KERA News by Luke Runyon Credit: Murray Grey The world’s soil is in trouble. Ecologists say without dramatic changes to how we manage land, vast swathes of grassland are at risk of turning into hard-packed desert. To make sure that doesn’t happen, researchers are testing out innovative ways to...
Roger Blobaum: Organic Policy Pioneer Speaks Out on Organic Controversy PRWatch by Rebekah Wilce Alexis Baden Mayer arrested and removed from NOSB Meeting When organic activist Alexis Baden Mayer of the Organic Consumers Association was arrested after leading a “spirited protest” against watering down organic standards last month, she wasn’t...
Credit: USDA Living on Earth with Steve Curwood A recent study found “extreme levels” of the herbicide glyphosate, linked to birth defects and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, in genetically modified soybeans farmed in Iowa. The US federal government doesn’t recognize a material difference between GM and non-GM crops but Vermont will...
The New York Times By Mark Bittman 1. Lunch Credit: Beau Wade Allow me this generalization: Healthy food initiatives threaten profits and are therefore fought or deflected or co-opted at all costs by the producers of hyperprocessed food. This is true even when those costs include producing an increasingly...
Nation of Change by Christina Sarich In a report released by etcgroup.org, the world’s six largest agrochemical manufacturers are also controlling the seed industry. According to the report, agrochemical is running the show, not by providing food to the people of the world, but by poisoning the seeds they provide...
FoodTank by Timothy A. Wise Credit: Keith Weller, USDA To listen to the current debates over the controversial requests by Monsanto and other biotech giants to grow genetically modified (GM) maize in Mexico, you’d think the danger to the country’s rich biodiversity in maize was hypothetical. It is anything...
Prevention by Robyn O’Brien Monsanto just might be the most contentious company on the planet. If you read their PR, you’d think they were here to save the world. If you read their financial statements, you will quickly realize that they are a chemical company. So can a chemical...
LaCrosse Tribune by M.L. Johnson That’s the position of a Colorado-based grocery store chain that recently announced it will carry only dairy products from farms where cows graze in pastures. Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage claims grazing improves the health of cows, consumers and the environment, and it hopes...
Sustainable Cities Collective by David Thorpe Parks and city green spaces and school grounds are safe, pleasant and healthy places, right? Perhaps not, if they are sprayed with dangerous pesticides and herbicides. Cities are gradually waking up to the idea that they may be putting their populations at risk...
McDonald’s claims that their potatoes are produced sustainably, but rural residents in central Minnesota know differently: pesticide drift from potato fields is a major problem. Join the Toxic Taters coalition in pressing McDonald’s and their potato producers to transition to safer potato production with fewer hazardous pesticides.
1970s: Ping-Pong Diplomacy with China / 2014: Organic Diplomacy with Iran Internationally respected organic leader, Jim Riddle, returned from Iran last week after participating in an international conference in the Middle East. Riddle, a former chairman of the National Organic Standards Board, and founder of an association of independent...
Farm Report with Pam Jahnke Mark Kastel, co-founder of the organic watchdog group, Cornucopia Institute – was a special guest on the WI Farm Report to update listeners on regulatory challenges in the organic food industry. Click on the arrow below to listen:
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.
