A new rule is coming. And it’s desperately needed to ensure that healthy calves from organic cows grow up eating grass alongside their relatives. That scenario is commonplace among Cornucopia’s five-cow-rated dairies. But in industrialized organic dairies, scofflaws have long flouted existing “origin of livestock” rules, continuously transitioning conventional animals into production...
North Dakota seed breeders safeguard the future of food By Marianne Landzettel Theresa Podoll breathed a cautious sigh of relief. The harvest on her North Dakota farm had gone well and, at the time of our conversation in early October, snow was absent from the forecast for the rest of the month. “In 2018 and...
Ushering in a New Leadership Era With a Fierce Protector of Organic Viroqua, WI – Following many months of teamwork to navigate a founder transition, the board of The Cornucopia Institute voted unanimously to promote longtime staff member Melody Morrell as the organization’s next executive director. “Melody Morrell has...
Here’s a quixotic scenario: a secretary of agriculture who is cozy with farmers, not corporations. Instead, we are preparing for the return of Tom Vilsack, who served as secretary of agriculture in the Obama administration between 2008 and 2016. Most recently, Vilsack worked in the private sector, as president...
This article was previously published in the winter issue of the Cultivator, Cornucopia’s quarterly newsletter. By Michele Marchetti, Co-Director of Development and Communications at The Cornucopia Institute Huddled inside a trade show booth, Anne Ross, JD watched dozens of icons, each representing an international shipping vessel, inch across a computer...
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Organic Foods Production Act, we asked some of the early champions of the modern-day organic movement to reflect on what the label means to them. Read the essays from Dr. Joan Dye Gussow, Dr. Barry Flamm, and Elizabeth Henderson below. Dr....
The Winter 2020 Cultivator, Cornucopia’s quarterly newsletter, is now available online. Download the PDF. In it you’ll find: Why I farm, by Cornucopia Board President Cameron Molberg Exposing Organic Grain Fraud North Dakota Seed Breeders, Prairie Road Organic Seed Welcoming Back Charlotte Vallaeys We Need You Revisiting the Origin...
Demystifying the policy that impacts organics farmers and consumers In the wake of massive destruction to the organic dairy marketplace, a languishing rule intended to prevent the continuous cycling of conventional livestock into organic operation will finally reappear as a second proposed rule for public comment. Reporting from the...
How a noni farmer in Hawaii found abundance in a cup of worm castings By Michele Marchetti Eighteen years ago, Steve Frailey boarded a Hawaiian Airlines flight with a suitcase brimming with 12 pounds of Indian blue worms. Those worms play a vital role in Frailey’s 70-acre certified organic farm in Kauai, Hawaii...
Join The Cornucopia Institute as we keep you informed via web updates and live tweets from the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting online. We will be sharing the play by play of the meeting on October 28, 29, and 30 below and with our Twitter followers at #NOSB...
Welcoming back a nutrition and food policy expert who helped build Cornucopia A central member of the brain trust that built The Cornucopia Institute is returning as a consultant. Charlotte Vallaeys served as Cornucopia’s director of farm and food policy from 2007 to 2013, helping build Cornucopia’s culture and...
The Cornucopia Institute’s yogurt scorecard now focuses exclusively on organic brands, the safest way to avoid toxic pesticides like chlorpyrifos. Cornucopia’s Organic Yogurt Scorecard ranks 225 varieties of organic yogurt from 29 brands. Organic yogurts that received the highest score were sourced from milk that received the highest rating...
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.
