California leads the country in organic farming with more than 430,000 acres in production and average annual growth of 15 percent. In his new role, Director Leahy has a significant opportunity to work with growers…
Food
Arsenic in Organic Foods Reveals a Wider Problem for All Food Production
Organic Trade Association
02-22-2012
Arsenic is a natural element that can contaminate soil, as well as groundwater used for drinking and irrigation. Legacy residues from decades of routine use of arsenic-based herbicides and insecticides pose…
Food isn’t just good business for Walmart—it’s the cornerstone of the company’s public relations offensive. The report analyzes Walmart’s ambitious campaign to convince skeptical local governments and communities that…
ACTION: Encourage the USDA to Stand Up for Consumer Interests, Not Cave to Pesticide Lobby
Environmental Working Group
02-21-2012
Your tax dollars paid for the government’s pesticide tests. Stand with EWG today to make sure the USDA tells us the whole truth about pesticides on our food. Last year, we launched an investigation into the Alliance for Food…
Methyl iodide causes late term miscarriages, contaminates groundwater, and is so reliably carcinogenic that it’s used to create cancer cells in laboratories. It is on California’s official list of known carcinogenic chemicals and has…
Babies born in warm months were more likely to have higher levels, which, when coupled with the methymercury findings, suggest that fish consumption is the culprit. Mercury can easily pass from a mother…
How Will Obama’s EPA Budget Proposal Affect Water Quality Programs?
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
02-20-2012
President Obama’s FY2013 EPA budget proposal targets nutrient pollution, sedimentation and loss of shoreline vegetation as major water quality concerns, with a focus on agriculture as a major contributor to water…
EPA Releases Major Report on Health Effects of Dioxin
Center for Health, Environment & Justice
02-17-2012
EPA has been under enormous pressure by environmental health, environmental justice, labor, health-impacted, and Vietnam Veterans organizations to release the non-cancer health assessment in recent weeks…
After pork producers contacted his supervisors, a U.S. Department of Agriculture microbiologist was prevented from publishing research showing that emissions from industrial hog farms contained antibiotic-resistant bacteria…
It is this contest between traditional power elites on one hand, and growing masses of disenfranchised poor and formerly middle-class people attempting to provide the necessities of life for themselves in the context of a shrinking economy, that is…
In our current growth-based economic system, rising affluence and population growth mean increased consumption, environmental destruction, and waste production. This western model of development is failing…
“No conservationist worthy of the name would accept the severe cuts being planned for conservation programs,” said EWG senior vice-president for agriculture and natural resources Craig Cox. “These programs provide significant…
Industrial agribusiness corporations like Cargill, Monsanto, ADM and Dupont have gained runaway control of our food systems and to take them back, we’ll need all the collective power we can manifest around the world…
A French court has found U.S. chemical giant Monsanto Co. guilty of pesticide poisoning in the case of a French farmer who became ill after exposure to one of the company’s herbicides, according to Reuters…
“The fact is—clean energy and responsible environmental policy make good economic policy as well because they create jobs, while cutting energy and medical bills for American families…
Agriculture Committee Urges Congress to Pass Comprehensive Farm Bill
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
02-13-2012
Delaying a farm bill creates unnecessary uncertainty for people who receive nutrition assistance, for farmers making production and planting decisions, for food and farm businesses planning to grow, hire employees…
For some time now, I’ve been arguing that legal scholars ought to be challenging the contention of food corporations that the First Amendment gives them the right to market foods any way they like, even to kids….
Set the Record Straight on Monsanto One Tweet and Facebook Post at a Time
Union of Concerned Scientists
02-08-2012
Monsanto’s marketing efforts would have you believe that its product line—centered around genetically engineered (GE) seeds and the chemicals used to grow them—is a silver bullet to addressing the world’s food…
In its “Path to the 2012 Farm Bill” series, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) gets into the details of the 2012 Farm Bill debate. This first post in the series discusses the major factors influencing…
Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, when asked to define reality, famously responded “reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”…
This Sunday, millions of Americans will sit down with friends and family to watch some of the world’s greatest athletes competing in the toughest, most physical sport of all. No one takes health and fitness more seriously than…
Family Farmers Take on Monsanto—Will They Get Justice?
Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association
02-03-2012
It was standing room only as family farmers from around North America filled Federal Court Judge Naomi Buchwald’s courtroom in Manhattan on Tuesday, Jan. 31. The topic was the landmark organic community…
If an alien species were to visit our school cafeterias at lunchtime, it might conclude that we don’t value the health and well-being of the most vulnerable members of our society—our developing children…
North Union Farmers Market carries on the traditions of the North Union Shakers by championing local foods and operating authentic, certified, producer-only farmers markets…
Ten Ways Monsanto and Big Ag Are Trying to Kill You—And the Planet
Organic Consumers Association
02-02-2012
Energy-intensive industrial farming practices that rely on toxic chemicals and genetically engineered crops are not just undermining public health, they’re destroying the planet…
Nature, the prestigious science magazine from Great Britain, has just published a commentary with a provocative title–The toxic truth about sugar—and an even more provocative subtitle—Added sweeteners pose…
Dow Chemical is currently requesting unprecedented approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to market a genetically engineered (GE) version of corn that is resistant to 2,4-D, a major…
On Jan. 31 family farmers from across the country took part in the first phase of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) et al. v. Monsanto court case. The case was filed to protect farmers from genetic…
Why is a former Monsanto lobbyist currently serving as the FDA’s food safety czar waging war on small dairy farms that produce fresh milk? While factory farm operators are getting away with serious food safety…
The United Nations (UN) High-Level Panel for Global Sustainability call for a radical redesign of the global economy for a healthy environment and social well-being deserves a wide audience and the full…
