Organic News

OMRI hits 7,500 products

OMRI (the Organic Materials Review Institute) has passed a new milestone, reaching 7,500 OMRI Listed® products reviewed and verified for organic use. Since its founding in 1997, the nonprofit input review organization has boasted steady growth to the OMRI Products List©, as illustrated by the graph above. It is a point of organizational pride that alongside […]

Organic associations name new leaders

Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) recently named a new director, Lauren Langworthy, while the Organic Farming Association hired a new policy director, Patty Lovera. Langworthy, who is a sheep and cattle farmer, has been promoted to executive director of MOSES, the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service that hosts the U.S.’s largest organic […]

Integrating cattle into crop rotations doesn’t pose food safety risks, study finds

An Iowa State University study found that rotating organic crops and livestock on the same land was effective at keeping pathogens out of meat—compared to commercial farming practices, this method was as safe or safer. No traces of common strains of E. coli or salmonella were found and pathogens detected in feed, hide, and fecal […]

USDA awards $800,000 to help farmers transition to organic

A Boulder-based ag innovator received an $817,000 federal grant to support a fund providing long-term loans to aspiring organic farmers. The money can be repaid after the organic venture becomes profitable, and any remaining debt left after the tenth year is forgiven. The Vermilion Sea Institute received this USDA Conservation Innovation Grant for its MAD […]

Organic crop practices improve long-term soil health

Prior organic farming practices and plantings can have lasting outcomes for future soil health, weeds and crop yields, according to Cornell research published Nov. 13 in the journal Agricultural Systems. The study also breaks down how specific components of soil health—such as the abundance and activity of soil animals and soil stability—affect crop productivity. “With growing […]