| Reform the Farm Bill, eat local and invest in biofuels | President Bush took a swipe at what he calls the "massive, bloated Farm Bill" and suggests that we begin to eliminate subsidies to the "multimillionaire farmers" in a press conference last week. | 05/08/2008 - 19:46 |
| University of Minnesota begins organic/sustainable program | The University of Minnesota and the Land Stewardship Project have secured funds from the 2007 Minnesota Legislature to support agricultural research and outreach focusing on sustainable and organic methods. | 05/08/2008 - 19:56 |
| Ontario says "no" to cosmetic pesticides | Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a ban on the use and the sale of 80 chemicals and 300 lawn and garden pesticide products. | 05/08/2008 - 19:51 |
| Testing for antibiotics in the environment | Scientists from the Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland, and the Czech Republic have teamed up to create a field kit for testing for the presence of antibiotics. | 05/02/2008 - 20:00 |
| Early flowering hairy vetch gives boost to northern farmers | Working with the Rodale Institute, Agricultural Research Service breeders at the Sustainable Agriculture Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, have released winter hardy ‘Purple Bounty’ allowing farmers to plant their cash crops two weeks earlier. | 05/02/2008 - 19:58 |
| Volatile grain market could end up costing consumers | Soaring grain prices may be high now but they are also more volatile, leaving farmers in a quandary about planning for next year’s harvest. | 05/02/2008 - 19:30 |
| When neighbors become farmers | Kipp Nash of Boulder, Colorado, is a backyard gardener and a front-yard gardener. And not just his own yard, but many of his neighbors’, as well. That he’s turned his neighborhood into a mini farm, of sorts, has some of his neighbors up in arms, and others who have lent their space to his efforts rolling in produce | 04/25/2008 - 18:59 |
| Farming as a labor of love | A Pennsylvania farmer ruminates on why she wouldn’t give up the long hours and backbreaking work for all the world. Despite the vagaries of the marketplace, the weather, and a general low estimation of the farming profession in the eyes of many individuals, she says, feeding people is simply food for the soul. The view from the “office” isn’t bad, either. | 04/25/2008 - 18:57 |
| Finding good food | The In Search of Good Food website is a work in progress that explores what’s right, small-scale and sustainable—in words and pictures—about California’s food system. The goal of the website and the larger project is to help facilitate a more equitable food system in which all people have access to fresh food produced without damage to human health or the environment. | 04/25/2008 - 18:48 |
| Sharp price hikes test commitment of organic consumers like never before | Organic food prices didn’t experience the same upward surge in 2007 as standard fare, but organic shoppers are now getting hit with dramatic increases reflecting skyrocketing feed and fuel costs on farms and throughout the supply chain. A New York Times business story finds organic farmers who are un-converting, organic food company leaders seeing historic volatility and shoppers’ loyalty to clean, wholesome food sorely tested by the mounting dollars they have to shell out for their organic fare | 04/18/2008 - 20:53 |
