Modern Farmer by Brian Barth Source: Bill Benzon Some urban farmers find out the hard way that the zoning regulations of many municipalities don’t allow just any type of agricultural activity inside city limits — people have been fined and threatened with jail time. In some cities it’s still illegal to grow a few vegetables in… Read more »
Search Results for: GMO
Court Rejects USDA Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit on Organic Rule Change
Beyond Pesticides (September 14, 2015) On Thursday September 10, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in a bench ruling, rejected the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit (Case3:15-cv-01690) that challenges the National Organic Program’s (NOP) failure to follow proper legal procedures in making a… Read more »
Supermarkets and Garden Centres Ban Roundup Weedkiller Suspected of Causing Cancer
The Guardian by Tom Levitt Source: William Murphy Retail outlets across Europe are taking glyphosate – the main ingredient of Monsanto’s Roundup – off their shelves, despite government officials declaring it safe to use Monsanto is far from happy. The main ingredient of its highly profitable weedkiller, Roundup, often used in conjunction with GM crops,… Read more »
I Tried to Figure Out How Many Cows Are in a Single Hamburger. It Was Really Hard
The Washington Post by Roberto A. Ferdman Source: t-mizo Pursuing the unsettling question of how many cows are actually in a hamburger. The last time I ate a hamburger, the meat didn’t taste as good. That’s because rattling around in my head was a fact that should have been obvious but hadn’t dawned on me until… Read more »
Nominating Some of the Best Books of 2014
The Plate – National Geographic by Maryn McKenna Source: David Joyce Every year, in the world of food, there are great cookbooks—slim volumes or glossy tomes that, at their best, not only teach us new dishes but escort us into new worlds. But this year, unusually, was also a wonderful year for books about aspects… Read more »
Cotton Production Linked to Images of the Dried Up Aral Sea Basin
The fashion industry is linked to the environmental devastation in the Central Asian inland sea – once the world’s fourth largest lake, the Aral sea ‘completely dried’ in August The Guardian by Tansy Hoskins The Aral Sea: The raised land to the left used to be the shore Image via Wikimedia Commons What do the… Read more »
Breeding Battle Threatens Key Source Of California Strawberries
NPR – The Salt by Dan Charles Credit: Walter J. Pilsak, Waldsassen In California, a legal skirmish has erupted over strawberries — or rather, over strawberry breeding. To be absolutely precise, the battle is about strawberry breeding at the University of California, Davis. This is more important than it might sound. More than half of… Read more »
Unlocking the Power of Women Farmers
Focusing on women farmers will increase food production and gender equality, says a World Food Programme coordinator. The Guardian by Ken Davies Farmers in Kenya Credit: CIAT Women are the backbone of the rural economy in developing countries and are responsible for 60-80% of food production. They also tend to be the most knowledgeable about crop varieties…. Read more »
‘Made In Rural America’ But Not For Americans
Honey Colony by Brett Barth, Buzzworthy Blogs Credit: NRCS The steady creep of prices at your grocery checkout might have you wondering about frosts and droughts and the many other challenges confronting agribusiness. That’s kind of you, really, but stop. Truth be told, these are roaring times in the U.S. Farming industry. According to a recent report… Read more »
Organic Dairy Farmers Hit by California Drought
Organic farmers in California face unique issues in this devastating drought, leading some to bow out … or sell cows for hamburger meat. Food & Environment Reporting Network By Kristina Johnson Credit: USDA NRCS San Joaquin Valley organic dairy farmer Tony Azevedo’s business has dried up—literally. Because of the record-breaking California drought, he has nothing… Read more »
