The Organic & Non-GMO Report Newsletter

Environmentally friendly farming practices used by nearly 1/3 of world’s farms

Nearly one-third of the world’s farms have adopted more environmentally friendly practices while continuing to be productive, according to a global assessment by 17 scientists in five countries. The researchers analyzed farms that use some form of “sustainable intensification,” a term for various practices, including organic farming, that use land, water, biodiversity, labor, knowledge and […]

Wendell Berry’s Right Kind of Farming

The farmer, essayist and poet Wendell Berry has long argued that today’s agricultural practices are detrimental to ecology, community and the local economies that farms once served. A native Kentuckian, Mr. Berry has written over 40 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and has received a Guggenheim fellowship, the National Humanities Medal and the Richard C. Holbrooke […]

Certification experts try to find common ground on ways to regenerate agriculture

Advocates of different certification programs may disagree on the best way to regenerate agriculture but they agree on the goal of soil health as a key to mitigating climate change. That was a key takeaway of “A Regenerative Forum” held at Natural Products Expo East in September. A panel of certification experts discussed their different […]

FoodChain ID adds organic certification services

FoodChain ID, a leading food safety, testing and verification organization, expands its services with the addition of organic certifications for U.S. companies in response to the industry’s growing need for integrated solutions. Widely recognized for its non-GMO verification services, many of FoodChain ID’s clients have requested stacked organic inspections to consolidate their certifications with fewer […]

CRISPR gene editing creates unwanted DNA changes

The popular new gene editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9, is not as precise as some have thought: undesired DNA deletions and rearrangements can slip through undetected. These changes, seen before in CRISPR and other gene editing tools, could hamper development of reliable therapies and confuse interpretation of results. “I do think this has been underappreciated by the […]