Independent Science News by Valerie Brown and Elizabeth Grossman Source: Kate Ter Haar Scientists are trained to express themselves rationally. They avoid personal attacks when they disagree. But some scientific arguments become so polarized that tempers fray. There may even be shouting. Such is the current state of affairs between two camps of scientists: health effects… Read more »
Search Results for: GMO
The Cost of Organic
Burlington Free Press (link no longer available) By Terri Hallenbeck, Free Press Staff Writer NORTH HERO — Behind the lettuce, beans and zucchini that sit in bins at Amanda Gervais’s farmstand was a lot of planning and paperwork. Before the heads of broccoli and Swiss chard ever emerged from the ground, Gervais had to document their… Read more »
Why Small Farms Are Safer
The Atlantic by Josh Viertel In 2006 I was–among other things–a vegetable farmer. In New Haven, Connecticut, using Ivy League labor, we grew and sold over 300 varieties of vegetables. Today I am struck with memories of one in particular: a gorgeous crop of spinach we couldn’t sell. During the summer of 2006, an intelligent,… Read more »
To Save Organic Dairy, Obama Must Change the USDA Mindset
Excerpted from The Milkweed Mark Kastel The state of the (organic) dairy nation is not good. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise since the entire dairy industry, and general economy, is in freefall. But for many of us who have been involved in building the organic dairy sector over the last two decades,… Read more »
The Costs of Cheap Meat
The Chicago Tribune By Monica Eng, Tribune reporter Critics of factory farms say we pay a high price for low-cost food If you adjust for inflation and income, Americans have never spent less on food than they have in recent years. And yet many feel we’ve also never paid such a high price. U.S. Department… Read more »
Weed It and Reap
The New York Times by Michael Pollan Berkeley, Calif. – FOR Americans who have been looking to Congress to reform the food system, these past few weeks have been, well, the best of times and the worst of times. A new politics has sprouted up around the farm bill, traditionally a parochial piece of legislation… Read more »
Historic Surge In Grain Prices Roils Markets
Wall Street Journal By Scott Kilman Rising prices and surging demand for the crops that supply half of the world’s calories are producing the biggest changes in global food markets in 30 years, altering the economic landscape for everyone from consumers and farmers to corporate giants and the world’s poor. “The days of cheap grain… Read more »
New Tool Helps Retailers Gauge Human Right Violations in Seafood
Cornucopia’s Take: Seafood Watch has published a Seafood Slavery Risk Tool to help corporate seafood buyers determine which fisheries are at higher risk for human rights abuses. Buyers are encouraged to work with those suppliers to end the troubling practices. Being able to tell your customers that the seafood sold in their store was not procured with… Read more »
What’s Up with Organics?
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 »
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 »
