Thanks to Peter Melchett for his provocative blog on why, across the EU, the government, farmers, food industry, and consumers are all pulling in the mostly same direction to grow the volume and quality of home-grown organic food. Lessons learned from the efforts of many individuals, companies, and organizations in the EU are worth heeding […]
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[Guest blog by Peter Melchett, the Policy Director of the Soil Association in the U.K.] In the UK, we have just had good news about the growth in organic sales in 2017. The Soil Association’s 2018 Organic Market Report reveals that our organic market is now worth £2.2 billion ($3.1 billion U.S. $), growing by 6% in 2017. […]
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The oldest running monthly magazine in the US and one of the staples of popular science highlighted the declining nutritional value of American produce in a 2011 blog post called “Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious?” Here at Hygeia we are a part of this discussion, having recently created a new Nutrient […]
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It is now official, the USDA has withdrawn the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP) rule, as of May 13, 2018. This action will close one chapter and begin the next in a long-running conflict withing the organic community, and between it and the USDA. The USDA is justifying its actions primarily by pointing to […]
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It is a badly kept secret in Washington, D.C. that the USDA , and the U.S. government as a whole, does more to slow the growth in organic farming than support it. There are several ways that the USDA, other government agencies, and the Congress bring about this unfortunate outcome. #1 Denial of Consumer Health […]
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When General Mills bought the beloved organic food company Annie’s Homegrown in 2014 for $820 million cash, many wondered what this would mean for the future of one of the organic food industry’s iconic brands. When the deal went down, Jeff Harmening, the Chief Operating Officer for General Mills, told the New York Times that […]
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What is driving the growth in organic apple production in WA state? First and foremost, consumer demand. Over the last five years or so, most of the fruit buyers for major supermarkets, food companies, restaurants, and exporters have been pushed by their customers to expand the diversity and quality of organic apple offerings. Since Washington […]
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My good friend Brian Baker joined Urs Niggli, Christian Andres, and Helga Willer of FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) in assessing the state of organic farming research around the world. Their paper is entitled “Building a global platform for organic farming research, innovation and technology transfer,” and was published August 16, 2017 in Organic […]
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National Geographic ran a June 15, 2017 story by Sarah Gibbens entitled “Renewable Energy Record Set in the U.S.” It’s opening paragraph reports the good news – “The U.S. set a new renewable energy milestone in March, in data released Wednesday. For the first time, wind and solar accounted for 10 percent of all electricity […]
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Guest Blog Note to Readers: In May 2017, a series of messages were posted on organic_ipm@googlegroups.com and the e-list for the Northeastern IPM Center (see the Join the Conversation link on the top right of this News and Information page). Fred Kirschenmann of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and the Leopold Center for Sustainable […]
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