The Certified Organic Associations of BC provides support for this site: encouraging organic and alternative food production in Canada by improving accessibility to organic farming content online.
The resurgence of hops crops
Crannóg Ales in Sorrento, BC, are pioneers in this respect, growing seven varieties of hops in the temperate climate of the BC Interior. They have been so successful that they now provide a variety of organic rhizomes so that you can cultivate hops in your own backyard. All you have to do is provide a climbing trellis. FULL STORY
How many people have noticed a strange curling disease in their vegetables, but didn't link it to aminopyralids?
Though Dow, which is doubtless making millions from this herbicide, has thrust it into the lives of people who wanted nothing to do with agro-industry, Ann has discovered that she has no hope of compensation. FULL STORY
Sustainable Agriculture and Off-Grid Renewable Energy
An emerging scientific consensus that a shift to small scale sustainable agriculture and localized food systems will address most, if not all the underlying causes of deteriorating agricultural productivity as well as the conservation of natural soil and water resources while saving the climate FULL STORY
Monsanto and Gates Foundation Push GE Crops on Africa
Critics say the foundation is using its billions to shape the global food agenda and the motivations behind WEMA were recently called into question when activists discovered the Gates foundation had spent $27.6 million on 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock between April and June 2010. FULL STORY
Fifty Million Farmers - by Richard Heinberg
The abbreviated text of a lecture by Richard Heinberg delivered to the E. F. Schumacher Society in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on October 28, 2006 FULL STORY
In Person: Andrew Stout plows new ground with Full Circle Farm
Andrew Stout's ambitious vision for Full Circle Farm goes far beyond the local delivery service of most subscriber-based organic farms. FULL
STORY
Our Dwindling Food Variety
As we've come to depend on a handful of commercial varieties of fruits and vegetables, thousands of heirloom varieties have disappeared. It's hard to know exactly how many have been lost over the past century, but a study conducted in 1983 by the Rural Advancement Foundation International gave a clue to the scope of the problem. FULL STORY
Pedal power takes Kelowna farmer’s crops to market
Mr. Stone describes himself as a "pedal-powered urban farmer." Now in his second year, he works three-quarters of an acre spread between six plots located in other people's backyards. "With the land that I’m running now, I could feed about 120 families," he said. FULL STORY
Soil secrets of ‘carbon neutral’ Welsh farm
Matters of sustainability have been at the heart of the farm's ethos for the last 36 years and Mr Seggers is hoping to inspire other farmers to consider renewable energy. FULL STORY
Why Aren't G.M.O. Foods Labeled?
If you want to avoid sugar, aspartame, trans-fats, MSG, or just about anything else, you read the label. If you want to avoid G.M.O.'s - genetically modified organisms - you're out of luck. They're not listed. You could, until now, simply buy organic foods, which by law can't contain more than 5 percent G.M.O.'s. Now, however, even that may not work. FULL STORY
The Myth of GMO and Organic Coexistence
Tainting of organic crops cannot be undone and at the risk of ending up like we did with corn where you can rarely find purely organic corn in the U.S. because of GMOs, it's a slippery and scary slope to start down. FULL STORY
Global
Warming: Farmers Will Need to Adapt to Changing
Climates - But They've Done So in the Past
While unchecked global warming is likely to alter
the climate at a rate faster than anything we've
experienced in recorded history, it's important to
remember that we have one big advantage on our side:
human ingenuity. FULL
STORY
The Milk Warriors of British Columbia
From raids to writs, how did selling unpasteurized milk become a battle now raging all the way to BC's Supreme Court? A special report.
FULL STORY
Revive
the Root Cellar
The root cellar, like canning and gardening, is the latest tradition that the locavore food movement has made trendy again. FULL STORY
Create
a Local Food Bill
Emulate Illinois and pass a Local Food, Farms and
Jobs Act. Wannabe party leaders, take note! FULL
STORY
Secrets
to Supporting Local Food
What the Tyee Solutions team learned in BC and Ontario
while reporting this fall's 'Growing the Local Bounty'
series. FULL
STORY
Building
up the 'Grain Chain'
Local farmers are giving antique machines new life
to help supply a growing demand for BC wheat. FULL
STORY
Eggsasperating!
Organic egg producers in BC say regulations 'gone
haywire' prevent them from keeping up with hungry
local demand. FULL
STORY
Welcome
to Farm School
A new generation of farmers is digging into books
before they go out in the field. FULL
STORY
A
Nursery For New Farmers
At the McVean Incubator Farm, a little land goes
a long way for people who want get in the business
of growing local food. FULL
STORY
Packed
With Opportunities
How small farmers are turning their crops into tasty
products without relying on the big global processors. FULL
STORY
Organic-farming
movement sprouts in China
That's what CTV News found out when we had several
organic potatoes and organic snow peas tested - there
were no pesticides at detectable levels. FULL
STORY
Organic farms bring locals back to the land
Jamieson moved west, working at feed lots, commercial farms and Guelph's Genetic Corporation before finally finding his organic haven, Ignatius Farm, where he currently manages 600 acres of chemical-free orchards, gardens and groves. FULL STORY
Could Organic Produce Be the New Ritalin?
Dr. Mary Bouchard, just published a blockbuster article showing that children with organophosphate pesticide residues in their urine were twice as likely to have ADHD as those children who did not have the residues in their urine. FULL STORY
Transgenic crops' built-in pesticide found to be contaminating waterways
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have shown that the Bt from genetically engineered maize is polluting waterways in Indiana (the study area). FULL STORY
Is Organic Farming Good For Wildlife? – It Depends On The Alternative...
Even though organic methods may increase farm biodiversity, a combination of conventional farming and protected areas could sometimes be a better way to maintain food production and protect wildlife. FULL STORY
Greenwashing biotech
Food and climate change – two urgent global crises – are the context for a second major public relations push for genetic engineering. This time, however, there is an added twist: biofuels and the promise that biotechnology can fuel the world as well as feed it. FULL
STORY
Sustainable Development and Organic Agriculture
In a move that likely has large agribusiness groaning in frustration the Indian state of Kerala, a narrow strip of land in Southern Indian roughly 360 miles long and 80 miles wide, is continuing its seven year transition towards going organic. FULL STORY
Complex interactions keep pests under control on organic farms
Ecologists John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto of the University of Michigan and Stacy Philpott of the University of Toledo have uncovered a web of intricate interactions that buffers the farm against extreme outbreaks of pests and diseases, making magic bullets unnecessary. FULL STORY
Make Mine Organic - Maria Rodale The local food movement has been very important in revitalizing small farms and communities and bringing fresh, seasonal foods to many more people. However, as a means of saving the planet and improving our health, it only goes so far. FULL STORY
Sustainable Development and Organic Agriculture
In a move that likely has large agribusiness groaning in frustration the Indian state of Kerala, a narrow strip of land in Southern Indian roughly 360 miles long and 80 miles wide, is continuing its seven year transition towards going organic. FULL STORY
Why food is costing us the earth
The fight is on over how to solve our food crisis, but if we choose the wrong food policy at this juncture there could be no going back. FULL STORY
Complex interactions keep pests under control on organic farms
Ecologists John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto of the University of Michigan and Stacy Philpott of the University of Toledo have uncovered a web of intricate interactions that buffers the farm against extreme outbreaks of pests and diseases, making magic bullets unnecessary. FULL STORY
Make Mine Organic - Maria Rodale The local food movement has been very important in revitalizing small farms and communities and bringing fresh, seasonal foods to many more people. However, as a means of saving the planet and improving our health, it only goes so far. FULL STORY
What's So Great About Organic Food?
Organic foods of all kinds currently represent only about 3% of the total American market, according to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), but it's a sector we all should be supporting more. FULL STORY
Organic vs. Conventional
The treatment of the birds seals the deal. An industrial hen in a battery cage is not a pretty sight. FULL STORY
The Organic Alternative - Dr. Mehmet Oz
The cost of going organic can be high — and it can be more than merely financial. FULL STORY
Going organic: The siege on Gaza
The plan, as The Economist recently described it, is to "turn Gaza into one big organic farm". FULL STORY
How Far Has Greenwashing Gone? The Conflicts of Natural and Organic Food
Sally Worley, PFI communications director and horticulture program director, said that a high tunnel is a passive solar greenhouse that allows farmers to expand their growing season and improve profitability. FULL STORY
Organic Farmer Challenges Food Production Systems
Mr Leu claims nearly all the world's agricultural emissions could be sequestered if our five billion hectares of agricultural land were converted to organic systems. FULL STORY
Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops
Despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase U.S. crop yields. FULL STORY
Critics of GM crops vindicated over time
Although farmers have wholeheartedly embraced them, some of the downsides predicted by early critics - which were pooh-poohed by the experts - have also turned out to be true. FULL STORY
Organic farming: what's next? As more people are buying organic products and the industry matures, organic farmers face new pressures FULL STORY
New research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health
In two recent papers the trio argues that the net effect of synthetic nitrogen use is to reduce soil's organic matter content. Why? Because, they posit, nitrogen fertilizer stimulates soil microbes, which feast on organic matter. Over time, the impact of this enhanced microbial appetite outweighs the benefits of more crop residues. FULL STORY
Nonsanto: A Month Without Monsanto
How did we get to the frightening point where one company is controlling most of what we eat? April says it's one word: convenience. "We are a nation addicted to convenience". FULL STORY
Book review: Why We All Need to Demand Organic and . . . Worship the Worm
In her powerful and informative new book, Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe, Maria Rodale has done all of the thinking and the research about organic farming for us. FULL STORY
Health is the Tipping Point to Identify and Eliminate GMOs
In his second book, Genetic Roulette (2007), Smith presents irrefutable evidence of 65 health dangers linked to GMOs including allergens, carcinogens, new diseases, antibiotic resistant diseases and nutritional problems. FULL STORY
How certified is certified organic?
That's what CTV News found out when we had several organic potatoes and organic snow peas tested - there were no pesticides at detectable levels. FULL STORY
The Organic Revolution
Joel Salatin, a leading light in the local food movement, met with several dozen local farmers and ranchers on a warm February day that made him wonder aloud about returning to snowbound Virginia.. FULL STORY
Why We Poison Our Food
Allen grew up on a farm, then studied war chemicals in the Marines, and was surprised when he returned to the farm to find out that farm chemicals were "modified versions of the nerve poisons and antipersonnel weapons that [he] learned about when studying chemical warfare in the Marine Corps." FULL STORY
Why I Still Oppose Genetically Modified Crops
Like many people, I feel, as I did a decade ago, that genetically modified crops were introduced with bland assurances of safety based on studies from small test plots, a far different thing from the uncontrolled global experiment we now find ourselves in the midst of. FULL STORY
Rebuilding Small-Scale Meat Processing Infrastructure
A rebirth of small slaughterhouses would breathe new life into small communities everywhere, give farmers and ranchers more options for processing their sustainably raised livestock and satisfy growing consumer demand for healthy meatproducts. FULL STORY
Consumers may be coming round to the idea of higher food quality
A recent rise in academic criticism of the local food movement argues that it's less efficient than the dominant global/industrial system. But efficiency and lowest cost production may not be what all consumers want primarily. FULL STORY
Raw milk: magic elixir or health hazard?
Canada made the sale of raw milk illegal in 1991, saying that heat treatment, or pasteurization, is the only way to destroy potential pathogens in milk that could cause potentially deadly outbreaks of E. coli. FULL STORY
Do consumers need protection from raw milk?
Canada is the only G8 country where the sale of raw milk is illegal. The country outlawed its sale in 1991. However, drinking raw milk is legal. FULL STORY
Raw milk lovers say pasteurization not needed
David Gumpert, author of The Raw Milk Revolution, says that as the dairy industry grew and safety standards improved pasteurization became more about preservation and less about consumer protection. FULL STORY
Behind Mass Die-Offs, Pesticides Lurk as Culprit Today, drips and puffs of pesticides surround us everywhere, contaminating 90 percent of the nation's major rivers and streams, more than 80 percent of sampled fish, and one-third of the nation's aquifers. FULL STORY
'We believe in land conservation:' How neighbors are helping save one Vermont farm
Despite increasing public awareness, sustainable agriculture, while the fastest-growing sector of the food industry, remains a tiny enterprise: according to the most recent data from the U.S. FULL STORY
How Far Has Greenwashing Gone? The Conflicts of Natural and Organic Food
According to the Greenwashing Report 2009, last year alone 98 percent of green-labeled goods were found guilty of greenwashing. And all along the word organic, whether printed on the box or stamped on with the federal, USDA regulated organic label, has been a sort of lifeboat pointing people in the right direction to healthy living. But could the word organic be the biggest greenwashing dupe of them all? FULL STORY
Computer model reveals where food pathogens grow
"Many people have been skeptical of organic foods because of reports that the manure can be a source of contamination," said Ariena H. C. van Bruggen, a researcher for UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the Emerging Pathogens Institute. "However, what we found is that manure, when properly stored and treated, is actually safer than we previously thought." FULL STORY
Bill Jordan: I don't think organics will feed the world
Organic is about what you don't put in, it's the inputs you don't use. They get more wildlife than conventional farms but it's an add-on. We are committed to getting more wildlife on our farms. FULL STORY
Going organic would capture more carbon More than 3m extra tonnes of atmospheric carbon would be absorbed if all UK farmland was converted to organic, the Soil Association has claimed. FULL STORY
Organic wines gaining popularity worldwide
Driven by consumer demand for more healthy consumption and an unspoiled environment, farmers and wine growers in the West have been turning to organic or alternative farming, that is, farming without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, as in the days before World War II. FULL STORY
Jim Goodman: Corporate agribusiness divides farmers
To most conventional farmers, organic farming doesn't even register. With agribusiness however, it's another story. They're not content with just 96.5 percent of the food system - they want it all. FULL STORY
I drink raw milk (sold illegally on the underground market)
Isn't it curious that at this juncture in our culture's evolution, we collectively believe Twinkies, Lucky Charms, and Coca-Cola are safe foods, but compost-grown tomatoes and raw milk are not? FULL STORY
'Red' German farm scores 'green' success
It owes its success to converting to organic farming, mainly for the Berlin market, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) away. The former agricultural cooperative society LPG was set up in 1955 on the Soviet model by forcing small family farms to merge. FULL STORY
The Potato Underground
How the 'outlaw' Cariboo spud, once blacklisted by agribiz advocates, was saved. FULL STORY
Response to the FAO: How to Feed the World in 2050
If the FAO is to Seriously Engage in this Effort it Must Get Rid of the Distraction of GM Crops FULL STORY
How the organic movement can regain its relevance
. . . amid all of our ecological crises - the climate crisis, the water crisis, the energy crisis, the crisis of the oceans, all of which implicate agriculture and food production - organics aren't inspiring people to think very much at all. And the responsibility for that failure lies most heavily with the people in organics who have the power to communicate with the public: the corporate marketers. FULL STORY
Prairie Pioneer Seeks To Reinvent The Way We Farm
Jackson decided to figure out a way to breed grain crops so they can be planted once, actually replenish the soil, and be harvested year after year.. FULL STORY
Promoting Peace Through Organic Farming in Thailand
The south is one of Thailand's poorest regions, and the Thai military says that thousands of villagers have willingly come to the center, mostly for one-day trainings on the merits of organic agriculture using a bio-fertilizer promoted by King Bhumibol. FULL STORY
Plants Know Their Relatives — And Like Them!
Although no one knows for sure how sibling recognition would affect crops grown in large monocultures, some researchers think that decreased competition among plants from identical seeds may make monocultures more susceptible to insects and disease. FULL STORY
A new approach to farming
Without a strong strategy to revitalize farming, especially mid-size farms, the bleak scenario is a corporate takeover of the 50 per cent of farm assets coming available by larger corporate farms (farms of 3,500-plus acres grew at a rate of 50 per cent between 2001 and 2006), and even processors and retailers. Control of Canada's food supply could fall into even fewer hands. FULL STORY
Where they grow our junk food
Last year, Ontario farmers planted 2.4 million acres of soybeans and just over 2 million acres of corn. That's nearly half of all cropland in the province, a near-colonization of Ontario farms by the soy and corn industry. FULL STORY
Organic Farming Could Stop Global Climate Change
Even if we acted sustainably by stopping carbon emissions today, we would not be living on a healthy planet - we need agriculture to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. FULL
STORY
Couple see organic success with chicken
Two poultry novices who set up an organic chicken farm three years ago are going from strength to strength with their award-winning chicken. FULL STORY
BCs New Wheat Kings Cedar Isle Farm will supply 200 people with organic flour this year, the first time in recent memory that West Coast grain has been available to any but the most dedicated locavore. FULL STORY
7 Things You Didn't Know About Organic Agriculture
There's a lot more to growing it than just planting seeds in the sun, watering the sprouts (and skipping the pesticides) and talking to the plants as they grow; organic agriculture is a complicated, interesting, constantly changing process. FULL STORY
Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food
Despite increasing public awareness, sustainable agriculture, while the fastest-growing sector of the food industry, remains a tiny enterprise: according to the most recent data from the U.S. FULL STORY
The Organic Conundrum, or What About Local?
It is a popular myth that people who buy organic food do so because they think it will make them healthier. Recent research in a number of European countries, including the UK, has found that its regular buyers have a much more sophisticated understanding of organic food and farming. FULL STORY
Popular herbicide more deadly to liver cells than its active chemical alone
Very low doses of some types of the herbicide Roundup can disrupt human liver cell function; the formulations' toxicity may be tied to their 'inactive' ingredients rather than the active weed-killing ingredient glyphosate. FULL STORY
On The Cutting Veg of Urban Farming The Cutting Veg has a bold goal - aiming to cultivate personal, social, environmental and economic health. But for Daniel Hoffmann and his farm, that's exactly the mission, and he's doing it through organic agriculture. With a farm just off Highway 427 in Brampton. FULL STORY
Peak Oil? Urban Farms? Cuba's Been There, Done It
It is a fairly familiar story in business. Someone has an idea, a passion. He or she builds a spectacular small business around that idea, builds a reputation for creating something really unique, and people love the business. Then, the owner sells the company to a large corporation. FULL STORY
Conference takes on economics of organic food According to well-known organic Maine farmer and author Eliot Coleman, who farms year-round in unheated greenhouses and will participate in the panel, the No. 1 barrier preventing more Mainers from eating food grown and raised locally is the competition from cheap eats trucked in from California. FULL STORY
Desperate Food Industry Tries to Tar Michael Pollan and Organic Produce
What do you get when you cross a grassroots movement with a food industry fearful of losing its influence? Bogus studies, campaigns of misinformation and opinion pieces filled with myth and vitriol. FULL STORY
Genetically Modified Crops Only a Fraction of Primary Global Crop Production
Although they have been on the market for a decade, they currently account for a modest 9 percent of total land used for global primary crops. FULL STORY
Our Arugula President Steps Up to the Plate With a Sustainable Vision for American Eating
Obama's side story about a White House farmer's market is more of a political statement than it sounds like, especially when you combine it with what he said about the school lunch program in practically the same breath. FULL STORY
Genetically Modified Food: Why We Need More Information
While there may be nothing inherently wrong with contemplating a theoretical overlap between biotech crop genetics and organic farming systems, there’s not a compelling set of reasons to do so either. FULL STORY
Heeding the buzz about bees
While colony collapse disorder is witnessed worldwide, it's worst in developed countries like Canada due to greater use of pesticide and industrial farming practices. FULL STORY
Organic Agriculture Beats Biotech at its Own Game
While there may be nothing inherently wrong with contemplating a theoretical overlap between biotech crop genetics and organic farming systems, there's not a compelling set of reasons to do so, either. FULL STORY
Farmwashing: Big Food’s Branding Woes...Again Food, Inc. will undoubtedly reach the proverbial choir of organic and slow-food adherents, but it lacks the narrative flair and audience-luring gimmicks of Spurlock’s Super Size Me. FULL STORY
Killer Bugs Made Welcome on Green Farms
Scientists and farmers are learning to make better use of this powerful weapon by reshaping the landscape to create abundant habitat for pest predators, encouraging them to make farms their homes. FULL STORY
13 Secret Toxins Lurking in Your Food, and How to Avoid Them
Various shelves throughout every aisle of your grocery store are stocked with wolves in sheep’s clothing. Colorful packaging, appetizing pictures, and nutrition claims hide the truth: unhealthy chemicals are lurking in many these seemingly harmless foods. FULL STORY
The obvious advantage of organic food over conventional
Organic agriculture . . . relies on slow-release fertilizers that don’t get taken up as readily by plants, leaving lower residue levels in food. And because organic ag builds carbon in soil, it also tends to hold nitrogen better, not letting it leach into soil or air nearly as much. FULL STORY
Organics No Better Than Chemical/GMO/Sewage Sludge-Soaked 'Food'?
Call me biased (and I am)...but it would seem to be common sense that regular food, real food - i.e. food not pruned in a lab, or coated with chemicals, or doused in sewage sludge - as is so-called "conventional" food - would be cleaner, stronger, healthier. FULL STORY
Organic is more than small potatoes
Study after study show that organic techniques can provide much more food per acre in developing countries than conventional chemical-based agriculture FULL
STORY
Interest in organic food on the rise in China
A small group of Chinese farmers is devoted to growing natural foods, despite lax regulations and other obstacles. PODCAST AND SUMMARY
It's wrong to believe that nature is always best At last, the myth about organic food being better for us has been exploded. Maybe now we can get down to the serious business of feeding our growing population. FULL STORY
A cancerous conspiracy to poison your faith in organic food
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the FSA has decided to give such loud backing to this report because it can bend the findings to suit its political, pro-GM, anti-organic agenda. FULL STORY
It's good for the countryside and wildlife, which means it's good for us
It is a popular myth that people who buy organic food do so because they think it will make them healthier. Recent research in a number of European countries, including the UK, has found that its regular buyers have a much more sophisticated understanding of organic food and farming. PODCAST AND SUMMARY
The great eco-label shakedown
Businesses continue to look to eco-labels and certifications as a means to alleviate confusion among consumers and provide some reassurance to them about the validity of their so-called “green” products. But the proliferation of eco-labels - around 300 currently - is weakening the entire field. FULL STORY
What Happens When Big Corporations Take Over Green Companies It is a fairly familiar story in business. Someone has an idea, a passion. He or she builds a spectacular small business around that idea, builds a reputation for creating something really unique, and people love the business. Then, the owner sells the company to a large corporation. FULL STORY
Scorched-Earth Farming Foolishness Rules developed by the large agri-business are being used to regulate small farms in a manner that is often contrary to science, organic standards and the natural benefits of ecosystems. FULL STORY
Woodchips with everything. It's the Atkins plan of the low-carbon world
The latest miracle mass fuel cure, biochar, does not stand up; yet many who should know better have been suckered into it. FULL STORY
Farming becomes sexy
Activities like the farm conservation holidays will help create awareness of a Canada-wide need to recreate the critical mass of farmers. FULL STORY
Insects are nature's pesticides
Todorova and Arsenault employ three full-time and two part-time workers in the breeding of insects, which they sell to gardeners and farmers. FULL STORY
Organic Farming in Niagara
The Rodgers of Lockport became organic farmers for the money - they didn't have enough. FULL STORY
Are you ready for organic wines?
While there is a better chance an organic wine will contain fewer added sulphites and that it will be less manipulated, organic certification only concerns itself with how the grapes are grown and has nothing to do with the vinification of the wine, specifically with respect to added sulphites. FULL STORY
How the organic movement can regain its relevance
To what extent do organics merely "allow people to feel good about their consumption," as Lander says, and to what extent do they inspire people to think about their consumption, to consider their place in the consumption-production process? FULL STORY
Are ‘organic pesticides’ the way forward for organic agriculture?
Marrone Organic Innovations and its investors seem to be promoting a different model for organic farming: input substitution. In this vision, organic farming mimics industrial-style farming - the trick is to find a 'natural' substance to replace every synthetic one. FULL STORY
Organic farms take root in Similkameen
People are applying a toxic stew of chemicals to their bodies daily, author declares FULL STORY
Timothy LaSalle of Rodale on the surprising climate benefits of organic farming
.The Rodale Institute, founded by organic farming visionary J.I. Rodale, is one of the nation's leading organic-farming research and advocacy organizations. Today, Rodale sits on a 333-acre farm near Kutztown, Penn., home to the longest-running U.S. field trials study to compare organic and conventional farming practices. FULL STORY
Is Organic Food Really Healthier?
The U.S. government's food policy suggests an apple is an apple, regardless of how it was grown. Scientific data suggests otherwise. FULL STORY
Weed 'em and reap
Figuring out which (if any) organic wine to buy can feel like navigating dawn with a hangover. FULL STORY
Cuba's organic revolution
The collapse of the Soviet Union forced Cuba to become self-reliant in its agricultural production. The country's innovative solution was urban organic farming, the creation of 'organoponicos'. But will it survive a change of government? FULL
STORY
Nature as Our Guide
Since the recent streak of municipal pesticide bans were put into place across Canada, the pesticide industry has been on the defence. PODCAST AND SUMMARY
So, You Want to Be a Farmer? Where are Canada's future farmers, and how does anyone interested in farming get involved? PODCAST AND SUMMARY
Organic food industry fears contamination
Widespread contamination of U.S. corn, soybeans and other crops by genetically engineered varieties is threatening the purity of organic and natural food products and driving purveyors of such specialty products to new efforts to protect their markets FULL STORY
The Local Grain Revolution We explore the creation of a project launched by two conservation groups wishing to experiment with the creation of a local grain market in the middle of the mountains of British Columbia. PODCAST AND SUMMARY
The Prince of Wales: 'As a child, I loved growing vegetables at the Palace'
We used to laugh at his eco-eccentric ways. But now it all makes sense. Here the Prince of Wales explains why. FULL STORY
Jody Scheckter: He drives the fastest milkcart in the west Once the world's most dangerous racing driver, Jody Scheckter has reinvented himself as a pioneering organic farmer. Vincent Graff visits Scheckter's remarkable conversion: 130,000 trees, 31 different breeds of grass and his very own 'university of organics' FULL STORY
Can We Create GE-Free Zones?
Why has Canada become such a willing host to GE foods whereas throughout most of the world, bans, moratoriums and watchful eyes keep genetically modified organisms off grocery store shelves? PODCAST AND SUMMARY
We are what we eat
Britons prefer Thai takeaway to fish and chips and want food produced locally, according to an unprecedented government report. FULL STORY
Elitism in the Green Movement: Michael Pollan and Dan Barber Battle Critics
The discussion featured Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and the new book In Defense of Food, and Dan Barber, the James Beard Award-winning chef from Blue Hill in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester County, New York. It was moderated by the author of This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader, Joan Dye Gussow, who is a nutritionist and professor emeritus at Columbia University Teacher's College. FULL STORY
Canada's efforts to make organics official have come a long way, but there's still work to be done before December 14, 2008
A network of players and government agencies is trying to reconcile all the puzzle pieces to give farmers unencumbered access to provincial, national and international organic markets.. FULL STORY
Never mind organic, feel the food print
Could it turn out that by doing the right thing we've been doing the wrong thing all along? FULL STORY
The Food and Farming Transition
The only way to way avert a food crisis resulting from oil and natural gas price hikes and supply disruptions while also reversing agriculture's contribution to climate change is to proactively and methodically remove fossil fuels from the food system. FULL STORY
Cosmetics with a side of infertility
People are applying a toxic stew of chemicals to their bodies daily, author declares FULL STORY
Mitigating Climate Change through Organic Agriculture and Localized Food Systems
.Organic, sustainable agriculture that localize food systems has the potential to mitigate nearly thirty percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and save one-sixth of global energy use. FULL STORY
Does organic wine taste bad?
Figuring out which (if any) organic wine to buy can feel like navigating dawn with a hangover. FULL STORY
Reviewing
F. William Engdahl's Seeds of Destruction (Book Review by Stephen Lendman)
Bill Engdahl is a leading researcher, economist and analyst of the New World Order who's written on issues of energy, politics and economics for over 30 years. FULL
STORY
A Truce in
the War on Weeds?
Since the recent streak of municipal pesticide bans were put into place across Canada, the pesticide industry has been on the defence. FULL
STORY
A Blossoming
Retreat Expansion and organic agriculture planned for Po Lam Buddhist retreat. FULL
STORY
Birth of a Farmers' Market
Nanaimo sprouts a thriving local food experiment. FULL STORY
Eliot Coleman: Beyond Organic
We now need to ask whether we want to be content with an "organic" food option that places the marketing concerns of corporate America ahead of nutrition, flavor and social benefits to consumers. FULL STORY
Does Peat Moss Have a Place in the Ecological Garden?
For many years, there has been a debate between peat producers and conservationists as to the long term effects of the use of peat moss as a gardening material. That argument is getting louder as our knowledge of the dangers of global warming increase. FULL STORY
Kenyan Farmers Versus Euro Environmentalists
Last month Britain's Soil Association, which certifies produce as organic, toughened its rules for air-freighted food. Suppliers must show evidence that farmers in developing countries are being paid a fair price, and that there are no local markets for their produce. FULL STORY
Kenyan Farmers Versus Euro Environmentalists
Last month Britain's Soil Association, which certifies produce as organic, toughened its rules for air-freighted food. Suppliers must show evidence that farmers in developing countries are being paid a fair price, and that there are no local markets for their produce. FULL STORY
Why eating less meat could cut global warming
A new report is to warn the livestock industry generates 8 per cent of all UK greenhouse gas emissions - but that eating some meat is good for the planet. It will also say organic farming may be no better than intensive methods for reducing emissions, though organic practices have other advantages. FULL STORY
Organic's better. Admit it
In general, it provides more beneficial nutrients than the equivalent non-organic food - and the Food Standards Agency should acknowledge this.. FULL STORY
Health and happiness is all down to a roll in the dirt
A study has found evidence that bacteria common in soil and dirt could improve people's spirits.
FULL STORY
The Blessings of Dirty Work - by Barbara Kingsolver
We move to the same impulse that makes squirrels hoard their nuts, rising at dawn to pick, returning in the evening to pick more. We freeze, we preserve, we give away excess. It's the gardener's World Series - an all-consuming hoopla at the end of the season. FULL STORY
Farm to fork
Appetite for sustainable farming grows. FULL STORY
Prince Charles: 'Patron Saint' Of Organics
Setting standard for organic farming and gardening at Highgrove, his private estate FULL STORY
An
organic milk war turns sour
Now that his dairy company has settled charges that it violated organic food standards, Aurora president Mark Retzloff wants to muzzle foes. FULL
STORY
5
healthy food trends worth following
"It used to be that packaging and convenience were all the rage. But today, food lovers also want to know where their food comes from and how to prepare it in the simplest, most natural way possible." FULL
STORY
Can a dairy be big and organic?
Consumers sometimes pay twice as much for organic milk, and they might not picture the dairies producing it with thousands of cows, or a farmer arriving at 140 mph from overhead. FULL
STORY
Factory farming cruel for animals and hard on the planet, too
The Fraser Valley, once a bucolic landscape of small family farms, has become a casualty of one of the great global issues of the 21st century: The dirty, dangerous and inhumane business of intensive agriculture - a business driven by our insatiable demand for cheap meat. FULL STORY
How young people are being driven off the farm When the older folks retire, will there be anyone left to till the soil and grow our crops? FULL STORY
Federal bill helps huge farmers, not California's innovative ones
Within a 200-mile radius of San Francisco are some of the most innovative farmers in America - conventional and organic - in a region that has become the hotbed of a movement beginning to reshape American farms and food. FULL STORY
An Organic Hero
Chuck Walters is almost blind but, using electronic equipment that can render printed words into sound, he continues to keep a lively presence in his magazine, Acres USA: The Voice of Eco-Agriculture and to turn out book after book on farming and economics that make mincemeat out of the political and economic powers that he believes are reducing farmers to mere slaves operating food factories which are not sustainable. FULL STORY
Texas family embraces organic farming
They are part of a small movement of conservative Christians who believe the Bible demands an organic or natural approach to agriculture.. FULL STORY
Food additives
Until relatively recently most food additives were derived from natural sources, like parts of plants or minerals. Now many food additives are the result of chemical reactions. FULL STORY
The green way to eat
Nearly 20% of the UK's overall greenhouse gas emissions come from farming and food. Of the greenhouse gas emissions we are personally responsible for as consumers, 30% are caused by the food we buy and eat. FULL STORY
Fighting to Keep Organic Foods Pure
. . . some aspects of organic's growing popularity trouble advocates like Mark Kastel, 52, from Rockton, Wis., who is now driving one of the food industry's biggest debates: does organic food's industrialization threaten its purity? FULL STORY
A feast for farming's future
How co-operatives can provide an alternative to agricultural land ownership and how farmers can receive a fair price by working together to market their product. Audio. FULL STORY
The looming food crisis
Land that was once used to grow food is increasingly being turned over to biofuels. This may help us to fight global warming - but it is driving up food prices throughout the world and making life increasingly hard in developing countries. Add in water shortages, natural disasters and an ever-rising population, and what you have is a recipe for disaster. FULL STORY
More Than One Way to Grow a Grape
Each of these three vintners, in his own way, is pursuing cutting-edge ways to cultivate his small winery's character. FULL STORY
Sales hit £2bn as Britain turns organic
Britain's love affair with all things organic has hit new heights. A report to be published this week is expected to show that annual spending on organically produced food, cosmetics and clothes has reached £2bn. FULL STORY
How to Add Oomph to 'Organic' Despite year after year of double-digit growth, organics receive a pittance in financing and staff attention at the department, which is responsible for writing regulations about organics and making sure that they are upheld. FULL STORY
The Eat-Local Backlash
In a sense, these high-profile rebukes are good news: they herald the arrival of the sustainable-food movement as a pop-culture phenomenon. FULL STORY
Era of cheap food approaches its end
The world has enjoyed relatively cheap food for the past 50 years, but that era may now be ending due to several environmental factors FULL STORY
Rethinking Organics
Are there real benefits to going organic? If so, are some organic fruits and vegetables better than others? And how do you choose? FULL STORY
'Produce rules 'ridiculous,' farmer says
Only a small fraction of the billions worth of fruits and vegetables that are imported into Canada every year from other countries, including those that may have lower safety standards, are ever inspected by the government -- creating a double standard that frustrates Canadian producers and may put consumers at risk. FULL STORY
'National treasure' germinates in Saskatoon
As the curator of Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC), he is the keeper of almost 100,000 samples of seeds. They're from crop plants common to Canada, but are mostly of international origin, such as flax and wheat. FULL STORY
Interviewed: Jonathan Dimbleby on organic food
Jonathan Dimbleby is a presenter, political commentator and prolific author. He is President of the Soil Association and VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas), has chaired Any Questions? and Any Answers? since the late Eighties and has been an anchorman on every General election night since 1997. FULL STORY
Certifying organic
Consumers looking for organically grown food now need only to check for the Canada Organic label, a maple leaf rising above two hilltops. FULL STORY
Love affair with blueberries
According to the census, blueberries dominate Canadian fruit production, taking up 46.6 per cent of total fruit acreage in 2006. From 2001 to 2006, B.C.'s blueberry-growing area grew 61.5 per cent. FULL STORY
Agricultural Land Ownership and Farmers
How co-operatives can provide an alternative to agricultural land ownership and how farmers can receive a fair price by working together to market their product. Audio. FULL STORY
Organic farming poses natural challenges
In November 2006, the Ehrlichs were named best horticultural producer by the Certified Organic Associations of B.C., following up the previous year when they won an award for best integrated farm system. FULL STORY
Organic farmers want their product better defined.
Organic farmers want to see the definition of what can actually be sold as organic food tightened up.. FULL STORY
Rewilding Canada.
An area the size of a small town can displace the entire Canadian agricultural sector and much of its aquaculture as well.. FULL STORY
Organic food under threat
British producers struggle to keep up with consumers' soaring demand. FULL STORY
'Certified Organic' label has grocers touchy While organic foods are certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as free of pesticides and hormones, this designation says the retailer will comply with handling standards nearly as meticulous as those for kosher or vegan foods. FULL STORY
Uprooting the organic claims
Together, Willis and Quinn raise a variety of organic crops, such as wheat, Kamut, camelina, alfalfa hay, clover, peas, lentils, tomatoes and vegetables, in a four-year rotation on the dryland farm. FULL STORY
Organic regulations will benefit consumers: expert
New regulations surrounding the production of organic food in Canada will be beneficial to consumers, says an organic farming expert. FULL STORY & VIDEO
'Organic food boom benefits Canadian farmers
The increased demand for organic food will yield economic benefits for Canada in the future, according to an experienced organic farmer. FULL STORY & VIDEO
New rules needed to protect organic farms from pesticide drift
We can't continue to farm at Wilder State Park unless there is a change in the pesticide regulations that would prohibit pesticide drift regardless of the cause. FULL STORY
Slow Food Fight
For all its good work - and despite its roots within the Italian labor movement - Slow Food has itself been hounded by charges of elitism. FULL STORY
Stores Embark on Organics 2.0
Focusing on high-quality, unusual foods has helped specialty stores retain customers who can now buy organically at supermarkets FULL STORY
Meeting the food security challenge through organic agriculture
"Organic agriculture is no longer a phenomenon in developed countries only, as it is commercially practiced in 120 countries, representing 31 million hectares and a market of US$40 billion in 2006," FAO underlines in a paper, Organic Agriculture and Food Security. FULL STORY
Going green: Local solutions
In 1994, Reid's family business, Thomas Reid Farms, became the first certified organic chicken farm in British Columbia. FULL STORY
Market-based solution could be answer to urban sprawl
We can make the market work to bring us the results we desire: the protection of wild landscapes, the viability of agriculture, sustainable urban landscapes and consumer choice. FULL STORY
'Food mile' foibles. And eating beluga whales.
Browse the food-system studies and another trend emerges, this time linked to the possible solutions: if you want to reduce the environmental costs of your food, move toward the local, organic, seasonal, and vegetarian. FULL STORY
Green Food
Considering the impact of a single food, environmentalists recognize that the production of beef has the greatest negative impact upon the environment. FULL STORY
You Are What You Grow The reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest is that those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers to grow. FULL STORY
Talk to the plant: Prince Charles's organic revolution
At home, the royal perspective has been criticized as conservative, stodgy and elitist. But to some of the generals of the American food revolution, the prince qualifies as downright progressive. FULL STORY
Uprooting the organic claims
Sales of organic produce are booming on the back of alleged benefits to our health and the environment, as well as claims of higher standards of animal welfare. But are we being seduced by "feel good" claims that don't stand up to scientific scrutiny?. FULL STORY
Funny Farms
Chudleigh has 32,000 apple trees, and sells pies and related products. But he also brings in farm animals each fall to populate a petting zoo and hires eighty staff to keep the grounds up to the level of his customers' pastoral fantasies. FULL STORY
'Eat local' movement stresses security, safety
Proponents of Canada's emerging 'eat local' movement say that a more direct link from the farm to the fork enables families to feel more secure about what they eat. FULL STORY
The Future of Agriculture
Why Peak Oil and pollution mandate a new farming paradigm. Interview: with Richard Heinberg. FULL STORY
Bearing fruit
The scientific evidence is growing that organic food is better for you. But our politicians are still too wedded to the food industry to admit it. FULL STORY
Organic food? Sure, but is it cage-free?
Some US consumers want labels that tell if food is local and animals are treated humanely. FULL STORY
Ripe target
To its fans, the US supermarket chain Whole Foods Market is proof that green shopping can be glamorous. But its critics claim the store has got greedy and betrayed its organic ideals. And now it's coming to Britain. FULL STORY
Manure happens - managing it as compost is key
The turbulent regulatory aftermath of the recent outbreaks of E. coli in spinach and lettuce risks making manure a dirty word and use of manure suspect. FULL STORY
When Organic Isn't Really Organic
By telling consumers loud and clear which products are GM-free, organic-food producers will give them one more reason to choose organic. FULL STORY
Got Raw Milk? Be Very Quiet
While the U.S. has no laws against gulping milk straight from cows, the government's stance on controlling the sale of raw milk is far murkier. The Food and Drug Administration, which recently determined that it's safe to drink the milk of cloned cows, takes a tougher stand on unprocessed milk. FULL STORY
'Fair trade' food booming in Britain
'Ethical eating,' a practice once restricted to the rich, is going mainstream. FULL STORY
Eating Better Than Organic
Nearly a quarter of American shoppers now buy organic products once a week, up from 17% in 2000. But for food purists, "local" is the new "organic," the new ideal that promises healthier bodies and a healthier planet. FULL STORY
Can Ecology and Commerce Coexist?
A new movement called "beyond organic" aims to save land and communities. Is it the next ecological and social revolution or just another marketing tactic? FULL STORY
Change your eating habits and help the planet
Considering the impact of a single food, environmentalists recognize that the production of beef has the greatest negative impact upon the environment. FULL STORY
Fertile Ground - Reviving a much-cited, little-read, sustainable-ag masterpiece The real Arsenal of Democracy is a fertile soil, the fresh produce of which is the birthright of nations.
-- Sir Albert Howard, The Soil and Health FULL STORY
Grow Your Own Way
Small farmers across the U.S. are dropping their organic certification. FULL STORY
Organicize Me
Our intrepid reporter spends a month ingesting only organic foods so you don't have to. But you might want to. FULL STORY
The end of farm-saved seed?
This briefing traces the recent discussions within the seed industry and explores what will happen if a plant variety right becomes virtually indistinguishable from a patent. FULL STORY
Biodynamics sheds kooky image
Top vintners toast success of natural winemaking in L.A. FULL STORY
Majoring in Organics
North America's first degree program in organic agriculture models a holistic future for farming FULL STORY
The Dirt On Our Farms
We are told that much of what we see is simply the free market at work producing the best results. The reality is that big agribusiness is fueled, funded and made possible by federal government subsidies, which do not go to the increasingly-mythical American family farmer. FULL STORY
Industrial Agriculture and the E. Coli Outbreak
Why is so much of the food coming out of the Salinas Valley covered in shit? The ultimate answer is precisely because the valley produces so much of the country's food. California grows not only produce but livestock as well, and E. coli lives not only in human digestive tracts, but other mammals, as well. FULL STORY
Anna Lappé - Grub Love
For Anna Lappé, food activism is her birthright: her father, Marc Lappé, was a medical ethicist and toxicologist, while her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, authored the classic Diet for a Small Planet FULL STORY
Why Roots Matter More
The trend driving local food is rooted in the nation's organic movement, which began in the 1930s and got a second life in the 1970s by counterculture farmers. FULL STORY
From cow poop to cow power: A journey in photographs
As part of a group from the Society of Environmental Journalists, I got to tour Vermont's very first cow-power operation, in which the non-dairy output of a herd of Holsteins is turned into cleanly generated electricity. FULL STORY
Fast food goes organic and natural
More and more restaurants are tapping into Americans' desire to eat quickly, and realizing that fast food can involve much healthier stuff than a Whopper and fries. FULL STORY
We're not blurring our principles on organic food
We don't dispute that the organic sector faces unhelpful moves from some supermarkets - pushing sales by offering customers organic food as "cheaply" as possible, and potentially forcing organic farmers on to the same treadmill as their non-organic counterparts. FULL STORY
The battle for the soul of the organic movement
"It's now no different from conventional farming - producers are being squeezed, products are over-packaged, let alone the numbers of air miles that are used to fly organic goods around the world." FULL STORY
What it means to be organic
It comes as a surprise to find the Soil Association under attack for standards of organic farming. FULL STORY
Q&A: organic food
Matt Weaver explains the priniciples behind and controversies dogging a rapidly-growing industry FULL STORY
Food glorious food
Despite the best efforts of Jamie Oliver, British children continue to gorge on junk food. Meanwhile, in America, they are growing their own fruit and veg at school. Rose Prince visits a ground-breaking scheme in California that puts our school dinners to shame. FULL STORY
One Thing to Do About Food: A Forum
Eric Schlosser, Marion Nestle, Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Troy, Duster, Elizabeth Ransom, Winona Laduke, Peter Singer, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Carlo Petrini, Eliot Coleman and Jim Hightower FULL STORY
Could small farms provide fresh food year-round, even in northern climes?
Rather than scale up to fit in with modern agricultural technology, we want technology to scale down to our particular needs. FULL STORY
Turkey's born-again farmer
"When I first became involved three years ago, I brought 633 farmers together, and the European Community gave me the financial support to set up the Eastern Anatolian Farmers and Livestock Keepers Union. Now we have 3,000 members, and are still gathering members like an avalanche gathers snow." FULL STORY
Feeding Ourselves: Organic Urban Gardens in Caracas, Venezuela
An the middle of the modern, concrete city of Caracas, Venezuela, Noralí Verenzuela is standing in a garden dressed in jeans and work boots. She is the director of the Organopónico Bolivar I, the first urban, organic garden to show its green face in the heart of the city of Caracas, Venezuela. FULL STORY
The green machine
Lee Scott is no tree-hugger. But Wal-Mart's CEO says he wants to turn the world's largest retailer into the greenest. The company is so big, so powerful, it could force an army of suppliers to clean up their acts too. Is he serious? REVIEW
Blair's contaminated legacy
The government's latest proposals in effect threaten the right of all consumers, organic or non-organic, to choose non-GM food. FULL STORY
Ripe for Change: Agriculture's Tipping Point
Now, lumbering onto center stage comes a real monster, global warming, and the conflict shifts from being about how we feed ourselves to whether we survive at all. FULL STORY
When It Comes to Meat, 'Natural' Is a Vague Term
Probably the most confusing and fungible word in all of food labeling is the term "natural." When it is applied to meat, it can signify many things - that the animals were not given antibiotics or hormones, that they were not fed rendered animal byproducts and that they lived a happy life outdoors. FULL STORY
The Range Gets Crowded for Natural Beef
Three of the biggest conventional meat producers - Tyson Foods, Swift & Company and National Beef - have introduced natural products in the last few months. FULL STORY
An interview with foodie author Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan has built a reputation as a sleuthing agro-journalist.In his latest book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, he brings his investigative skills to bear on four meals. FULL STORY
The Ethics of What we Eat
Joining the dots from producer to plate, their book, The Ethics of What we Eat, is a moral compass for those who care about the impact of their food choices. FULL STORY
It's Not Easy Being Organic
I labored mightily for several years to cultivate, first, organic apples; then minimally sprayed apples (spraying only in response to a pest invasion); and finally in desperation for home-grown fruit, I surrendered the high moral ground to the apple maggots, codling moths and fungi that were destroying my trees, and resorted to prophylactic application of a chemical wide-spectrum orchard spray. FULL STORY
Introducing the Food Miles Campaign Heroes
An ex-corporate finance lawyer and a linguistics school marketing manager seem an odd alliance to found a business focused on cutting the number of miles food travels from production to sale. FULL STORY
Lure of the Urban Veggie Garden
Satzewich's brand of urban gardening is called SPIN - "small-plot intensive farming" - and it means renting the back forty from residential homeowners, ploughing their lawns under and then turning tens of thousands of dollars in profits selling the high-end produce cultivated by hand. FULL STORY
Local or organic? It's a false choice (from Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew)
Think about what you're buying. If you want local food, buy local. If you want organic, buy organic. The point is to make a conscious choice, because as we insert our values into the market, businesses respond and things change. There's power in what we do collectively, so is there any reason to limit it unnecessarily? FULL STORY
Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen
A new book by food activists Bryant Terry and Anne Lappe dishes up the political impact of our food choices with a side serving of artwork, poetry and soundtracks for cooking. REVIEW
Living Well: New lessons about buying organic
While most people may think a decisive factor in organic-food buying would be price, Demeritt and her colleagues don't see it that way. FULL STORY
Canada's 2006 Food Guide Raise The Hammer takes a look at how every aspect of our modern lives has become homogenized in a new four part series beginning with Food and food production. FULL STORY
Mega-producers tip scales as organic goes mainstream
"I think organic is not quite what people think at this point," said Michael Pollan, a UC Berkeley journalism professor whose new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma; takes a hard -- and ultimately critical -- look at what he calls "industrial organic." FULL STORY See also: Who Owns What?
Saving seeds for future generations of gardeners
As agribusiness takes over traditional farming, and transnational companies negotiate legal patents on everything from wheat to soybeans, there's a real danger that hundreds of non-commercial varieties of tomatoes, beans, squash, garlic, potatoes, rhubarbs, asparagus, you name it, could vanish from the landscape of which they are a natural part.. FULL STORY
The Genetically Modified Conundrum
There's a troubling element to Americans' supposedly open arms about GM foods: Many of them apparently simply don't know much about it. FULL STORY
No Bar Code
In Joel's view, the reformation of our food economy begins with people going to the trouble and expense of buying directly from farmers they know - "relationship marketing," the approach he urges in his recent book, Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide to Farm Friendly Food. FULL STORY
Biodynamics will change the way you think about agriculture
The holistic "systems" approach of biodynamics requires integrated management practices - such as crop-rotation, composting, incorporation of animals, soil management and the application of biodynamic preparations - to promote and maintain soil health. FULL STORY
The Dirt on Organic Wines
Increasing health concerns expressed by consumers have led to a dramatic growth in the sales of organic produce. While organic food only accounts for one to two percent of worldwide sales, since the 1990s, the market has been growing by 20 percent annually. FULL STORY
The Upchuck Rebellion
Colorless, odorless, cheap to make . . . and relatively easy to use, methyl bromide is an incredibly effective fumigant, whose tiny molecules disperse quickly and efficiently throughout the soil. It wipes out the vast majority of soil pests so well that when it was introduced, farmers practically abandoned all other options. FULL STORY
Organic fruits and vegetables work harder for their nutrients
On average, the produce we grow in the United States has lower levels of several vitamins and minerals today than it did 50 to 60 years ago. By growing or buying and eating organic produce, however, we can make up much of the difference. FULL STORY
Food, sustainability, and the environmentalists
We need our food supply as cheap as possible to feed low-wage people; we need lots of low-wage people . . . to sustain our cheap-food system. Whatever else it does - and it works pretty well, if you're a major shareholder in transnational corporations - this cycle consumes enormous resources and, yes, severely damages the environment. FULL STORY
Fowl play: The poultry industry's central role in the bird flu crisis
Backyard or free-range poultry are not fuelling the current wave of bird flu outbreaks stalking large parts of the world. The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is essentially a problem of industrial poultry practices. FULL STORY
Food for Thought: The Organic Truth
Americans remain largely oblivious to the intrusions of the pharmaceutical industry into our kitchens. Across the pond, however, the Europeans are wising up. FULL STORY
Got Organic
As the organic market grows, large-scale farming and production practices are stretching the traditional standards for organic foods. But some in the industry are trying to protect the purity of the organic label.. FULL STORY
Homogeneous Food Raise The Hammer takes a look at how every aspect of our modern lives has become homogenized in a new four part series beginning with Food and food production. FULL STORY
The Incredible Expanding 100 Mile Diet
Something hit home as the New Year dawned with three months to go on our 100-Mile Diet. Not a resolution so much as a realization: Hey, this isn't about us anymore. Alisa and I are just two more fellow-travelers in an expanding spectrum of people who've taken hold of the local-eating concept and gone out to do their own thing. FULL STORY
Your Local Farmers' Marketing
According to Bob Orrett of Riverside Organic Farm in Campbellford, Ontario, "the problem as I see it is that profit margins are so low - in many cases, below zero - the only chance you have to make money at all is to market things yourself." FULL STORY
Is corporate organic changing the organic landscape in Canada?
Phil Howard, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, notes that according to one estimate, 40% of the packaged organic foods on the shelves of natural food stores are produced by some of the biggest companies in the world. FULL STORY
Chemical Farm
Americans remain largely oblivious to the intrusions of the pharmaceutical industry into our kitchens. Across the pond, however, the Europeans are wising up. FULL STORY
Millionaires, villagers and an organic food fight
It sells venison carpaccio and exotic tisanes. But Lady Bamford's chichi shop is in the Cotswolds, not Notting Hill. And the locals don't like it. FULL STORY
Cost in Translation
A recent study by researchers at the University of California-Davis reported that U.S. shoppers who consistently choose healthy foods spend nearly 20 percent more on groceries. The study also said the higher price of these healthier choices can consume 35 to 40 percent of a low-income family's grocery budget. FULL STORY
The Hundred-Mile Diet Goes North
What has amazed us, though, is just how achievable a Hundred-Mile Diet actually is here on the 55th parallel -- and beyond. There is tendency, south of 50 - to imagine everything north of the Lower Mainland and Okanagan (they make wine there, right?) as a hinterland of thick forest, early frost, and people who prefer shooting road signs to planting vegetable gardens. FULL STORY
Agriculture without Farmers
This relentless process of consolidation drives the heart out of the countryside, causing social and economic decay, and replaces it with an intensive industry that cares nothing about plant or animal diversity, quality or compassion in farming, but is solely interested in bringing down prices. FULL STORY
Canadian Food Industry Shifts towards Organics
Government, though faced with decades of crisis in conventional farming, continues to subsidize agricultural exports and support transnational corporations selling chemical and synthetic fertilizers and genetically modified seeds. FULL STORY
The Staff of Life: Where the Market Fails
The effect of the global market in food is that while 840 million people are chronically hungry every single day of their lives, some farmers are paid to stop planting staple crops, others go out of business, and millions of tonnes of grain are kept off the market. FULL STORY
Leading the way in organic ag research and extension
Seven years ago, in the heart of corn and soybean country, Kathleen Delate became America's first organic agriculture extension specialist. Since then, she's been working closely with Iowa farmers to increase and improve organic production and marketing. And now she's got tenure. FULL STORY
Food Chains, Dead Zones, and Licensed Journalism
Pollan writes what he calls "food detective stories," but the way he stalks his prey sets him apart from others who write about our palate and plate. FULL STORY
Returning war-torn farmland to productivity
Farmers everywhere are abandoning their cornucopia of traditional varieties in favour of a shrinking number of modern ones. And the expansion of patent laws agreed through the World Trade Organization has meant that seed distribution is becoming increasingly commercialised. FULL STORY
Food Security in Cuba
By the end of 2002, the goal of providing every settlement of over fifteen houses with its own food production capacity - whether organiponicos, group gardens, or individual plots - had essentially been met, and over 18,000 hectares were being cultivated in urban agriculture in and around cities. FULL STORY
The Corporate Attack on Organic Agriculture
Promulgated by such well-funded surrogates as the right-wing Hudson Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the American Chemical Society, these multinational corporations can't stand that consumers are voting with their pocketbooks because of their discomfort with conventional farming practices and have turned organic food marketing from a small, eclectic niche into the fastest growing segment of the food industry, with over $12 billion in sales this year. FULL STORY
Clouds on the Organic Horizon
Often, the food itself is produced by companies ranging from General Mills to Nestle to Coca Cola , and grown on corporate-owned farms no longer synonymous with small farms, rural communities, social justice and humane treatment of animals. FULL STORY
Go Ahead, Mr. Wendell
At 70, Wendell Berry remains a champion of agrarian ideals . FULL STORY
Small-scale vertical integration at a roadside fruit stand farm in British Columbia.
Over 60 fruits and vegetables on 10 acres, a remote location, a short growing season and a pernicious pest: There are plenty of challenges for organic growers Doug and Michelle Nimchuk. But business is good. FULL STORY
Super Organics
Forget Frankenfruit - the new-and-improved flavor of gene science is Earth-friendly and all-natural. Welcome to the golden age of smart breeding. FULL STORY
Corporations Waging War on Biotech Critics
These four men were not attacked because of flawed or imperfect experiments but because the findings of their work have a potential economic effect. FULL STORY
The fruits of poverty
The wealth of supermarkets is built on monopoly, exploitation and restriction of choice. . . . By forcing down the prices of the goods they buy, the superstores encourage even more repressive conditions in the companies that supply them. FULL STORY
Who SHOULD own organic?
The rapid expansion of organic agriculture presents us with tough choices about the kind of a movement we want to be FULL STORY
Getting small
Three farmers tell how they scaled back their operations to maintain their sanity, recapture their love for farming, and improve their bottom line. FULL STORY
Shumei Natural Agriculture
How did an agricultural movement develop in Japan that is defined less by commercial success than by close harmony with nature? FULL STORY
A Short-Order Revolutionary
The diner has a purpose: to support nearby family farms, or rather to demonstrate the conviction that - economically, historically, naturally, logically - food is supposed to be local, and that it can be again. FULL STORY
It's Still a Cow Eat Cow World
Why isn't the F.D.A. adopting the same rules as the European Union to protect Americans from Mad Cow Disease? FULL STORY
Is corporate farming really the solution?
The essence of such an arrangement is the commitment of the cultivator to provide an agricultural commodity of a certain type, at a time and a price, and in the quantity required by a known and committed buyer, typically a large company. FULL STORY
Saving the Family Farm
Agriculture is changing, and farms are having to change with it. Witness these four examples of farmers breaking with tradition to survive. FULL STORY
Lesson for cow crusaders
Villagers unable to manage their cattle are persuaded to donate their calves to the project. Kitchen waste and other edible organic wastes from all the households are fed to the calves. FULL STORY
A revolution among the vines
Paul Dolan, president of Fetzer Vineyards, experienced an epiphany 16 years ago that sparked profound changes at his company and into the far corners of the wine industry. FULL STORY
Bringing in the Harvest, Without a Farm in Sight
At least 6,000 New Yorkers, including many in the poorer parts of the city, have joined together in buying clubs in just the last few years to get organic vegetables fresh from the farm throughout the growing season. FULL STORY
The (Agri)Cultural Contradictions of Obesity
The political challenge now is to rewrite those rules, to develop a new set of agricultural policies that don't subsidize overproduction -- and overeating. FULL STORY
Consumer Acceptance and Willingness to Pay for Genetically Modified Vegetable Oil and Salmon.
Consumers are willing to pay substantial premiums for non-GM foods (vegetable oil and salmon) in order to avoid GM counterparts. FULL STORY
Hazardous Waste in Fertilizer
This is a story about corruption, collusion and conflicts of interest. About tight-lipped regulators, paranoid lawyers, muzzled journalists and federal loopholes big enough to drive nuclear waste trucks through. About regular people who have been threatened, harassed and shunned because they dared to speak out. FULL STORY
Food from Our Changing World
The globalization of food and how people in the U.S. feel about it. FULL STORY [about 500k, including images]
Is Organic Food Provably Better?
In the debate over whether organic food is better than conventionally raised food, advocates for organic produce say it contains fewer harmful chemicals and is better for the earth, and some claim that it is more nutritious. FULL STORY
Farmers' Privelege Under Attack.
Saving seeds is as natural and essential as eating. That's how we are able to produce crops: by gathering seeds, or other plant parts like tubers, from mature plants and growing them. Under plant variety protection (PVP) law, this totally ordinary act becomes a privilege, a legal exception. FULL STORY
In search of the ripe stuff
Supermarkets today are stocked with choices galore. But some shoppers are questioning dependence on produce from far away.. FULL STORY
Organophosphorus pesticide exposure of urban and suburban pre-school children with organic and conventional diets.
This new study from Seattle reports that school children eating conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables are more likely to exceed EPA safety thresholds for organophosphate pesticides than children eating organic produce. FULL STORY
Pesticide residues in conventional, IPM-grown and organic foods: Insights from three U.S. data sets. Based on data on pesticide residues in organically grown foods, foods produced with IPM/NDR systems, and foods with no market claim. FULL STORY
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