By Karen Perry Stillerman Things are not going so well for President Trump’s nominee for the position of undersecretary for research, education and economics (REE) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This job has responsibility for scientific integrity at the USDA, as well as oversight of the department’s various research arms and multi-billion dollar annual […]
A diverse group of farmers, food companies, scientists, non-profit and advocacy groups from more than 100 countries have joined together to support a definition for “regenerative agriculture,” as a way to rebuild soils, produce nutritious food and address the growing threat of climate change. World’s Topsoil Could Be Gone in 60 Years “Regenerative agriculture keeps […]
By David R. Montgomery One of the biggest modern myths about agriculture is that organic farming is inherently sustainable. It can be, but it isn’t necessarily. After all, soil erosion from chemical-free tilled fields undermined the Roman Empire and other ancient societies around the world. Other agricultural myths hinder recognizing the potential to restore degraded […]
Yes, Houston, we have a problem: Our oceans are dying. As the brilliant futurist Buckminster Fuller used to point out, our Spaceship Earth is hurtling through space at a great speed. Imagine if someone told you (a passenger on that ship) that the main oxygen systems were failing because of how food was being grown. […]
The new Leonardo DiCaprio documentary Before the Flood can now be seen on National Geographic. The actor is a longtime advocate of environmental causes, and his film is surely helping to increase awareness of global warming and the challenges we face with climate chaos. In it, DiCaprio journeys from the remote melting regions of Greenland […]
“World governments spend $486 billion a year to subsidize an industrial food and farming model that the United Nations estimates, contributes 43-57 percent of total man-made greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ronnie Cummins, international director of the Organic Consumers Association. “It’s time to stop subsidizing agricultural practices that contribute to global warming, and start subsidizing food, […]
By Kendra Klein and Kari Hamerschlag Forty five years have passed since Earl Butz, then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, asserted, “Before we go back to organic agriculture in this country, somebody must decide which 50 million Americans we are going to let starve or go hungry.” Time has proven Butz very wrong. The weight of […]