Consumer Reports by Eric Schlosser Source: USDA During our 80th-anniversary year, Consumer Reports is introducing a series of provocative opinion essays by leading thinkers on urgent consumer issues. We hope you’ll join the conversation with us. Severely obese schoolchildren, E. coli outbreaks, salmonella in ground beef, arsenic in apple juice and rice, poultry sickened by… Read more »
Search Results for: national organic program
Activists Grill Producers of Modified Corn
Monsanto’s engineered crop hits stores unlabeled, but Wal-Mart isn’t worried Chicago Tribune By Monica Eng As the Midwest crunches into sweet corn season, a new type will be appearing on grocery store shelves — even though shoppers have no way to recognize it. It’s genetically modified sweet corn from the biotech giant Monsanto, engineered to… Read more »
Farming the Future
We’ve been waiting 32 years for the state to map and protect Hawai‘i’s Important Agricultural Lands. The moment may be at hand. Honolulu Weekly By Ragnar Carlson Hawaii ‘78 The 1978 Constitutional Convention was the most significant moment in Hawaii politics since statehood. Among other sweeping reforms–the creation of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the… Read more »
Pruitt’s EPA Considering Dicamba Ban
Cornucopia’s Take: According to the article below, 3.5% of all soybeans planted in the U.S. were harmed by dicamba this season. The harvest is not yet in to see the effect on yields. The EPA has threatened to ban the herbicide, leaving uncertainty about the future of dicamba and dicamba-resistant crops. Ban of Herbicide Could… Read more »
23 Organizations Critique Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Initiatives
Human rights, labor and environmental groups find Wal-Mart”s “green” initiatives lack real impact on global warming, employee health and welfare Washington, DC– As Wal-Mart releases its long-anticipated sustainability progress report today, 23 environmental, farm, labor, and human rights groups are disseminating their own report, “Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Initiative: A Civil Society Critique.” The report, prepared by… Read more »
Rural Water Across America Poisoned by Agricultural Runoff
Cornucopia’s Take: Conventional and GMO crop farming and concentrated animal feeding operations create runoff of excess pesticides and fertilizers into watersheds and, ultimately, wells in rural America. The runoff contains nitrates from manure, bacteria from sick animals, and a host of toxic chemicals and antibiotics. Learn more about the crisis below. Sustainable farming practices prevent… Read more »
How Americans Gardened 260 Years Ago
Rodale’s Organic Life by Therese Ciesinski Source: Sarah Elliott Colonial Williamsburg shows us that when it comes to technique, not much has changed. The wooden yoke around my neck doesn’t hurt at first. I winch up two brimming wooden buckets from the well and attach them to the yoke. Now carrying 40 extra pounds of… Read more »
GMO Science Deniers: Monsanto and the USDA
Huff Post by Andrew Kimbrell Perhaps no group of science deniers has been more ridiculed than those who deny the science of evolution. What you may not know is that Monsanto and our United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are among them. That’s right: for decades, Monsanto and its enablers inside the USDA have denied… Read more »
Dead, Lifeless Food
FDA aims to sterilize our food through the Food Safety Modernization Act Food Riot Radio By Brad Jordan After two years of delay, the Food Safety Modernization Act is finally about to go into effect. The FDA is moving forward with rules that are supposed to make food in the United States the safest in… Read more »
Hole in the Middle
To make local food more accessible, time to revive mid-sized farms Grist By Tom Philpott Most people probably don’t think of Carrboro, North Carolina — a bustling town just outside of Chapel Hill — as a food lover’s paradise. But walk into the town’s beloved farmers market on a spring Saturday morning, and you see… Read more »
