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Raj Patel: Mozambique’s Food Riots Are the True Face of Global Warming AMY GOODMAN: The Food and Agriculture Organization, the FAO, has called for an emergency meeting later this month 6ttto discuss global food security. But on Tuesday, an official with the agency blamed the Mozambique riots on "market turbulence," not a food crisis. Well, […]

Have you been experiencing the prescense of this nasty chemical herbicide in your compost? In Washington, it is popping up in composted manure in Whatcom County, and other parts of the state, as reported in the Bellingham Herald. It is found in Milestone, made by Dow, and was approved for use in the U.S. in […]

MILK NOT JAILS is a consumer campaign to mobilize NY residents to support the dairy industry and the long-term sustainability of the rural economy.  It is a political campaign to advocate for criminal justice and agricultural policy reform that will bring positive economic growth.  MILK NOT JAILS insists that bad criminal justice policy should not […]

MIT Global Challenge: Agricultural Processing Problem Around the world, 550 million smallholder farmers lack access to mechanized agricultural technology. Many important food staples like maize (corn) and grains (e.g., rice or whet) are harvested and processed by hand, which is both labor intensive and time consuming. Processing agriculture manually can also lead to injuries or […]

Appalachia Rising is a mass mobilization in Washington, DC, September25-27, 2010, calling for an end to the devastating practice ofmountaintop removal mining. Mountaintop removal has already destroyedover 500 of the world's oldest mountains and more than 2,000 miles ofstreams, and has contaminated our nation's waters. Together, we willbring Appalachia's cry to our nation's capital: We […]

GATES FOUNDATION INVESTS IN MONSANTO Both will profit at expense of small-scale African farmers Seattle, WA – Farmers and civil society organizations around the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agribusiness titan Monsanto. Last week, a financial website published the Gates Foundation’s investment […]

a new campaign that  aims to educate people about the scale of food waste in the UK, and to emphasise the fact that reducing this waste is the joint responsibility of people and companies. http://www.thisisrubbish.org.uk/ * Less than 40% of UK food waste is produced by households. * We are solutions driven, and offer community […]

via the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's Blog.  Also check out a response they posted from a farmer. Vilsack: Farm Bill Should Emphasize Beginning Farmers A funny thing happened on the way to a Senate Agriculture Committee farm bill hearing to review progress on implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill’s commodity, crop insurance, and disaster assistance […]

so fill in your thoughts. organic farming research foundation is leader of the pack on farm bill reform along with sustainable ag. coalition, family farm coalition, organic coalition, land stewardship and iatp. So get on those mailing lists if you aren't already.  Negotiations on the 2012 Farm Bill will begin in the next several months. This […]

Writer and wannabe farmer Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is living in New Orleans for a while, partly because she’d intended to spend most of 2010 traveling in Haiti to start research on her second book. With that project postponed but her mind and heart very much on Haiti, Sharifa is organizing fundraisers for two grassroots organizations working to support agriculture & ecology as […]

our friend Noah clued us in to this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/24/colbert-immigrant-farm-wo_n_624875.html In a tongue-in-cheek call for immigration reform, farm workers are teaming up with comedian Stephen Colbert to challenge unemployed Americans: Come on, take our jobs. ... All applicants need to do is fill out an online form under the banner "I want to be a farm […]

Feds pledge "future farmers'" summit June 1, 2010 from country-guide.ca The federal government plans to convene a meeting this fall of young and beginning farmers with representatives from the ag industry and Ottawa, toward what's expected to be a "redesign" of policy tools meant for renewal in the ag sector. Jean-Pierre Blackburn, the federal minister […]

The Breaking Through Concrete Tour (BTC Tour) will document the American urban farm movement. Despite hundreds of farm and garden projects taking hold in major cities, the urban farm remains a misunderstood and overlooked part of our food production system. We will bring to life the diverse projects that are, in distinct ways, transforming our […]

Perhaps you've heard of this new initiative of the USDA.  Apparently some senators are not very happy about it, notably John McCain, Saxby Chamblis and Pat Roberts. Click HERE download and read a PDF of their letter to Secretary Vilsack.  Here's an excerpt: "unfortunately this spending doesn't appear geared toward conventional farmers who produce the […]

Thanks to Ezekiel for sharing about sustainable ag work in Guatemala. Semilla Nueva (New Seed) works with rural agricultural communities to introduce sustainable growing techniques.  We're a young bunch of Americans and Guatemalans fighting the good fight for good food together. Check out the blog!

Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds Tuesday 18 May 2010, by Beverly Bell "A new earthquake" is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them […]

National Organic Action Plan Presented to USDA On April 16, Liana Hoodes and Michael Sligh were at the USDA Organic Working Group to present the National Organic Action Plan to representatives of all USDA agencies. USDA agencies have been tasked with developing their own organic agendas for their agencies, and the USDA as a whole. […]

here is the thinking of our loyal reform team: and here is where you can have your say on the farmbill directly. more soon. House Ag Committee Accepting 2012 Farm Bill Comments through June 14: farm bill feedback form

we've been hearing from more and more young farmers in australia-- they are getting organized over there too.. and hot on the email. Farmers' voice needs to be loud and proud to bridge the city-country divide DEBORAH BAIN, May 4, 2010 The urban Australian population is removed both physically and emotionally from the farming sector. […]

Taking place on  May 20: Farmworkers’ Rights & Preserving Small Farms: A Conversation about the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act The Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act is a New York State bill that was intended to provide fair labor protections to farmworkers who were excluded from the federal fair labor laws enacted in 1939. The […]

From the Working Lands Alliance: contact your HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE today and urge them to vote today in support of HB5419 as amended by LCO 4811, and to co-sponsor the bill.     This is a great bill to keep local food and farms growing in CT, call or email your House Rep today! Find my legislator   […]

NSAC is working with the Rural Coalition, National Family Farm Coalition and several other groups to ensure that the costs of paying for improvements to child nutrition programs and for the Pigford settlement do not come at the expense of hard-won gains to USDA conservation programs.  We have written the letter below to call attention […]

by Ewen MacAskill. guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 April 2010 Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, donated $30m (£19.5m) to a new fund to help poor farmers today in an effort to push wealthy countries into fulfilling promises to stump up billions in aid. The Gates Foundation has focused primarily on health issues but sees aid for […]

Having brought the agricultural literacy of the average american up at least six notches with his articles and books: with elegant simplicity and  succint summings up , michael pollan has now got the awkward task of addresssing the undeniable complexity of agriculture. It must be a bit maddening for him, because every field is different, […]

Dear friends, The food safety bill (S 510) was supposed to go to the full Senate next week, but we were told today that the timing is being pushed back a week or two because the Senate will instead be debating finance reform.  The following is the food safety update that NSAC put out yesterday […]

  People who hear the phrase “Mountaintop Removal” have a common response:  “Mountaintop Removal? How is that possible?” And then you ask if they mean by that question – how is it physically possible to do such a strange thing?  Or do they mean – how does it ever occur to anyone, how is it […]

We'll start posting more about new zealand milk politics as well.  Much to be learned by example. Modern Milk by Jonathan Shaw published in Harvard Magazine The milk we drink today may not be nature’s perfect food,” says Ganmaa Davaasambuu, a Mongolian physician who is a fellow this year at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced […]

start getting educated about the regulatory surf. If we face the wave before its cresting we can duck it. Rescue Local/Organic Farming in the Food Safety Bill!   Next week, as early as Tuesday, April 13, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a sweeping overhaul of federal food safety law – S. 510.  […]

March 4, 2010 Lawfirm Seeger Weiss brought home another victory against giant agro-business Premium Standard Farms, when a Missouri jury awarded $11.05 million to the 15 neighboring owners of small farms today. Co-founder Stephen A. Weiss has led the charge against these giant factory farms, whose careless and illegal disposal of waste products degrades the […]

look at the solidarity and celebration of the gathering of the herders+ nomads Jonathan Watts, from the guardian.co.uk. Thursday 25 February 2010. The United Nations has launched a $4m dollar carcass-clearing appeal for Mongolia as millions of camels, goats, yaks and horses perish across the steppe from a climate double whammy of summer drought and winter […]

Save the date: GMO Free Europe 2010, Brussels, 16-18 September 2010 6th European Conference of GMO-Free Regions in Brussels and Ghent - Call for Participation   2010 will be a decisive year for the future of GMOs in Europe. New approvals for the cultivation of GMOs and new legislative proposals by the European Commission are […]

an amazing idea [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH2I2ZKD_98&feature=related]

the start of something! on monday Washington Governor Chris Gregoire signed SB-6349, which  establishes a two-year farm intern pilot program in San Juan and Skagit  Counties. The  full text is available here: http://tinyurl.com/SB6349 .

hear from hugh fearningly whittingstall about Britain's "Chicken Out!" campaign-- an appeal for free range poultry. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Vbf1ykXsY]

they're young, they're broke, and they pay for organic salmon with government subsidies. got a problem with that? By Jennifer Bleyer Pinched is an ongoing series about life during a recession. In the John Waters-esque sector of northwest Baltimore -- equal parts kitschy, sketchy, artsy and weird -- Gerry Mak and Sarah Magida sauntered through […]

on Nestle's actions in the rainforests of Indonesia.  You can download the full report HERE. Nestlé uses palm oil to make a wide array of its products including Power Bar, Coffee Mate, Nestle Crunch Crisp, and Maggi Soup mixes. In the last three years, Nestlé’s use of palm oil has nearly doubled. A growing demand […]

 Monday, NO Farms, NO Food! came in the top 10 out of a field of 2,500+ ideas on Change.org: No Farm No Food: Save the Land that Sustains Us. the state budget in the state of New York is $134B, and farming receives a scant .4 of 1%, about $100M of that.  and with proposed budget […]

A Food Chain Radio Release from METROFARM.COM The Federal Government has admitted to discriminating against black farmers and taxpayers must now pay $1,250,000,000 to make good. These reparations lead us to ask… Can a lender discriminate without discriminating? This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio hosts Carl Horowitz from the National Legal […]

today!  Greenhorns is going. More than ever before, we need your help to tell the Governor and state leaders why they have to invest in New York's farms, food and agricultural land. On March 15th we will deliver this message with a No Farms No Food Rally and Lobby Day at the Capitol in Albany.

some good news out of washington: Obama Keeps Two Factory Farm Promises - Will Hold "National Rural Summit" David Kirby, The Huffington Post March 14, 2010 The Obama Administration on Friday fulfilled two campaign pledges that affect factory farming in America: It agreed to hold a long-delayed National Rural Summit and, on the same day, […]