Organic News

Organic cotton seed varieties available in India for first time 

Good organic seeds for cotton in India were hard to find. Not anymore: over ten years of breeding resulted in success. Two new organic cotton varieties have recently been made available to India’s cotton farmers. These are the first ever cotton varieties of India bred under organic conditions. The varieties were developed through a decentralized […]

Illinois organic farmers file lawsuit against hog confinement

An Illinois organic farming couple, Randy and Crystal Clair, have joined one of two lawsuits filed by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency against Carroll Family Farms, LLC, which owns a 5,000-hog confinement called County Line Swine in northern Adams County. The lawsuits claim Carroll Family Farms is operating the hog confinement with improper methods that […]

Flame weeding: a sustainable, cost-effective approach for weed management in organic corn

Conventional corn and soy rotation farmers have relied on herbicides and GM seed varieties to kill weeds. Organic production uses soil tilling to achieve mastery over weeds—though that method hampers carbon sequestration. Is there an alternative to these practices? Sustainability has published a study introducing flame weeding as a suitable option. The report compared using […]

Minnesota farmer charged with fraudulently selling $46 million of conventional grain as organic

A Jeffers, Minnesota man has been indicted for defrauding grain purchasers by selling non-GMO grains falsely labeled as organic, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger. According to court documents, between 2014 and 2020, James Clayton Wolf, a certified organic farmer, engaged in a scheme to defraud grain purchasers by selling them non-GMO grains falsely represented […]

Rodale Institute receives $4.1 million in grants for organic research, farmer training, and new science center

The Rodale Institute recently received a $1 million donation from the GIANT Company to support organic research and farmer training and a $3 million grant from the state of Pennsylvania for a new state-of-the-art Science Center. GIANT Company’s funds came from the company’s Healing Our Planet campaign that invited consumers to round up the dollar […]