[Note: WhiteWave CEO Gregg Engles, mentioned in the story, was the CEO of Dean Foods, the giant dairy processor that spun off WhiteWave earlier in 2013.] Monterey Weekly By Ari LeVaux WhiteWave, maker of Silk soymilk, is purchasing San Juan Bautisa-based Earthbound Farm, the nation’s largest producer of organic produce. Organic industry observers are wondering… Read more »
Search Results for: GMO
Now This Is Natural Food
New York Times By Mark Bittman A few weeks ago at the annual Prairie Festival in Salina, Kan. — a celebration, essentially, of true sustainability — I sat down with Wes Jackson to drink rich beer and eat delicious, chewy bread made from the perennial grain Kernza. The Kernza we ate was cultivated at the… Read more »
Mushroom Hunting With the Pros
Huffington Post By Langdon Cook In early August I got a call from a producer for the PBS TV series Food Forward. He had seen a review copy of my new book, The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America, and wanted to film itinerant mushroom harvesters for an episode on wild foods…. Read more »
UPDATE: Antibiotics in Organics— News from Portland, Clarifications and Amplification
Sparks really flew at the National Organic Standards Board meeting in Portland, Oregon yesterday. In one of the most contentious issues to come before the organic community in many years, the continued use of antibiotics (oxytetracycline) on tree fruit was on the agenda. Apple growers from Washington State petitioned the USDA to allow for the… Read more »
Rice of Ages
China Daily By Jin Zhu An heirloom species of this staple grain thrives only in a tiny pocket of East China, but scientists say its potential could be huge, Jin Zhu reports in Wannian, Jiangxi province. Twenty hectares of arable land, tucked away in a mountain valley in Jiangxi province, may have a role to… Read more »
Grapegrower Report: Organic Practices Make the Difference
Napa Valley Register By Phil Coturri The days are becoming shorter and cooler, harvest is drawing to a close, and grapevines are shutting down for a long winter’s nap: Autumn is officially upon us. While the next four to five months are not normally considered the growing season in the vineyards, at the certified organic… Read more »
85 Groups to USDA: Make a Rule to Prohibit Meatpackers from Leveraging Captive Supply Livestock to Lower the Price-Discovery Market
R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America – “Fighting for the U.S. Cattle Producer” Contact: R-CALF USA Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson-Chambers Washington, D.C. – Today, R-CALF USA, along with 84 other organizations, sent formal correspondence to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to request that the agency take additional steps beyond the GIPSA (Grain Inspection, Packers Stockyards Administration) rule… Read more »
Fears led to crackdown on egg safety in Maine
Des Moines Register (link no longer available) By Philip Brasher Washington, D.C. – Maine officials worried so much about a salmonella outbreak from Jack DeCoster’s egg operations that they forced him to take steps to stop the contamination, including hiring a staff veterinarian. Contrast that with the situation in Iowa, which doesn’t have its own standards… Read more »
Sno Pac stays true to its roots
Sno Pac Foods has stayed independent even as big players took over much of the organic food business Minneapolis Star Tribune By Mike Hughlett CALEDONIA, MINN. — It’s the height of the pea pick, and rivers of emerald green are flowing down the production line at Sno Pac Foods. The peas come fresh from a… Read more »
Monsanto Draws Antitrust Scrutiny
Regulators Offer Competitors, Farmers and Activists a Platform to Gripe About Crop Biotech Giant Wall Street Journal By Scott Kilman Crop biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. has the most at stake in the first of an unprecedented series of public meetings that the antitrust wing of the Justice Department is holding across the Farm Belt. In… Read more »
