Late last year we learned that the nation’s largest organic dairy processors (Organic Valley, Horizon, Stonyfield, Aurora and Humboldt) collaborated on drafting a secret letter to the USDA Secretary proposing their own “fix” to the controversy regarding factory-farms and whether their cattle are allowed to graze in compliance with...
Wisconsin officials have launched an investigation into the giant retailer’s practices after complaints that it may be misleading consumers BusinessWeek by Pallavi Gogoi A year after Wal-Mart (WMT) laid out ambitious plans to become a much bigger player in the organic foods business, the giant retailer is running into...
Nonorganic Food Products Misidentified as “Organic” Contact: Mark Kastel, 608-625-2000 CORNUCOPIA, WI: When the staff at The Cornucopia Institute surveyed Wal-Mart stores around the country last September, analyzing the giant retailer’s pronouncement that they would begin selling a wide variety of organic food at just a 10% mark-up over...
The New York Times By Dan Barber Tarrytown, N.Y. THERE’S invariably something risky, if not risible, about allowing Congress to decide what’s for dinner. Bad decisions about agriculture have defined government policy for the last century; 70 percent of our nation’s farms have been lost to bankruptcy or consolidation,...
By Judith McGeary Numerous sources have reported that the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS, is voluntary. But is that really true? On November 22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a “User Guide“ for NAIS. In it, USDA states that NAIS “is voluntary at the federal level.”...
Timing “finally right,” says Idaho dairyman Capital Press Staff Writer Dave Wilkins The time was finally right. Earlier this year, Idaho dairyman David Roberts joined the growing number of American farmers who produce organic milk. The third-generation dairyman and his dad milk about 200 cows near Preston in southeastern...
By Jim Riddle On December 28, 2006, the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Draft Risk Assessment on meat and milk from cloned animals. The FDA concluded that animal cloning, or somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), “results in an increased...
The Herald by JAMES MORGAN The use of antibiotics on farms should be reduced because of suspected links with a superbug in humans, an organic food group claimed yesterday. A virulent strain of E-coli which has killed at least 57 people in the UK has been found on 10...
Organic farmers: Old-fashioned tilling keeps them out of conservation program. Federal government: CSP favors spraying to prevent erosion and greenhouse gases. By PHILIP BRASHER Des Moines Register Washington Bureau (link no longer available) Washington, D.C. – Organic farmers control weeds the old-fashioned way, turning the soil. Most conventional growers,...
WASHINGTON, DC — The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a report that shows how pasture-raised pork, chicken, and egg production can avoid the problems conventional production poses for water and air quality and animal and public health. The report also explains the definitions, standards, and label claims for...
The Case Vander Eyk, Jr. industrial-scale dairy is located in central California. The 10,000-herd facility is a “split operation.” At this facility at least 3500 of the cows are split from the herd and are supposed to be managed in accordance with federal organic regulations. In February, 2005 The...
by Jim Goodman That was the question asked by the host on a recent Public Radio call-in show. Her question to her guest from the Cornucopia Institute was in regard to recent charges that Wal-Mart was passing conventional grocery items off as USDA certified organic. A mistake? I doubt...
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.
