Search Results for: gmo

Take Action to Oppose New Organic Tax

Comments Due to USDA by April 19 on Checkoff Proposal Image source: dreamstime.com The USDA wants public feedback on a proposed checkoff program for organics. The scheme, advocated by the industry’s largest lobby group, the Organic Trade Association (OTA), would establish a mandatory tax on farmers, food processors, distributors, retailers, and importers engaged in organic… Read more »

Cornucopia and Over 300 Other Groups Say No to Agriculture Mega-Mergers

Cornucopia’s Take: Over 320 farmer, consumer, beekeeper, environmental, and worker groups sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanding a stop to Dow/DuPont and Bayer/Monsanto mega-mergers. Cornucopia was a signatory. It is difficult to see how such mergers benefit either farmers or consumers. Over 300 food and farm groups Urge Jeff Sessions to… Read more »

Almost All Germans Contaminated with Glyphosate

The Ecologist by Nicole Sagener | EurActiv.com Fuessen, Germany Source: Moyan Brenn A new study shows that 99.6% of Germans are contaminated with the herbicide glyphosate, writes Nicole Sagener. The news comes as the EU puts off a crucial decision on whether to re-authorise the chemical, described by IARC as ‘probably carcinogenic’, until 2031. All… Read more »

What Walmart’s Big Organic Announcement Means for Organic Veterans

Could the chain’s entrée into private-label organics cheapen the gold standard in food production? Rodale News by Emily Main Walmart has just announced that it’s going to throw its massive size and influence behind the organic food movement. By relaunching a historic brand, Wild Oats, which used to be Whole Foods’ biggest rival, the chain… Read more »

Modified Crops Tap a Wellspring of Protest

The New York Times By JULIA MOSKIN SILENT in flannel shirts and ponytails, farmers from Saskatchewan and South Dakota, Mississippi and Massachusetts lined the walls of a packed federal courtroom in Manhattan last week, as their lawyers told a judge that they were no longer able to keep genetically modified crops from their fields. The… Read more »

Cheap Food: Not What’s for Dinner Anymore?

Welcome to the era of neocolonial agriculture Mother Jones By Tom Philpott Remember when gas was a dollar a gallon? The era of the fast-food “dollar menu” may be going the same way. Cheap food has been with us for a while. After World War II, global grain prices fell steadily for decades. US and European… Read more »

With A Gust of Wind, an Iowa Crop Duster Can Squash an Organic Farm

Grist Kurt Michael Friese Grinnell Heritage Farm is 152 years old. Andrew Dunham is the fifth generation of his family to work this land about 50 miles east of Des Moines. He is a direct descendant of Josiah Grinnell, founder of the town and the man Horace Greeley once famously quoted as having said, “Go… Read more »

The Lengthy History of GE Salmon in the U.S.

Cornucopia’s Take: Genetically engineered salmon were first bred over 25 years ago, and public opinion has played a major role in their not receiving regulatory approval for sale in the U.S. Tribes in the Pacific Northwest that rely on wild salmon for fishing and as an important piece of their cultural heritage have joined a… Read more »

Non-Total Recall

The USDA’s Lack of Authority The Ethicurean by Marc R. aka Mental Masala A line of 7,500 trucks stretching 85 miles. That’s what it would take to haul the nearly 300 million pounds of meat and poultry products that were recalled between January 1, 1994, and November 30, 2007, in 773 separate incidents. These eye-popping… Read more »

Keeping an Eye on Transgenic Crops

Rocky Mountain Outlook By David Suzuki Did you know that genetically modified, or “transgenic” crops are now commonplace on North American farms? According to a recent survey in the United States, the majority of Americans have no idea just how pervasive this technology has become. In fact, North Americans have been eating transgenic foods and… Read more »