Cornucopia’s Take: Natural Grocers’ Alan Lewis recently visited Capitol Hill to discuss the upcoming Farm Bill with lawmakers. He shares his experience, insight, and disturbing commentary below about what this may mean for organic food and agriculture. Will Coming “Reforms” at the USDA Spell the End of Organic? LinkedIn by Alan Lewis Source: Douglas Simkin… Read more »
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Latest USDA Scandal: Organic Program Dismisses Legal Complaints Targeting Factory Farms — Without Investigating
Watchdog Asks OIG to Investigate “Unholy Alliance” Between Industry Lobbyists and Regulators The Cornucopia Institute harshly criticized the USDA for its failure to conduct an investigation of 14 legal complaints filed by the Wisconsin-based organic industry watchdog group last December. The complaints allege a systemic pattern of livestock management violations occurring on some of the nation’s… Read more »
Pro-Industry Journalism Casts Doubt on Real Science
Cornucopia’s Take: When scientific findings have regulatory consequences, the science is all too often subject to corporate spin. In this case, herbicide manufacturers have a vested interest in a regulatory conclusion that glyphosate is safe when used per label directions. The independent science says otherwise. For a good explanation of the corporate methodology and mythology at… Read more »
Chemical Merchant of Doubt Endorsed for EPA Safety Chief
Cornucopia’s Take: Michael Dourson was grilled at his Senate confirmation hearing last week. It remains to be seen whether he will be confirmed in a high position at the EPA, but his track record is absolutely clear: Dourson has spent his career determining toxic chemicals are safe and collecting a paycheck from chemical manufacturers. TRUMP’S… Read more »
Suspicious Organic Grain Shipment Intercepted at U.S. Port
UPDATE: Interim Victory for Organic Farmers A federal judge has denied Sunrise Food International, Inc.’s request that it be allowed to immediately unload 25,000 metric tons of what is purportedly “organic” corn currently stranded off the shore of California. Sunrise asked the court to issue an emergency order allowing it to dock and unload the… Read more »
Denver USDA Meeting Will Help Decide Organic Future
Farmers, Consumers, Nonprofits Challenge Mounting Agribusiness Dominance Will Industrial-Scale Hydroponic (soil-less) Production or Allowing Plastic Contamination of Organic Farmland be Sanctioned? NOSB Deliberations at the Fall 2016 Meeting Advocates for organic food and farming are, increasingly, victims of their own success. Over the past 25 years, this grassroots movement has morphed into a $43 billion… Read more »
Evidence of Monsanto/EPA Collusion Mounts
Cornucopia’s Take: As a string of about 5,000 court cases commence, alleging Monsanto’s Roundup caused plaintiff’s cancers, new documents detailing communications between government agencies and Monsanto have been made public. Bayer acquired Monsanto in June, and integration of the companies has begun. Monsanto was recently ordered by a jury to pay DeWayne Johnson $289 million… Read more »
Organics’ Relationship to Climate Change
by Kestrel Burcham, JD Director of Domestic Policy at The Cornucopia Institute Introduction Discussing soil health at Vilicus Farms in MT Source: USDA, Flickr People choose organic food over conventional food for many reasons. Organic products are nutrient-dense and have fewer pesticide and other toxic chemical residues than conventional food. Organic farming offers benefits to… Read more »
North Dakota Oil Extraction Leaves the Land Lifeless
Cornucopia’s Take: Fracking for oil in North Dakota farm fields has left a stain of salt, heavy metals, and radioactivity in the soil which extraction companies are not interested in cleaning up. The salted earth is rendered dead and incapable of crop production. Clean-up involves removal of the contaminated soil, an expensive project that simply… Read more »
Activists in Overalls
How A Way of Life Farm Aligns Economy with Ecology Earlier this spring, Jamie and Sara Jane Davis showed their crew pictures of A Way of Life Farm circa 2009, the year they had purchased the Bostic, North Carolina land. “It looks like high desert country,” remarked one of the farmhands. A previously clear-cut pine… Read more »
