The Cornucopia Institute has submitted dozens of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests over the years in an effort to shine a light on the inner workings of the National Organic Program. Over and over we have seen the same response from the USDA: frequent delays far beyond what is permitted by federal law, overuse… Read more »
Search Results for: regenerative agriculture
Fall 2018 NOSB Meeting – Webinar: Thursday, October 18, 2018
Cornucopia staff members attended the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) pre-meeting webinar today, where the NOSB heard comments from the public. Cornucopia’s notes from this meeting are below. You can also view our notes from the Tuesday webinar. Ten of 15 NOSB members present at the beginning of the call: Source: Hideya Hamano Ashley Swaffar Jesse… Read more »
Go ask Alice
Are Alice Waters’ gastronomic principles — shop locally, eat organically — too hard to live by? A frank talk with the renowned guru of fresh food. Salon.com By Farhad Manjoo I had been prepared to skewer Alice Waters. Though I have eaten some of the best food I’ve ever encountered at her Berkeley restaurant Chez… Read more »
NOSB Webinar — Recap of Public Comments (and Postmortem)
Below, please find the roster of all those who testified at the National Organic Standards Board’s webinar/teleconference on Thursday, November 3. These notes were prepared by Kestrel Burcham, a policy analyst and attorney on our staff. The leadership at the USDA’s National Organic Program, with concurrence from members of the NOSB, have cut down the… Read more »
The Next Great GMO Debate
Technology Review by Antonio Regalado Deep inside its labs, Monsanto is learning how to modify crops by spraying them with RNA rather than tinkering with their genes. The Colorado potato beetle is a voracious eater. The insect can chew through 10 square centimeters of leaf a day, and left unchecked it will strip a plant… Read more »
The Goodman Affair: Monsanto Targets the Heart of Science
Independent Science News By Claire Robinson and Jonathan Latham, PhD Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal, has jested that instead of scientific peer review, its rival The Lancet had a system of throwing a pile of papers down the stairs and publishing those that reached the bottom. On another occasion, Smith was… Read more »
Monsanto and EPA (Allegedly) Collude About Glyphosate Safety
Cornucopia’s Take: The article below gives the history of glyphosate toxicity testing and the uncomfortably cozy relationship between EPA management and Monsanto. Monsanto has apparently simply refused to participate in any truly independent research on glyphosate safety, and the EPA has repeatedly capitulated to their noncompliance since 1973. How Monsanto Captured the EPA (And Twisted… 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 »
Follow the Spring 2020 National Organic Standards Board Meeting Online
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 public comments on April 21 and 23 and the meeting itself on April 29 and 30 below and with our Twitter followers… Read more »
The Complete Guide to the Dairy Crisis
Why Small Organic Farms Are Going Under A stated purpose of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA) (7 CFR § 6501-6522) is to assure consumers that organically produced products meet a consistent and uniform standard. Currently, there are many issues plaguing the organic dairy industry that make this “consistent and uniform standard” impossible…. Read more »
