New Farm

Organic farms were, on average, more profitable than the average of all farms in the U.S., according to results of the first-ever federal census of organic agriculture. A total of 14,540 organic farms had sales of $21.1 billion from more than 4 million acres of farm and rangeland.

An audit report faults the Bush-Clinton era organic program for failure to enforce rules and prosecute confirmed misdeeds. The internal USDA audit finds that under prior administrations, the USDA did an inadequate job of enforcing federal organic law. The new NOP leadership says it is hard at work, with new staff and determination, to address the past failures.

Maria Rodale has many jobs: Chairman, CEO, wife, mother, blogger and author. Her latest book, Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe, is a shocking look at our nation’s agricultural chemical dependency and how organic farming is essential for our future on this planet. She answers our questions about farmers, research, inspiration and why we all need to demand organic.

Guest writer Robyn O'Brien sits down with conventional farmers who lay out their issues with the seed industry so heavily influenced by Monsanto. She proposes commonsense ways improve seed access, incentivize non-GMO crop management and give organic farmers some equity in commodity crop production and insurance.

Farmers say consolidation in the industry means they're forced to buy more costly seeds, and have virtually no other seed to buy but that from Monsanto. With most of both corn and soybeans crops being from genetically modified seed, what will continuing escalation of seed costs—promised by Monsanto to Wall Street—eventually do to food prices?

A new discovery that leguminous plants fix nitrogen by controlling bacteria with protein signals suggests a natural way to add nutrients to soils. Improving nitrogen fixation in crops will reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer needed to improve growth.

In a comparison between different egg choices, organic eggs come out on top above caged, free-range (cage-free), free-run, hormone free, antibiotic free or Amish eggs. Organic hens are fed with organic feed that has no additives or GMOs, and live with access to the outdoors.

A genetically modified cotton produced by Monsanto is failing to control its target pest, the pink bollworm, in four of nine Indian states where the cotton is grown, the company said last week. India has taken a more cautionary approach to GMO crops recently.

When enough people “demand organic” food during their flights across North America, United Airlines listens. We look at what it took to connect ingredients from organic orchards, grain fields and pastures to the make healthy snacks now available on many flights.