Who owns the dead zone?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:24:37 -0500

Agricultural pollution flowing out of the Midwest kills aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico, with seafood harvesters and eaters paying the cost for this displaced cost of “cheap food.”

By Krista Hozyash
Posted November 18, 2009

Tiny pesticide exposure during pregnancy can have long-term impact on female offspring

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:28:53 -0500

Study confirms chlorpyrifos levels far below "toxic" threshold can impair learning, change brain function and alter thyroid levels into adulthood for tested mice.

By Greg Bowman

Tillage, fertilizer results surprising in greenhouse gas crop check

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:27:16 -0500

Curbing greenhouse gas emissions from cultivated fields may require going beyond cutting back on nitrogen fertilizer and changing crop rotation cycles, USDA research shows.

A Minnesota researcher trialed corn, soybean, wheat and alfalfa in rotation, on plots treated with and without fertilizer. She also used a less-aggressive tillage system known as strip tillage. For comparison, she replicated the cropping system adopted by many Minnesota farmers-raising corn and soybeans in a two-year cycle on fertilized plots tilled with a chisel or moldboard plow.

McEvoy vows to strengthen brand organic in NOP role

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:16:16 -0500

Wants big enough staff—and impact—to beef up enforcement, improve compliance and increase collaboration within organic community

By Greg Bowman
In late October, Miles McEvoy took a break from cramming his head with all the details of his new USDA job make a pilgrimage to the Rodale Institute for some inspiration. He’s the new deputy administrator of the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP). He replaces Barbara Robinson, who introduced him at this week’s meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB).

Assert “people’s interests” in USDA's ag trade nomination

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:29:07 -0500

While on the campaign trail in Iowa, Barack Obama boasted, “We’ll tell ConAgra that it’s not the Department of Agribusiness. We’re going to put the people’s interests ahead of the special interests.” Despite that promise, it seems that ConAgra’s friends at Monsanto and CropLife are still finding their way into the USDA.

Pro-biotech scientist and researcher Roger Beachy is already on the job as head of the USDA’s newly created National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

Lupus, other autoimmune diseases linked to insecticide exposure

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:47:05 -0400

A recent study shows that women who use insecticides are at elevated risk for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The results of the yet unpublished study were presented October 2009 at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA.

The study of 75,000 women shows that those who spray insecticides at least six times per year have almost two and a half times the risk of developing lupus and rheumatoid arthritis versus those who do not use insecticides. The risk doubles if insecticides were used in the home for 20 years or more.

Consumers want organic, but structural barriers slow growth

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:59:34 -0400

Organic farming has a growing following with strong convictions based on better understanding of how the US food system operates, organic advocate Laura Klein writes.

UK organic group leader confident organic farming best option to sustainably feed world

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:19:42 -0400

Organic sales have slipped during the current recession, but Soil Association director Patrick Holden points to the approach’s strong environmental benefits as its foundation to be the farming of the future. His rise to be the leading advocate for organics in the UK, his own farming efforts, and his robust defense of organics in a time of challenges, is profiled in a long feature story.

Three-fourths of UK chicken sampled contains campylobacter

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:13:00 -0400

The British Food Standards Agency sampled 3,274 chickens in major supermarkets and small butchers, and found that for British-orgin birds, 76.1 percent of them had the potentially lethal food-poisoning bug campylobacter.

The contamination level of birds from major supermarkets was greater than for small butchers. Critics of modern farming methods claim the rise of these superbugs is due to the use of drugs on factory farms to keep down sickness and infection.

Herbicide-resistant pigweeds stop combines, make national TV

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:47:59 -0400

Cotton and soybean farmers in eastern Arkansas are interviewed in an ABC News story highlighting the potential harvest disruption caused by weeds that chemicals cannot kill. The reporter says that more than 1 million acres may be affected by the problem, long predicted by farmers and weed scientists who advocate for non-chemical weed management.

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