San Jose Mercury News By Jane Palmer Tom Willey is so concerned about food safety he is willing to bet the farm on it. Literally. Willey and his wife, Densesse, own an organic farm just outside of Madera in the central San Joaquin Valley, where they grow lettuce, carrots, cabbage and nearly 50 other hand-harvested… Read more »
Search Results for: GMO dangers
Farmers Cope With Roundup-Resistant Weeds
New York Times By WILLIAM NEUMAN and ANDREW POLLACK DYERSBURG, Tenn. — For 15 years, Eddie Anderson, a farmer, has been a strict adherent of no-till agriculture, an environmentally friendly technique that all but eliminates plowing to curb erosion and the harmful runoff of fertilizers and pesticides. But not this year. On a recent afternoon… Read more »
Food Conscious: Is organic better? It depends.
San Francisco Chronicle Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer Fans of eating organic have always believed that organic fruits and vegetables packed a bigger nutritional punch than conventionally grown produce. But until pretty recently, hard scientific evidence has been lacking. Studies that seemed to prove the theory often turned out to be poorly designed – the… Read more »
North Sacramento-based Ventria Sowing a Storm with Altered Rice
The Sacramento Bee By Jim Downing In a little town in Kansas, Sacramento’s Ventria Bioscience is about to turn one of the biotechnology industry’s long-held dreams, and one of its critics’ nightmares, into reality. For 14 years, Ventria has inched toward its vision of growing fields of genetically modified rice plants that would serve as… Read more »
Aurora Dairy Threatens Suit Against Critics
Boulder County Business Report (link no longer available) by Barbara Hey BOULDER – Despite threats of legal action, the vitriol continues between Boulder-based Aurora Organic Dairy and the company’s critics in the organic community – chief among them the Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based advocacy group. The current conflagration concerns a consent agreement between the U.S. Department… Read more »
Organic Almond Supporters Roast Pasteurization Plan
San Francisco Chronicle George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer A new food regulation that mandates the pasteurization of California almonds leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Jesse Schwartz, a purveyor of raw organic almond butter and other natural foods in Berkeley. For 25 years, as president of Living Tree Community Foods, he has done… Read more »
National Organic Standards Board Adopts Pasture Guidance But USDA Staff Rejects Changes and Asks for Further Review
The Cornucopia Institute’s Senior Farm Policy Analyst Mark Kastel journeyed to Washington, D.C. for the August 15-17 meeting of the National Organic Standards Board. He was there to push for final adoption of the proposed pasture guidance for dairy cows and ruminants that would close loopholes being used by several large industrial confinement dairy farms… Read more »
EPA Mulls Ban on Nation’s Most Heavily Used Insecticide
Salon by Paul Koberstein Source: UNDP Numerous studies show Chlorpyrifos causes serious harm to children, but some farmworkers consider it indispensable Scott Krogstad grows soybeans and sugar beets in the heart of the Red River Valley near Grand Forks, North Dakota. Like most sugar beet farmers in the Midwest, he wages a difficult war with… Read more »
More Women Planting Roots in Agriculture, Finding Home on Range
The Seattle Times by Elizabeth Zach Pam Schreiber, organic farmer Source: USDA According to the USDA, the women who identify themselves as farmers or ranchers run the gamut from those who raise cattle, sheep, poultry, pigs and goats in the West and Midwest to viticulturists who nurture malbec and pinot noir grapes in California, Washington… Read more »
Simple Rules for Healthy Eating
The New York Times by Aaron E. Carroll Source: Tim Bellomo Over the past few months, I’ve written a number of times on how nutrition recommendations are seldom supported by science. I’ve argued that what many people are telling you may be inaccurate. In response, many of you have asked me what nutrition recommendations should… Read more »
