Articles from March 2010
Posted by Barry on March 31, 2010
Not in Siddiqui’s back yard. The Obama administration’s schizophrenic approach to agriculture policy —making PR gestures toward local, organic, and sustainable farming with one hand, while nudging ahead the agendas of agribusiness giants like Monsanto and Dow Chemical with the other—was on full display this weekend when the president used a recess appointment to install […]
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Tags: Barack Obama, Islam Siddiqui, Michelle Obama, Pesticide Action Network North America, Whitehouse Kitchen Garden
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Posted by Barry on March 20, 2010
The words “local, seasonal, sustainable” have been repeated so often and with so little thought that they have become soothing background noise, feel-good mood-music for any socially conscious eater worth his or her naturally obtained organic sea salt. So it’s refreshing to encounter a book that treats the subject intelligently. Was it Holden Caulfield […]
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| Tags: Ben Hewitt, Hardwick Vermont, Highmowing Organic Seeds, Jasper Hill Farm, Pete's Greens, The Town That Food Saved
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Posted by Barry on March 19, 2010
That faint, “We told you so” ringing in your ears might be coming from the folks at the Cornucopia Institute, the Wisconsin-based watchdog group that has being complaining for years that the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) enforcement of federal organic laws was, to put it kindly, pathetic, clearly favoring industrial operations who bent (or broke) […]
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| Tags: Cornucopia Institute, Organic, USDA
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Posted by Barry on March 18, 2010
It was great while it lasted. This week, at a meeting in Qatar, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) took a big step toward making sure that Atlantic bluefin tuna will no longer be classified as endangered. Instead, the species soon may be classified as extinct. Under intense lobbying pressure from Japan, […]
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| Tags: Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, CITES, ICCAT, Pew Environmental Group, Susan Lieberman
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Posted by Barry on March 10, 2010
Where I live in Vermont, the occasional whiff of manure is considered a minor inconvenience, one worth putting up with to live in this bucolic state, like mud in April, blackflies in May, mosquitoes in June, frost in September, leaf-peeping tourists in October, and snow for much of the rest of the year. Don’t get […]
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| Tags: CAFOs, Factory Farms, Hog Farms, Premium Standard farms, Smithfield Foods
| 6 comments
Posted by Barry on March 9, 2010
I am flattered to announce that Treehugger.com, the font of cutting-edge reporting about all things sustainable, announced earlier this week that Politics of the Plate.com has been nominated for the 2010 Best of Green Award in the Best Food Website category. I’m left speechless. Okay, not quite. Treehugger says that the awards, “are our annual […]
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| Tags: Barry Estabrook, Best of Green Awards, Politics of the Plate
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Posted by Barry on March 4, 2010
News this week that the United States had come out in support of giving endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna protection under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was hailed as a major victory by environmental groups. “The Obama administration’s decision to support a CITES Appendix I listing of Atlantic bluefin […]
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| Tags: Bluefin tuna, CITES, Pew Environmental Group, Shark Fin Soup, Sharks
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Posted by Barry on March 1, 2010
The 2008 farm bill contains $35 billion in pork earmarked as subsidies to the huge agribusinesses that produce the bulk of our corn, wheat, and soybeans. In comparison, the $5 million (million, not billion) in grants the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) made available this week for the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program seems like […]
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| Tags: Farmers' Market Promotion Program, Let's Move!, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, USDA
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