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Washington - -- Obama administration officials Wednesday outlined a broad array of efforts to elevate organic and local farming to a prominence never seen before at the sprawling U.S. Department of Agriculture. The shift is raising eyebrows among conventional growers and promising federal support to a food movement that began in Northern California and was considered heretical only a few years ago. "Guys, this is your window - use it," USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan told organic farmers, processors and retailers at a conference Wednesday in Washington that was sponsored by Santa Cruz's Organic Farming Research Foundation and the Organic...

GUATEMALA CITY — Some 450,000 pounds of organic coffee sit in a warehouse here, stacked neatly in 132-pound bags. It's some of the world's best coffee, but Gerardo De Leon can't sell it. "This is very high quality and it's organic. But ... the roasters don't want to pay extra these days," says the manager of FEDECOCAGUA, Guatemala's largest growers' cooperative, which represents 20,000 farmers. De Leon is asking $2 per pound for the unroasted coffee, about 50 cents more than the going price. But he says he'll soon have to sell it as conventionally grown coffee, which sells for...

A meteorite that hit the town of Murchison, Australia, hasn't quit giving up its secrets. The Murchison meteorite is one of the most studied space rocks because many pieces were recovered after it was seen breaking up as it fell through the atmosphere in 1969. Approximately 100 kg of the carbonaceous chondrite was recovered. Carbonaceous chondrites are extremely important to scientists as they were formed from material that existed in the solar system's planet-forming disk of gas and dust. They are, quite literally, time capsules holding onto a 4 billion year old record of the birth of our solar system....

According to Gunny G Online: “This astounding control will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms but into the forced purchase of industry’s products.” HR 2749 creates severe criminal and civil penalties, including prison terms of up to 10 years and/or fines of up to $100,000 for each violation. Does it include judicial review, Congressional oversight, a defined and limited set of penalties and punishments for a...

When I first started writing my upcoming book Organic Manifesto a year ago, I fully expected to have lots of information about how organic foods are healthier for you because they are more nutritious. The more research I did, the more I realized that nutrition is the least of our worries. Aside from the fact that the nutritional content of just about ALL of our food has declined over the past 50 years, we are, as a rule, overfed. And good nutrition is available from many sources in our diet. So I wasn’t surprised in the least when a report...

Shoppers face an array of choices on fruit but little guidance on which type to pick. Expensive organic? Pricey farmers' market? Cheap ones from the grocery store? Cost is certainly important. But there are essential numbers that go beyond the price tag. Which contain the highest levels of pesticides?

You can stop wasting your hard earned money at Democrat Party HQ...uh I mean Whole Paychecks...whoops Whole Foods Market. The following was reported in the Investor's Business Daily: "Organic food is no healthier than ordinary food, a large U.K. study found. Despite a small number of differences in nutrition between organic and conventionally produce food, no evidence of any extra health health benefit was found, London researchers said. The result was the same for studies of meat, dairy, and eggs." IBD 7/30/09 Seems that slapping an organic sticker on something these days is a license to steal. Thankfully I never...

Britain’s first ever green superstore is languishing ever deeper in the red after losing nearly £36million as the recession takes a bite out of organic food sales. The U.S. owners of Whole Foods Market had hoped to open 40 more emporiums across the UK after beginning trading in London in 2007. But, two years on, they have failed to leave the capital after their flagship British shop in up-market Kensington lost an astonishing £35.9million last year.

Farming has always been messy and painful, and bloody and dirty. It still is. This is something the critics of industrial farming never seem to understand. I’m dozing, as I often do on airplanes, but the guy behind me has been broadcasting nonstop for nearly three hours. I finally admit defeat and start some serious eavesdropping. He’s talking about food, damning farming, particularly livestock farming, compensating for his lack of knowledge with volume. I’m so tired of people who wouldn’t visit a doctor who used a stethoscope instead of an MRI demanding that farmers like me use 1930s technology to...

LONDON (Reuters) - Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global organic market worth an estimated $48 billion in 2007. A systematic review of 162 scientific papers published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, however, found there was no significant difference. "A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs,...

Systematic review of literature over 50 years finds no evidence for superior nutritional content of organic produceThere is no evidence that organically produced foods are nutritionally superior to conventionally produced foodstuffs, according to a study published today in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Consumers appear willing to pay higher prices for organic foods based on their perceived health and nutrition benefits, and the global organic food market was estimated in 2007 to be worth £29 billion (£2 billion in the UK alone). Some previous reviews have concluded that organically produced food has a superior nutrient composition to conventional food,...

   Michelle signals there is heavy metal in the soil. Tragic news for Sasha, Malia and crunchy gourmets everywhere:It was meant to be a show case for healthy living, with the first lady, Michelle Obama, personally putting hand to pitch fork in a crowd of school children to dig up the first White House vegetable garden in more than 50 years. Instead, an embarrassed White House admitted today that the plot — whose lettuce, herbs and other produce have been consumed by the first family, visiting dignitaries, local school children and a women's homeless shelter — had tested positive...

New poll: Do you buy organic food? A Daily Poll.Someone in yesterday's poll suggested that organic food be in a question. Here it is!

Organic farmers in Britain are feeling the effects of the economic downturn, as cash-strapped customers decide that food grown without pesticide is a luxury. The two largest groups certifying organic food said about eight farmers are dropping out of the program each month, The Guardian reported. The National Farmers Union said a number of others are forced to continue producing organic food because they have received subsidies they would have to repay if they leave within five years. The Soil Association, which certifies about 80 percent of Britain's organic produce, reported this week that sales dropped in 2008. The downturn...

The national outbreak of salmonella in products with peanuts has been particularly unsettling for shoppers []who think organic food is safer. The plants in Texas and Georgia that were sending out contaminated peanut butter and ground peanut products had something else besides rodent infestation, mold and bird droppings. They also had federal organic certification. “Why is organic peanut butter better than Jif?” said Ms. Devlin-Sample, a nurse practitioner from Pelham, N.Y. “I have no idea. If we’re getting salmonella from peanut butter, all bets are off.” Although the rules governing organic food require health inspections and pest-management plans, organic certification...

It sounds almost too good to be true: add a few bugs to food scraps and waste water to generate clean hydrogen fuel. But over the past few years, researchers have been gradually working toward this promising scheme for producing hydrogen.Now, with the help of an unassuming stainless-steel brush, microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) have taken another step forward. The steel brush can be used to replace the expensive platinum normally employed in the electrolysis cell's cathode, slashing costs by more than 80 percent.Hydrogen is an appealing, environmentally friendly fuel because burning it creates only water as a waste product. MECs...

Another case or Rat Lungworm disease has been diagnosed in the Kapoho-Kalapana area of Puna and more unreported cases have been revealed. The outbreak has been tied to organic farming.

When it comes to sizing up the purity of the honey you buy, you're pretty much on your own. You may be paying more for honey labeled "certified organic" or feel reassured by the "USDA Grade A" seal, but the truth is, there are few federal standards for honey, no government certification and no consequences for making false claims. For American-made honey, the "organic" boast, experts say, is highly suspect. Beekeepers may be doing their part, but honeybees have a foraging range of several miles, exposing them to pesticides, fertilizers and pollutants on their way back to the hive. And...

Mood moosic to get cows going   Calm ... Graham VallisSOUTH WEST NEWS SERVICE   By JOHN COLES Published: 20 Sep 2008     FARMERS are being encouraged to MOO at their cows — to boost milk production. It came after a dairy farmer reported getting six times more milk by mimicking his herd’s sound. Graham Vallis, 48, does meditation-style mooing for five minutes before milking — and said his cows fall into a relaxed state. Now the Federation of Organic Milk Groups is urging its 450 members to do the same. Graham, of Bradninch, Devon, said: “I often...

It's no surprise that a lot of Americans watch what they eat. Counting calories, nutrients and fat grams is practically a national pastime. But what happens when people go over the line, and the pursuit of healthy eating actually becomes unhealthy? For Johnny Righini, a 26-year-old from California, eating a nutritious lunch is a painstaking ritual. "Sometimes it takes days to prepare meals, because I have to sprout things, ferment things," he said. "I am constantly thinking about what I am gonna have for my next meal." Charlotte Andersen, a 29-year-old Minnesota mother of three, says she went through the...