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 »

Here are a few things that we know.

1) In its pioneering testing several years ago, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) identified up to 493 chemicals in Americans of all ages, including 287 industrial chemical pollutants found in the cord blood of 10 babies born in 2004.

So, from the time we are in the womb of our mother, our body is flooded with synthetic toxins.

2) Even though this EWG data was collected a decade ago, not much has changed since then, in terms of our exposure to chemicals. Read more »

Yesterday afternoon I got an email from my friends at the Pesticide Action Network with the best piece of GMO-labeling news yet – Congress in the state of Vermont passed the very first GMO-labeling bill with no strings attached!

If you’re wondering why I used the words “with no strings attached”, there is a specific reason.

This is because Maine and Connecticut previously passed their own GMO-labeling bills but each of those had trigger clauses. So, they won’t go into effect unless other neighboring states pass their own laws as well. Read more »

Very recently, a piece of dangerous legislation was introduced into Congress that would deny your right to know if food is genetically-engineered or not.

Dubbed the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act”, this bill was co-sponsored by U.S. Representatives Mike Pompeo, a Republican from Kansas, and G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat from North Carolina.

Unfortunately, there is nothing “Safe” or “Accurate” about this deceptive bill, and organic advocates are correctly calling it the “Deny Americans the Right-to-Know Act (DARK Act)”.

This shameful piece of legislation would: Read more »

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED AS OF 5/1/14.

The EPA has announced a proposal to allow 2,4-D to be sprayed on genetically-engineered corn and soy crops. Please read below and take action.

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If you are under the illusion that our government will take the necessary steps to protect the health of its citizens, think again.

Not only did a Harvard professor recently publish a report saying that the FDA suffers from “institutional corruption” and that “meeting the needs of the drug companies has taken priority over meeting the needs of patients”, but now we have more tangible proof of government agencies putting corporate profits ahead of the well-being of the American people. Read more »

As we head into 2014, there are several stories that I’ll be keeping a close eye on, all of which could have a monumental impact on the organic food industry.

While there easily could have been a lot more, here are My Top 5 Organic Food News Stories for 2014.

SINGLE INGREDIENT LABELING OF GMOs

Over the last few months, the rumors about single ingredient labeling of GMOs have really been heating up.

First off, what is “single ingredient labeling of GMOs”?

Single ingredient labeling of GMOs means that any food where there is only one ingredient – apples, corn, papayas, etc. It is just that one piece of food, nothing else. Read more »

If you’re a citizen of the U.S., you know that apple pie, baseball, and July 4th day parades are just a few examples of classic Americana.

But if a biotechnology company gets its way, one of these iconic symbols will lose its purity forever and could put the health of our children at risk.

A Canadian company is close to receiving USDA approval for a genetically-engineered (GE) apple. And the most scary part about this GE-apple is that it doesn’t turn brown when sliced open, a normal part of the oxidation process. Read more »