I don’t want to be an alarmist and make things out to be worse than they are, but we are truly on the precipice of organic disappearing as we know it.

Why?

The very dangerous H.R. 1599 (also known as the DARK Act – the Deny Americans the Right to Know Act) just passed a House subcommittee and is expected to go to the House floor for a vote any day now. Representative Collin Peterson (D-MN), ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, has said quite confidently that it will pass in the House and the only question is whether it passes in the Senate. Read more »

As it stands now, 64 countries around the world require GMOs to be labeled — but the U.S. does not.

Since the federal government refuses to change this policy, states have been taking matters into their own hands by either passing GMO-labeling laws (Vermont) or banning the cultivation of GMOs (Oregon, Hawaii).

Needless to say, this trend isn’t sitting well with any of the big GMO and chemical companies. Read more »

It seems like every day that passes, the USDA approves another very risky GMO crop, all to the benefit of biotech/chemical companies and to ZERO benefit for consumers.

This time, the USDA has approved a first-of-its-kind genetically-engineered (GE) apple that doesn’t turn brown after bruising or slicing.

The apple, developed by the company Okanagan Specialty Fruits, uses a relatively new form of genetic engineering called RNA interference, or gene silencing, which has raised numerous concerns from consumer groups, environmentalists, and the apple industry. Read more »

Just when you thought that GMOs, as we know them today, were bad enough, get ready for something potentially worse to deal with.

In a recent New York Times article, it was reported that biotech companies have discovered and exploited a loophole in government regulation that allows them to create a different breed of GMOs and market them to the public without needing approval from the USDA. Read more »

(My apologies that I am sending this to you so late, but I have had a crazy travel schedule to California and have spent an inordinate amount of time offline. Blog posts about my West Coast trip are coming soon, however.)

PUBLIC COMMENTS ARE DUE TODAY – DECEMBER 15TH

In response to recent widespread, and sometimes deadly, outbreaks of foodborne illness, Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) charging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with improving its oversight of the food industry.

Last year, the FDA released a draft of its new policy and an overwhelming number of our comments forced the agency to re-write the rules. This demonstrates that speaking up does have an impact!

The FDA has now released a new version of the rules, which addresses many of our concerns.

However, a number of pitfalls for farmers remain in the new draft, which will also impact consumers of local, organic food purchased at farmers markets, CSAs and co-op grocers.  For some small organic farmers, these rules have the potential to put them out of business. Read more »

UPDATE AS OF 10/9/14: TODAY, THE EPA OFFICIALLY APPROVED “AGENT ORANGE” CORN AND SOY CROPS.

UPDATE AS OF 9/17/14: TODAY, THE USDA OFFICIALLY APPROVED “AGENT ORANGE” CORN AND SOY CROPS.

THE CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY HAS ANNOUNCED THAT IT WILL TAKE LEGAL ACTION TO PREVENT COMMERCIALIZATION.  TO LEARN MORE, CLICK HERE.

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. used an incredibly lethal chemical called Agent Orange as part of its herbicidal warfare program.

It is estimated that 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children were born with birth defects as a result of spraying Agent Orange all over Vietnam. Read more »

Despite the fact that organic is more popular than ever and companies such as Walmart and Target are significantly boosting their offerings, one would think that support for organic in Washington, D.C. would be growing as well.

Sadly, that is not the case.

Not only is support for organic not growing, the Obama administration and his USDA are doing everything they can to weaken organic standards and dismantle the authority of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), an independent, 15-member advisory board which helps to oversee the industry and make important recommendations.

THE SUNSET RULE

One of the most important policies that we have in organic is something called The Sunset Rule.  What this means is the following. Read more »