Search Results for: gmo

A Rush of Americans, Seeking Gold in Cuban Soil

New York Times by Kim Severson Source: David Williams HAVANA — Being an agricultural official in Cuba these days is like living in a resort town all your friends want to visit. You rarely get a moment to yourself. For months, Havana’s government offices and its prettiest urban farms have been filled with American bureaucrats,… Read more »

Full and Fair Farm Bill NOW

The Rural Coalition The undersigned 243 groups from all parts of the country have joined together today to demand that Congress develop and pass a full and fair Farm Bill this summer, without further delay.  A full and fair Farm Bill must include farm, food and nutrition, conservation and rural economic development programs and commodity… Read more »

Organic: Food Justice for the 99%

Dr. Oz in Time Magazine Slandering Families Who Choose Safe, Organic Food for Their Children — Off-Base/Ill Advised As Americans become increasingly aware of the story behind conventional foods—the ecologically destructive monoculture fields, the petrochemical fertilizers, the toxic pesticides and dangerous fumigants—the agrochemical industry has launched an all-out media offensive against the booming organic industry…. Read more »

Amber Fields of Bland

The New York Times By Dan Barber Tarrytown, N.Y. THERE’S invariably something risky, if not risible, about allowing Congress to decide what’s for dinner. Bad decisions about agriculture have defined government policy for the last century; 70 percent of our nation’s farms have been lost to bankruptcy or consolidation, creating an agricultural economy that looks… Read more »

Poverty puts Chester into a food desert

Philadelphia Inquirer By Alfred Lubrano One in an occasional series. Eyeing a potato at Frederick Douglass Christian School in Chester one day in the fall, a first grader called it a “tomato.” Another said he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen one before. “How do you spell ‘nasty?’ ” asked Ja’Niyah Van, 6, tasting a baked… Read more »

China Faces a New Worry: Heavy Metals in the Food

Studies Warn of Produce Grown in ‘Hot Spot’ Soil; Pingyang’s Ill Farmers Wall Street Journal By Nicholas Zamiska and Jane Spencer NANNING, China — For nearly two decades, Lai Mandai regularly ate and sold beans, cabbage and watermelons grown on a plot of land a short walk from a lead smelting plant in her village…. Read more »

Fall 2018 NOSB Meeting – Webinar: Tuesday, October 16, 2018

A Cornucopia staff member attended the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) pre-meeting webinar yesterday, where the NOSB heard comments from the public. Cornucopia’s notes from this meeting are below. Thirteen of 15 NOSB members present: Source: Aaron Yoo Ashley Swaffar Jesse Buie  Emily Oakley Steve Ela Harriet Behar Asa Bradman A-dae Romero-Briones  Sue Baird  Tom… Read more »

‘Enough’ Misleading Ads on Antibiotics in Meat

Cornucopia’s Take: A social media campaign, “Enough,” is working hard to confuse consumers about the dangers of widespread antibiotic use in livestock, among other things. The ads reassure us that there is no antibiotic residue in our food, that organic isn’t “worth it,” and that “innovation” is needed to produce enough meat to feed the… Read more »

Organic Cattle Farmer Speaks Out on Antibiotics

Cornucopia’s Take: Although the FDA banned the use of antibiotics solely as a growth-promoter for livestock in 2017, the agency did not establish any real tracking of antibiotic use by ranchers. The FDA rule also allows veterinarians to prescribe antibiotics for disease prevention, even when no animals in the herd are ill. Overuse of antibiotics… Read more »

Editing Genes at Home

Cornucopia’s Take: As gene editing technology has moved ahead, it has become a cheap hobby for the science-minded. Meanwhile, little attention has been paid by government entities around the world, and anyone can buy self-cloned DNA fragments online for their at home scientific experimentation. The main concern is the creation of dangerous organisms, deliberately or… Read more »