Organic Industry Watchdog Says “System Working as Designed, Albeit Too Slowly” CORNUCOPIA, WI – After two years of speculation by U.S. and Canadian organic farmers, facing below-cost competition eroding sustainable pricing, and even forcing some out of business, an announcement last week, by the Canadian government authority overseeing organics, has finally offered an explanation. Jirah… Read more »
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Help Us Find the Good Eggs
The National Organic Program’s Organic Integrity Database currently lists nearly 1,000 certified egg operations. We need your help identifying them, and getting more authentic organic brands on the shelves of your local co-op, natural grocery store, or other retail outlet. As organic egg sales continue to rise, making up 8% of US egg sales in… Read more »
Follow the National Organic Standards Board Meeting in Jacksonville, FL #NOSB
Last Updated: November 2, 2017 at 3:12PM CT Join The Cornucopia Institute as we live tweet from the National Organic Standards Board meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. We will be sharing the play by play with our Twitter followers under #NOSB or simply follow our stream. For background on issues up for discussion at the meeting,… Read more »
Heavy Metals in Baby Food
Cornucopia’s Take: Although certified organic baby food certainly contains less pesticide contamination than conventional, heavy metals are still an issue, according to recent testing by Consumer Reports. This is no surprise, since arsenic and lead have been used in the past as pesticides, and heavy metals persist in soil until they are taken up by… Read more »
Bicentennial Bovine
Over Two Hundred Years of Stewardship [This article was previously published in the fall issue of The Cultivator, Cornucopia’s quarterly newsletter.] by Rachel Zegerius, Communications and Development Associate at The Cornucopia Institute It was a very sad day in the late 70s when I watched the cows leave the farm after the bottom went out of… Read more »
‘Organic’ is Popular Enough to be Usurped by Big Ag
Cornucopia’s Take: Cornucopia Codirector Mark Kastel and OFARM Executive Director John Bobbe talk to Marketplace about how the organic standards are being abused by large companies seeking to spend and do less while profiting off of increasing consumer demand for certified organic products. As Customers Buy More Organic Food, A Call For More Industry Oversight… Read more »
The Final Chapter of Dean Foods: Bankruptcy
Dean Foods, the largest domestic milk producer, announced on November 12 that it was filing for bankruptcy. The company’s organic portfolio is anemic after packaging its former branded products division as WhiteWave Foods in 2013. In 2017, Organic Valley controversially partnered with Dean Foods on a joint bottling venture. After Dean’s bankruptcy announcement, Organic Valley… Read more »
Organic Food and a Healthier Future
The Organic Center Overweight, obesity and diabetes are collectively the nation’s number one public health problem. Effective interventions are urgently needed, especially among children and adolescents, in order to improve human well being and to slow, and hopefully soon, reduce growth in health care costs. Now, a new report from the Organic Center describes six… Read more »
Organic Hero Passes
I received a phone call this morning from Bill Welsh’s son Mike letting me know that he passed away last night. Bill, from Lansing, Iowa, was a pioneer in the organic farming and livestock in the Midwest. He certified his family’s Lansing, Iowa, farm organic back in 1980. The operation was the classic organic diversified… Read more »
Why You Should Care That 70% of Antibiotics Go Into Animal Feed
The Washington Post Wonkbook by Ezra Klein I don’t feel like talking about the election today. So let’s talk about something else. On Wednesday, the FDA finalized a plan to ask drug companies to “voluntarily” limit the use of certain antibiotics in animal feed. This might not seem like a huge deal to you. But… Read more »
