Cornucopia’s Take: Cornucopia has heard from organic farmers and businesses who have asked their certifiers for a moratorium on hydroponics and to identify fraudulent dairies and egg operations. Cornucopia’s infographic, A Perfect Picture of Corruption, shows an example of the some of these conflicts of interest. The organic food...
USDA Has “Willfully Failed” on Congressional Mandate to Prevent Fraud When farmers lobbied Congress to pass the Organic Foods Production Act in 1990, their intention was to create a level playing field in the market and to affirm the credibility of organic labeling in the eyes of consumers. Unfortunately,...
Cornucopia’s Take: Creativity and diversification may help some organic dairy farmers keep their doors open. The farm in the story below has been able to take advantage of its proximity to major cities. While urban sprawl has meant the death of many farm operations, it seems to be saving...
Cornucopia’s Take: The article by OFARM’s John Bobbe below was originally published in The Milkweed. Bobbe is a strong ally in stopping the flow of fraudulent organic imports into the U.S. He has recently retired from OFARM, but he assures us he will continue to work on these important...
Cornucopia’s Take: Wisconsin lost nearly two dairies a day in 2018, most of them family farms. As factory farm “organic” dairies continue to grow their operations, ethical organic farmers continue to lose their footholds as well. Use Cornucopia’s Dairy Scorecard to choose the best milk, cheese, butter, and other...
Finding a Way of Life on Windy Acres Farm by Jason Cole, Research Associate at The Cornucopia Institute Photo courtesy of Windy Acres Farm What is the meaning and purpose of work? Is it...
Cornucopia’s Take: Although more kinds of crops are now grown than in the 1970s, almost half of all farmland in the world currently produces wheat, corn, soy, or rice. Monocultures are notoriously vulnerable to pests, disease, and increasingly wild swings in precipitation and temperature. Biodiversity improves the resilience of...
Cornucopia’s colleagues at the Real Organic Project are hosting a symposium at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire on March 2. You will hear many passionate speakers from across the fields of farming, policy, science, and activism offer their takeaways and ideas for action regarding the many challenges and opportunities facing organic...
Cornucopia’s Take: Insect mass is declining by 2.5% annually. They pollinate plants, recycle waste, and provide food for many species, and humans cannot live without their various ecosystem services. More insects can be observed on organic farms than conventional or GMO farms. Deforestation, pesticide use, and other changes to...
Benefiting Communities and the Planet This article was previously published in the winter issue of The Cultivator, Cornucopia’s quarterly newsletter.] by Kestrel Burcham, JD Farm and Food Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute Source: AdobeStock The benefits that a healthy, functioning environment provides for humanity are called ecosystem services. For...
Cornucopia’s Take: According to a new meta-analysis, people with prolonged or high-level exposure to glyphosate (the active ingredient in Bayer/Monsanto’s Roundup) are 41% more likely to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The study’s authors focused on the most extreme cases of glyphosate exposure, reasoning that those would be the most likely...
Cornucopia’s Take: In a new study, 16 children and adults who ate only organic food for six days experienced a 60.5% reduction in the levels of common pesticides in their bodies. Although the sample was very small, the study confirms similar previous research. Criticisms of those previous studies included the...
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.
