The upcoming Slow Money 4th National Gathering includes a plenary session on OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto. OSGATA President and Maine organic seed farmer Jim Gerritsen will deliver his special address on family farmers seeking justice at the Boulder Theater, in Boulder, CO, on April 29. Slow Money is a national network, which includes local chapters, organized around a
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According to environmental journalist Simran Sethi , the buried foundations of food and future-food are slowly disappearing. Of course, she’s talking about seeds: the memory of life and the wellspring of both food security and seed sovereignty. In a recent Tedx Talk from February 2013, Stethi leads her audience exploration
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The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB)’s spring meeting is Tuesday, April 9, to Thursday, April 11, in Portland, OR. During meetings, the NOSB listens to public comments, discusses their agenda items, and then votes in a public forum. In 2012, the NOSB established the GMO Ad hoc Subcommittee for discussion among organic stakeholders
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Late last week Congress succeeded in passing Section 735, aka the Monsanto Protection Act or the Monsanto Rider, in the Continuing Resolution spending bill – HR 933. By sneaking Section 735 into a federal appropriations bills, Monsanto has successfully planted a dangerous provision in US law. Essentially, the provision would create
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OSGATA President Jim Gerritsen’s recent keynote address at the 31st Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC), at the University of Oregon School of Law in Eugene, OR, is now available for online streaming. The address gives background information on the US patent system in relation to seed before moving into the
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Stephen Thomas’s “Fixing Food: Seed Solution Models for a New Agricultural Paradigm“-recently published in Acres USA- discusses the importance of regional small-scale organic seed in overhauling the industrial agriculture system. Cited seed solutions include the work of several OSGATA members, including Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, the
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The US Food Sovereignty Alliance, in collaboration with Other Worlds, recently launched a 140-page compendium, and parallel blog series, examining the building of a just and environmentally sustainable food system. Harvesting Justice: Transforming Food, Land, and Agriculture in the Americas, researched and written by Tory Field and Beverly Bell, is ”dedicated to peasant, indigenous, landless,and small farmers around the
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OSGATA President Jim Gerritsen will be presenting a keynote speech on the OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto lawsuit at the 31st Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC), at the University of Oregon School of Law in Eugene, OR. This year’s conference theme “Earth Too Big to Fail” speaks to how the premiere gathering for
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On February 19, 2013, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Bowman vs. Monsanto- a case which holds the potential to affect patent law as we know it, seed and otherwise. Vernon Hugh Bowman is a 75-year-old soybean farmer from Sandborn, Indiana, who is challenging the concept of patent exhaustion on
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The Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SAWG) will host it’s 22nd annual conference, themed “practical tools and solutions for sustaining family farms,” from January 23-26, in Little Rock, AR. Part of the 2013 conference slate is a sustainable seed track. Following two days of intensive short courses and field trips, and an
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Thirty-one family farmers, plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit OSGATA et al v. Monsanto, travelled to Washington, D.C., from across North America to attend the Oral Argument in the Appeal of Dismissal heard before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday January 10, 2013. The lawsuit was
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Family farmers are traveling from across North America to Washington, DC, to participate in the January 10, 2013 Oral Argument in the appeal of dismissal for Organic Seed Growers and Trade Asscociation et al. vs. Monsanto to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. This landmark court case was originally filed in March 2011 to protect farmers from
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Did You Miss the 2012 Organic Seed Growers Conference? Organic Seed Alliance and eOrganic bring you selected recordings from the 2012 Organic Seed Growers Conference held in Port Townsend, WA, on January 19 – 21, 2012. The conference brought together hundreds of farmers, seed production and distribution companies, researchers, plant breeders,
Read more →On February 24, Judge Naomi Buchwald handed down her ruling on a motion to dismiss in the case of OSGATA et al v. Monsanto after hearing oral arguments on January 31, in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Her ruling to dismiss the case brought against Monsanto on behalf of organic farmers,
Read more →OSGATA is excited to announce that Seed Matters, an initiative of the Clif Bar Family Foundation has awarded the first ever fellowships in organic plant breeding in United States history. The foundation is funding three Ph.D students in organic plant breeding at two public land grant universities: Washington State University
Read more →Erna Bennett, one of the early pioneers and fighters of genetic conservation, passed away at 86 years old. After active service in the Second World War in the Middle East and Greece, she returned to her studies. In her early postgraduate years she taught in England, and was engaged in cytogenetic
Read more →OSGATA has joined an effort with more than 300 hundred organizations representing millions of Americans: the Just Label It: We Have A Right to Know campaign. In late September we filed a legal petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), calling on them to label all genetically engineered foods. Now the
Read more →4 Seed companies now control 56% of the global proprietary seed market. Seed consolidation constrains the opportunities for renewable agriculture, creating reductions in seed lines and a declining prevalence of seed saving.
Read more →On September 16, 2011, OSGATA along with 138 agricultural organizations sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas Vilsack. Drafted by the National Organic Coalition, it calls for increased protection from transgenics/GMOs under the Plant Protection Act of 2000. Read the letter here.
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To whom it may concern: Founded in January of 2008, OSGATA develops, protects, and promotes the organic seed trade and its growers. Our goal is to assure that the organic community has access to excellent quality organic seed, free of contaminants and adapted to the diverse needs of local
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