Organic Industry News

Doctor John and Merrill Clark were true heroes in the early years of the commercialization of the organic farming movement. They were both dedicated practitioners, willing to share their knowledge widely. And as corporate agribusinesses started wielding influence on...

The late Hakan Bahçeci, who has been incriminated in a fraudulent scheme involving the organic industry A Turkish businessman and his associates orchestrated an elaborate scheme to sell fraudulent organic grain in the US market through a web of companies, leading to...

The OrganicEye View: Years ago, major papers in farm states like Wisconsin used to have a full-time “farm reporter.” I first met Rick Barrett decades ago when he was the agriculture reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison and I was a lobbyist for the...

Listen to the full episode here: https://news.wosu.org/show/all-sides-with-ann-fisher/2023-02-09/cracking-down-on-fraud-in-the-organic-food-industry The United States Department of Agriculture has announced new regulations for organic products in an effort to address...

The OrganicEye View: The motto of the Washington Post is, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Unlike all the trade media coverage I have seen to date—which included nothing but cheerleading by other NGOs and the lobbyists at the Organic Trade Association (OTA)—this...

Episode 196- Mark Kastel: Who Owns the Organic Label Now with almost 200 episodes and over 1 million downloads, the Thriving Farmer Podcast is designed to help farmers thrive in business and life. Learn the latest tricks and strategies of successful farmers,...

Instead of being concerned with enforcing the letter and spirit of the law, and creating a level competitive playing field for all organic farmers, the USDA is willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of our tax money in an effort to create more farming serfs...

By Pete Hardin, Publisher of The Milkweed Why should U.S. taxpayer dollars bankroll research that seeks to boost the fortunes of the so-called, “lab-cultured meat” industry?  Jeepers creepers … firms attempting to develop and market “lab-cultured meat” have attracted...

OrganicEye Continues to Advocate for Testing of All Imports According to the USDA, everything certified by an outfit accredited by the National Organic Program is organic.  Until it isn’t. For years I banged on the NOP to crack down on fraudulent imports of grain from...

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) announced the appointment, on March 29, 2022, of Tom Chapman as the new Chief Executive Officer of the trade-lobby group based in Washington DC. Mr. Chapman was appointed by USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack to serve a five-year term on...

To the editor (of the New York Times): Kim Severson’s excellent article on lab cultured “meat” leaves a few questions unanswered. With an investment juggernaut of billions of dollars’ worth of private capital pouring into this nascent “food” category, why should USDA...

I’m really blessed to be able to live and work in an agrarian community in Southwest Wisconsin. By one estimate, it is thought that Vernon County has more organic farmers than any other county in the country. I’m a member of Vernon Electric Co-op and my telephone...

COMMENTARY BY ELIOT COLEMAN The interest in using soil-less hydroponic systems to grow food is an example of what Teddy Goldsmith decried in his book The Way (1992) as “the methodical substitution of the technosphere or surrogate world for the ecosphere or real...

COMMENTARY Article originally published by John Roulac at Medium Two hundred years ago, before the Industrial Revolution, the rivers across North America ran clear and blue. Rivers from the mighty Mississippi to the Columbia flowed wild and clean into the sea. In the...

Beyond Pesticides and Friends of the Earth Release Thorough Toxicology Analysis for Commercially Available Herbicide Products; Advocates for More Organic Options WASHINGTON, DC— Beyond Pesticides and Friends of the Earth (FOE) collaborated to analyze herbicide...

Article reprinted with permission from Organic Insider. To learn more and subscribe, click here. When we buy an organic product, we are trusting that the many people who have touched this item -- the farmer, shipper, co-packer, distributor and retailer -- have all...

I enjoyed this New York Times narrative. It's a good story consistent with what I've heard from many other farmers. Those supplying restaurants had to turn on a dime. If they were not in a position to do so they were economically injured. I know that many CSAs, after...

Beyond Pesticides Sues Major Cheese Maker Article originally published by: beyondpesticides.org WASHINGTON, DC, January 25, 2021—As the world moves toward another pandemic associated with antibiotic resistance, Beyond Pesticides today sued Sargento Foods, Inc. for...

Use CBD products? OrganicEye’s Mark Kastel opines on the importance of choosing organic and avoiding fraudulent products. Listen to Mark's take here: Let's Talk Hemp.

There is real merit, for our family members, eating whole organic food. And I mean all of our family (including pets). Maybe the best option is doing your own cooking for them. But certainly seeking out the few certified organic brands is the next best option and will...

Article Orignally published by: https://beyondpesticides.org (Beyond Pesticides, May 28, 2020) Exposure to agricultural and industrial pesticides, solvents (thinners), electromagnetic fields, and heavy metals predispose humans to amyotrophic lateral...

Being all sequestered at home now, here is an interesting story on home technology and a bit of nice ink for OrganicEye and Beyond Pesticides in Wisconsin’s largest-circulation newspaper (the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). The reporter is a long time business and agricultural journalist who I’ve worked with for at least a quarter-century (now being furloughed by Gannett one week per month—newspapers, that were already struggling, are in crisis because of an instant drop and ad revenue as a result of so many businesses beings shuttered).

Article Orignally published by: https://beyondpesticides.org Scientists from Imperial College London have just published their recent research on impacts of pesticides on larval bumblebees exposed through neonicotinoid-contaminated food sources. Many...

Original article: https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2020/02/farmer-sues-bayer-monsanto-for-crop-damage-caused-by-the-insecticide-dicamba/ (Beyond Pesticides, February 6, 2020) Bill Bader, a Missouri peach farmer, is taking on agrichemical giants for damages...

Organic produce growers Swanton Berry Farm, Full Belly Farm, and Jacobs Farm del Cabo among plaintiffs Article Orignally published by: https://sustainablefoodnews.com/ Several organic food companies and organic certifiers on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S....

When we shift our diet to organic, besides for protecting our own health, and that of the overall planet, not to mention protecting the people who produce our food from occupational exposure to toxic chemicals, we are shielding the magical critters we share this...

Original article https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2020/01/rate-of-male-breast-cancer-on-the-rise-in-scotland-endocrine-disrupting-chemicals-suspected/ (Beyond Pesticides, January 29, 2020) A study of male breast cancer (MBC) in Scotland reports an alarming,...

Marc Eisen is a gifted journalist who really knows Wisconsin, agriculture, and organics. He was the longtime editor of Madison's urban weekly, the Isthmus. In this new age of journalism he has found an authoritative home online with the Wisconsin Examiner. Amidst the...

Although my office is officially in Washington, and I will visit soon, for the third time, since we launched OrganicEye, I live in the rugged, un-glaciated Driftless Region on the West Coast of Wisconsin. My county, thought to have more organic farmers than any county...

(from Beyond Pesticides, January 17, 2020) In Brussels, the European Commission (EC) has just decided not to renew approval of the neonicotinoid pesticide thiacloprid, citing both environmental and health concerns related to use of and exposure to the pesticide. The...

Mark Kastel appears live on the Heart of Wellness show, hosted by husband-and-wife chiropractors, to take a deep dive, through free-association, looking at the choices we make in our diets and the impact on immediate and long-term health and well-being....

When the Organic Foods Production Act was passed by Congress (1990), and the oversight of the organic movement was handed to USDA, there were no (zero) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations producing organic livestock products (milk, meat, and eggs). Today, they are...

(Beyond Pesticides, October 24, 2019) Fish and fruit are undoubtedly healthy foods, but modern-day contamination is leading scientists to caution pregnant mothers and young children to stick within current dietary guidelines, or switch to organic, in order to avoid...

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It's great to see the largest newspaper in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, do this excellent investigative story "outing" the fatcats that have personally profited by squeezing money out of the dwindling milk checks of family farmers around the country. It...

Chemical industry giant Monsanto used military-style surveillance and response tactics to target critics, newly released documents reveal. Disclosed as a result of ongoing court battles regarding the health impacts of the weed killer Roundup, internal...

The primary reasons people shift to purchasing organic dairy products, often a gateway food as children age-out of breast-feeding or formula, are concerns about human health (principally agrichemical, drug residues and genetically engineered bovine growth hormone...

When I started doing political work on behalf of farmers, in the mid-1980s there were about 45,000 independent dairies, and Wisconsin alone, averaging about 45 cows (family farms). Today that number has dropped to about 7600 and is in freefall.

According to Tom Willey, one of the intellectually deepest farmers I know, and am proud to call friend, Driscoll’s is paying its Mexican workers $12 a day (per day, not per hour).

New Food Economy continues to offer excellent electronic journalism for the food movement. In this case spotlighting an emerging problem that can contaminate your pure and nutritionally dense organic food. One of the member-owned food cooperatives I belong to, here in...