News regarding the dangers of GMOs and biotech, and the advantages of organic sustainable agriculture.
Farmers and Consumer Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Genetically Engineered Alfalfa Approval
by Center For Food Safety
“Roundup Ready” Alfalfa Will Increase Pesticide Use and Cause Grave Harm to Environment and Organic Industry
USDA Failures Guarantee Transgenic Contamination, Creation of More Superweeds
Today, attorneys for the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), arguing that the agency’s recent unrestricted approval […]
Head of CA Department of Pesticide Regulation Leaves Post to Work for Chemical Giant
by Bridget Huber
Civil Eats
California’s top pesticide regulator is leaving her job to work for Clorox. Mary-Ann Warmerdam, the director of the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), announced her resignation on Tuesday. Warmerdam’s departure was voluntary, but environmental and public health advocates have been pushing for her removal for months. They say she let the chemical industry’s […]
Feedlot Meat Has Spurred a Soy Boom That Has a Devastating Environmental and Human Cost
by Jill Richardson
AlterNet
South America is being taken over by a handful of companies in the soy business that are destroying ecologically sensitive areas and pushing people from their ancestral land.
March 17, 2011 – Much of South America is rapidly coming to resemble Iowa. Where one might expect to see virgin Amazon rainforest, lush grasslands […]
The collapse of native Iraqi agriculture, and the prosper of US Biotech and GMOs in Iraq
One more war crime: Death of Iraqi agriculture
by Richard Brenneman
Way back when esnl was a budding anthropology student, we learned about the history of agriculture, and the development of wheat cultivation and irrigation in the Fertile Crescent, the flood basins of the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates rivers.
Now, thanks to the American military […]
GMO Contamination: What’s an Organic Farmer To Do? Find out in this webinar
Presented by Jim Riddle, University of Minnesota, this webinar recording discusses issues surrounding GMO contamination and how to control the risk associated with it.
Which produce is best bought organic?
BY KARA YORIO
NorthJersey.com
Everyone can agree that buying chemical-free food is the best route. But when it comes to navigating a grocery store, the search for healthiest foods — even when selecting fruits and vegetables — can get confusing and costly for consumers.
With produce, the easiest thing to do is learn what’s “dirty” and what’s […]
A self-sufficient system of farming is increasing yields across Hawaii
By Susan Essoyan
StarAdvertiser.com
Since trying “natural farming” last year under the guidance of a folksy South Korean master farmer known as Han Kyu Cho, Delos Reyes said production on his 10-acre plot has doubled — and demand is growing even faster. “This is my first time having earthworms on my farm,” he said, scooping up […]
Minnesota Dept of Ag seizes entire inventory of Traditional Foods Minnesota buying club, including coconut oil!
by KATHRYN NIFLIS JOHNSON
Optimal Health Connection
Last night, I wrote only about my own experience, as a way for me to process the events of yesterday, with my farmer, Alvin Schlangen, and the MN Department of Agriculture (MDA). This was much easier for me, than trying to report hard facts, especially when I am tired. I […]
Minnesota Department of Agriculture Continues Attacks Against Small-scale Farmers
by David E. Gumpert
The Complete Patient
“I’m new to this community and…get food from Alvin (Schlangen),” writes Elisa on a listserve. “I’m so upset they have done this, as is my whole family.”
Welcome to Minnesota, Elisa, where official interference in ordinary people’s access to food has become a major public initiative, along with paving roads and […]
Interest in Small Farms Grows – Growing food on a small farm may be our future
by Cooking Up a Story
March 10, 2011 As the season begins to change to Spring, I’ve noticed a lot more attention being paid to the small farmer. Last week the New York Times ran a piece on the growing interest of small farming with 20-30 year olds.
“Garry Stephenson, coordinator of the Small Farms Program at […]
Debunking the stubborn myth that only industrial ag can ‘feed the world’
by Tom Philpott
Grist
Quote: “The problem is, the conventional wisdom is wrong — or, at the very least, much more contested than its champions let on. The Economist insisted that international development agencies had embraced Big Ag as the solution to the globe’s food problem, but that simply isn’t true.”
Read the Full Article Here: http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-10-debunking-myth-that-only-industrial-agriculture-can-feed-world
Organic agriculture threatened by GMOs
by Stefan Gailans
DesMoinesRegister.com
I read Calestous Juma’s essay, “Technological Intolerance Threatens Global Food Security” (Feb. 20), with great interest. While discussing the “coexistence” of conventional agriculture that uses biotechnology with organic agriculture that eschews this technology, Juma states “the unintentional cross-pollination by GM plants, or the drift of a neighbor’s pesticide onto their fields, […]
Two more Maine towns vote on “Food Sovereignty”
A view from the Blue Hill peninsula, where Sedgwick, Penobscot, and Brooksville are located.
Two More Maine Towns Vote on “Food Sovereignty,” Different Outcomes Underscore Potential Divisiveness
by David E. Gumpert
The Complete Patient
I think because the “Food Sovereignty” ordinance described in my previous post passed so easily in Sedgwick, Maine, last Saturday–without obvious pushback from state […]
Why Aren’t GMO Foods Labeled?
by Dr. Mercola
You can avoid sugar, aspartame, trans-fats, or MSG if you’re a savvy reader of labels. But if you want to avoid genetically modified organisms (GMO’s), it’s not so easy. They’re not listed on labels. You could buy organic foods, which by law can’t contain more than 5 percent GMO’s — but now […]
“Responsible” Soy – Don’t Buy the Lie
by GM Watch
“Responsible” soy – Don’t buy the lie, green groups tell retailers
New scheme endorses the use of GM soy
London/Brussels/Amsterdam, Tuesday 8 March – Supermarkets across the EU are being urged to boycott products containing soy labelled as “responsible” ahead of the introduction of a new EU-wide labelling scheme for soy. A coalition […]
New UN Report on How to Feed the World’s Hungry: Ditch Corporate-Controlled Agriculture
By Jill Richardson
AlterNet
There are a billion hungry people in the world and that number could rise as food insecurity increases along with population growth, economic fallout and environmental crises. But a roadmap to defeating hunger exists, if we can follow the course — and that course involves ditching corporate-controlled, chemical-intensive […]
“Food Sovereignty” law passed in small Maine town to allow sale of locally produced food without interference of regulators
Town Hall in Sedgwick Maine
Update March, 2013: Brooksville Becomes Ninth Maine Town to Pass Food Sovereignty Law
Here’s a Way to Eliminate the Regulators and Lawyers, and Build Community At the Same Time: Organize and Declare “Food Sovereignty,” Like Sedgwick, Maine
by David E. Gumpert
The Complete Patient
Maybe the citizens of tiny Sedgwick on the Maine coast were […]
In New Food Culture, a Young Generation of Farmers Emerges
photo by Leah Nash for The New York Times
By ISOLDE RAFTERY
New York Times
CORVALLIS, Ore. — For years, Tyler Jones, a livestock farmer here, avoided telling his grandfather how disillusioned he had become with industrial farming. After all, his grandfather had worked closely with Earl L. Butz, the former federal secretary of agriculture who was known […]
GMO industry lie #1: Developing countries want and need GM crops
From GM Watch
THE TRUTH ABOUT GMOs
From GMWatch www.gmwatch.org
The last 12 months have seen a number of biotech industry lies bite the dust. One of them is that developing countries are hot for GMOs with only affluent Westerners obstructing their acceptance. In fact, the opposite has been shown to be the case, with deeply rooted […]
Time to end the insane practice of lacing chicken feed with arsenic
by Tom Philpott
Grist.org
As a jaded observer of the meat industry, even I’m flummoxed by this fact: It’s standard practice on factory chicken farms to dose those unfortunate birds with arsenic. The idea is that it makes them grow faster — fast growth being the supreme goal of factory animal farming […]