The New York Times by The Editorial Board Source: Orin Zebest While most Americans enjoy eating meat, it is hard to stomach the often sadistic treatment of factory-farmed cows, pigs and chickens. Farm operators know this, and they go to great lengths to hide these gruesome images from the public. A popular tactic pushed lately… Read more »
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OTA Asks for Organic Checkoff
[Jim Gerritsen is a member of Cornucopia’s Policy Advisory Panel.] Brownfield Ag News by Bob Meyer Source: No Organic Checkoff, Facebook The Organic Trade Association has petitioned USDA to create a national organic checkoff. OTA CEO Laura Batcha says the petition is the culmination of a three-year process. Batcha says the funds are needed to educate consumers… Read more »
Pesticide Residue on Food Could Affect Sperm Quality, Says Harvard Study
The Guardian Haroon Siddique Source: Walter Baxter via Wikimedia Commons Analysis of semen from men at fertility clinic matched with questionnaire on consumption of fruit and vegetables Eating fruit and vegetables containing pesticide residues could adversely affect men’s fertility, leading to fewer and poorer quality sperm, a study suggests. Research by Harvard University found that… Read more »
USDA Clips Wings of Misleading Organic Marketers
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 »
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 »
