Just what IS organic?
Jim Riddle is the Organic Outreach Coordinator for University of Minnesota – Southwest Research and Outreach Center. He answers the question: “What does it mean when produce and meat products are labeled organic?”
Good Food is Everybody's Business
Jim Riddle is the Organic Outreach Coordinator for University of Minnesota – Southwest Research and Outreach Center. He answers the question: “What does it mean when produce and meat products are labeled organic?”
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.
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.
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.
Josh Wolbeck, who is new to the organic farming industry, stands by his herd of cows on his family’s farm outside of Sauk Centre. As of this fall, Wolbeck’s entire farm, including 223 acres of tillable land and 60 dairy cows, is certified organic. Wolbeck hopes the transition will provide a more stable income for him as the market for conventional milk continues to fluctuate.
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.
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.
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.