Top food and nutrition experts call on Congress to invest in healthy food

The Environmental Working Group and authors Anna Lappé and Dan Imhoff initiated the following letter of frustration with the lack of meaningful reforms and public input into the legislative process by the Senate Agriculture Committee as it drafted its 2012 Farm Bill. Read what Mario Batali, Michael Pollan and more than 70 of the nation’s food and health leaders said in urging Congress to cut crop insurance subsidies and redirect that money into vital investments in nutrition, healthy food and conservation programs.

Atina Diffley and Tracie McMillan – Women, Food, and Farming

Two books written by two women, one a poet and one a journalist. More than two decades separate them in age, yet both write about food – growing it, preparing it, and eating it. No, these are not the “usual women’s books.” These are not diet books nor cook books, but books about their very personal experiences with food.

2011: The Year of the Good Food Producer

In 2011 we visited more than 40 good food producers and providers in 30 cities across four states and British Columbia. We petted cows and goats in dairy barns, waded ankle deep in shellfish beds and waist deep in grain fields, trotted down rows of vegetables and fruit, and walked numerous orchards, large and small. We had to brush the flour out of our hair each time we left a grain mill. Here are some of the wonderful folks we met along the way.

Product Profile: Coffee? Tea? RōBarr (Roasted Barley)!

Linda O’Brien and her husband, Jim raise barley – lots of barley – for a large national brewer. Now they are exploring new opportunities: transitioning their fields to organic production and offering a value-added product – roasted barley. Linda has launched her product line of roasted barley, RōBarr, in Montana and Spokane Washington. You can buy it online too!

Calling the coffee alternative RōBarr, Linda has launched a new business roasting, bagging, and marketing grains that can be used for a flavorful beverage as a coffee or tea alternative.

Oganic Whole Grains Grown in Northeastern Montana

Those who farm in northeastern Montana – the northern Great Plains – face very cold winters, very hot summers, and very little rain (11-14 inches annually). Some farmers are finding that organic growing methods are providing a better market, reasonable prices, and more net profit than conventional methods.

Future of Organic Food and Agriculture at Risk

The Cornucopia Institute, one of the nation’s leading organic industry watchdogs, is urging members of the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), in formal testimony, to vote to preserve the integrity of organic food and farming at its upcoming meeting in Savannah, Georgia.

Organics in Romania: the Promise of Export Markets

Known primarily for its spectacular castles and fortresses—not to mention the legend of Vlad the Impaler—Romania is also a country abundant in arable farmland. Romania’s allocation of organically-farmed land may seem small but its rate of growth indicates that there is both interest and intent in adopting the practice.