Archived Articles

Seed Saving Around the World

Savoring Seed

When I think of a seed – when I have a seed in my hand ready to sow – I think of the 10,000 people before me that have sown that seed to get it to me and that’s why I think they’re so special.
Read more: Seed Saving Around the World

Pesticides In Your Diet? Cut It Out!

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Dr. Chensheng (Alex) Lu, Associate Professor of Environmental Exposure Biology at the Harvard School of Public Health, explains why reducing pesticides in your diet is critical to reducing the toxic effects of pesticide exposure for you and your family.
Read more: Pesticides In Your Diet? Cut It Out!

Salmon Confidential

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If you think watching a documentary about wild fish sounds boring, this film may well change your mind. It provides sobering insight into the inner workings of government agencies, and includes rare footage of the bureaucrats tasked with food and environmental safety. It reveals how the very agency tasked with protecting wild salmon is actually working to protect the commercial aquaculture industry, to devastating effect.
Read more: Salmon Confidential

Back to the Future: Compost on Local Farms

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Washington State University Extension, Snohomish County, has field tests in place using locally produced compost (from Cedar Grove) as an experimental input on local farms.
Read more: Back to the Future: Compost on Local Farms

Why you can't eat just one - Big Food keeps us eating!

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Craving. It doesn’t just happen to food addicts. Most people have experienced the impulse to seek out and consume a favorite packaged snack food. Big Food knows you can’t stop at just one, because they’ve done the research necessary to make it happen.
Read more: Why you can’t eat just one – Big Food keeps us eating!

What's So Special About Organic Seed?

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John Navazio, Senior Scientist for Organic Seed Alliance and a Plant Breeding and Seed Specialist for Washington State University Extension, talks about breeding healthy and robust organic spinach varieties at Nash’s Organic Farm, Sequim WA. In this video, John explains why organic seed is important and why you can’t just sow any seed for a healthy crop!
Read more: What’s So Special About Organic Seed?

Vandana Shiva and female farmers stand up to Monsanto

Vandana Shiva

The story of an environmental activist (Dr. Vandana Shiva) and a farmer (Bija Devi) and their fight to preserve heirloom seeds in India amidst great opposition.
Read more: Vandana Shiva and female farmers stand up to Monsanto

The Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC)

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Without organic seed, we won’t have organic vegetables; it’s as simple as that. And because the “Big Seed” companies like Monsanto and Syngenta are buying up seed producers – AND organic seed producers – we will see fewer and fewer heirloom, locally developed, and “open pollinated” organic seeds for growers and gardeners.
Read more: The Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC)

Miguel Altieri: Why is agroecology the solution to hunger and food security?

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Today, a billion people live in hunger. Peak oil and environmental degradation threaten the food security of billions more; particularly with half the world’s population living in urban environments where they are dependent on industrially produced and imported food. A transition is urgently needed, but how?
Read more: Miguel Altieri: Why is agroecology the solution to hunger and food security?

Terry Carkner, Terry's Berries, on Growing Organic Berries

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Terry’s Berries is a 25 acre organic farm located on the edge of Tacoma in the Puyallup valley where Terry and Dick Carkner have been farming for over 25 years. The Carkners are committed to growing high quality, fresh food for healthy people and to bridging the gap between the consumer and the farmer.
Read more: Terry Carkner, Terry’s Berries, on Growing Organic Berries