The Guardian reports that Dow Chemical has inserted itself and its pesticide 1, 3-D into California's strawberry crop big time, with potential dangerous impacts for field workers and others.
(In 2002, Dept of Pesticide Regulations director Paul) "Helliker dismantled the strict oversight designed se…
According to the Guardian, "Air pollution in India has become so severe that yields of crops are being cut by almost half, scientists have found.
Researchers analysed yields for wheat and rice alongside pollution data, and concluded significant decreases in yield could be attributed to two air pol…
The National Center for Food Production and Defense is in Minneapolis-St. Paul, at the University of Minnesota. Ever heard of it? It comes under the vast, well-funded umbrella that is Homeland Security.
They're holding a webinar tomorrow on "cargo theft" of foodstuffs. They hosted a Food Defense …
According to a piece in the Daily Mail, "A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts who have orbited earth more than 2,700 times have touched down on stable ground to a rapturous welcoming party - and watermelons.
Former station commander Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg A…
According to a report on NPR, "...would you believe that quinoa is now growing in a remote, mountainous part of Central Asia that British explorers called the "Roof of the World?
Indeed, it has landed in Tajikistan and Kyrgystan, thanks to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, which has …
According to a piece in the Washington Post, "... across California’s vital agricultural belt, nervousness over the state’s epic drought has given way to alarm. Streams and lakes have long since shriveled up in many parts of the state, and now the aquifers — always a backup source during the re…
The United States is losing 1.7 billion tons of topsoil each year as a result of today's damaging agricultural practices, so The Land Institute, based in Salina, Kansas, is rooting for the development of perennial plant varieties from grains, legumes and vegetables.
Such plants are deeply rooted,…
According to Reuters, a study of 260 people revealed that eating fish made for a healthier brain.
"Brain scans showed that people over age 65 who regularly ate fish had 14 percent more gray matter in brain regions associated with memory and 4 percent more in areas devoted to cognition than people w…
You may not want to shell out $500,000 for a 65-year old bottle of ketchup, but what if it stands 170 feet high? This classic piece of roadside Americana is for sale. It promoted Brooks Old Original Rich and Tangy Catsup, produced nearby in Collinsville, Illinois, until the 1960’s, a product now …
Rejecting foreign aid, the people of the "breadbasket" area of Somalia apparently are benefitting from canals built by an Al Qaeda-linked group.
Via Al Jazeera English: "In a seven-hectare maize farm on the outskirts of this riverside town, Hussein Mohamed Ali, 66, is still in an ecstatic mood afte…
The WaPo's Adrian Higgins meets the power behind a fine damn seed catalog: "The seed business is a $3 billion-a-year global industry. Only a fraction of that is designed for the needs and desires of the home gardener. Each year in this country, almost 100 million acres are planted in field corn an…
Via FoodSafetyNews: "Food is a big part of the current political upheaval in Ukraine. As the world’s third-largest wheat exporter, the news from Kiev has already roiled the Chicago Board of Trade, and Russian threats to block imports from Ukraine are ratcheting up tensions. Much more in the backgrou…
Coffee powers Vietnam's economy, and its production in small plots may have pulled millions out of poverty, according to this report from BBCNews.
"How did its market share jump from 0.1% to 20% in just 30 years, and how has this rapid change affected the country?
Coffee production…" grew by 20%-…
( Photo of a micro-vineyard in France.)
Via the Guardian:
"...what if making your own wine conjured up images, instead, of a valley in Southern Europe, snow-topped mountains in the distance, olive and almond groves climbing up the hillsides and an abandoned, 100-year-old vineyard, that you'd bou…
"Gains in food costs around the world have slowed as record harvests from India to the U.S. expanded supply and sent corn, soybeans, wheat, sugar and coffee into bear markets."
So in Vietnam, the price of pork is stable, according to this piece from Bloomberg News.
Climate-change refugees from the South Pacific Carteret Islands hope their move to Bougainville Island, 80 km away, will result in new cacao production from which they will benefit.
The Carteret Islands have lost most of their gardening plots due to rising seas.
Read more from The Guardian.
Washington State voters apparently have narrowly rejected a bill that would have required labeling of some GMO food products.
Corporate food sources outspent those in favor …
We know there are good people toiling away worldwide so that fewer people will go hungry, and we salute them! But WFD just never has seemed to grab much attention. Why?
Then there's the Food Sovereignty Prize, focused on those who work locally, from the ground up, against the invasion of " Big Food…
It's called "super grass," and switching to it may reduce levels of nitrous oxide.
According to The Guardian, "Nitrous oxide – largely from livestock production – makes up 38% of agriculture emissions, but this share could be substantially reduced, they say. "On a conservative estimate, we assume…
According to a story by AP, corn and soybean growers are in need of a "better herbicide," as weeds grow peskier. Dow Chemical thinks it has the answer.