MSNBC.com By Ned Resnikoff In the 22 years that Swami Durga Das has managed New York’s River Fund Food Pantry, he has never seen hunger like this. Each Saturday, hundreds of hungry people descend on the pantry’s headquarters, an unassuming house on a residential block. The first people arrive around 2 am, forming a line… Read more »
Search Results for: GMO
Food Co-ops Growing Around Country
Plans in works to add 3 more in Chicago area Chicago Tribune By Amanda Marrazzo When Kathy and Jerry Nash moved from Urbana to Lombard, they noticed something lacking in their new community. In Urbana, shopping at a food co-op was a regular activity, but none existed close to their new home. “We expected there… Read more »
Industry Watchdog: USDA Allowing Illegal “Organic” Produce Production
Corporate Interests Lobbying to Approve Hydroponics — Growing without Soil Hydroponic Pepper Operation (c) Dario Sabljak/Adobe Stock An organic industry watchdog contends the USDA has quietly allowed a flood of hydroponically-produced fruits and vegetables, largely imported, to be illegally labeled and sold as “organic.” This produce is generally grown under artificial lighting, indoors, and on… Read more »
The Vegetable-Industrial Complex
The Way We Live Now The New York Times By MICHAEL POLLAN Soon after the news broke last month that nearly 200 Americans in 26 states had been sickened by eating packaged spinach contaminated with E. coli, I received a rather coldblooded e-mail message from a friend in the food business. “I have instructed my… Read more »
Conventional vs. Organic: An Ag Secretary Race to Watch
The Atlantic By Joe Fassler In Iowa, the race for Secretary of Agriculture has started attracting national attention. Two starkly different candidates are in a dead heat for the traditionally low-profile post, and the winner will be a bellwether of our national attitudes towards food and agricultural policy. The incumbent is Bill Northey, an establishment… Read more »
Pressure Rises to Stop Antibiotics in Agriculture
San Francisco Chronicle By MARGIE MASON AND MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press Writers The mystery started the day farmer Russ Kremer got between a jealous boar and a sow in heat. The boar gored Kremer in the knee with a razor-sharp tusk. The burly pig farmer shrugged it off, figuring: “You pour the blood out of… Read more »
(ALERT OVER) Critical Pending Food Safety Legislation
SAMPLE LETTER — click here: We Must Tell Congress to also Protect High Quality Organic and Local Food Supporting Viable Federal Oversight over Corporate Agribusiness Local/Organic Farming: Part of the Solution, Not Part of the Problem! 1. HR 875: The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 2. HR 759: The Food and Drug Administration Globalization… Read more »
NOP Allows Glyphosate in “Organic” Hydroponic Production
Cornucopia’s Take: The Real Organic Project has brought to light a shocking practice in large-scale, “organic,” hydroponic production. Many of these facilities are being built on land that has been compacted and doused with herbicides, including glyphosate. While the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) uncomfortably insists that this practice is legal because the prohibited substances… Read more »
Biopesticides Show Promise for Modern Agriculture
Cornucopia’s Take: Medical cannabis use has brought more attention to the issue of pesticide residues. People with compromised health want to ensure they are not subjected to toxic residues on the plant, and some companies have stepped in to offer effective pesticides in the form of living microorganisms and natural chemicals. These biopesticides are often… Read more »
America’s Mad Cow Crisis
[Don’t panic. Go organic! Organic farmers are legally prohibited from feeding animal byproducts to livestock. This is the accepted pathway for the prion disease in humans, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or “Mad Cow”. — Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst, The Cornucopia Institute] by John Stauber Americans might remember that when the first mad cow was… Read more »
                                        