The USDA seeks public comments on an environmental assessment and plant pest risk assessment for a new GE potato, engineered to have fewer acrylamides and reduced bruising. The potato, branded as “Innate,” was developed by J.R. Simplot Company, in Boise, Idaho. Innate technology involves inserting genes from potatoes that quiet
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Excerpt from: “Turns Out The Future of Food Lies in These Old Seeds” by Kristin Ohlson (published by takepart) Sarah Kleeger pointed to a goldfinch perched on a waist-high millet plant and scowled, tightening her grip as the black cat in her arms twitched with
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Sarah Kleeger & Andrew Still, Adaptive Seeds, Sweet Home, OR Established in 2009, and certified organic since 2013, Adaptive Seeds is a seed company with a serious mission: to provide quality foundation material for the individual seed saving and stewardship needs of their customer base. In other words, co-founders and
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OSGATA has re-instituted its Farmer Travel Fund, which was previously used for travel costs associated with plaintiff-farmers, from across North America, traveling to legal proceedings in the OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto lawsuit. The re-launching of the Farmer Travel Fund (FTF) will enable OSGATA farmers and personnel to attend key organic
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Jim & Megan Gerritsen, Wood Prairie Farm, Bridgewater, ME Wood Prairie Farm consists of 115 acres of isolated farmland bordering the North Woods of Aroostook County, Maine. Here OSGATA Board President Jim Gerritsen, along with his wife Megan and their four children, dedicate their lives to organic
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Lyn Howe and Geoff Rauch, Beach Road Farm, Pahoa, HI Lyn Howe and Geoff Rauch cultivate a diverse three-acre polyculture on a 750-year-old lava flow spanning the main island of Hawaii. Over 130 different varieties of fruit are interplanted with nut and spice trees, medicinal and culinary herbs, some
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Bryce Stephens, Stephens Land & Cattle Stephens Land & Cattle, owned and operated by OSGATA Vice-President Bryce Stephens and his family, spans 880 acres in Jennings, Kansas. This land, in the Stephens family for five generations, is now divided almost equally between pasture for livestock and certified organic forage, grain, and seed crops.
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“Organic Farmers Must Do These 11 Things Just to Prevent Being Contaminated (and Sued),” recently posted on AltHealth Network, summarizes the principles elaborated on in OSGATA’s Protecting Organic Seed Integrity: The Organic Farmer’s Handbook to GE Avoidance and Testing. Supplemented by an interview with OSGATA President and Maine-based organic seed farmer
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Petra Page-Mann & Matthew Goldfarb, Fruition Seeds Fruition Seeds, an organic seed company located in northern New York state, was founded in 2012 with a vision to revitalize the organic seed supply in the Northeast− a region not typically known for seed-growing. Fruition co-founders and farmers Petra Page-Mann and
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Stephens Land and Cattle, an OSGATA member farm located in Allsion, Kansas, annually plants around 200 acres of ‘Turkey Red’ wheat- accounting for the ”largest planting in decades” of this heirloom grain that spanned 9.2 million acres of Kansas farmland in 1919. ‘Turkey’ is a landrace cultivar: it adapts to the bioregion
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Boom times for garlic in Maine From the Portland Press Herald By Mary Pols Staff Writer mpols@pressherald.com | @MaryPols | 207-791-6456 “Roberta Bailey and Rob Lemire’s garlic fields at Seven Tree Farm in Vassalboro are not visible from the road, but on a hot July day, the smell wafts all
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“Who Benefits from GM Crops?,” a new report issued by Friends of the Earth International, offers insight into the state of GM agriculture on a global scale. Part one of the report breaks down the myth that genetically modified (GM) crops have achieved worldwide agricultural success, analyzing statistics from each continent while also
Read more →OSGATA will be attending the 4th annual National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, CA, on September 9th, 10th, and 11th. Dubbed the “World’s Fair of Pure Food,” this not-for-profit event is centered around pure food, heirloom vegetables, and anti-GMO activism. More than 100 speakers will be presenting at the Expo on
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OSGATA member Organic Seed Alliance recently announced their 2014 survey to assess the challenges and opportunities facing organic seed. Conducted every five years as part of an ongoing “State of Organic Seed” project, this national survey monitors organic seed availability and use, challenges in sourcing organic seed, and organic plant
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By Guest Blogger, Petra Page-Mann, Fruition Seeds (Originally posted on Fruition Seeds “Sow What?” Blog) Lettuce & many dry-seeded crops are challenging to produce in humid climates, like the Northeastern U.S. Our hot, humid summers make saving certain kinds of seed nearly impossible.
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Twenty organic farm and consumer groups have filed a legal petition with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in order to protect the authority and permanence of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). The petitioners object to recent changes to the NOSB charter, renewed on May 8, 2014, that undermine the mandatory and
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USDA Comments Sought for Further Assessment on the Simplot GE “Innate” Potato. What are the Possible Risks? By Guest Blogger, Lyn Howe, PhD Physiology The USDA seeks public comments on an environmental assessment and a plant pest risk assessment for a new GE potato, engineered to have fewer acrylamides
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Preserving Seeds for the Commons By Guest Blogger, Lyn Howe, Beach Road Farm, HI Presently over 75% of proprietary seeds are owned by 10 companies, but a new Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI), introduced by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, seeks to provide an alternative to this
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The Student Organic Seed Symposium (SOSS) launched in 2012 in an effort to increase the capacity to advance crop improvement for sustainable agriculture through fostering dialogue between students interested in organic plant breeding, researchers, and organic seed industry professionals. Now in their 3rd year, SOSS is preparing a three-day symposium to be held at
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April 29, 2014, kicked off the first day of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting in San Antonio, TX. The USDA has advanced with its illegal take-over of the NOSB. The NOSB was established by Congress as a citizen oversight board of USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP). This relationship is spelled out in
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