA spokesperson Jason Strachman Miller. “The FDA has not routinely looked for glyphosate in… Read more »
The Most Popular Food in America is a Clone
Tech Insider by Rebecca Harrington Source: torbakhopper To find out what the most commonly purchased food was in the US, we asked America’s largest retailer — Walmart — what its top-selling item was in 2015. The answer? Bananas. Dorn Wenninger, vice president of produce and floral for Walmart US, told Tech Insider that the company sold… Read more »
Oregon Farmers Battle Over GMO Control
Statesman Journal by Tracy Loew Organic Corn Source: Friends of Family Farmers Oregon farmers are suffering real financial losses because of contamination from nearby genetically engineered crops, a Legislative committee heard Thursday. “We lose money when we have a GMO contamination event, which I’ve had happen twice,” said Don Tipping, an organic seed grower from… Read more »
Bayer Refuses the EPA’s Request to Stop Selling a Pesticide. Wait, What?
modern farmer by Dan Nosowitz Source: Andy Powell Bayer, the enormous German pharmaceutical and chemical company, made news recently when it simply refused the EPA’s request to cancel one of its products, a pesticide the EPA says is unsafe. Let’s read that again: a company refused to heed an EPA request. How is this even… Read more »
