News regarding the dangers of GMOs and biotech, and the advantages of organic sustainable agriculture.
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 […]
Beyond sustainability: permaculture and polyculture
by Paul Wheaton
So this is me presenting in Missoula, Montana and taking questions from the audience.
I can’t remember what the question was, but I start off talking about sustainability. Sustainable is a word that means barely not dead.
I then attempt to compare permaculture to organic gardening. Talking mostly about […]
Why Farmers Must Move from Defense to Offense for Raw Milk Rights
The Ominous Warnings in Morningland Case–Why Farmers Must Move from Defense to Offense; VT Group Plans “Butter Appreciation Day” to Challenge Ban on Raw Dairy Teaching
by David E. Gumpert
The Complete Patient
In baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. The raw dairy/food rights movement has had three cases come up […]
Two Mexican states ban GM corn
The Mexican States of Tlaxcala and Michoacán each passed legislation banning the planting of genetically modified corn to protect natural plants from further contamination of transgenes. Together, both states produce about a third of all of Mexico’s corn. Below this story is a detailed timeline of genetic contamination and legislation in Mexico.
By Aleira Lara
It’s […]
Let the free market decide on GM food
by Deb Baumann
Lake County News
One argument used to resist genetically modified organism/genetically engineered (GMO/GE) labeling sounds an awful lot like nanny-state thinking: “We must not allow labeling of GMOs because, given a choice, people would make the wrong choice.”
Poor silly foolish misguided consumers!
How lucky we are to have giant corporations and the government making […]
Scientists under Attack – Genetic Engineering in the magnetic Field of Money
Árpád Pusztai and Ignacio Chapela have two things in common. They are distinguished scientists and their careers are in ruins. Both scientists choose to look at the phenomenon of genetic engineering. Both made important discoveries. Both of them are suffering the fate of those who criticise the powerful vested interests that now dominate big business and scientific research.
Statements […]
Family gets most of its food in the backyard
By: JAMIE STENGLE
The Washington Examiner
As the weather warms and the brown landscape turns green, Stephanie Weyenberg’s thoughts turn to planting for her family’s early spring garden.
Gardening is more than just a hobby: She and her husband, Matt, grow most of the fruit and vegetables […]
The Five Top Reasons We Need GMO’s
by Keith Line
Natural Food List
5. Because the world should eat more food that is less nutritious
Kicking off the countdown, we start with the biggest “duh” moment for the organic foodies out there. We need to eat food that is lower in vitamins and minerals. Now, there are plenty of reports […]
U.S. Study Links Pesticides to Parkinson’s Disease
by Dr. Mercola
U.S. researchers have found that people who used two types of pesticides were 2.5 times as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. The pesticides in question are paraquat and rotenone, which are not approved for house and garden use. Research on animals had already linked paraquat to Parkinson’s.
According to Yahoo News: “Rotenone directly inhibits the […]