Cornucopia’s Take: John Ikerd is a policy advisor to The Cornucopia Institute and a leading figure in the sustainability revolution. The author of six books and a Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri, he contends that soil is the “very foundation of authentic organic production.” JohnIkerd.com by John Ikerd John Ikerd How can crops… Read more »
Search Results for: GMO dangers
Subterfuge: FDA’s Phase Out of Antibiotics for Animal Growth Purposes Ineffective — Will Disadvantage Small Farmers
On December 11, 2013 the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) released a new draft guidance that asks animal-drug makers to voluntarily discontinue marketing antibiotics to farmers for faster livestock growth, limiting their use strictly to therapeutic uses. Will this billion-dollar industry make voluntary changes in order to protect the efficacy of important antibiotics used… Read more »
A Tale of Three Farms—in the Shenandoah Valley
by Mark Kastel I admit I’m kind of crazy. I don’t take too many vacations. But I do get out of my office frequently and really enjoy the opportunity to meet our members, and new folks, around the country while visiting their farms. In the middle of August I was invited to speak at the… Read more »
Monsanto, in Bid for Syngenta, Reaches for a Business It Left Behind
The New York Times by Andrew Pollack and Chad Bray Source: UGA College of Ag and Environmental Studies Over the last two decades Monsanto has cast off its century-long history as a chemical company and refashioned itself as an agricultural life sciences company, led by its genetically engineered seeds. But with its $45 billion bid… Read more »
Millennials’ Hunger for Fresh Foods Eats Into Food Giants’ Profits
Food giants’ sales slide as millennials lead shift toward niche brands. Star Tribune by Mike Hughlett Source: 406604 Breann Tierschel has expelled Lucky Charms from her family’s table in favor of oatmeal. The 30-year-old accountant, who lives on St. Paul’s East Side with her husband and young daughter, has reconstructed her family’s eating plan over… Read more »
A Bee of a Different Color
Native pollinators feel the sting of habitat loss U-T San Diego by Deborah Sullivan Brennan Sweat Bee Credit: John Baker In James Hung’s collection at UC San Diego is a kaleidoscope of native bees, many of which bear little resemblance to the honeybees and bumblebees we know. The biggest are grape-sized and glossy black, while… Read more »
Subterfuge: FDA’s Phase Out of Antibiotics for Animal Growth Purposes Ineffective — Will Disadvantage Small Farmers
[This action alert is now closed] [Please note that we have updated the previously incorrect docket number on the sample letter.] On December 11, 2013 the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) released a new draft guidance that asks animal-drug makers to voluntarily discontinue marketing antibiotics to farmers for faster livestock growth, limiting their use… Read more »
Big Ag to Co-opt the Microbiome?
Cornucopia’s Take: While Cornucopia appreciates this potential move away from chemistry to biology, the industry remains committed to its mechanized viewpoints while ignoring the interconnected nature of life – both in the soil and above-ground. Big Ag insists that we need more food, yet ignores the vast waste in the food distribution system (no sales… Read more »
Is Quinoa California Farmers’ New Kale?
Los Angeles Times by Geoffrey Mohan Source: LID, by Jonas Ingold Bryce Lundberg is elated, which is saying a lot for a California farmer these days. “Hop on in,” he says, wading into eight acres of ragged stalks, their seed tassels turning russet in the desert sun. Lundberg, 54, soon is chest-high in quinoa, a… 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 »
