LaCrosse Tribune by M.L. Johnson That’s the position of a Colorado-based grocery store chain that recently announced it will carry only dairy products from farms where cows graze in pastures. Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage claims grazing improves the health of cows, consumers and the environment, and it hopes to expand an ongoing, national debate… Read more »
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Minnesota Organic Farmer Building Bridges to Iran
1970s: Ping-Pong Diplomacy with China / 2014: Organic Diplomacy with Iran Internationally respected organic leader, Jim Riddle, returned from Iran last week after participating in an international conference in the Middle East. Riddle, a former chairman of the National Organic Standards Board, and founder of an association of independent organic certifiers, is truly a statesman… Read more »
No Fences
By Elizabeth Wolf, Communications & Development Director, The Cornucopia Institute Image courtesy of Coonridge Dairy When Nancy Coonridge says she lives with her goat herd in the “wilds of New Mexico,” she’s not exaggerating. Coonridge Organic Goat Cheese Dairy perches at 8,000 feet elevation in the dry, rim rock country of western New Mexico, near… Read more »
NOTICE: USDA Keeps Organic Stakeholders in the Dark — Incompetence or Corruption?
Dear organic advocates, The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the governing board created by Congress that serves as a protective buffer and reviews all synthetic and non-organic materials proposed by corporate agribusiness and food processing interests before they can be used in organic farming or food production, meets twice a year. For 30 days before… Read more »
Mad Cow Disease Found in California; USDA Says No Human Threat
[Don’t panic. Go organic! Organic farmers are legally prohibited from feeding animal byproducts to livestock. This is the accepted pathway for the prion disease in humans, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or “Mad Cow”. Some experts in this field, like the author of Mad Cow USA, John Stauber, have suggested that the USDA is intentionally not… Read more »
Organic Milk Is Getting Pricier, Harder To Find
National Public Radio by Grace Hood Grocery stores are finding it harder to keep organic milk in stock these days. The tight supply is a result of organic dairy farmers’ costs rising while the price they receive for their product remains the same. These economic conditions offer few incentives to dairymen considering entering the organic… Read more »
Veterans Sowing Seeds of Farming Success
USA Today By Jens Manuel Krogstad, The Des Moines Register With help from a growing national network of farmer support groups, the 26-year-old Albers plans to graduate from college next year and grow organic vegetables on a four-acre plot at his family’s farm in northeast Iowa. Farmer-Veteran Coalition planted the seed for his venture this… Read more »
Classic Crop Breeding Outperforms Genetic Engineering
Press of Atlantic City By Margaret Mellon and Doug Gurian-Sherman By 2050, the world will have to feed 9 billion people, adapt to climate change, reduce agricultural pollution and protect fresh water supplies – all at the same time. Given that formidable challenge, what are the quickest, most cost-effective ways to develop more productive, drought-,… Read more »
Wafting Poison Makes Fertile Ground for Suit in Stearns County
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) by: JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY Court rules pesticide drifting onto organic farm constitutes trespass. Oluf Johnson’s 1,500-acre farm in Stearns County is an organic island in a sea of chemically treated corn and soybeans. Improperly applied pesticides repeatedly drift over from neighboring farms, often with dire consequences for Johnson. But now, thanks to a… Read more »
Tea Off: India’s Farmers Say Climate Changing Brew
Growers in heart of India’s tea industry sip a weakening brew, and say climate change to blame AP GAUHATI, India (AP) — In this humid, lush region where an important part of the world’s breakfast is born, the evidence of climate change is — literally — a weak tea. Growers in tropical Assam state, India’s… Read more »
