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News archives

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Wal-Mart Declares War on Organic Farmers
CORNUCOPIA, WISCONSIN: A report released today by The Cornucopia Institute, the nation's most aggressive organic farming watchdog, accuses Wal-Mart of cheapening the value of the organic label by sourcing products from industrial-scale factory farms and Third World countries, such as China. ... Continued...

Mini-Markets Connect Low-Income Residents and Farmers
Minneapolis—A new project to introduce small farmers markets to low-income communities successfully launched four markets and contributed hundreds of pounds of fresh produce to local food shelves this year, announced the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). “The amazing thing a... Continued...

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Major advances in renewable fuels technology seen
LANESBORO, Minn. -- Major advances in renewable fuels technology were outlined in a recent program at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning center near Lanesboro. They included a new fuel called butanol, made from various biomass materials, and cellulosic ethanol, which is produced from a number of... Continued...

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Nanotechnology Risks Unknown; Insufficient Attention Paid to Potential Dangers, Report Says
The United States is the world leader in nanotechnology -- the newly blossoming science of making incredibly small materials and devices -- but is not paying enough attention to the environmental, health and safety risks posed by nanoscale products, says a report released yesterday by the independen... Continued...

Monday, September 25, 2006

Coalition Calls on USDA to Revise Bird Flu Plan
Washington, DC – A broad coalition of stakeholder groups issued a statement today criticizing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan for responding to a U.S. outbreak of bird flu and called for revisions to adequately protect the public and poultry farmers. The coalition charged that the USDA do... Continued...

Ted Turner Says Biofuels Can Rescue Suspended Global Trade Talks
GENEVA -- CNN creator Ted Turner has a secret ingredient for rescuing suspended global trade talks - the renewable energy sources known as biofuels. Turner told a public forum at the World Trade Organization on Monday that biofuels - liquid fuels made from plants and trees, including biodiesel fo... Continued...

The Great Corn Rush
HERON LAKE, MINN. -- The gleaming $110 million ethanol plant is still rising over their cornfields, but locals say it's already the best thing to happen here in decades. Farmers and other area residents plunked down a minimum of $20,000 each to buy stock in the plant, and the electric co-op kicke... Continued...

Thursday, September 21, 2006

The National Corn Growers Association wants aid based on changes in annual revenue.
Washington, D.C. - The nation's corn growers are getting a cool reception to a proposal to overhaul the way that the government subsidizes farmers. The National Corn Growers Association is promoting a plan, developed by economists at Iowa State University, that would base subsidies on changes in ... Continued...

Dumb as We Wanna Be
São Paulo, Brazil -- I asked Dr. José Goldemberg, secretary for the environment for São Paulo State and a pioneer of Brazil’s ethanol industry, the obvious question: Is the fact that the U.S. has imposed a 54-cents-a-gallon tariff to prevent Americans from importing sugar ethanol from Brazil “just s... Continued...

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Minnesota farmers caught in middle of oil pipeline project
An oil pipeline slated for construction next year would help quench the state's thirst for petroleum, but critics say it would be at the expense of farmers who would shoulder the environmental risks. Stoking fears: the rupture this summer of a pipeline owned by the same firm -- Minnesota Pipe Line... Continued...

Monday, September 18, 2006

LA sues to force rural county to take its "organic fertilizer"
LOS ANGELES -- Green Acres is a farm where corn stalks grow twice as tall as men and wheat sprouts lush and green. Green Acres is also Los Angeles? outhouse. Every year, this city trucks ton after ton of sludgy human waste to be spread as "commercial grade fertilizer" on several thousand Central ... Continued...

Friday, September 15, 2006

The Energy Harvest
São Paulo, Brazil -- Any time that OPEC got a little too overzealous in pushing up oil prices back in the 1970’s, the legendary Saudi oil minister Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani was fond of telling his colleagues: Remember, the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. What he meant was that th... Continued...

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Puerto Rico agriculture considering sugarcane for ethanol
MAYAGUEZ -- Puerto Rico could again see wide fields of sugarcane if several proposals before the Agriculture Department are developed to produce rich syrup and ethanol as fuel from sugarcane. Agriculture Secretary José Orlando Fabre assured Wednesday that he is evaluating at least three projects... Continued...

Bill seeks increase in conservation, renewable energy
WASHINGTON - Rep. Ron Kind proposed legislation Wednesday aimed at increasing conservation and renewable energy in U.S. farm policy, hoping to get an early say in the debate over a new farm bill next year. It's a familiar role for Kind, D-Wis., who tried in 2001 to get $19 billion shifted from pl... Continued...

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

House group wants conservation, energy prioritized in farm bill
The first official piece of legislation on the 2007 farm bill will highlight energy and conversation programs as top priorities when it is introduced today by a partisan group of House members. Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and more than a dozen other House members, most of whom do not sit on the Agric... Continued...

The Defense Department takes a green approach, and Iowa companies are keen on increasing supplies.
Arlington, Va. — The military is going green. The Air Force uses a product made from corn starch in Iowa to remove paint from the B-2 bomber and other stealth aircraft. A soy-based coolant for electrical transformers is now being used in electrical transformers in Navy, Marine Corps and Air Fo... Continued...

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Farmer-owned Ethanol Plants Contribute More to Local Economies
Local ethanol plant ownership generates significantly more economic activity for the communities in which the plants are located than plants owned by absentee investors, according to a study released today by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). The study, “Economic Impacts on the Farm C... Continued...

Monday, September 11, 2006

One Thing to Do About Food: A Forum
Eric Schlosser Every year the fast-food chains, soda companies and processed-food manufacturers spend billions marketing their products. You see their ads all the time. They tend to feature a lot of attractive, happy, skinny people having fun. But you rarely see what's most important about t... Continued...

New Report: Putting the Pieces Together: Commercializing Cellulosic
Minneapolis, MN – A new report issued by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance urges the U.S. Department of Energy to change its piecemeal approach to commercializing ethanol from cellulose and develop a comprehensive strategy. "The future of American agriculture may depend on this," says David Mor... Continued...

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Brazil sets pace for alternative fuel use
BOGOTA - When you look at this hemisphere's addiction to oil, the two largest oil consumer countries, the United States and Brazil, stand out for their markedly different approaches to dealing with the issue. While Brazil is seeking to up its production, use and exports of alternative fuels such... Continued...