CORNUCOPIA, WIS: The USDA, today, announced to industry stakeholders that it would rein-in misleading language on organic packaging that all too often has been suspected of confusing consumers. Specifically, the agency addressed companies marketing food products that have the word “organic” or “organics” in their brand-name. “Unless a food product is certified organic it cannot… Read more »
Search Results for: GMO
Farmers Market Producers Fear Proposed FDA Rules Could Put Them Out of Business
Ravilli Republic (MT) By Rob Chaney Farmers market producers across Montana fear proposed U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations could put them under the same scrutiny as big corporate farms, and drive many of them out of business in the process. “It would be pretty disastrous for a lot of small producers in Montana,” said… Read more »
State Withdraws Farm Pollution Regulation
Officials say poultry industry needs more time to adjust The Baltimore Sun By Timothy B. Wheeler Maryland officials pulled back a proposed regulation Monday aimed at reducing farm runoff polluting the Chesapeake Bay after chicken growers warned it could cripple the state’s lucrative poultry industry if imposed now. The state Department of Agriculture announced it… Read more »
Goats Replace Herbicides at Historic Washington, DC Landmark
Beyond Pesticides Over 100 goats have been tasked with controlling poison ivy, ground cover, vines and other invasive weeds at the Congressional Cemetery this week. The Association for the Preservation of The Historic Congressional Cemetery partnered with Eco-Goats to control the invasive species that threaten large mature trees, which can fall and damage headstones. In… Read more »
Presence of Untested Nanoparticles in Food Raises Public Health Concerns
[NOTE: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Organic Standards Board passed a recommendation in 2010 directing the USDA National Organic Program to prohibit engineered nanomaterials from certified organic products as expeditiously as possible.] As You Sow Slipping Through the Cracks: An Issue Brief on Nanomaterials in Food was released today by As You Sow,… Read more »
World Over-Using Underground Water Reserves for Agriculture
Reuters By Chris Wickham (Reuters) – The world is depleting underground water reserves faster than they can be replenished due to over-exploitation, according to scientists in Canada and the Netherlands. The researchers, from McGill University in Montreal and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, combined groundwater usage data from around the globe with computer models of… Read more »
Economic Analysis Reveals Organic Farming Profitable Long-Term
ScienceDaily Organic farming is known to be environmentally sustainable, but can it be economically sustainable, as well? The answer is yes, according to new research in the Sept.-Oct. issue of Agronomy Journal. In an analysis of 18 years of crop yield and farm management data from a long-term University of Minnesota trial, an organic crop… Read more »
Thomson Reuters-NPR Health Poll Finds More Than Half of Americans Prefer Organic Foods Over Conventional
Fear of Toxins, Support of Local Markets at the Heart of Consumer Sentiment Thomson Reuters Ann Arbor, MI and Washington, DC – JULY 20, 2011 – When given a choice, American consumers prefer to purchase organic foods, according to the Thomson Reuters-NPR Health Poll. Thomson Reuters and NPR developed the monthly poll to gauge attitudes… Read more »
USDA and Corporate Agribusiness Continue to Push Animal ID Scheme
Consumers and Independent Producers Lose if Big Ag Wins on Animal Traceability WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expected to issue its new proposed rule for mandatory animal traceability very shortly. While USDA already has traceability requirements as part of existing animal disease control programs, the proposed framework goes much further… Read more »
Organic Farm Changes Improve Training
By: Lauren McKown The State News – Michigan State University It’s a part of campus that most students never will visit, but for Walker Hancock, the Student Organic Farm is her version of the MSU experience — an experience that will see a few positive changes this year. Hancock is one of many students, volunteers… Read more »
