This email notice from the National Organic Program is a bit of damage control (it is unknown whether their email could supersede the legal notice published in the Federal Register). The Federal Register notice suggested that the only Task Force nominees that would qualify for this new panel are those with hands-on industry experience. That… Read more »
Organic Farmers Neither Want Nor Need an Organic Checkoff
[Jim Goodman is an organic dairy farmer from Wonewoc, WI. ] National Family Farm Coalition by Jim Goodman Source: Capricorn78 The “organic industry” represented by the Organic Trade Association (OTA) wants to make some money, supposedly for promoting organic food in the marketplace and for more research related to organic farming. So the go to… Read more »
How the Great Food War Will Be Won
Independent Science News by Jonathan Latham Ph.D. By conventional wisdom it is excellent news. Researchers from Iowa have shown that organic farming methods can yield almost as highly as pesticide-intensive methods. Other researchers, from Berkeley, California, have reached a similar conclusion. Indeed, both findings met with a very enthusiastic reception. The enthusiasm is appropriate, but only if one… Read more »
Biofuels Are Not a Green Alternative to Fossil Fuels
The Guardian by Andrew Steer and Craig Hanson Source: Peter Blanchard Biofuels and bioenergy take up finite land resources at the cost of food production and carbon storage and doesn’t guarantee carbon emissions cuts Powering cars with corn and burning wood to make electricity might seem like a way to lessen dependence on fossil fuels… Read more »
What Nobody Told Me About Small Farming: I Can’t Make a Living
People say we’re “rich in other ways,” but that doesn’t fix the ugly fact that most farms are unsustainable Salon by Jaclyn Moyer Source: Jay & Melissa Malouin On the radio this morning I heard a story about the growing number of young people choosing to become farmers. The farmers in the story sounded a… Read more »
Our Responsibilities to the Animals We Eat
The Call of the Land by Steven McFadden Source: Socially Responsible Agricultural Project Each year more than nine billion animals go to slaughterhouses in the USA to be killed, processed, and packaged into the beef, pork, lamb and chicken that eventually find their way onto our dinner plates. It is an industrial process on a… 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 »
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 »
Let’s Move Past Complaining About Raw Milk Misinformation, and Do Something About It
by David Gumpert I know I’m not the only supporter of food choice who is frustrated because much of the news in the mainstream media about raw milk seems to be negative and often inaccurate. I know I’m not the only one who is tired of complaining, and wants to do something about it. But… Read more »
Chicken Industry Acts More Like Ostriches
Food Safety News by Leah Garces Source: Socially Responsible Agricultural Project Last month, something unprecedented happened that rocked the chicken industry’s world. Perdue contract farmer Craig Watts decided he’d had enough. Together with my organization, Compassion in World Farming, he released a video that gave the public a unique view into the secretive world of the chicken… Read more »
