The Organic & Non-GMO Report Newsletter

Clif Bar sets high bar for funding organic research at universities

For nearly 40 years, conventional agribusiness has steered research activities at ag universities, incentivizing development of new crop varieties through offers of royalties for resulting patents. That has left organic agricultural research dependent on meager USDA handouts—in 2019, $20 million out of the $2.9 billion research budget went to organic. As pesticides and synthetic fertilizers […]

USDA announces new rules to crack down on fraud

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced its “Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) Proposed Rule” to stop fraud in organic imports and domestic U.S. production. According to USDA, the SOE aims “to strengthen oversight and enforcement of the production, handling, and sale of organic agricultural products. The proposed amendments are intended to protect integrity in the […]

“Dirt therapy” led soldier to organic farming

Harvey farm goal: Feed every customer like they’re family By Alex Modesitt, Tribune-Star In the time between patrols and post, Matthew Harvey needed something to slow his mind, something to whisk him away from mountains of eastern Afghanistan and back to some sense of normalcy. If it wasn’t struggling to reconcile with the realities of […]

Gleaning: honored tradition revives to connect surplus food with hungry people

The gathering of harvest leftovers, once a protected right of the poor, is being resurrected in COVID-19 times. The pandemic has generated huge amounts of food waste, produce targeted for food service clients that farmers cannot sell. Hunger is rising with unemployment, while farms are hurting from lost markets. From New Jersey to Florida to […]

Will our small farms survive the pandemic?

Before COVID-19, the locavore, farm-to-table movement was thriving. But without restaurant markets, forced into retail sales, many small farmers are in trouble. A survey by Blue Hill Farms’ chef Dan Barber discovered that one-third of 500 farmers were in danger of closing. “COVID has exposed [the] weakness of [the short, direct food chain],” he said. […]