A new study shows a connection between low levels of exposure to the neonicotinoid clothianidin and varroa mites in honey bees. Honey bee with attached varroa mites Source: AbsoluteFolly, Flickr Honey bees are essential pollinators for many of our crops. Recently, honey bees have been experiencing colony collapses that...
Advertising Promotes Them as a Health Food—But Are They? Cornucopia’s new report, “Pouring” Over Plant-Based Beverages, takes an in-depth look at what these beverages really offer consumers, how they are marketed, and how they compare to cow’s milk. Amid health concerns and dire climate crisis predictions, more consumers are...
Recent discussions surrounding “organic” hydroponic operations have had the organic community in an uproar. Serious questions first raised by the Real Organic Project were raised again at the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting this past April regarding rumors of hydroponic operations spraying glyphosate or other pesticides on the...
Factory farms focus on producing cheap food for huge profit gains. This comes with severe environmental and animal welfare costs that are not accounted for in the price of the meat product. Source: Socially Responsible Agricultural Project, Flickr Conventional beef production has one of the largest impacts on global...
The integrity of the USDA organic seal is in jeopardy. As noted by Doug Crabtree of Vilicus Farms in the article below, we have to be more creative if we are to correct its course. The organic standards were written to be the “gold star” in agriculture. It was...
The majority of antibiotics in the U.S. are utilized in the livestock industry, both as growth promoters and to control diseases that are common in the crowded, dirty, stress-filled environments where most conventional livestock spend their short lives. This kind of use is linked to the growth of antibiotic-resistant...
Source: PNASH, Flickr EPA management first approved the organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos for use in conventional agriculture based on data from the pesticide industry declaring its safety. EPA scientists later determined chlorpyrifos is linked to lower IQs and levels of gray matter in children exposed prenatally, and the Ninth Circuit...
Source: Bob Peterson, Flickr Center for Food Safety’s (CFS) recent legal victory has made the United States safer for bees! A federal court found the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of many neonicotinoid pesticides illegal. These pesticides must now be pulled off the market and re-assessed. Neonicotinoids are linked...
Cornucopia reached out to Dr. Jennifer Tucker, the National Organic Program (NOP) Deputy Administrator, for further comment on the issues raised by Civil Eats, below. NOP Deputy Administrator Dr. Jennifer Tucker Source: USDA Tucker stated that she did not feel the context was illustrated well in the article. Her...
As consumer demand for organic food continues to rise, many corporations that previously only marketed conventional food have thrown their hats into the ring. While they claim to be making organic food more widely available, the effects of their vertically integrated supply chains and lobbying efforts to stretch the...
Thousands of lawsuits against Monsanto are pending in state and federal courts alleging the company failed to warn consumers that glyphosate causes cancer. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, the most widely used herbicide in the world. Source: Corey Templeton, Flickr Monsanto continues to cite statements from the EPA that...
Source: USDA, Flickr Despite recent news that studies show organic food is worse for the environment due to land-use concerns, real organic farming is based on regenerative principles. Researchers at the Rodale Institute have shown that if all farms and ranches used regenerative organic techniques (practices premised on supporting...
The Cornucopia Institute, through research and investigations on agriculture and food issues, provides needed information to family farmers, consumers and other stakeholders in the good food movement and to the media.
